It was Marcus. The police cruiser slammed to a halt, its siren chirping once before cutting off. The headlights bathed the black SUVs in a harsh, blinding glare.
Evelyn felt her blood turn to ice. She buried her face in Lucas’s suit jacket, trembling uncontrollably.
«It’s him,» she whispered, her voice cracking. «It’s him.»
Lucas didn’t flinch. He didn’t even turn around. He simply adjusted his grip on her, ensuring her broken ribs were supported.
«Put her in the car,» he said to the driver, his voice devoid of emotion. «Keep her stabilized.»
«Wait!» Marcus’s voice rang out, filled with the arrogant authority of a man used to getting his way. He slammed his car door and marched toward them, his hand resting on his service weapon. «Step away from the girl. That’s a kidnapping in progress.»
Lucas carefully lowered Evelyn onto the plush leather back seat of the SUV. He looked her in the eyes for a split second.
«Stay still.»
He closed the door, sealing her inside the bulletproof sanctuary. Then he turned around. Marcus Thorn stopped ten feet away. He was a big man, broad-shouldered and imposing, but standing next to Lucas Moretti’s security detail, he looked like a mall cop.
When he saw Lucas’s face, his confident stride faltered.
«Moretti,» Marcus said, the color draining from his face.
He knew the hierarchy of the city. He was a dirty cop, which meant he knew exactly whose payroll the precinct was on. But he also knew Lucas Moretti wasn’t someone you ran into on a Tuesday night.
«Detective Thorn,» Lucas said. He knew the name. Lucas knew the name of every cop in his city—the good ones, the bad ones, and the ones that needed to be removed.
«This is a domestic dispute,» Marcus said, trying to regain his footing. He flashed his badge, though his hand was shaking slightly. «That woman is my fiancée. She’s… unstable. Mental health issues. I was taking her to the hospital myself.»
Lucas took a step forward. His hands were in his pockets. He looked relaxed, which terrified everyone around him.
«She has three broken ribs,» Lucas said softly, «likely a collapsed lung, and bruises on her neck consistent with strangulation.»
«She fell,» Marcus lied quickly. «She’s clumsy. Look, Moretti, I don’t know why you’re involved, but you don’t want heat from the PD. Walk away. I’ll handle my girl.»
Lucas smiled. It was a cold, razor-thin expression that didn’t reach his eyes. He pulled a phone out of his pocket. Not his smartphone, but the old, battered flip phone Evelyn had texted.
«Do you know this number, detective?»
Marcus frowned. «No.»
«Neither did she,» Lucas said. «But she used it to beg for her life. She begged a stranger to save her from you.»
Lucas signaled with two fingers. Instantly, two of his men moved. Before Marcus could even reach for his gun, he was on his knees, a suppressed pistol pressed against the base of his skull.
«Hey! You can’t do this!» Marcus screamed, his arrogance replaced by squealing panic. «I’m a cop! I have a radio! They know I’m here!»
Lucas walked over to him. He leaned down, bringing his face inches from Marcus’s.
«You’re not a cop tonight, Marcus. Tonight, you’re just a man who hits women.»
Lucas reached into Marcus’s jacket and pulled out his wallet and badge. He tossed them into the gutter.
«If you were anyone else, you’d be dead right now. But death is too easy.» Lucas straightened up and looked at his enforcer, Luca. «Break his hands,» Lucas ordered casually, as if ordering a coffee. «Both of them. Make sure he never holds a gun or a woman ever again.»
«No, no, please!» Marcus shrieked.
Lucas turned and walked back to the SUV. Behind him, the sound of breaking bone and a high-pitched scream filled the night air. He didn’t look back.
He slid into the back seat next to Evelyn. She was curled against the door, eyes wide with horror. She had heard the screams.
«What did you do?» she whispered.
«I solved the problem,» Lucas said calmly. He tapped the partition glass. «Go.»
The convoy peeled away, leaving the broken detective screaming on the pavement. The drive was silent. Evelyn was drifting in and out of consciousness, the adrenaline fading to leave only the sharp, biting pain.
The interior of the car was like a spaceship—silent, smooth, illuminated by soft amber lights.
«Where are you taking me?» she slurred.
«My estate,» Lucas said. He was typing on his smartphone now, ignoring the flip phone that sat on the console between them. «I have a private surgical suite. You need a thoracic surgeon, not an ER resident.»
«Why?» Evelyn asked. She turned her head, looking at his sharp profile. «Why did you come? You’re… you’re the Reaper.»
Lucas paused. He picked up the flip phone.
«This phone belonged to my sister, Sophia,» he said. His voice dropped an octave, losing its hardness. «She died three years ago. A rival family took her to get to me.»
Evelyn held her breath.
«I kept the line active,» Lucas continued, staring at the black screen. «I pay the bill every month. I charge it every week. I don’t know why. Maybe I thought… maybe I hoped the universe would give me a second chance.»
He turned to look at Evelyn. His eyes were intense, searching her face for something.
«When that phone buzzed tonight, it was the first time in three years I thought it was a ghost. Instead, I found you. A woman being crushed by a man who swore to protect her.»
He leaned in closer. «I couldn’t save Sophia,» Lucas said, his voice heavy with a dark promise. «So I’m going to save you, Evelyn. Whether you want me to or not.»
The car slowed down. They were passing through massive iron gates. Evelyn saw armed guards patrolling the perimeter of a sprawling mansion that looked more like a fortress. She realized then that her life as Evelyn Vance, the nurse from Oak Street, was over.
She hadn’t just been rescued. She had been claimed.
The car stopped. The door opened.
«Can you stand?» Lucas asked.
«I don’t think so,» she whispered.
He lifted her again. As he carried her toward the lit entrance of the mansion, Evelyn rested her head against his shoulder. She was terrified of him. She knew what he was. A killer. A criminal. A monster.
But as the darkness of unconsciousness finally took her, she had one last thought. The monster is the only one who came.
Consciousness returned to Evelyn in slow, disjointed waves. It wasn’t the sharp, gasping awakening she was used to, the kind where she jolted up expecting a blow or a scream. This was heavy, thick, and smelled of antiseptic and lavender.
She blinked her eyelashes, feeling weighted. The ceiling above her was high, adorned with intricate crown molding that looked like it belonged in a museum, not a hospital. A crystal chandelier, dimmed to a low, warm glow, hung in the center.
She tried to move, and a dull ache throbbed in her left side, but the sharp, stabbing agony was gone. It had been replaced by the floaty, numb sensation of high-grade painkillers.
«Easy, Miss Vance.» The voice was unfamiliar. Clinical, but kind.
Evelyn turned her head. Sitting in a wingback chair next to the bed was a man in his fifties, with silver-rimmed glasses and a pristine white coat over a dress shirt. He was monitoring a sleek, portable vitals machine that beeped rhythmically.
«Where? Where am I?» Her voice was a dry croak.
«You are at the Moretti Estate,» the doctor said, standing up to check her IV drip. «I’m Dr. Aris. I repaired your pneumothorax and set your ribs. You had three fractures, one of which had nicked the pleura of your lung. It was a messy injury, Evelyn. If you had waited another hour, you would have drowned in your own blood.»
Evelyn stared at the IV line snake into her arm. The memories came flooding back. The bathroom floor. The wrong number. The man in the charcoal suit. The sound of Marcus screaming.
«The man,» she whispered. «Lucas.»
«Mr. Moretti is just outside,» Dr. Aris said. «He has been pacing the hallway for six hours.»
Evelyn’s heart hammered against her bruised ribs. Six hours. The most feared crime lord in Chicago had waited for her.
«Can I leave?» she asked, though she knew the answer.
Dr. Aris gave her a look that was equal parts pity and warning. «Medically, no. You need bed rest for at least two weeks. Logistically, that is a question for Mr. Moretti. But I would advise you to rest. You are safe here.»
Safe. The word felt foreign on her tongue.
There was a soft knock on the heavy mahogany door. It opened before Dr. Aris could speak. Lucas Moretti walked in.
He had shed his suit jacket. His white dress shirt was unbuttoned at the collar, the sleeves rolled up to reveal forearms corded with muscle and inked with faint, faded tattoos. He looked tired. The harsh, predatory edge he had worn in her apartment was softened slightly by exhaustion, but his presence still sucked the oxygen out of the room.
«Doctor,» Lucas said, his voice a low rumble. «How is she?»
«Stable,» Aris replied, packing his bag. «She’s awake. Pain is managed. She needs hydration and sleep. I’ll be back in the morning to check the drain.»
Dr. Aris nodded to Evelyn, then slipped out of the room, closing the door with a soft click. Suddenly, the room felt massive and incredibly small at the same time. Just Evelyn and the Reaper.
Lucas didn’t come to the bedside immediately. He walked to the window, pulling back the heavy velvet curtain to look out into the night.
«Do you know what Marcus Thorn is doing right now?» Lucas asked, not looking at her.
Evelyn flinched at the name. «No.»
«He’s in surgery at St. Luke’s,» Lucas said calmly. «It will take three surgeons to reconstruct the bones in his hands. He will never hold a service weapon again. He will likely be forced into early retirement.»
Evelyn stared at Lucas’s broad back. «You crippled him.»
Lucas turned. His eyes were dark, bottomless pits. «I stopped him. There is a difference.»
He walked toward the bed, moving with the silent grace of a predator. He pulled the chair Dr. Aris had vacated closer to the bed and sat down. Up close, Evelyn could see the flecks of gold in his dark irises. She could smell the faint scent of tobacco and sandalwood clinging to him.
«Why?» Evelyn asked, her voice trembling. «Why did you do all of this? I’m nobody. I’m just a nurse who can’t type.»
Lucas looked at her hands, which were resting on the white duvet. Her knuckles were bruised from where she had banged on the bathroom door.
«You texted Sophia’s number,» he said quietly. «Do you believe in fate, Evelyn?»
«No,» she whispered. «I believe in bad luck.»
«I didn’t used to believe in it either,» Lucas admitted. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. «Sophia was my twin. She was the light to my shadow. When she died, the world went gray. I kept that phone because I couldn’t let go. When it rang, I thought it was a sign. A test.»
He paused, his gaze intensifying. «When I saw you in that bathroom, broken, terrified, but still fighting to survive… I saw her. I saw the woman I couldn’t save.»
He reached out his hand, hovering over hers for a second, before he pulled back as if afraid he might break her too. «I couldn’t leave you there.»
«So what am I now?» Evelyn asked, tears pricking her eyes. «Am I your prisoner?»
Lucas’s expression hardened slightly. «You are my guest. You are under my protection. That means no one—not the police, not Marcus, not the devil himself—can touch you while you are in this house.»
«And if I want to go home?»
«You don’t have a home anymore, Evelyn,» Lucas said ruthlessly. «Marcus has already spun the story. He’s claiming you had a psychotic break, attacked him, and ran off with a local gang member. There is an APB out for your arrest. If you step outside these gates, the police will pick you up. And they will deliver you right back to Marcus.»