On The Border - Marry Him Or Die

2.31

Lucas’s POV

At the mention of his real name, I caught his slight tremble and saw his face pale even through his tan skin.

David looked at me in confusion, so I slid my phone to him to check it out.

The man in the picture was named Andrew Smith, and surprise, surprise! He’s Canadian.

I didn’t need to read further into his long sheet to realize that I have been fooled and lied to yet again.

He’s one of Zade’s scumbags.

He set this up and made his man here come up with a story to take the girl right from underneath my fucking town.

That bastard keeps underestimating me, and soon enough it will get him exactly what’s coming for him.

How the hell did that happen?

“So where is the real Ben Collins?” I asked coldly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I told you the truth, I’m Ben Collins” he said angrily.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, trying to get myself under control. But self control wasn’t really my strongest suit.

I opened them and got up from my chair, heading straight towards the lying asshole.

I stood in front of him and said calmly “You know what I hate the most about people? When they look me in the eyes and lie straight to my face, thinking they could get away with it. I have news for you Andrew, you’re about to find out what I do to liars like you, and let me give you a heads up, your life will end but not before I make you beg for it. To cut the crap short, I know exactly who you are and who you’re working for”

His jaw tensed but he didn’t utter a word as he kept staring at me blankly.

“Lucky for you, I can offer you one last chance before I start working on you. How about you take it and tell me exactly who that girl really is” I said slowly.

He remained annoyingly quiet, but his face said it all. He wasn’t going to spill his boss’s secrets to me, no matter what.

It wasn’t going to deter me from carving out his insides nonetheless.

I called out the three guys that brought him and asked two of them to hold him down while the third one went to get a rope to bind him to the chair with.

He tried to struggle and fight but he didn’t really stand a chance against them.

As they worked him over and started securing the rope tightly around him, I turned to David and ordered him strictly “Go back to the house and bring Angelina here without revealing anything to her at all, and do it discreetly without mom catching you while you take her out of the house”

He hesitated, a question forming in his eyes but I cut him off “Just do it, David”

He turned around and left the office silently.

I could sense what the hesitation was for.

He was reluctant to bring her, against my mom’s wishes, fearing I would do something drastic with her.

But still he obeyed me without standing against his own doubts and went to fetch her for me, for which I was really grateful.

The dude grew on me over the past two months.

Especially after he took a bullet in the back, saving me from a certain death back then.

I had my suspicions about him when my mom decided to let him join the family again, but he proved himself ever since, and made me see him as the brother he was so desperate to have as he had no one reliable in his life before he met us.

I turned around to Andrew and saw him sneering at me.

I shrugged off my jacket, threw it on the office desk, and started rolling my sleeves as I gave him a cold, sadistic smile.

God, I can’t wait to get my hands bloody already.

***

Angelina’s POV

I was sitting in the living room with Ms. Snow, April, and Sara.

We were drinking tea and having some strawberry cheesecake.

I tried to keep my mind blank as much as possible while I was sitting with them. It wouldn’t do me any good if I drift back to the huge hole that was there where my heart should be. Not in front of them.

I wanted nothing more than to lock myself in my room and stay there for the next few days without seeing or talking to any of them. Because the more time I spend with them, the more guilty I feel about everything I have been lying about and keeping to myself.

But Ms. Snow; who keeps insisting that I call her Diana because Ms. Snow makes her feel so elderly, insisted that I spend most of my time with them.

I get her intentions of course. She knew I wasn’t functioning very well. Even though she doesn’t know why, but she could sense it somehow, that I was slowly unraveling. And she wanted to keep an eye on me while offering me all the support she can to get me out of my own hell.

I was sitting at the end of the long sofa, with a partial view of the front door. That’s why I was the only one who caught a movement by the door.

My eyes flickered towards the movement and I saw David looking straight at me, hiding himself from the others and only letting half of himself show.

He put his forefinger on his mouth as a sign to remain quiet and not alert anyone to his presence, then he titled his head to the side, an indication to go over to him, alone.

I gulped tensely and looked around me.

The women were too busy talking about someone from their town. No one noticed anything.

My head went back towards David and the look on his face chilled me to the bone.

It was serious.

It wasn’t dark nor threatening but the serious look caused a coldness to seep through me and I had to fight like hell to contain my shudder from revealing itself on my body.

I panicked. I didn’t know what that was all about but if he was trying to get my attention secretly, then he didn’t want Diana to know about any of this.

And if he was doing that, I had no doubt that it was Lucas’s orders that made David act this way.

And this cannot be a good sign.

I should have done the right thing, for me. I should have ignored him and told Diana that David was trying to get me alone. I should have been selfish and did what was best for my own survival.

But something stopped me. It was my stupid mind telling me that I caused enough trouble and tension between the mom and her son for my own sake. They were already fighting a lot over me. And my existence into their lives have caused a lot of pain as it is, I didn’t want to add anymore to it.

I need to handle things on my own. I have to. Even if it ends up getting me hurt in the process. Better it be me than the kindest woman in this world after my mother.

“Diana? Can I…take a walk in the front yard by myself. I feel like getting some fresh air, if that’s alright” I said softly.

She appraised me for a few seconds but I kept my face calm and offered a small smile to her.

“Sure honey, just wear one of the jackets hanging by the wall next to the door. It’s freezing out there, I don’t want you to get sick” she nodded her head and said tenderly.

I gulp past the lump that clogged my throat all of a sudden at her attentive consideration for my well being and nodded my head without saying anything as I got up and disappeared out of the room. I didn’t trust my voice not to tremble if I spoke back to her.

David was already waiting for me by the half opened front door.

I silently took one of the thick jackets, wore it, and headed out of the house, shutting the door behind me.

I turned around and looked at David nervously.

“You need to come with me to the warehouse. Lucas wants to have a word with you there” he said firmly.

My heart sunk inside my chest and I could almost feel it down my stomach as my whole body tensed up at what he just said.

I wanted to run as far away as my legs could carry me because I had a tremendous bad feeling about this.

Dread replaced all my blood and that was all that was coursing through my body right now.

My multiple shudders could no longer be contained as they ran through me.

I caught the sympathetic look in David’s eyes and he said more softly “Don’t be afraid. Just come with me please”

Did I really have a choice in the matter?

I already made up my mind and refused to involve Diana and drag her into my messed up, screwed situation. I refused to cause any more rifts between these people. They suffered more than enough because of Zade… and me.

As for the don’t be afraid part, well, if it was Lucas Snow I was going to meet up with, in his warehouse of all places, then nothing could ever erase that dreadful feeling of fear to relinquish itself from my shivering heart.

I didn’t dare to ask or say anything to him.

I started walking with shaky legs and it was a miracle I could even walk straight at all without tripping over myself considering how rubbery my own feet were as they carried me inside the SUV.

The ride was short and silent. David didn’t offer me any more calming words. Maybe he knew it was futile as the fear would never go away, no matter what he says, not when his crazy leader was involved. Or maybe because he didn’t want to lie to me anymore than necessary. After all, he already got me to ride with him to my probable hell that was awaiting me there.

I took a few deep breaths in order to carry myself inside the warehouse as I stepped out of the car and followed behind David.

I stopped at the entrance of the office, my eyes widening at the sight before me and my heart going crazy inside my ribcage.

A very, extremely bloodied, half conscious, beaten, gagged man was tied up to a chair with three men standing behind him.

Lucas was standing in front of him but turned around to face me as soon as he heard me coming inside.

His hands were bloody too along with his black shirt. His face had that crazy, possessed look I saw on him yesterday when he was torturing the man up that mountain road by shooting him repeatedly.

He fixed me with a cold smile as he appraised the horrified look on my face in reaction to that brutal, cruel, scene.

I couldn’t keep staring at his face without falling on my knees from the immense fear that washed over me, so I stared at the man beaten to a pulp on that chair.

I had no idea who he was. I’ve never seen him before.

Even though his features were mangled and made him more unrecognizable to me than he already was, but I could still tell that I’ve never seen him before.

What the hell was I doing here?

As if he sensed my question without me voicing it, Lucas walked over until he stood before me and said coldly “I may have rearranged his face a little bit while I was waiting for you to arrive, but hell, you should still be able to recognize your own father…….Angelina”

The expression ‘my heart stopped’ never made any sense to me before as it didn’t make any logical sense whenever I read it in one of them novels, right up until now that is.

I felt it stop beating when he called my name.

I felt my soul die when he referred to that man as my father, Zade himself.

I felt….so fucking dead.

Or I was about to be, real soon.