Lucius (Acquisition Series #4) - Celia Aaron Page 0,39

misses Lucius, and he swings wildly. Lucius lands a vicious punch to his lower back, and Charles staggers past me. I stick my foot out, and when he trips and starts to fall, Lucius shoots me a grin.

“Nice.” He follows Charles to the ground again, turns him over, and lands blow after blow on his face. “This is for the bruises. For touching her. For hurting her. For thinking you could control her.” He punctuates each statement with pure violence.

Split-lipped and bloody-nosed, Charles bucks him again, and Lucius rolls away, then jumps to his feet with feline quickness.

“I own her.” Charles points at me and spits more blood. “If you try to take her from me, I’ll make sure you suffer.”

“Are you threatening me?” Lucius shakes his head, his fists still up. “Maybe you should’ve tried that before I kicked your ass. At this point, it just sounds kind of hollow, you know?”

I’ve backed into the elevator doors, tucking myself against them. I left my pistol at home, even though I didn’t want to, because there’s no way I would’ve been allowed into the party with a weapon. Now I’m wishing I’d tried it anyway.

“It’s not a threat, Vinemont. It’s a fact. Evie is my property.”

“Fuck you!” I yell it before I even know what I’m doing.

Lucius grins. “I don’t think she agrees with your claim, sir.” He glances my way. “Is this the one who bruised you?” His tone turns feral at the end, as if he already knows the answer and doesn’t like it one bit.

I nod.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s mine, and once I’ve killed you, I’ll go to work on the rest of your family.”

“Excellent game plan,” Lucius taunts. “Too bad you’re failing so miserably at step one.”

Charles jabs. Lucius ducks, then slams his fist into Charles’s midsection.

The brute lets out an oof noise and stumbles back again.

“This is fun. Don’t get me wrong.” Lucius reaches inside his coat—only now do I realize he’s wearing a tux—and pulls out a blade. “But I have somewhere to be, and I hate to keep my stunning date waiting.” He throws me a glance.

Charles runs at him, tackling him to the ground. I yell with surprise at the sudden onslaught. Charles grips Lucius’s wrist and slams it against the floor again and again until he drops the knife, which skitters across the tile toward me.

Charles wraps his hands around Lucius’s throat. “When I’m through with your family, nothing will be left. I will burn them alive, the same way you did to my family. And I’ll piss on the ashes.”

Lucius fights, punching and struggling against Charles. I look down. The blade is between us. My vision tunnels, and I stare at the glinting blade. Can I do this? I already killed a man once. Surely, I can do it again. Especially to Charles. Especially when Lucius is in trouble.

I drop the bag I’ve been clutching and snatch up the blade. Charles doesn’t look at me, doesn’t even know I’ve come up behind him.

My hands shake, but I won’t let this bastard kill Lucius. If anyone gets to do that, it’s me. I bring the blade up and prepare to slam it down into his back, but then Charles groans and falls sideways off Lucius.

Lucius sits up and cracks his neck, then gets to his feet as Charles crawls away, leaving a bloody trail on the pale floor.

“Darlin’.” He takes the blade from my hand. “We should be going. We wouldn’t want to be late.” His tone is so easy, not at all indicative of the fact he’s been fighting for his life.

Charles turns over and flops onto his back, a knife embedded in his stomach. He yells, the sound rattling down the long hallway.

“I’ll finish this for you, and then we’ll go. Sound good?” He kisses the back of my hand. “Good.” He turns back to Charles as the man pulls himself to his feet.

Flipping the blade in the air, Lucius catches it with ease and advances on Charles. “I love a good gutting. Really gets the blood up.”

Is this man—the one I tried to kill, the one who took my brother from me, the one I’ve vowed to ruin—is he going to kill for me? I think I might be going crazy. Or maybe the rollercoaster of the past week is making me force connections where there aren’t any. After all, Lucius is a killer. Killing Charles is well within his nature. But he said it was for me.

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