Quiet Ones (Hellbent Book 3), page 45
But as Lucas lifts the door, phones start lighting up as everyone brings up their flashlights. We all inch inside, my eyes trying to focus on everything at once.
My gaze registers a wardrobe, then flits to a trunk, tables, lamps, chairs, a piano, carpets, a mirror, books, statues, suitcases, paintings…quickly assessing what’s dangerous and what’s not. No weapons, no bodies, but plenty of storage for them. Eyeing the wardrobe again, I wander inside the unit, all of us spreading out to investigate the pieces. Turning the handle, I try to pry the door open, but can only get it cracked enough to see a sliver inside. Dresses.
Kade climbs onto a chair and checks out behind a tall bed frame, while Dylan and Aro flip through a photo album, and the others inspect various boxes and antiques.
Something feels off. If this belongs to the Dorans—or Winslet—it doesn’t seem like it belongs here. The furniture is antique, the art dramatic, and the pieces too ornate. It’s not the style of most residents in this region—blue-collar workers, farmers, and middle Americans.
I draw in air through my nose, the scent triggering a memory.
Wet, aged wood, musty like an old building.
I take in more air, noticing a subtle hint of jasmine, gardenias, coffee, rain, and sweet liquor all mixed together to create a scent cooked in humidity that I’ve only smelled once before in the only place in the world it can be made. New Orleans.
“It was Manas Doran,” Lucas says, fanning a file folder. “The man who left the envelope at the door.”
I come to his side, scanning the ownership documents to several properties, all located in Weston. I grab a picture of one young man and twin boys with a woman, whom I assume is their mother. I look at the back, reading Conor, Deacon, Manas, and Mom.
“They’re watching,” Lucas tells us. “They’re listening.”
“Why were they following us, though?” I ask. “In the Dodge? Trying to scare us if they’re giving all of this to us?”
But he shakes his head, looking at me. “It wasn’t them following us.”
He still doesn’t believe me. He thinks it’s someone else. Maybe Reeves.
“And they’re giving this to Weston,” Lucas clarifies. “Not us, not Farrow, but to be used for the town.”
“How much is in here?” Aro asks anyone who has a guess.
Hawke just ponders. “Hard to say. Maybe a few thousand. Maybe a few hundred thousand.”
Anything would help Weston, but we need an appraiser to look at the furniture. And the dresses and the paintings. I’m not hopeful, though. If any of this was valuable, they wouldn’t have left it in a non-temperature-controlled unit without more security.
“Catalog it.” Lucas studies the documents, continuing to tell Hawke and the rest, “Take whatever pictures and keepsakes you want for your research. The rest we sell.”
Lucas slips a pile of papers to Hawke that he’s pulled from the file. “And we sell these too.”
My nephew takes them, and I peer over, noticing they’re deeds.
“Why would they own parcels of land up and down the river, in various towns?” he questions, studying the papers. “For farms? A flood wall?”
“Fallon told me that ComVista, Inc. and East Labs wanted land to create a railway corridor,” Lucas tells him. “The government was interested too. I think the Doran brothers stockpiled real estate when it had little value to sell as a whole for train tracks.”
He blinks. “Shit. That’s brilliant.”
“That’s a hundred grand an acre,” Lucas states.
Millions of dollars. That they’re giving to rebuild Weston.
“And if one of the hubs on the corridor ends up being here?” Hawke’s eyes gleam.
Meaning one of the railway stops?
Lucas grins. “Now you’re thinking like them.”
The hair on my scalp tries to stand up. It would mean jobs, factories, hotels, restaurants... It would completely resurrect Weston.
And everyone seems to understand the same thing, because no one speaks as we imagine the possibilities.
Lucas holds my hand on the drive back to my house, the convoy behind us splitting off and returning to the Falls, everyone sworn to secrecy. Helping me out of the car, he doesn’t let go, looking around at the people on Knock Hill, who are drinking on porches, and we both take notice of another damn party coming from Farrow’s place. He must be back already.
Young men tip their chins at Lucas, but he pulls me inside as quickly as possible.
Locking the door, he brings up the app and loads all of the cameras on his phone, but I leave the lights off and hold him.
Dragging my mouth up his neck and grazing his jaw, I exhale hard. I’m so glad he’s safe.
He threads his fingers through the back of my hair, fisting them as he hovers over my mouth. “I need to call your father tomorrow. And talk to your brothers.”
“I know.” I nod, dying for a kiss. “Can you take Noah and Farrow with you? And my nieces and nephews? Jared and Jax have the strength of three men each when they’re ready to kill someone, and Madoc could be armed.”
He almost laughs. “I’ll face them like a damned grown-up, otherwise I don’t deserve you.”
Sliding my hands up his shirt, I whisper, “I don’t want to talk about them tonight.”
I just want to curl up into him and catch my breath.
I turn and take his hand, pulling him toward the stairs, but he yanks me back.
I laugh, crashing back into his chest, but just then, a silver chain collar appears, dangling in front of my face. My mouth falls open. Did he have that on him?
“Ready for number seven?” He hooks it around my neck, the long leash cold against my back.
I close my eyes, moaning as he tugs a little and presses his cock into my ass. “Yes,” I breathe out.
“What’s number seven?”
I pop my eyes open. My spine stiffening, I feel Lucas do the same behind me at the sound of the stern voice.
Madoc strolls around the corner from the kitchen, Jared and Jax following as they cross the living room and enter the foyer with us.
Lucas unhooks the chain and steps in front of me. “Madoc.”
I peer around him, seeing Jared’s fists balled at his side, his eyes on fire.
“What are you doing here?” I blurt out.
Madoc growls at me, “We’re not ready to talk to you yet because you’re just going to double-down.” Then he steps toe-to-toe with Lucas. “You know why? Because she’s twenty-one years old. She’s a kid.”
I push around Lucas. “I’m not a kid!”
“He can speak for himself!” Madoc turns red.
I suck in a breath, Madoc’s howl something I’ve never really heard before.
“If he dares,” Madoc bites out.
I dart my eyes to Lucas, seeing the pain on his face. The pinch between his brows and the…shame in the way he looks down for a moment. He would rather die than have Madoc hate him. How can my brother talk to him like that? My chin trembles.
“Was this your idea?” Madoc charges, glaring at him. “A place of her own where you could seduce her away from her family?”
“Oh, come on, man,” Lucas explains. “It’s not like that.”
“I’ll tell you what it is like.” Madoc is almost spitting out his words. “She idolized you. Idolized an idea of you so much that she never entertained anyone else. She was in love with a dream!”
I can’t help it. The tears spill. If he gets in Lucas’s head…
Madoc continues, “And she’s going to give her life to you until you realize she’s too young and too devoted to someone who’s a figment of her imagination. All because you were horny.”
“I would never use Quinn like that!”
“You left for eight fucking years because this place wasn’t good enough for you!” Madoc rails. “What’s changed?”
Lucas’s tone turns solemn. “That’s not why I left.”
But my brothers aren’t listening. “I never thought you’d do something like this. You’re gonna hurt her,” Madoc tells him, “because you have nothing in common with someone just beginning their life.”
Lucas falls silent, and I look at him, waiting for him to fight back. Nausea racks my body.
He’s not going to hurt me. Lucas knows that. He’s not going to leave me.
I frown at Madoc. “Don’t talk to him like that.”
But my brother doesn’t even know I’m here anymore. He tells Lucas, “I have no fucking clue who you are anymore. I’m at a loss.”
Pain hits Lucas’s eyes, and I’m about to kick them out. Call Farrow and have him get them out of here, I don’t know.
But Lucas turns his gaze on me, and I have to hold back the sob in my throat as a crushing feeling hits me. That he thinks there’s no way out of this, and Madoc will hate him forever, and everything is ruined.
A knock lands on the front door, and it takes a moment for anyone to move. Jax finally goes over and opens it.
“Is Lucas Morrow here?” a hard voice asks.
We look over, seeing Shelburne Falls police officers standing on my porch. People loiter in the street below, watching.
Jax looks back at us, and the first cop walks in, addressing Lucas. “Mr. Morrow, you’re under arrest for the murder of David Miller.” Both cops approach. “You need to come with us.”
The first one—I think his name is Jesse Stevens—pulls out handcuffs.
I shake my head. “No.”
Madoc’s eyes shift from anger to confusion. “What the hell’s going on?” he barks.
A fist tightens around my lungs as the officer places Lucas’s arms behind his back and fits the cuffs on his wrists. “You have the right to remain silent…” the officer reads him his rights as commotion immediately ensues outside. People start yelling for Farrow, and my brothers move, looking like they’re not sure if they need to stop this or get on their phones.
“Quinn?” Madoc looks to me, his eyes suddenly filled with worry and fear.
“Sir, please step aside,” Stevens tells his mayor as he walks Lucas out.
“Lucas!” I call as he’s ripped from my arms.
“What the fuck is going on?” Jared blusters as Jax jumps on his phone.
I run down the steps after Lucas, but he glances back at Madoc. “Take her home.” He gestures to me. “It’s not safe here.”
I shake my head. Like hell. I’m not going anywhere with my brothers after what they just did.
“Hey, leave him alone!” someone calls out.
They lead Lucas to their police car.
“He didn’t do it,” someone else shouts. “I did it.”
“Nah, it was me!” another voice chimes in.
The officers stop, looking around at the Rebel crowd.
“Anyone else we need to bring in while we’re here?” they ask Lucas.
But he just shakes his head. “No.”
Farrow runs up, but a cop holds out his hand, pointing a finger in his face as a warning.
“Quinn won’t go with Madoc,” Lucas tells him. “Stay close.”
“Don’t worry about anything,” Farrow tells him.
Lucas stops at the open door of the cop car. Tall with his chin up, he peers back at Madoc.
Then, he looks at me.
I love you, he mouths.
And then he disappears into the car, gone in seconds.
Madoc
The heat that made my brain feel like it was on fire an hour ago has moved into my chest, anger now replaced with fear.
My God, this was why he left eight years ago. I stare at myself in the bathroom mirror, phones ringing out in the police station where damn-near our whole fucking family sits and waits. The water I’d splashed on my face drips off my skin, back into the sink.
How did I not know that something was wrong?
I mean, I knew something was wrong. Why didn’t I press him? Chase him down? Stop him from running? Bring him back?
Why was it so easy to believe he was just some kid being rebellious? I did everything I could to escape my house—my pain—when I was younger, how did I not see that he was doing the same damn thing?
Shit, part of me even thought I’d been suffocating him and he just needed space. I wasn’t his dad, and I started to wonder if he was sick of us.
“Jared, Jax…” I spit out at myself in the mirror. “Their kids are no trouble. Why don’t mine just fucking talk to me?”
Tears spring up, and I bow my head, gripping the sink. Shame replaces the fear. I’m not built for self-pity. I clear my throat and grab some paper towels, wiping my face clean.
“James is definitely going to fuck with Jared someday.” I fix my hair, being more realistic now. “Dylan already nearly gave him a heart attack. That was funny. And Hawke is a late bloomer. There’s still time for him to be a hassle to Jax.”
I won’t be the only one trying to wrangle my damn kids.
Balling up the paper towel, I stuff it into the basket and whip open the door. Fallon turns, her arms crossed over her chest, as Tate, Jared, Jax, and Juliet all look up at me. Bypassing them, I head to the counter and pick up Lucas’s statement, continuing where I left off.
He made friends…they started Green Street as a social club…Drew Reeves took over and moved in a direction Lucas and Lance couldn’t follow…Lucas refused to give him the building…wanted it shut down…
And I get to the part where Lucas gave him a dare that backfired. Reeves hid a half-alive man in the trunk, and Lucas sank the car, not realizing someone was in there.
I skim over why Lucas felt he couldn’t come forward. Reeves, with his position in Shelburne Falls, could hurt Lucas and those he loved.
Tracing my memories, I can’t figure out what was going on in my life at that time. What was I doing the night this all happened? What the fuck was so important all the months later as he struggled to keep his head above water with the guilt and I didn’t notice?
Hands touch my shoulders, and I turn, Fallon’s arms circling my neck.
Barry and two other officers are in Weston, questioning Green Street and…collecting the remains.
“Should we call Grace?” Fallon asks in my ear.
“No.”
I pull back. Lucas’s mother needs to know what the plan is before she hears about the problem. Grace can handle it, but she’ll panic. Just like I am now. One thing at a time.
“I need to go talk to him first.”
She nods and backs away, and I gesture to Sam Barnes, the officer on duty. She tips her head for me to follow.
I start after her, but Jax stops me. “He’s a better man than me,” he says as if I need assurances. “They’ll never find the bodies I buried in the woods.”
I swallow at the reminder of Jax’s justice back in the day. It’s not even remotely the same thing. For him, it was self-defense, and he didn’t owe anyone a proper burial.
I follow Sam back to the cells and pass an empty one before getting to Lucas standing alone in the far corner. Barry hasn’t formally charged him. Just holding him until he can question witnesses. Lucas is cooperating.
Sam leaves, closing the door behind her, and I look at the kid I’ve known for well over half our lives.
Standing tall, his arms crossed over his chest.
Just like Fallon, he doesn’t look away.
I close the distance between me and the bars. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He hesitates as he gazes at me. “Because you would’ve tried to fix it and put yourself in the line of fire instead.”
Reeves had his thugs crash my son’s party a couple of years ago, looking for my laptop. His enterprise must’ve been getting massive, and he wanted to ensure he could blackmail me if—when—it spilled over into the Falls and I tried to stop him.
There was nothing to hide, but I’m sure he would’ve found something to twist to his benefit.
“And when Hawke sent Reeves running from Shelburne Falls two years ago?” I charge. “You must’ve heard. Why didn’t you come back then?”
Lucas flexes his jaw, and I don’t know if he’s struggling to tell me something, or just doesn’t have an answer.
My nose nearly brushes the bars. “You’re my family,” I huff. “Whether you think of me as yours or not.”
He looks away for a moment.
“You’re my family,” I state again, “and we would’ve gotten through it. Running is never the answer—”
He squares his shoulders, blurting it out. “I didn’t want you to know.”
What?
Why? He knew what Jax had done. He knew about mine and Jared’s mistakes. Did he think we weren’t up for it?
I narrow my eyes. “Lucas—”
“Look, I know, okay?” he cuts me off. “‘I was never a job and you never expected me to be perfect…’ I know everything you would’ve said, but you would’ve said it because you cared about me.” The tendon in his neck flexes, and I can tell he’s trying to steady his voice. “It wouldn’t have changed the fact that dealing with my mistakes could’ve hurt you, and me not being able to own up to it buried two miles away in the woods was killing me. So I left.”
Reeves had him thinking he was trapped.
“My mood was hurting my mother,” he continued. “I didn’t deserve to be around Quinn. What if the web got bigger? What if I made another serious mistake?” His eyes redden. “I didn’t trust myself anymore.”
And I didn’t know what to say. That feeling is easy to muster when you’re young. You haven’t made enough mistakes to know there will be a hundred more before your life is over.
“That’s why you wanted to leave the moment you got here,” I say, my voice gravelly.
He nods slowly. “The new leadership at Green Street wanted me gone. They believed a founding member with a deed to the property threatened them.”
He was supposed to be on the plane back to Dubai over a week ago.
I don’t blink. “And Quinn was why you stayed.”
He can’t stop the smile that starts to form as he drops his eyes to the floor. “I just wanted to protect her at first,” he tells me. “Noah Van der Berg and Farrow Kelly were pissing me off.” He laughs a little. “I remembered how good it was to have her around. And I wasn’t about to leave her alone to make all the mistakes she was begging to.” He raises his eyes to me. “But the way she looks at the world, Madoc… I was...”
