A Perfect Storm (30 page)

With a step back into the office, Royce spoke through lips that barely moved. “I didn’t kill Josh.”

“You might not have stabbed him with a knife or put a bullet in his brain,” Lucien replied, “but you killed him. He was heartbroken when you ended the relationship and—”

Royce rushed the rest of the way into the room and slammed his fists against the top of Lucien’s desk. “He fucked with my head, asshole, just like he did with everyone he knew.” With a push off the desk, Royce shook his head and dropped back into his seat. “Christ, man, you were always such a fool when it came to Josh. He drained me in every way possible. When he still thought he had the right to somehow suck even more blood out of me, I told him it was over. He left to manipulate someone else.”

“Whom you told to dump him before it even started.”

“No, man.” Royce, his face flush with color now, shook his head again. “I told the woman the truth. I told her that Josh was a chameleon who would be what you wanted him to be until you started asking questions about the loss of money and the insidious lies. He would be one hundred percent straight for her just like he was only into men to get close to me. If a person stopped giving him what he wanted, he would become nasty and ugly and try to ruin that per—”

“Don’t you talk about my brother like that!”

“It’s the truth!” Royce shouted right back. “Josh was a narcissist, and behind those pretty eyes and beautiful body, he had no soul.”

Lucien went very still except for the death grip he visibly had on the arms of his chair. “He called you and told you he was going to take all those drugs you’d given him, and that he would kill himself if you didn’t take him back. He was begging you for help.”

After scrubbing his face, Royce pushed his fingers through his hair and once more settled his focus on Lucien. “Josh was pissed because the woman he’d latched himself on to cut him loose when she understood the truth. He was angry, and he wanted me to suffer for it.”

Sophie didn’t think anyone but she could see it, but Lucien lost a bit of his jutting chin. The sight of it, wobbling just a fraction, tore through Sophie’s heart.

Lucien said, “You told him you hoped he took every drug in the apartment and choked on his vomit until he died. He told you he would kill himself, and you told him to do it. You encouraged him to. He jumped off that balcony because of you.”

The color drained from Royce’s face, and he suddenly looked more haggard than the day he’d told Sophie their parents had died. “And that is the one thing in my life I can never take back or make right, and that I live with every day.” He put his head in his hand as if he could not bear to carry the burden. “I did not believe he would do it. He was trying to manipulate me and get me to come to him. I refused, and I’ll forever regret that I did. But I didn’t even know what drugs he really had, because I didn’t give him anything.”

“He was in that ER bed dying”—an audible rumble pushed through Lucien, and his eyes flashed fire—“and he swore with his last breaths that you loaded him up with the good stuff, and when he said he was going to take it all, you told him to, and to jump.”

Royce flinched, but he did not drop his head or break his stare. “I didn’t tell him to kill himself. I swear it. I just ignored it when he made the threat. It wasn’t the first time he’d made it, and I didn’t think it would be the last.”

Still standing at the desk, Magnus nodded slightly, his jaw clenched tighter than Sophie had ever seen it.

Royce added, “I swear I never gave Josh so much as a joint. Ever. I don’t do drugs. Fuck, I don’t even drink. I don’t like the way it makes people lose control.”

With another nod, Magnus gently said, “I did tell you that, Lucien. Royce never once bought drinks for himself at the club.”

Lucien shot Magnus a scathing glare. “You were not there twenty-four-seven. You can’t know for sure. And it doesn’t matter anyway”—his voice rose in volume with each word—“he can be clean as a whistle and still supply Josh with bad shit!”

“But he didn’t.” Magnus’s tone remained calm but sure. “And in the end, he didn’t force Josh to take whatever drugs and alcohol he had on him. He didn’t force that needle into Josh’s arm, and he didn’t make him walk out on that balcony and jump either.”

Lucien’s entire frame became tauter and tauter. “He had an emotional hold over Josh, and he taunted him to take his life. He killed him.”

“You are wrong. Nobody had an emotional hold over Josh.” As Magnus spoke with such certainty, Lucien looked as if Magnus had stabbed him. “Josh wanted to play a prank and gain sympathy, and it backfired on him. And on his deathbed, he used his last moments on this earth to manipulate you into destroying the one person who had successfully brought down his fragile house of cards. Royce. You continue to be insistent about foul play, but the police found no evidence to warrant an investigation.”

“He works as an investigator for the district attorney’s office,” Lucien exclaimed, pointing at Royce. “All law enforcement is a brotherhood that protects itself.”

Magnus jerked Lucien’s chair around and braced his hands on the arms. “No, Lucien. It’s time to stop. It’s time to remember that your brother was not a saint. He was the farthest thing from it.” The other half of Magnus’s face blotted with as much color as the wine-stained portion. “For a moment there, before he died, you knew it too.”

Surging with life, Lucien shoved Magnus with such force he pushed the man halfway across the room. “Get out.” His face twisted into something horrific Sophie didn’t recognize. “Get the fuck out now.” He swung around and encompassed the whole area with a sweep of his arm. “All of you.”

Royce got up and propelled Sophie toward the hallway. Magnus, from the doorway, said, “You don’t want to destroy Sophie, Lucien. At your core, that’s not who you are.”

“Get out.” Lucien strode toward them with menace. “Don’t fucking forget the others either. I want everyone out of my goddamn house right now.” As he slammed the door to his study, he roared, “Go!”

Still reeling from everything revealed in Lucien’s study, Sophie let herself be dragged away.

Once alone, Lucien started shaking, and he could scarcely catch a breath.

It is done. Josh’s death has been avenged.

The shivering only got worse, and he could not get the image of Sophie, broken when she’d finally understood what he’d done to her sank into her consciousness, out of his mind.

Lucien headed for the side bar and started to drink.

* * * *

In a daze, Sophie let Royce gather her things for her, put some shoes and a coat on her, and guide her outside to the dock. Lucien had lured her here, filmed her as she’d learned to explore her sexuality, and then put it on the Internet for everyone to see.
He brought me here to ruin me
. This harsh, cold-blooded reality was so different from the sweet note she’d woken up to such a short while ago. A knifing pain ripped through Sophie’s gut, and she doubled over where she stood.

Royce made a grab to keep her upright, but so did Magnus and Cale. Owen stood in the background with Emma and Jade, his face full of confusion as his mother whispered words to him Sophie could not hear. Sophie’s mind spun with so many conflicting pictures and comments, so much so she couldn’t balance her thoughts and also make sense of what she’d heard.
It’s not right
. She jerked up and swung her focus to the castle. Her mind swam, and her heart ached with Lucien’s betrayal, but again and again, the words
it’s not right
rang in her head.

Royce nudged her to step onto the boat, but Sophie said, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute.” The part of her mind that enjoyed analysis and puzzles wouldn’t be satisfied. She glanced up at her brother. “How did you find out about that Web site? When?”

“Early this morning. Very.” Royce’s jaw ticked wildly, and his already deep brown gaze inked with black. “Once your reporter friend mentioned the name Lucien Cabot as being part of your story yesterday, I cleared my schedule as fast as I could. I booked the first flight I could get, which put me down in New Hampshire. I was already driving in from Manchester when I got a text with a link to the Web site. Once I saw what was on it, I didn’t even stop to eat or stretch my legs. I just kept driving and then found someone willing to take my money for use of his boat to get here.”

This morning.Early
. Snippets of Lucien’s raw honesty last night swirled in Sophie’s thoughts, mingling with the laptop he’d left on the pillow and the indulgent note stuck to it. Then a replay of the next series of events showed themselves with hyperspeed in Sophie’s brain. She came to a screeching stop upon the quick exchange of glances between Lucien and Magnus in the study when she’d asked to know what was going on. Finally the dots started connecting.
Right.

She shifted her attention from Royce to Magnus, glared, and said, “You did this. You sent Royce the text.”

Magnus, the son of a bitch, beamed. “Well done. I knew you were the right one for him. Yes, I did. I sped up the inevitable and forced something that needed to come to a head.”

An enormous jigsaw puzzle showed itself in Sophie’s mind. With each piece of information she processed, the final picture became clearer. She swung back to her brother. “You received the text early”—talking aloud helped her sort each small part into its proper place—“while Lucien was still in bed with me. That one…encounter”—her face heated as the sexual things her brother had seen her do filled her mind—“between me and Lucien that took place in the bed happened early this morning. Faster than Lucien likely could have gotten up to go through everything that had recorded and then upload the right portions himself.” Even if Lucien had sneaked away while she’d slept to upload specific parts of the evening where she’d been tied to the table, or when she’d used the dildo on him, he wouldn’t have had the time to also leave in the aftermath of his tying her to the bed to take her a third time.
And he damn well wouldn’t have left me that note about William and Jude if he had.

Sophie put her full focus on Magnus once more. “You created the Web site to send it to Royce. Or at the very least, you added that final scene yourself before sending him the link.”

More of that glint lit Magnus’s violet eyes. “Yes.”

Royce shoved in and grabbed Magnus by the front of his coat. “You son of a bitch—”

Without fighting back, his voice soft, Magnus said, “It’s not live.”

Looking between Magnus and Sophie, Royce let up his grip on Magnus but didn’t release him. “What?”

Not quite able to believe it, Sophie shook her head, and a bubble of laughter escaped. “He doesn’t know, does he?” She didn’t need Magnus to confirm it. “That’s why you were so quick to step in yourself to show me the site.”

“He doesn’t know—yet,” Magnus clarified. “It might take him a day or two, but once he gets his anger and emotions under control, he’ll figure it out.”

“You were supposed to help him this week,” she said to Magnus, then turned to look at Jade, Emma, and Cale. “All of you were. But you were really trying to get me to fall for him.”

Magnus crossed his arms against his massive chest, and nodded. “Sometimes you have to do things the hard way with a person in order to get him or her to see the truth. Lucien is one of those people who needs it done the hard way.” The threesome behind him all wore serious expressions. “He has been planning this for so long he was already coming to know you and care about you, he just couldn’t accept or face it. We did what we thought needed to be done to help him face it—for Lucien.”

Sophie’s gaze drifted to Ravenstoke, and a plan of action started percolating within her. “I think I need to help him understand once and for all,” she murmured.

Royce went from clutching Magnus to stretching his arms wide, blocking the path back to the castle. “What in the hell are the two of you talking about?” His pinpoint stare drilled a hole straight through Sophie. “You’re not going back in there. Not for one fucking second.”

From her slighter position, Sophie arched her brow at her overbearing big brother. “Oh, I am, Royce. And you are getting off this island right now.” She had a million questions buzzing inside her about the exact nature of his relationship with Josh, not to mention how well he knew Lucien and maybe even Magnus as an extension of the deceased, but the man at the center of her presence at Ravenstoke could not wait. Her attention slid to Cale, Emma, and Jade a bit down the dock, where they clearly shielded Owen, and she added, “And you’re taking these other wonderful people with you.”

Royce balled his hands into fists. “Lucien is a dangerous man, Sophie. You can’t romanticize this and expect that he has fallen in love with you just because you’ve had sex. If he hasn’t put that Web site up yet”—the look he shot Magnus said he didn’t entirely believe that truth—“he will in order to destroy you in his blinding path to revenge.”

With another glance toward the castle, Sophie grinned inside, just for herself. “He just thinks he would. Magnus”—as Sophie shifted to pull the giant man into a hug, she heard her brother curse him behind her—“please take control and make sure my brother is with you on that boat when the rest of you leave this island.”

Magnus pecked a kiss to her cheek. “Will do.” With a murmur of “Good luck,” he grabbed Royce’s arms, to Royce’s obvious displeasure.

Sophie left Magnus to deal with her brother’s anger and turned back to Ravenstoke. “I have an injured, cornered animal to confront.” As on the first day, the daunting size of the castle, and the often still mysterious man within, shook a tremble through her. “Let’s hope I’ve learned enough about his species in the last week to get the job done right the first time.” With that and a few more silent words for courage, she took her first step back into the fire.

Sophie had a feeling if she made a mistake and let Lucien get away, she wouldn’t get a second chance.

Chapter Fourteen

Lucien slowly came to, and when he blinked the grit from his eyes, Sophie filled his vision, making him wonder how much alcohol he’d consumed in order to have begun having hallucinations.