Chapter 15 Untitled Chapter
Something faint moved in Kylie’s face.
Not amusement. Recognition. Like she respected the answer in spite of herself.
Roberto stayed quiet. That silence felt deliberate and heavy now.
Kylie looked back at him. “You replaced me fast.”
The room got quiet.
Kendrix’s jaw locked before she could stop it.
Bash muttered, “Oh, this is getting ugly.”
Roberto’s face didn’t change. “You removed yourself.”
Kylie exhaled through her nose in a controlled manner. But Kendrix caught it anyway. A small crack.
Kylie looked at Kendrix again in assessment.
“I didn’t come here for him,” she said quietly. “I came to see what took my place.”
“Pretty sure people aren’t furniture,” Kendrix said.
Kylie’s eyes flicked to her. “No. They’re worse.”
Roberto moved just slightly, but the room shifted with him.
Kylie noticed and for the first time, her composure thinned.
“Relax. I’m not here to cause a scene yet.”
Silence settled again. Loaded this time.
Kendrix realized something she didn’t like.
Kylie looked like someone who’d sat with her feelings long enough to turn them into decisions.
. .
Music still played downstairs. Glasses clinked. People smiled and talked in careful voices. Like something had slipped under the floorboards and stayed there.
Kendrix stood by a window, holding a champagne glass she hadn’t touched.
She didn’t trust anything in this house anymore. Conversations moved in low waves behind her. Every now and then she caught fragments:
“Who was she?”
“Did you see Lucifer’s face?”
“I heard she used to…”
The voices dropped every time she looked over.
“Cowards,” she muttered.
“Accurate,” Bash said, appearing beside her. He took the untouched champagne from her hand and drank it.
“You weren’t drinking it anyway.”
“Because I enjoy surviving.”
For once, he didn’t follow it with a joke. He leaned against the wall, eyes scanning the room. Not casual. Watching.
Kendrix noticed it then. Really noticed.
All of them did it. Skyler. Nora. Bash.
Even when they looked relaxed, they were tracking everything. Nobody in Roberto’s world turned their brain off.
Her eyes drifted to the staircase. Roberto was gone. She didn’t know when he had left.
“You’re thinking loudly again,” Bash said.
“I hate when you people say that.”
“You’ve got a visible face.”
“That sounds insulting.”
“It is.”
There was a short silence. Then Bash said,
“Kylie used to live here for a while.”
Kendrix looked at him fast.
“You were gonna ask eventually,” he shrugged.
“Were they together?”
“That depends on what you mean by together.”
“That sounds like a yes.”
“That sounds like this is above my pay grade.”
Before she could push, Skyler appeared and dragged him away.
“Come help me before you ruin another interaction.”
“I improve interactions.”
“You absolutely don’t.”
Their voices faded into the crowd. Roberto returned.
The room adjusted without meaning to. Conversations lowered. People straightened. He moved through it calmly, unreadable but sharper now. Like whatever control he carried had tightened after Kylie showed up.
His eyes found Kendrix immediately.
She looked away first. Roberto stopped beside her. Neither spoke right away.
The silence between them felt heavier tonight.
“You throw terrible parties,” she said finally.
“People seem entertained.”
“They looked terrified half the night.”
“That too.”
She glanced at him. He was too calm and impossible to read.
But now that she had seen Kylie, seen someone who knew him before her, something felt off.
“You knew she’d come?”
“Yes.”
That surprised her. “You still let her in.”
“She wasn’t a threat tonight.”
Tonight. Kendrix caught it. Her fingers tightened around the glass.
“You talk about people like the weather,” she said.
“She’s emotional.”
Kendrix laughed, short and dry. “That’s funny coming from you.”
Something flashed across his face and was gone in a second.
“Seemed like she loved you,” Kendrix said before she could stop it.
Roberto looked at her. “That’s not of your concern.”
It should not have irritated her. But it did.
“Right,” she muttered. “Because you speak like a robot half the time.”
“You’re still talking to me.”
“You kidnapped me, remember?”
“And yet,” he said quietly, “you still argue instead of staying silent.”
That landed too deep, and she hated that he noticed.
“Don’t involve yourself with Kylie,” he said.
Kendrix frowned. “You say that like I’m planning to join her book club.”
“She doesn’t let things go.”
The way he said it made her stomach tighten. And for the first time tonight, she wondered something else. Not whether Roberto was dangerous. That was obvious. But how bad someone had to break to survive in his world long enough to become Kylie.
. .
The party ended late.
By the time Kendrix got upstairs, her head hurt from noise, people, staring. The door shut behind her and she exhaled.
“God, I hate rich people.”
Nora was waiting by the vanity.
“You survived.”
“ Yeah, barely.”
Nora stepped closer. “Sit.”
Kendrix dropped into the chair. Nora started pulling pins from her hair. The room settled into tired silence.
Downstairs, faint music still drifted up.
Kendrix watched her in the mirror.
“Why do they call him Lucifer?”
Nora’s hands paused briefly. “You really want the answer?”
“That depends. Is it horrifying?”
“Yes.”
Nora kept working.
“Roberto’s father ran the family before him. Bodies were everywhere. Public. Messages. People disappear loudly.”
Kendrix stayed still.
“When Roberto took over, it changed.”
“How?”
“The bodies stopped appearing.”
That landed worse than if she’d said yes.
Nora met her eyes in the mirror.
“People think monsters are loud. Roberto isn’t.”
Silence settled between them.
“What happened to his father?”
Nora pulled the last pin free. “Roberto killed him.”
The room felt colder. Kendrix stared wide-eyed. Nora didn't say it like gossip, she said it as a matter of fact.
“And people were okay with that?”
Nora gave a humorless laugh. “People were relieved.”
Kendrix looked away. Nora wiped her face clean with slow, careful strokes.
Her thoughts felt louder now.
Lucifer.
Not because he was reckless. Because he got colder than the man before him.
Nora folded the cloth.
“When his father ran things, people died loudly,” she said. Her eyes lifted to Kendrix's reflection.“ But Roberto made it quieter.”