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Silence thickened between them. Lucien was dreading Carmell’s answer, tensing himself for impact.

“I’m…” She forced out a scoff, shaking her head. “I’m not sure what you mean?”

“I’m asking you if you ever saw Kendall, my secretary, at Club Riviere. I know it’s absurd, but… I’m serious. Since years have passed, she might have looked different at the time. She was a minor…”

He buried his face in his hands. The gravity of what he was saying hit him the more he spoke. He was disgusted with himself for even considering such an outrageous thing, but he needed to get to know.
Those notes. If Eliott was the one sending them, then they could be full of lies. But Lucien needed to be sure.

“Lucien, I don’t think…” Carmell quietly started. She swallowed hard. “I’m not sure. There were a lot of girls there.”

He met her gaze. “Why did you protect her so fiercely when she ran into Eliott?”

She blinked. “What do you mean? I’m a girl’s girl, that’s why. I’d do that for any woman.”

His eyes narrowed. “The girl you’re searching for. The one who got away from the Club under suspicious circumstances…”

Carmell tensed, her face paling despite her efforts to look unaffected. “What about her?”

“Have you found her?”

She stared at him for a moment and then shrugged. “No.  Jon’s watching me closely. I haven’t really been attending any functions lately. Really slowed down my search for her.”

With silent intensity, Lucien studied her face.
He didn’t say anything in response to her explanation. Picking up his phone, he clicked and scrolled on the screen a few times. A few moments later, he placed his phone on the table, sliding it across the table so she could see.
Looking down at the screen, Carmell felt her blood turn to ice in her veins. Chills gripped her spine, and she held her breath, watching as a video played.

She and Kendall in the hotel hallway back in D.C.

The cameras had captured everything. From the moment Carmell ran after Kendall to the moment she’d recognized her. In the video, they hugged, crying in each other’s arms.

Shaking, Carmell slowly raised her gaze to Lucien’s face.

His expression was dark with frustration. “I fucking hate lies, Carmell.”

“Lucien. Listen to me.”

“What was she doing at Club Riviere at that age? Was it you? You recruited her? She was a child!”

She jumped away, holding up a calming hand. “Lucien, wait! I can explain.”

“Tell me everything. Right now.”

Quickly shaking her head, Carmell tried to plead with him. “I can’t. I promised Valencia I wouldn’t!”

He froze. “Who?”

She gasped, eyes widening.

“Valencia?” His expression twisted. “Who the hell is Valencia? Is that Kendall’s real name? And Eliott. How the hell did he get to know her? Was…” His stomach rolled.
Lucien turned away, shutting his eyes against the nausea.  “Was he her… her client?”

When she said nothing, Lucien turned on her, wrath in his eyes. “Answer me!”

“I can’t!”

He shot to his feet, marching across the office. “If you won’t tell me, then I’ll shake that bastard Eliott until he tells me! Whether or not she was his whore, I’m finding out today!”

“Lucien!”

He was beyond listening, smacking papers off his table as he snatched up his car keys.

“Lucien, listen to me!” Carmell screamed, rushing toward him.

He turned on her. “You disgust me!”

Her eyes widened with hurt. His gaze scorched her face, aflame with more rage than she’d ever seen in his face. The friend she thought she’d made was nowhere to be seen in him. Pushing past the hurt, she forced herself to face him. “You need to calm down.”

“You’ve been taking me for a fucking fool,” he hissed. “You could’ve told me in D.C. I asked you, Carmell! I asked you to tell me the truth! And you lied to me!”

Her hands were fisted at her sides, shaking. “I… I was trying to protect Kendall. I didn’t want to ruin everything she’s built.”

“Ah!” He threw both hands up, raising his brows. “I see. You didn’t want to ruin the perfect lie she’d built. After all, she must’ve told you her plans to seduce the great Lucien Sinclair and turn him into a fucking fool for her! You couldn’t ruin that for her, could you?!”

“What? No! That wasn’t what—”

“Oh, fucking spare me! I wouldn’t believe a word you said right now, unless you’re telling me how big a liar you are. I’m gonna have a talk with Cross. And I’m going to find out just how elaborately formulated this entire lie has been.”
He spun away, marching toward the door.

Her heart pounded with trepidation. No. If he went to Eliott, that monster was sure to feed him lies about Kendall.

Carmell had to set the record straight herself.

“Lucien, wait!” He kept walking. Gripping her dress, she scrambled for something to say. “He… he bought her!”

The words burst from her lips, echoing dreadfully through the office.

Lucien froze in his tracks.

Her words, like acid, burned through his remaining hope, leaving a gaping hole of utter shock. He couldn’t move, could barely draw breath.
There was no way she’d just said that.

Grateful he’d stopped, Carmell ran across the room and stood between him and the door so she could look up at him.

“Lucien, please listen to me.” Her voice shook, and she forced herself to carry on. He needed to understand. “A lot of things happened back then. But Eliott was constantly on the wrong side of it. You can’t trust him to tell you the truth!”

Swallowing hard, he pulled tightly on every remaining shred of patience he possessed. “Then… you tell me. Tell me the truth.”

She sighed. “Kendall was… she’d just turned sixteen at the time. She had nowhere to go, and I took her in.”

His expression was tight with shock, his eyes deep and haunted by what she was saying. “But she’s rich.”

“That’s Eliott’s money.”

His stomach rolled. Clenching his jaw, Lucien closed his eyes.

“When he saw Kendall,” Carmell continued. “He decided he could make use of her. He went to Sly, told him what he wanted. Sly said no.”

“Then how the fuck did he get her?”

“Eliott then promised to leave me alone.” Her voice was soft, broken. “He promised Sly that he wouldn’t demand my services anymore, that he wouldn’t ask for me. Sly wanted to free me…”

A harsh exhale blew past his lips as he stared furiously at her. “So… so he sacrificed Kendall?!”

Her lips trembled, and Carmell pressed them together. “I didn’t know. Not until it was too late.”

“What did Cross need Kendall for?” He was nearly too scared to find out.

She shook her head, crying. “I don’t know. But… she accepted the deal.”

His stare bore through her, lip curled in disgust at the person she was.
But she wasn’t the one who’d get his wrath.

Eliott Cross was the bastard Lucien would unleash on. He glared at her. “Move.”