Page 58 of Created in Chaos
Lucian scowls. “I’m not going to repeat myself.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“There’s no point in trying to lie to us. You made sure we have video evidence today when you helped us hack into the school’s security,” I tell her.
Her lips purse in a sneer as the feigned innocence in her eyes withers to a hard glint. “I was just going to mess with her a bit. You made it clear she was fair game.”
I didn’t know that. I want to examine Lucian to see his reaction to her words, but I don’t want her to see the questioning glance between us. Clearly this was before I met Nova, when he was still dead set on getting rid of her.
“Just because she’s fair game to me doesn’t mean you have carte blanche.”
“Nothing happened.” Grace shrugs a slim shoulder.
“Her arm got all clawed up. Was that you or the pussy you were with?”
“I didn’t even do it on purpose. She kicked me.” Her response is indignant, as if she were the one who was wronged, proving she truly doesn’t understand what’s going on here or how much trouble she’s in.
“Is that why you brought so many people with you the next time you attacked her?” I accuse, pissed that all of this can be traced back to Lucian and his fucked-up need to run Nova off the island.
“What?” she asks too softly with wide, guileless eyes, but her phony act is useless at this point. “I didn’t attack her.”
“There’s no point in lying. We know you were involved. The only way to help yourself is by telling us exactly what happened and who orchestrated it.” Lucian is bluffing about knowing Grace is involved, but he’s much better at it than she is.
“Are you talking about what happened at school? You can’t think I had anything to do with that.” She does a fair job of pretending to be outraged at the suggestion.
“Cut the shit, Grace. I don’t have the patience for it. Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll send you home.” I know his version of sending her home is not the same as hers, but if it gets her talking, I’m all for it.
“That’s really why you called me here? To talk about her?”
You’d think she would have already come to that conclusion, but it appears Grace is delusional.
Lucian stands up to his full height and looks down at Grace with nothing but pure malice in his eyes. “I don’t want to break you, Grace, but not because I don’t want to hurt you. I’m confident I would enjoy doing what was done to Nova to you, but my lamb is sweet and I don’t want to upset her, so I need you to tell me what I want to know, or you’ll force my hand, and that will piss me off.”
Grace’s chin wobbles a little, hinting that she might cry. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you.”
“We want you to tell us the truth. Did you really think everyone would keep quiet? That people wouldn’t start to talk, especially after it was announced that Nova is an Umbra?” It’s my turn to bluff about what we know.
“Whatever they said isn’t true.” She shakes her head in denial.
“Really? I find that very hard to believe,” Lucian drawls.
“We know for certain you went after her once—there’s proof—so why should we believe that you didn’t put her in the hospital?” I’m already tired of asking her stupid questions.
“Because I didn’t do it. You have to believe me,” she implores, as if her word is convincing enough.
“We don’t believe you. I should have suspected you from the beginning, but I thought the motive went deeper than a jealous bitch filled with delusions of grandeur.” Lucian pauses and moves a little closer to the girl. “I know you, Grace. You like to think you’re the head bitch. You think you’re important, but you’re not. You’re expendable, just like the rest of these fucking idiots.”
Grace’s mask slips as her lips tighten in a scowl, so I push a little more in the same direction. “You probably thought she was getting what she deserved. A girl like her, coming here and making waves. I bet it pissed you off when you realized she didn’t even have to try to reach the levels you’d always dreamed of and thought you earned.”
Grace doesn’t take the bait as I hoped, but Lucian continues for us. “I bet you didn’t think it would go that far. You probably just wanted to teach her a lesson and show Nova her place. It’s understandable. She is an outsider, so she never belonged here.”
“She’s a gutter slut,” Grace snaps.
Lucian flinches, but it’s such a small movement, I doubt she would recognize it as more than a blink.
“I’ve prepared my entire life for this place, this world, and she thinks she can just sashay her fat ass in here with her Walmart clothes and ragged hair to take what’s mine. Fuck that, I wasn’t giving up without a fight, and you wouldn’t either.”
“A true sign of a leader,” I acknowledge, giving her what she wants to hear, even though if she were a true leader, she would recognize it for the ploy it is.