CHAPTER 50: CHAPTER FIFTY

Chapter Fifty

Malachi’s POV

After that talk with Travis, I felt a surge of anger in my blood. It coursed through me like poison, hot and bitter. The conversation had opened old wounds, reminded me of things I’d tried to bury. Things that refused to stay buried.

I remembered why I was back in Silver Lake all this while. It was to seek revenge. To make them all pay for what they’d done. For Emily. For her child. For every life this family had destroyed in its pursuit of power.

I might have been distracted by Alicia, my little bird, but she was a good distraction. The best kind, actually. The kind that made you forget the darkness for a while. Make you feel something other than rage and emptiness.

She had possessed my thoughts like magic. From the moment I’d seen her broken in my room, something had shifted inside me. Something I didn’t fully understand and wasn’t sure I wanted to. She’d gotten under my skin in a way no one else ever had.

I didn’t go to work that morning, thinking maybe a little distance would kill what I had for the little bird in my brother’s cage. Maybe if I stayed away, if I didn’t see her smile or hear her voice, this thing between us would fade. Maybe I could go back to focusing on what really mattered.

But it didn’t help.

Even through the business meetings I held online, I couldn’t focus on anything. Numbers blurred together. People talked and I heard nothing. My mind kept drifting back to her. The way she looked at me. The way she felt in my arms. The way she challenged me when everyone else just cowered.

I gave up around three in the afternoon and had Maurice drive me to the company. I needed to see her. I needed to be near her, even if it was just watching her work. Even if we didn’t speak at all.

But when we pulled up to the building, I saw Alicia getting out of the building. She was walking quickly, her bag over her shoulder, looking down at her phone.

Maurice glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "Should I call her, sir? Let her know you’re here?"

"No." I leaned forward, watching her walk toward the street. "Follow her."

"Sir?"

"You heard me. I want to know where she’s going."

Maurice didn’t question it. He just put the car in gear and followed at a distance. We stayed back far enough that she wouldn’t notice, close enough that we didn’t lose her in the evening traffic.

When she entered a restaurant downtown, I frowned. Mario’s Bistro. It wasn’t the kind of place I would have expected her to choose. Not fancy enough for a business meeting, not casual enough for grabbing something quick.

Then I saw him through the window. Lucas. That same man from Dark City. The one who’d looked at her like she belonged to him. The one who’d tried to touch her hair.

My fury only heightened. My hands curled into fists in my lap. What the hell was he doing here? In Silver Lake City? And why was Alicia meeting with him?

"Sir?" Maurice was watching me carefully. "Should I handle the matter?"

"No." My voice came out cold, controlled. "Let it be. But I want access to those restaurant CCTVs. Now."

Maurice made a call. I could hear him talking to someone, making demands. After a few minutes, he turned back to me. "The manager said he can’t do that, sir. Privacy policies."

"Then buy the company." I didn’t take my eyes off the restaurant window. "Buy it right now. And tell that manager if he doesn’t cooperate, he’ll be looking for a new job by morning."

Maurice made another call. This one took longer. I could hear the panic in the voice on the other end when Maurice explained the situation. Money talks in this city. It always did.

Within minutes, I had access to the security feed on my phone. The camera angle gave me a perfect view of their table. Alicia was sitting across from Lucas, and she was smiling. Actually smiling and laughing at whatever he was saying.

My mind replayed that moment back in Dark City when he’d tried to put stray hair behind her ears. The casual intimacy of it. The way his fingers had almost touched her face. I should’ve broken those hands then. Should’ve made sure he never got close to her again.

I watched them talk. Watched her eat the food he’d ordered for her. I watched the easy way they interacted, like old friends. Like people who had history. It made something dark and violent twist in my chest.

She was mine. Didn’t she understand that? Didn’t he?

Soon, Alicia left the restaurant. I watched her walk out, watched her stop at a shop to buy something. My phone buzzed in my hand and I realized I’d been gripping it so hard my knuckles were white.

I typed out a message.

Where are you?

Her response came a minute later.

On my way back. I had dinner with a friend.

A friend. The word made my jaw clench. That’s what she was calling him? A friend?

I didn’t respond. Instead, I turned to Maurice. "Have Lucas followed. I want him brought to the torture room within the hour."

"Yes, sir." Maurice didn’t even blink. He’d worked for me long enough to know not to question these orders.

"And Maurice? Make sure no one sees. I don’t want this traced back to us."

We drove to the location in silence. It was an old warehouse on the edge of the city, one of several properties I owned that didn’t officially exist on any records. The kind of place where people could disappear and no one would ever find them.

When we got to the torture room, Lucas was already there. My men had been efficient. He was tied to a chair in the center of the room, his hands bound behind his back. The single light bulb overhead cast harsh shadows across his face.

He didn’t even look surprised to see me when I walked in. Just tired. Maybe a little resigned.

"Malachi Blackwood," he said quietly. "I was wondering when you’d show up."

I walked closer, my footsteps echoing on the concrete floor. "Why are you in Silver Lake City?"

"To see Alicia."

"Wrong answer."

"It’s the truth." He met my eyes steadily. "I came to check on her. To make sure she’s okay."

"She’s fine."

"Is she?" Lucas leaned forward as much as the ropes would allow. "Because from where I’m standing, she’s trapped. Married to a man she doesn’t love. Living in a house that isn’t her home. And now apparently being stalked by her husband’s brother."

My hand shot out and grabbed his collar. "Watch your mouth."

"Why?" He smiled, but there was no humor in it. "What are you going to do? Kill me? That seems a bit extreme just because I had dinner with a friend."

"She’s not your friend."

"Yes, she is. We’ve been friends for years. Long before you ever knew she existed."

"That’s in the past."

"So what is she to you then?" Lucas asked. His voice was calm, almost curious. "Why are you so possessive of Alicia when she’s your sister-in-law? What gives you the right?"

I was angry. The words hit too close to something I didn’t want to examine. Something I couldn’t admit even to myself.

"You want to know what gives me the right?" I released his collar and stepped back. Picked up one of the tools from the table against the wall. A thin, sharp blade. "I’ll show you."

I walked back over to him slowly. "You touched her hair. In Dark City. I saw you try to tuck it behind her ear."

"That was nothing. Just a gesture."

"It was everything." I grabbed his right hand, the one I’d seen reaching for her. "You’ll never touch her again. Never get close to her. Never even think about her."

"You’re insane."

"Maybe." I positioned the blade against his palm. "But you’ll remember this."

"you’ll have no hands to touch her hair with."

Then I plunged the sharp object into the hand he’d used to touch her. The blade went through his palm and into the wood of the chair arm beneath it. Blood splashed across my face, warm and wet.

Lucas screamed. The sound echoed off the warehouse walls.

I didn’t go deep enough to render the hand totally useless. Just deep enough to make my point. Deep enough that he’d feel it every time he moved those fingers for months to come. Deep enough that he’d remember.

"Stay away from her," I said quietly, pulling the blade out. More blood flowed. "If I see you near her again, I won’t be this merciful."

After I was done, I ordered the men to take him away. They’d patch him up enough that he wouldn’t bleed out, then dump him somewhere far from here. Somewhere he’d think twice about coming back from.

I wiped the blood away from my face with a cloth one of my men handed me. It didn’t all come off. I could feel it drying on my skin, sticky and dark.

I left the warehouse and had Maurice drive me home. The whole way back, I felt calm. Centered. Like I’d finally done something that made sense in a world that had stopped making sense the moment Alicia walked into it.

When I got home, it was already dinner time. I could smell food cooking as I walked through the door. Hear voices from the dining room. Domestic sounds. The kind that felt wrong in a house like this.

I walked into the dining room and found Sophie and Alicia setting the table. Sophie looked up and her eyes went wide.

"Malachi! What’s that red dot on your shirt?"

I looked down. There was a small spot of blood on my white shirt, right near the collar. Shit. I had forgotten to change the shirt before coming home.

"It’s ketchup," I said smoothly. "Spilled some at lunch."

Sophie tilted her head, studying me. "That doesn’t look like ketchup."

"Well, it is." I met Alicia’s eyes across the table. She was watching me carefully, those intelligent eyes taking in every detail. The spot on my shirt. The way I was standing. The tension in my shoulders.

She didn’t seem convinced though. Neither of them did. But Sophie was young enough to accept the explanation, even if she doubted it. She went back to setting plates on the table.

Alicia kept staring at me. I could see the questions in her eyes. The suspicion. She knew something was wrong. Maybe she even knew where I’d been.

Good. Let her wonder. Let her realize that I wasn’t the kind of man who would just stand by and watch while other men circled around what was mine.

She was mine. Whether she admitted it or not. Whether it made sense or not.

And I’d make sure everyone else knew it too.