Page 184 of The Contract

Tied the owner to a chair and doused the whole fucking place in gasoline.

Then listened to him scream as he threw a match and watched it burn.

Walked out. Never looked back.

His voice remains steady, void of regret. “I wanted to kill Adrian next.”

He exhales slowly, fingers tapping once against the counter.

“But Elena begged me not to.”

The words knock the wind out of me.

Lucian wanted Adrian dead. So do I. So would any man with a shred of fucking decency.

But Elena stopped him.

Lucian doesn’t stop for anyone.

He can see the question brewing in my mind. Why?

“Said it would come back on her.” His jaw flexes. “His family had money. She just wanted to move on.”

The bitter taste in my mouth worsens.

She was eighteen when it happened. Barely out of that orphanage. Barely had a chance to build anything for herself before it was ripped away.

And I was fucking blind. Selfish.

I picture the way she looked at me this afternoon—the betrayal in her eyes. The way her voice cracked when she tried to defend herself.

I called her a liar. A manipulator. A whore.

I threw her out.

The world tilts again as Lucian keeps talking.

“You need to know, Wolfe—Elena called me the second Adrian approached her,” he says, his voice quieter now. “That’s protocol. That’s what she’s supposed to do.”

Lucian drags a hand down his face, looking wrecked in a way I’ve never seen before.

Because this was personal.

Because Elena isn’t just some contract to him.

She’s one of his girls.

She’s his responsibility.

“So if you want to be pissed at someone, Wolfe,” he says finally, meeting my gaze, “you can hate me. I already hate myself because I wasn’t there when she needed me.”

His words land like a punch to the gut.

Lucian isn’t making excuses. He’s not dodging blame. He’s owning it.

Because he wasn’t there.

And I?

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