Dreadnought (Nemesis #1)(27)

“Yea—”

Nero did the same to his girlfriend.

“Kinda fucked up you haven’t even let your own brother inside your place,” Amo stated.

Lucca flexed his jaw, staring at Amo. A flash of him gouging out Amo’s eyes appeared before him. Taking a single blink made the satisfyingly gruesome vision go away before he calmly looked at Elle.

“It looks just like yours and Nero’s, but flipped. There’s no reason to see it.”

“I’m sure it’s decorated differently, though. Has no one really seen it?” Lake asked, burning a hole through the door with her stare, like she was hoping to suddenly have X-ray vision.

“I’ve seen Sal come out of there before, but he’s the only one, and it was just one time,” Elle told her.

“Maybe he has a second entrance somehow?” Lake replied like he wasn’t even there.

Lucca gave Nero and Vincent a look of death.

“Clearly, Lucca likes his privacy, and we should respect it,” Adalyn stated.

He gave her a slight smile in return. “Thank you, Adalyn.” Hearing maybe a swoon or two, he began walking toward the elevator.

The girls all followed behind him as he got into the elevator, passing one of his men who was laughing as he watched the floor.

“We’re going to the diner to get something to eat if you’re hungry,” Adalyn offered.

“No thanks. I’ll fix something when I get home.”

Hurry the fuck up. He couldn’t punch in the code fast enough to take them to the first floor when Amo finally got his ass into the elevator.

“Hmm … That’s strange,” Lake whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

Fucking hell, what now? It seemed like the doors would never come to a close.

“What?” Elle was curious, along with Adalyn.

“Probably that I make my own fucking food,” he mouthed off to the nosy girls. Chloe had practically been shocked he knew how to boil water.

“No.” Lake smiled a bit too evilly before she continued, “Your hair is wet. Who takes a shower at one of their houses only to leave for the other one? Must have gotten pretty dirty …” she trailed off, giggling.

“Hmm … What were you doing in there?” Elle giggled with her.

I’m gonna snap their little fucking nec—

“He probably does have that second entrance for his women,” Amo said in a low tone, but not low enough for them all not to hear.

Cutting a blind Amo’s throat with his pocket knife flashed before him, only to unfortunately disappear after he blinked it away.

“You should get one, Amo, so I don’t have to see the fucking trash you take to your place every night.”

The elevator went deadly silent at his words.

Amo didn’t open his mouth, clearly too pissed and shocked that Lucca had known about the girls he brought home in the middle of the night.

Lucca wasn’t done with him just yet.

Watching the numbers blink lower and lower, he knew the doors were about to open any second now. He waited until the very end before he looked at Amo one last time and asked, “How has Chloe been?”

You could practically see Amo killing him in his mind, just the way he had been. It was a question he wasn’t able to answer, considering Chloe’s phone had been with Lucca since he had taken her. Amo’s countless texts and phone calls had all gone unanswered.

Now Lucca was happy he hadn’t killed him. This was much better.

“S-She’s doing good.” Elle nervously tried to break the tension between the two.

At last, the doors began to open, and he gave his response to Amo as he continued to stare him down. “That’s good to hear.”

Lucca let the girls off first, and when Amo passed, a sinister grin came over Lucca.

When another vision appeared before him, it wasn’t of a horrific way to kill Amo. This one was altogether different. A vision that would soon come true, when Amo finally learned that, Chloe is mine.



After giving his order to the waitress, Amo’s appetite seemed to disappear. It had actually disappeared in the elevator with Lucca.

Sitting at the end of the table, he didn’t engage in the laughing from his group. He didn’t even particularly want to be here, but he had cancelled on them so many times since Chloe had left for California that he didn’t want them to think he had become broken. Even though he had.

It was like a piece of him had left with her, never to return until she did.

Amo replayed the night that went to shit over and over in his head. The night that only made her leave for California sooner…

Amo watched Chloe from the other side of the mall while she bought her suitcase. She was leaving tomorrow, and he hadn’t even told her how he felt about her yet. He was a dumbass for waiting this long, but he was terrified of scaring her away. It had to be at the right time.

Seeing Chloe begin to exit the store, he couldn’t believe he had spent three and a half years at high school with her and not once looked past her scars. He would regret those three and half years until the day he died.

He felt a moment of peace as he stared at her from afar. She took his breath away, but it was only for a moment.

Bang. Bang.

The calm before the storm had passed, and the beauty he had felt washed away. Now, all that was left was dread and terror…