Page 12 of Hell of a Mess

Ten

Lace

I heard the voices before I reached the great room. They were all masculine. My body tensed as my heart rate picked up, and I stopped in the hallway. The instinct to turn and run back to the room I’d slept in last night was immediate. But why? What was it about those voices that frightened me?

Since I’d woken up without any knowledge of my life or who I was, every man I had met was civil. Linc hadn’t exactly been nice, but the others had been. This was Luther’s home, and he wouldn’t let someone inside that would hurt me. At least, I didn’t think he would.

What did I really know about him anyway? Or me?

Wringing my hands together tightly, I wanted the safety of the room I had just left. I wasn’t going to be able to go any further. No matter what I told myself, there was a flight reaction to the masculine voices that was stronger than my reasoning.

“Dalia,” Luther called out, and I turned to look at him.

“Yes,” I replied as our eyes met, and then I froze.

A rush came over me, and I reached out to place a hand on the wall closest to me as the world felt like it was off-balance. My stomach began to turn violently, and I feared I was about to vomit on the spot.

God, please don’t let me do that.

But when had God ever heard me? Not the day my momma had drowned and…

My momma.

The memory felt like a boulder slamming hard against my chest, and I let out a pained wail. She was gone. She’d been gone. I…I’d dreamed of her last night.

Strong hands clamped around my arms, but I couldn’t focus. Too much was opening up, racing through my head. My life, all that I’d forgotten.

Again, my stomach rolled painfully.

Arun would kill me. Especially now. And my father would allow it. If I wasn’t his pawn, I was nothing to him.

I had to find a way to escape here. Leave before I brought the danger that Linc feared close to his family. Oh God. I had to go. But how did I get away?

“Slow, deep breaths,” Luther said, reminding me that he was behind me.

He was possibly the only reason I was still standing. If left on my own, I was sure my knees would have buckled by now.

I shook my head. I had no time for slow breathing and calming down.

He had no idea the danger he was in by my being here.

He’d saved me. He…he was the only person in my life to ever care about my well-being.

My chest ached at the loss of that. The brief taste of someone being there to stand up for me.

To take care of me. It would end today. Now. I had to go.

“I-I ne-need to leave.” I stammered out the words.

“You remember who you are?” he asked.

I was reluctant to admit that, but he deserved the truth. I had to tell him who I was and that he had to let me leave in order to protect him and everyone in this house. I had…

Wait. I turned to look at him, stepping back out of his hold on me. He released me, watching me, as if he was trying to read all the memories I had on my face.

He’d called me Dalia. The name my father called me.

I placed a hand on my stomach, willing it to settle. There was no time to be ill.

“You said my…” I paused because I hated that name. I hated being called by that name.

“Your name,” he finished.

I nodded, although everything in my body screamed against it.

“It’s you then. You’re Dalia Halsten, the Texas oil heiress.” He didn’t sound disgusted, but it did seem almost mocking.

A hard, sharp laugh left my lips at that description. Heiress—such a funny word. One that didn’t fit me at all. Just as the name Dalia didn’t. Yet it was who I had been forced to become. The name my father had chosen, the one he loved.

“Yes,” I whispered, hating the lie the word stood for. But the truth was one I could never tell. Especially to him.

He didn’t deserve my father’s wrath. He was innocent.

“I have to leave. I can’t stay here.”

His brows drew together. “You want to go back to the bastard? He did this to you, didn’t he? Is his money that important to you? Is that it?”

I stared at him as he snarled the words.

Was he talking about my father? Or did he know about Arun too?

If he did, surely, he knew about the power the two of them wielded together.

I was sure this place had an excellent security system, but that wouldn’t stop either of them from collecting me when they found me. And they would.

“It isn’t safe for you; Jayda; the little girl, Stevie; her mom.” I left out Linc because even with my memory returned, I still didn’t care for him. But the feeling was mutual.

His eyes narrowed. “And it’s safe for you to go back to him?”

No. But I wasn’t planning on it. I was going to run until the day they caught me. No longer would I go down without a fight.

“That isn’t your concern,” I replied.

He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head slightly to the side as he studied me.

“You see, I’m gonna call bullshit on that, sugar.

I found you, brought you into my home, got you medical attention.

I think it is my concern. I didn’t save you to just give you back to the monster who had done that to you. So, tell me, was it him?”

I wanted to tell him everything. Every truth I wasn’t allowed to share.

Every lie I had lived. But Luther had a savior complex, and I would not let him get hurt or killed for it.

The world needed more men like him. The ones who did good, expecting nothing in return.

The ones who saw the hurt and broken and helped them without thinking twice.

He was good. His soul was beautiful. Just as his outward appearance was, but my life was a dark place he’d never understand. Or even imagine existed.

The only way to get away from him, to leave here, was to tell another lie. One that would make him let me go.

“My father will protect me. He’ll take care of things.”

Luther said nothing as he continued to stand there, staring at me. Waiting for me to burst out with the truth.

“I don’t like it when people lie to me,” he finally drawled. “But I can’t make you tell me the truth.”

I quietly sucked in a breath and held it, forcing my face not to show any reaction to his response.

“There is a man coming to take you back to your father, and I can’t help you if you aren’t straight with me, Ocean Eyes.”

In a perfect world, the ones I read about in books, I’d throw myself in his arms and tell him all of it. He would wrap me up and save me from my reality. But this wasn’t that world. It wasn’t fictional. Trusting him would get him killed. I’d never be able to live with myself if that happened.

“What man is coming to get me?” I asked him, resigning myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to get to escape my father now. He already knew where I was.

Luther said nothing.

Fine. Don’t tell me.

It didn’t matter anyway. He was my own personal ferryman to Hades, whoever he might be.

“When will he be here?” I asked, hoping he’d at least tell me that.

Luther’s jaw jutted out, as if he was grinding his teeth. He was that upset over this. My heart tightened and ached with the thought that fate hated me so much. To give me a taste of what it might be like not to be alone in life and take it away after only a nibble.

His eyes lifted to look over my head, and then they heated angrily. I turned to see what it was he was glaring at, only to find it was a who. Locke. He looked from Luther to me, and his expression softened. Unlike Luther, he seemed pained.

“Are you okay?” he asked me hesitantly.

No, Locke, I am not okay.

But I barely remembered a time in my life when I was. This was my normal.

I nodded. “Yes.”

He glanced at Luther again.

“She remembers. Her memory is back,” he said in a hard tone that made me shiver. “Seems she’s also a liar,” he added, then stalked past me as he walked away.

Locke looked at him with a frown, then back to me.

“Linc said he’s been edgy since finding out,” Locke said, as if apologizing for him.

“He’s angry with me,” I replied, and a sharp pain slashed my chest at the idea.

“Luther can be a mean son of a bitch. Ignore him,” he replied, then walked closer to me. “So, you remember everything?”

I nodded. Unfortunately, the horror story that was my life had returned, and I was living among its pages once again.

“Do you want to go with Thaddeus?” he asked me.

Thaddeus? Davidson? That was who was coming to get me? He was coming to this house? Panic began to bloom, taking place of the sorrow that had set in. He couldn’t come here. They didn’t know who Thaddeus was.

Oh God, I had to do something.

“You’ve gone pale,” Locke said, closing the rest of the space between us. “What did I say that upset you?”

I shook my head. “He can’t.” I tried to steady myself and think.

I needed a plan, but what? “Thaddeus Davidson doesn’t need to come here.

Not to this house. Can you take me to meet him?

No.” I shook my head. Locke could be in danger then.

“Not you, um…someone else. Or, no, just…could you let me take an Uber to meet him?”

Jesus Christ, why had my father sent that man? No, I knew why. Oh God. He was going to have them all killed.

“You’re trembling,” Locke said, pulling me to his chest and wrapping his arms around me.

I wanted to sink into the warmth and pretend that he could protect me, but I knew better. He needed protection, and I was all any of them had.

“I have to go,” I said. “Now.” I pulled away from him. “I’ll call my father and tell him to have Thaddeus meet me somewhere else.” And I’d warn him I would run and he could chase me for eternity if any harm came to these people.

They’d helped me, not knowing who they had brought into their home.

I no longer disliked Linc. He’d been right not to want me here. He had every right to hate me.

“Lace, it’s okay,” he said, reaching out to grab my arm. “Easy. It’s okay if Thaddeus comes here.”

I shook my head. “No, it is not. You don’t know what you’re saying. You don’t know what he is or what he does for my father. I do, and trust me, you want me to leave. Linc was right about me. I’m not safe. I have to go!”

Locke’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Lace,” he said, holding my arm to keep me from running, “what do you know about Thaddeus?”

I wanted to scream at him to let me go. We didn’t have time for this. I had to save him and everyone else.

“Locke, listen to me. You have to let me leave. There is no time for this or an explanation. To protect you, I can’t tell you what you want to know.

But that man isn’t someone who is going to be paying a nice visit to pick me up and leave.

He was sent by my father to clean up the mess I’d made.

And the way he will clean it up…” I swallowed the bile in my throat as tears stung my eyes.

“No one will survive. Please, just let me get out of this house, call my father, and…and y’all need to call the police or something.

Get a security gate. Bolt the windows and doors, buy some ammunition. I don’t know, but protect yourselves.”

He blew out a heavy sigh, but instead of looking scared, like he should, he looked…

as if he thought I was misinformed or crazy and needed to be locked in a padded room and he hated to do it.

They were all going to die, and it would be on my hands.

All my fault. I was a walking curse, just like my father had shouted at me for the first time when I was six years old and continued to tell me every chance he got.

My presence brought darkness and tragedy to those around me.

“Yeah, uh, listen…I don’t have the authority to tell you that you’re wrong and why I know without a doubt that you’re wrong. But I can assure you that Thaddeus isn’t going to do anything to us.”

I would scream at the top of my lungs if I thought it would help. But he wasn’t listening to me. He wasn’t going to believe me.

“You’re wrong,” I said as I choked out a sob.

I’d have to watch it. All these people who had brought me here and helped me…I would have to watch them die.

“Jesus,” he swore, and his hands cupped my face. “Lace, look at me.”

I lifted my eyes to stare up into his, wondering if I’d have to endure watching the light in them go out. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and he brushed them away with his thumbs.

“Fuck it,” he muttered. “You clearly know who and what Thaddeus is.”

I blinked and held my breath. He’d said that as if he, too, knew.

Did he? But how?

“Thaddeus has been in this house many times,” he said, and the air in my lungs seemed to all whoosh out.

“Locke!” Luther’s harsh voice shouted.

I jumped. Locke, however, didn’t move. Simply lifted his eyes to look at Luther.

“She’s having a breakdown. She knows who Thaddeus is—or rather, what he is.”

Luther knew too.

“Did you tell her?” he barked.

“No,” Locke snapped with clear annoyance on his face. “When I told her who was coming, she just flipped out. She thinks we are all going to die.”

“Fuck,” Luther growled. “Let her go.”

Locke’s gaze dropped back to mine, and he gave me a reassuring smile before dropping his hands from my face and stepping back. “You good?” he asked.

I wasn’t sure. What did they think they knew about Thaddeus?

“Depends,” I replied, my voice hoarse.

“Look at me.” Luther’s demand had me turning around instantly to see him standing only a few feet from where I was. He was closer than I had realized. “Tell me who you think Thaddeus is.”

I’d lied to him already, and I wasn’t able to lie about anything more. He didn’t deserve it, and if I told him the truth, then maybe they would take me seriously and let me walk out that door alone.

“I don’t think. I know,” I corrected him. “Thaddeus is the head of the Mafia.” There, I’d said it.

Luther looked…amused. He shook his head and smirked. “Wrong,” he replied.

Just as I feared. They wouldn’t believe me.

“I know who he is. My father has—”

“Thaddeus is the head of the Louisiana branch of the Southern Mafia, sugar. The boss lives in Ocala, Florida.”

I swung my gaze from him to Locke, who nodded his head at me, as if to reinforce what Luther had just said.

They knew about the Mafia in the South? Who were they? What dealings did they have with them? Only bad people worked with them. My father being one.

“How-how do you know about them?” I asked, my eyes locked on Luther now. “They’re dangerous, bad people.”

He rubbed his stubbled chin. “Well, sugar, seems those dangerous, bad people picked you up after you were left to die and nursed you back to health.”

What? I replayed his words in my head, not understanding them. Thaddeus hadn’t done anything to help me.

“Linc is the head of the Mississippi branch. Locke and I were both born into it, our families going back for generations.”