The Secrets We Keep: Secrets and Revelations Book One

by Selina Marie

  “I need you safe. Promise me you’ll stay the fuck away from Robert. He’s alive and he’s dangerous. More than you know.”

  A harsh bang on the door startles me. The person on the other side trying the handle persistently, a song and dance between the thumping on the door and the rattling of the handle, until Lukas marches over, unlocks it and swings it open. I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of the door right now, I’ll say that. His expression is deadly.

  “Oh! I am so sorry Mr. E—” Mrs. Carmichael’s voice pierces straight through to my eardrum, and I swear if she goes one octave higher, there will be a rupture. Her head flicks around the door, her eyes almost bulge out of their sockets when she sees me, still sitting on the side of her bathtub. “Emilia? What are you—I am so sorry—” She smiles apologetically to Lukas as she canters into the bathroom, gently tugging at my arm. I make the mistake of cutting a glance her way and she is shooting serious daggers at me. You would think that I did actually follow through with my striptease I was flippantly toying with earlier.

  “Mrs. Carmichael that won’t be necessary—” Lukas tries to intercept her, but the woman is relentless. I also have no idea what is going through her head either, maybe it’s unbecoming of a woman to be in a bathroom with the man she has been sleeping with. The look of horror and shame on her face suggests that I’ve embarrassed her in some way.

  Curiosity bites at me though; the way the guests react to him is strange—they all look at him in envy and awe like he is royalty, the waiter looked terrified, and then there’s Mrs. Carmichael, who looks like she is going to have a hernia and simultaneously pop an eyeball out of the socket.

  I’m still being hauled out of the bathroom and across the entryway, Mrs. Carmichael’s bony fingers clutching me, when we run into Mel—thank fucking God—and she looks flustered but not in a good way. Her face is pale, and she looks like she is about a minute away from vomiting. Luckily her mom spots her expression at the same time, releasing me from her talons.

  Mrs. Carmichael immediately shifts into little-miss-ecstatic when she notices a couple of the guests taking in Melody who’s pale as a sheet, looking as though she has seen a ghost. Then there’s me, who has just been dragged across the house, and I expect I’m sporting mascara-stained cheeks and panda eyes from all of the crying in the bathroom. It’s safe to say we look a mess, and she is humiliated. Quickly ushering us over to the stairway which leads up to Mel’s room, still grinning ear to ear, she scolds us with her glare and speaks under her breath, “I don’t know what has gotten into you girls, but I think it’s time you go upstairs and take the theatrics with you.” She warns us harshly. The woman is a walking façade, and I honestly don’t understand how Mel puts up with these people even a quarter of the time.

  Unfortunately for her though, they’re her parents.

  Just as we turn to go upstairs, a throat clears next to me and I don’t need to look to know who it is. His breath dances across my face when he whispers in my ear.

  “I asked you to promise me,” he says, waiting for me to reply.

  “I promise, I’ll stay safe.” Lukas exhales as if he has been holding his breath for a long time. His close proximity is dizzying as usual, but when he kisses me tenderly on the temple, I nearly lose my balance.

  Two gasps catch my attention and Mrs. Carmichael literally looks like she is giving birth to an organ, her eyes glance between Lukas and I frantically, and I worry she might pass out from disorientation. Mel’s face though shocks me the most, her eyes are wide, stunned actually, which is not a look she often wears. I can’t place why she looks so astonished though, she knows about Lukas.

  I shrug it off and when we reach her bedroom door, Mel spins me around and screams in my face,

  “What the actual fuck, Em?” She almost looks proud of me and I’m honestly, completely lost on everything that’s going on around me.

  “What is wrong with you? Seriously everyone is acting so fucking weird tonight.” I say, bending down to take my stilettos off, and my feet might as well be singing hallelujah.

  Mel wiggles her eyebrows suggestively,

  “Emilia, when did that happen?! Did you guys just meet tonight?” Mel strips her dress off, standing in her matching red underwear, her hands on her hips waiting for me to spill.

  What I should be spilling exactly… I’m not sure.

  “Okay, now you’re just confusing me, you know about Lukas. You saw Lukas when we went to the club,” I remind her, genuinely concerned about her health.

  “Nooo…. I saw a really hot guy. It was dark. I couldn’t even see much, apart from sharp jawlines and hotness! Are you telling me that this whole time you have been hooking up with Lukas Elin?” Melody screeches, clearly having inherited the unnaturally high-pitched voice from her mother, that’s for sure.

  “Evans, Lukas Evans,” I tell her as I peel myself out of my dress, slipping into a large t-shirt and pajama shorts.

  “No honey, that was Lukas Elin, as in Russian mafia prince, a very well-known bachelor in the US. Well, I guess not anymore.” She winks at me throwing her white, silky nightdress on and jumping into her bed.

  I stand there, frowning and so goddamn confused, my brain honestly cannot take anymore. My stomach tightens into knots and the feeling of betrayal hits me again.

  Is this ever going to end?

  I thought tonight we had reached new territory in our relationship, if you can even call it that.

  Here we go again, another fucking lie.

  Stomping over to the bedside table, I snatch the bottle of Jägermeister we’d been drinking from, twist the lid off and chug.

  “Oh shit…” Mel says, before joining me.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Lukas

  Three hours earlier…

  I’ve been on edge all fucking day after dealing with Alexis. She finally confessed her version of what happened the night Eli was killed. Only after I threatened her that I would take her real identity to the press, outing her and her family’s fake disappearing act. I know there are people—important people—who are in the know about what really happened, being paid to keep their mouths shut, but from the look of horror and dread that smeared across her face, I didn’t think she was very savvy to the details of just how far Andrew Caper went to keep their family’s secret just that, a secret.

  It worked in my favor though, because not only did I have that to threaten her with, but also now that I knew the truth of what happened to my brother, there was no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t hold that over her head too.

  I ordered her to go back to the pathetic, empty and meaningless existence she leads, never to set foot in Penderal Bay again. She was never to speak to Emilia again, and if I so much as heard a whisper that suggested otherwise, then I would obliterate her and her family.

  The black tears that stained her vapid face—leaving white lines, exaggerating how much makeup this girl layered onto her skin—and the dramatic sobbing weren’t nearly good enough for me. The sight of her made me sick, and I had a much more important person to chase, and she was my motivation to get this over with. Usually, I’d like to drag it out a little, but she wasn’t worth anymore of my time, or Emilia’s pain.

  I’d called and texted Nate about fifty fucking times, demanding to know if she was safe after I had asked him to trail her ass back home. It took him almost three hours and I was about losing my goddamn mind. I still had been wringing out information from Alexis about Elijah and couldn’t leave until I knew the truth.

  Alexis and the word "truth" were comical being used in the same sentence. That girl wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked her in the face. My lips quirk up at the memory of Emilia punching Alexis, not only once but twice. I won’t lie and say it didn’t turn me the fuck on, because it did. Watching Emilia in her element, letting her own monster out of the cage was a moment to be cemented into my mind, my soul. She’s always been a badass, but I think she restrains herself, she holds back when I know dee
p down my little firecracker is roaring to get out.

  My mind shifts back to the warehouse, where I got the truth out of Alexis’s poisonous lips.

  In the warehouse…

  It was just us now, Alexis and I. Nate was out stalking my girl making sure she stayed out of trouble. Alexis looked a mess with a gash on her face—self-inflicted I might add.

  When she’d lunged for me, it drove the blade into her flesh on impact alone. I refused to let an ounce of guilt settle in my stomach. I don’t ever relish in the pain of a woman, but for this woman sitting before me, I’ll make a fucking exception.

  “I’ll ask you nicely, Alexis, but believe me, if you don’t tell me what I want to know, nice can turn to nasty just like that—” I snap my fingers demonstrating the speed of which I can go from relatively rational to a savage beast.

  My eyes were trained on her as I watched the energy drain from her body. She must be getting tired now, having barely eaten nor drank anything in the last twenty-four hours. Good. I needed her weak, ready to squawk. I didn’t need all of her sins—just one.

  The night my brother had been killed, Alexis had been with him. I knew that because he’d told me he was seeing her that night. Alexis had already clarified that she had gone out that night to meet a friend, and for me it was solidified. My brother and I had a fucked-up childhood, and we went through a lot of shit but as the years went on, we understood the roles we had to play, being the heirs to the Viktor Elin Empire.

  My brother didn’t lie, he didn’t need to and if he did, I could read it in his eyes. The three of us, Nate, Elijah and I had mastered our masks of indifference and complete and utter lack of emotion down to a tee, but at the end of the day, Eli and Nate were my brothers, and I knew them better than anyone.

  “You can save me the bullshit of pretending you weren’t with him. I know you were together, whoring yourself out, no doubt,” I spat out, my voice full of disgust.

  Her head tipped back so that she was looking up at me through her lashes trying to be seductive.

  “Jealous, Lukas?” She drawled. “You know, you could have me right now. I’m completely at your mercy. Just how you like it, if I remember correctly. All you have to do is spread my legs and take what’s yours. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Emilia.” She smirks as she opens her knees, baring her pussy.

  I scoff, dismissing her advances entirely and when I do, I catch her flinch, it was quick, but I caught it.

  “Aw, did I hurt your feelings, princess?” I laughed, condescendingly, then I nodded toward her open thighs, disgust written across my face. “Let me get one thing straight, that—” I gestured to her open thighs, “will never be mine for the taking, so you can close your legs because there is nothing that I want from you, except to bleed you dry.” Her face turned pale, and I watched as she gulped a swallow. Humiliation clear in her expression and it was a glorious sight.

  “You never did have an ounce of dignity inside your body did you? And that’s where the allure of Alexis Blake is nothing compared to that of a woman like Emilia.” She growled at the mention of her name, enraged once again.

  “I’m guessing from how highly you think of her, she is no longer the pure little Virgin Mary? Well, let me tell you, Lukas, you might have had a taste of her pussy, but that’s the only thing she will give you. Emilia guards her heart too fiercely to let anyone penetrate it, even you. She could even love you with her whole heart, but it would never be enough. All you will ever be to her is a dick for her to bounce on—someone for her to fuck. She’ll never give you her heart.” She twisted the knife in my gut as she spoke.

  “You don’t know shit, Alexis—” I snarled at her, but she cut me off.

  “You forget I know her, Lukas, I lived with the girl her whole life.”

  I kept my mask of coldness securely in place, not exposing the pain that twisted in my stomach, because even though I hated to admit it, she’s right. The relationship—if that’s what it was—between Emilia and I had been turbulent yeah, and even through the times she’s given herself to me, there was still a void of some sort. In the moment it’s wild, passionate and we get completely lost in each other, and although I have kept my fair share of secrets from her, she carries the worst secret.

  The hidden truths of Emilia Blake live imprisoned inside of her heart, her delicate, beautiful heart, soft as rose petals encased in thorns so thick, I don’t even think she would know how to slash through them and beat them down, if she wanted to.

  I lean into her, getting in her face. “Contrary to what you might think, I don’t give a shit about what you think you know. I suggest you shut your fucking mouth about Emilia, if you want to get out of here breathing.” I threatened, my voice malicious, snarling like a rabid animal.

  She shuts her mouth, her lips pressing firmly together, leaning back slightly, trying to create some space between us.

  “I’m not a patient man, Alexis, so I suggest you fucking talk. Now!” My booming voice echoed against the walls making her jump in her seat at the sudden assault on her ears. “And don’t even think about lying to me.” I flipped out the switchblade, just to make my point crystal clear of the consequences. She fidgeted in her chair, her eyes glued to the knife I held between my fingers, her neck retreating as far away as it could.

  I heard her inhale a shaky breath and swallow loudly.

  “We were meeting up to fuck. What else do you want from me? That’s what we did most of the time we hung out,” she said, glancing between the blade and the door.

  “What happened after?” I barked out, my patience thinning. Alexis cleared her throat, her eyes now focused on the ground as if she was about to say something that embarrassed her.

  “I... I wanted to… ask him if I meant anything to him, more than just someone he fucked,” she said quietly, so low I could barely hear her voice.

  I listened, waiting for her to continue.

  When she didn’t speak fast enough for my liking, the edge of my boot hit the chair, jerking her, her eyes snapping to meet mine again.

  “Then what?” I ground my teeth together.

  “He said, more or less, that I was wasting my time trying to get anything out of him. I was just a wet hole for him to stick his dick in and nothing more. He then made a point of letting me know how much he would like to sample my sister, but that she wasn’t a desperate slut like I was,” she said, the jealousy was almost a physical entity, when she spoke of Elijah talking about Emilia.

  “And you didn’t like that did you, the boy that you liked, not wanting you, but your ‘sister’ instead?” I stated sharply.

  “I saw the look in his eyes… I could tell he wouldn’t give up his fascination with Emilia. We were driving down one of the backroads and I decided then that if I couldn’t have him, then no one—especially not Emilia—could have him.” She said satisfied, and the words coming out of her mouth made me growl. Not only because the confession was on the tip of her tongue, but also about how she’s speaking of my brother and my girl having something together, and the thought made me sick to my stomach. My fists clenched so tight, the urge to punch something was deadly.

  “I grabbed the wheel and the car started spinning out, he was yelling at me trying to restrain me and keep control of the car, but I didn’t care about any of it. We ended up rolling I don’t know how many times, but when I woke up after blacking out, he wasn’t next to me in the car. His body had been thrown out of the windshield and I remember the blood around the shards of glass. I got out and went over to him, he was unconscious and there was a lot of blood, but I swear I saw his chest moving. I panicked and ran, knowing that someone was likely to drive by the wreck at one point or another… and he was breathing, he would be fine.”

  I found it hard to keep my breathing steady and not destroy the bitch right there. She fucking left him!

  “You left him to die on the side of the fucking road! Did you even call for help?” I roared, the blood rushing so furiously around my body all I could h
ear was the thumping in my ears. Alexis’s eyes were glassy and vague as if she was reliving the memories all over again. My fingers gripped her chin, yanking her face up to mine, my rage taking over every sense. The vacant look in her eyes gave me my answer. She did nothing to help my brother as he died on the side of the road on some backstreet. I was fighting every instinct to snap her little neck.

  I decided something in that moment though, the moment where I danced on the fine line between being the man I am now; or becoming a man just like my father.

  The bile churning in my stomach at the thought made me shove her back; I took a step back myself and did something I have never done before and will probably never do again. I showed mercy.

  “You will leave. And I swear to fucking God if I even hear the slightest whisper of your name again, I will eradicate you.” She shuddered at the pure unadulterated hatred and promise in my voice. “I am a very resourceful man, Alexis, and it would cost me nothing to destroy you and have everyone know what you did.”

  A look of shock is fixed on her face that I couldn’t stand to look at.

  “You… You’re letting me go?” she asked, carefully.

  “Here’s how it’s going to go. You’re going to get into your car and drive as far away from here, from Emilia and Penderal Bay, hell, you can drive over a fucking cliff for all I care, but we will never hear of or see you again. Understood?” She nodded at my demand and I hope to hell that she isn’t as stupid as her track record suggested. Either way, she’ll be the one to suffer if she steps out of line.

  After I followed her to the edge of town, I broke a few speeding laws to get back to the house so I could talk to Emilia and explain the shit she’d heard.

  I got back and literally upended every room in the place when I couldn’t find her. Anita’s going to be pissed but I couldn’t give a shit.