Chapter 3 - The Midnight Walk
The heavy knock on the suite door sounded at 11:45 PM.
“Honey?” Lucas’s voice drifted through the wood, smooth, affectionate, and dripping with sickeningly sweet concern. “Are you awake? The night air is supposed to clear your head. Come on up to the aft deck with me. The storm’s rolling in, and the stars look incredible right before the rain.”
I took a slow, deep breath, pinched my cheeks to bring some color back into my pale skin, and let my shoulders slump. I opened the door just enough for him to see me swaying slightly on my feet, acting as though the sedative had completely paralyzed my resistance.
“Lucas...” I murmured, my voice slurring just enough to sell the lie. “I’m so dizzy... my head is spinning.”
“I know, sweetheart,” he said, flashing that dazzling, predatory smile that had fooled me into walking down the aisle three weeks ago. He slipped his arm around my waist, his grip firm, possessive, and suffocating. “Just lean on me. Fresh air will fix everything.”
He guided me out of the suite, down the dim corridor, and up the exterior spiral staircase leading to the isolated aft deck.
The wind had picked up dramatically. The sky overhead was an ink-black void, churning with heavy, bruised grey clouds that promised a violent squall within minutes. The ocean below rose and fell in massive, dark swells, hissing against the hull of the yacht.
No crew members were in sight. The lower deck doors were bolted shut against the approaching storm.
We were completely alone.
“Isn’t it peaceful, Claire?” Lucas murmured, leading me toward the open railing at the stern of the yacht. The safety barrier here was waist-high chrome, directly overlooking the foaming white wake churned up by the ship’s massive propellers.
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“Lucas... it’s so cold out here,” I whispered, letting my knees buckle just enough to make him do the work of holding me up.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered into my ear, his smile vanishing as his hands shifted from my waist to my shoulders, his fingers digging in with sudden, vicious strength. “You won’t be cold for long.”
