The hatch…
**Lucas’s POV**
Right after the whole thing with Ashley presenting ample evidence against Veronica, although it was hard for us, Simon and I just had to keep to ourselves. Well, at least until we had finally achieved what we wanted, which was actually pretty close to our reach at that point. I never liked Veronica from the start, but this was something I could never see myself believing she committed. It now makes me wonder if she really was the one who killed Mortica as well.
As I sat on my bed thinking about all these things, I could feel a knot forming in my head, and I ruffled my hair as I tried relieving myself of the headache. As it stands now, we currently have all the top perpetrators in our custody back at the torture house, and the one person we needed to find is that slimy Fabian. Just as I had mentioned to Ashley a while back, we needed to keep things on the low so that we would easily be able to use Veronica to get to him. After all, the reports we had been getting since we started tapping into her phone have shown that she had visited him on several occasions over the years. A lot. Now, following up with all the reports, we have been able to gather a lot to assist with our plans.
A knock came on the door, and I urged whoever it was to come in. I looked up as soon as the door opened, and it was my beta, Damien.
“Oh, Damien, come on in,” I said, as I looked at the brown envelope in his hands.
“Greetings, Your Highness. I trust you are having a good day?”
“Not really, I’m having a slight headache, but I guess it’ll go away soon.”
“Oh.”
“What do you have there with you?” I asked, pointing at the envelope in his hand, and he handed it over to me.
“These are just more information from the Queen’s phone.”
“Oh, thank you,” I responded, as I opened it up and took out the papers inside. The more I discovered while reading, the more disturbed I felt. From the content of what she had been discussing, it was pretty obvious that something seemed to be going on between Veronica and Lyon. For one, he sounds as if he’s romantically interested in her, and then they are discussing the fact that Ashley was made to take her position. All in all, everything from their texts seemed very suspicious, and I knew Simon and I would have to look into it. Turning over to the next paper, I was surprised to see some of the extracted conversations between Veronica and her mother.
“So this woman has even been the one influencing and encouraging her daughter to do all this!” I exclaimed as I continued reading through the diabolical plans that were hatched between mother and daughter. The last few papers contained random conversations between her and Fabian six years ago. Looking at some of the things she had agreed to give to him, I could now trace the source of some of the issues we went through at that time. At this point, my blood was already boiling because I remembered just how well she had managed to paint herself back then. Not only did we trust her not to do such a thing, but we even handed over a couple of these issues for her to take care of because she had seemed to be the only one on our side well enough to handle them. I remained in silence for a while as I tried containing the anger in me so that my wolf would not act out impulsively.
“Is everything okay, Your Highness?” I heard Damien’s voice break the silence, and all I could do was nod in response.
“It’s fine. I… You know what, has Simon gotten these?”
“Yes, Beta Asher already sent his copy to him. The thing is that we always make two copies so that you each have these papers to reference at any time.”
“Oh, all right then. Thank you.”
“Is there anything you’d like me to do for you, Your Highness?”
“No, I don’t think there’s anything. Just make sure to alert me the moment anything happens, that’s all. You may take your leave now.” He got up and bowed in respect before leaving the room. As soon as I finally heard the door click shut, I let out a deep breath as I started thinking about what to do.
“Lyon, Lyon!” I mumbled softly as I increased my grip on the papers. I had gotten feedback from the guards a while ago about him being the only driver she had started using to go out, and this preference came all of a sudden. However, Simon and I didn’t think much about it because it is pretty normal to have a particular driver you prefer over the others. Now that I had gotten a bit of insight into what they really discussed and how they had been relating on a much more intriguing level, we will definitely have to apprehend him.
I tried to mind-link with Simon, but from the looks of things, he seemed to be unavailable, which made me wonder what was really going on.
“What could he possibly be doing right now?” I thought aloud, as I got up and immediately made my way towards his bedroom. When I got there, the room was completely empty, which made me more curious about what was going on. This time, I persisted with the mind-link, and I didn’t stop until he finally responded.
“What the heck, bro? Why are you being so persistent?”
“What do you mean? I tried reaching you, but you didn’t even respond.”
“What is it?”
“We need to discuss something important. Where are you?”
“Oh, um, I’m in the middle of something right now.”
“Okay, but still, where are you? You sound different. Tell me where the heck you are before I sniff you out,” I threatened, and he chuckled.
“Or what?”
“SIMON!!!”
“Oh my gosh, fine! I’m in the hatch.”
“Wait, what? What are you doing there?”
“Why don’t you come find out for yourself? I’m in the middle of something, so hurry if you’re really this invested,” he said finally, before disconnecting the mind-call. We only used the hatch to interrogate people or entertain some of our partners and collaborators in the underworld. Being part of the Mafia required a high level of secrecy, and so the majority of our meetings with partners were often handled in the hatch, which no one else in the mansion was aware of. This made me wonder even more who he could possibly be with in there.
Very quickly, I made my way towards the hatch, moving with all slyness and secrecy as usual. As I got closer to the place, I could hear the sound of hitched breathing. From the sounds of things, Simon definitely wasn’t having a mutual conversation with whoever was in there with him. Rather, it seemed like the person was probably even being tortured by him. I walked in slowly but steadily, and I immediately took on my wolf’s sight as the room was extremely dark. The only source of light was in the middle, where I could see the back view of Simon standing in front of someone who was sitting on a chair. What was really going on?
“Simon, what is going on here?” I asked as soon as I got close, and he moved aside to reveal the face of none other than Lyon. I was a bit surprised seeing him, but for Simon to do this, it meant it was definitely something logical and for our benefit.
“I’m sure your beta has already brought the papers that pertain to this little mutt,” he started, and I folded my arms as I looked towards the exhausted Lyon tied to the chair.
“Your Highness, please, I promise, I know nothing about this,” he cried out, and Simon slapped him right across the face.
“If you let out one more lie from that dirty mouth of yours, trust me, I won’t hesitate to send you straight to the torture house. Believe me, you would definitely hate it there,” he threatened, and I let out a light chuckle.
“Is this really what you have been going through?” I asked, not specifying who I was directing the question to exactly.
“Yes, yes, Your Highness! I know you are not the type to do injustice to anyone. Please help me explain to His Highness Simon that I really don’t know anything about this. You know me.”
“Hmm, I see,” I said, slowly walking towards him. A weak smile appeared on his face the moment he noticed I bent down to get closer to him.
“So, you’re innocent?”
“Yes! Yes, I am.”
“Hmm, I see,” I responded, and he wiggled around desperately.
“Yes, I knew you’d answer me, Your Highness. Please set me free. I really don’t know anything about Queen Veronica.”
“Yeah, you mentioned.”
“Yes, I…” Before he could complete his statement, I used my claws to pierce through his thigh as deep as I could. He yelped out in pain, crying at the top of his lungs, but it only sounded like music to my ears.
“Now listen to me closely,” I began, leaving my claws still embedded in his thigh. “We have enough evidence against you on this matter, so I’d really suggest you don’t lie anymore. Because you see, my brother and I despise lies with every fiber of our being. If you’re keeping the truth to yourself just to save Veronica because of the silly feelings you have for her, take my advice and just let it go before you lose your life for someone who gives absolutely no thought to you.” I moved my claws around while still inside his thigh, and he cried out from the sharp pain.
“We have copies of the conversations between you two, and if I were you, I’d start talking. We are not going to repeat ourselves anymore, so the ball is in your court now. You can either choose your life or your silence, which would obviously lead you straight to meet your ancestors,” I said finally, removing just one finger from his thigh and allowing the pain to sink deep into him.
“Okay! Okay, I’m going to talk now,” he cried out, and I let out a smirk, urging him to continue.
“So, I don’t really know much about Queen Veronica, but when I first started driving for her, I didn’t hide the fact that I was really in love with her. She didn’t look my way at all, and I wasn’t so vocal about it because I knew she would never want to go for an ordinary driver like me,” he paused for a moment, wincing in pain as I removed yet another finger.
“Go on. The more you reveal, the more fingers I’ll remove,” I said plainly, and he continued.
“One particular day, she came to me and asked me to take her out. Even though I kept asking where we were going, she never specified. She only mentioned that she would be directing me as we drove. I didn’t ask any more questions and just followed her instructions. We drove for a long while until we reached a place called Reign Fields.”
“Reign Fields?” I echoed, exchanging a glance with Simon.
“Yes, that’s it,” he confirmed quickly.
“Hmm, and what happened next?”
“When we got there, she told me to wait by the car while she went somewhere around the area to meet someone. I tried persuading her to let me come along, but she refused, saying that the person she was meeting didn’t allow contact with men and couldn’t have them in the vicinity. I didn’t want to disobey her, so I stayed behind and waited until she returned. That’s all I know.”
“Hmmm, so she went to meet someone,” Simon mused, stepping closer, scrutinizing Lyon’s face.