Chapter 8: Blood & Revelations
The gunshot cracked through the night.
Kimberly didn’t flinch—but Lucian moved like lightning, shoving her aside as the bullet grazed his shoulder. Valerie’s triumphant smirk faltered when he laughed, dark and low.
“Missed.” He fired back.
Valerie screamed, collapsing as the shot shattered her kneecap. The gun skidded across the dock toward Kimberly.
Silence.
Then—slow, mocking applause from the shadows.
“Bravo.” Declan stepped into the moonlight, a revolver pressed to the temple of a bound, gagged man—Charles Whitmore, Kimberly’s lawyer. “But the real show’s just starting.”
Kimberly’s blood ran cold. “Let him go.”
Declan ignored her, his gaze locked on Lucian. “Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize you, Alexander?”
The name hit like a blade.
Lucian—Alexander—went rigid.
Kimberly’s breath caught. “…What?”
Valerie whimpered through her pain, grinning madly. “Oh, you didn’t know? Your savior is the exiled Howard heir. The one Declan paid to disappear after your mother’s ‘accident’.”
Lucian’s voice was steel. “I came back to burn you both.”
Declan cocked the hammer. “Then watch your last ally die first.”