Lucius (Luna Lodge #3) by Madison Stevens Page B

necessary,” Lucius said. “She’ll be staying with me.”
    “Like hell I will!”
    Hannah ripped free of his arms and stood. Her eyes landed on the dead hybrid attacker as they zipped up a body bag, and her stomach lurched forward. She swallowed hard and turned to look at the two men.
    “Somebody want to tell me what’s going on here?” Lucius and Titus looked at each other.
    Titus spoke first.
    “Who had access to your keys besides you?” Titus said. He stepped forward and stared hard at her.
    Hannah thought. No one. She was the only one who had access.
    “Who lives with you Hannah?” Titus said after some time.
    Her eyes snapped up to his and then over to Lucius, who refused to meet her look.
    “Rachel wouldn’t,” Hannah said in shock. “There’s no way. She’d have no reason.”
    “You aren’t thinking about things clearly,” he said firmly. “There’s no one else it could be.”
    Hannah shook her head hard. “You’re wrong.”
    Lucius stepped forward and tried to comfort her, but the idea of his hands on her now chilled her.
    “You’re both wrong,” she nearly sobbed. Her heart ached for the betrayal poor Rachel was suffering. “You’re so busy with your head shoved up your asses, you can’t even see that you’re playing into whatever game this is.” She shook as she spoke and tears leaked from her eyes. “Well, to hell with all of you.”
    Without bothering to look, she raced from the room and into the evening air.
     
    Lucius nodded for one of the men to follow after her. The sounds of her sobs sliced through him and cut him to the core.
    “Do you think she’ll forgive you?” Titus said quietly to him.
    Lucius scrubbed a hand across his face and shrugged.
    “Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not after we get to her house. I don’t see what choice we have though.”
    Lucius turned to look at Titus. It wasn’t often they operated like this, but Romulus was better than they ever expected with his knocking out parts of the grid, use of scent blockers and even infiltration so none of them ever truly knew who could be trusted. It was all well planned. If they weren’t careful, Romulus was going to be beating down their doors before they even got their pants up.
    Admittedly, he hadn’t been thrilled with the plan to implicate Rachel as a potential traitor who might be recruiting material for the Horatius Group, even if it was part of an effort to smoke out Romulus and his men. Lucius and Marius had been the ones to fight it for the most for obvious reasons. Now whether those reasons were because of the way Rachel would be treated or because he would be put on guard duty was anyone’s guess. Kate and Erica hadn’t liked the idea, but thought it the best plan. That just left him, and no other plans came to mind.
    In truth, the only one that really seemed to think it was a good idea was Rachel, knowing that Hannah was in danger and she could do something to help. She was the first to suggest the plan and the best at hiding it.
    “Now the real question in all of this is why is Hannah being targeted?” Titus asked quietly.
    “Are you sure you didn’t…” Titus trailed off and raised a brow.
    Lucius snorted. “Think I’d know if we had.”
    “So why her then?” he asked. “Family connections?”
    Lucius shook his head and thought of what Hannah had told him. “Doubtful.”
    “Do you think she’s one of them?”
    “I have to ask,” he said quietly.
    Lucius glared at him, a deep rumble filled the room. “No, you don’t.”
    The two men stared at each other for a moment, not daring to give in on either side.
    “You’re right, but we need to figure this out. He had the opportunity to come for one of the babies and didn’t. What is it about her?”
    Something snapped in Lucius. They were after her and no matter what, he was going to protect her.
    Titus gave a short nod. “You should go to her. We’ll work this out later.”
    Lucius sighed and nodded before hurrying after her.