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If my escape wasn’t important, I would have taken time to admire the splendor of the room, but getting out of that mansion was of utmost priority. The door that most likely led outside was just a few feet away, and all I had to do was reach it, open it, and slip out.

“I hope you are coming to find me,” Lucas’s voice stopped me dead in my tracks. I looked up and realized he must have spotted me when I stepped into the living room.

“Fuck off,” I muttered under my breath as Lucas stepped down from the lounge. I watched his approach with hatred. This man had kidnapped me and was most likely going to keep me a prisoner in his home unless I managed to escape.

“Trust me, I would love nothing more than to throw you out of my home, but not without getting what I want from you,” he told me.

“Then you might as well settle down for a long ride because I don’t have anything to tell you,” I told him.

The look in his eyes was cold, and I felt cold climb up my spine. For a brief moment, I thought he was going to kill me. “Trust me, you don’t have an idea exactly what you are dealing with, and maybe I should show you.” He was uncomfortably standing close to me, and I realized how tall he was. I could perceive his cologne, and I had to admit that it smelled quite nice.

Focus, Elena. Now’s not the time to admire the man’s cologne.

“Lucas?”

We both looked in the direction the voice had come from. A young girl, probably in her early twenties, was standing right at the door, a mixture of confusion and fear written all over her face. I noticed how Lucas's eyes narrowed just at the sight of her.

“What do you want, Linda?”

“Who is she?” The young lady asked as she moved toward him.

There was a slight resemblance between both of them. She had high cheekbones like Lucas, sandy-brown hair, but her eyes were blue, unlike Lucas’s gray. She had the same nose as him, and I guessed this must be Linda Cruz, the princess of the Cruz empire.

“A friend of mine,” Lucas said in a dismissive tone.

“I didn’t know you had a female friend,” Linda said. She had made her way toward us, and I used that opportunity to step back from Lucas, who had taken a cold stance. I could tell that he didn’t have that much of a loving relationship with his half-sister, which wasn’t entirely a surprise.

“There are many things you don’t know about me, Linda,” Lucas told her, his voice betraying his irritation.

“Come on, that’s no way to speak to your sister,” I suddenly interrupted.

Both Lucas and Linda looked at me, surprise written on Lucas's face and a hint of amusement on Linda’s face.

“I see why you’re friends with my brother,” Linda said with a smile. “Come and tell me how you both met.”

One second, she was standing a few feet away. The next, she was guiding me to a chair. Linda seemed like the happy and friendly type, but it could just be a ruse to disarm me. Taking any member of the Lucas family at face value would be synonymous with going to sleep with a rattlesnake right under your pillow.

“She’s a bit tired, Linda,” Lucas said.

“I’m not going to stress her that much. I just want to listen to your friendship,” Linda insisted.

“Damn it! She doesn’t have time for that!” Lucas yelled right before he placed his hand on my shoulder.

Almost instantly, Linda paled. She let go of my hand, and I realized she had been shocked by her brother’s yell. Anger rose within me as I realized that I hated Lucas Cruz for shouting at his sister. Even if this was some sort of ruse to get me to talk, there was no need for him to yell at her that way.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re an asshole?” I asked him.

“What did you say?” Lucas took a menacing stand, but I wasn’t going to let him bully me like he just bullied his sister.

“Honestly, you are an asshole and a bully,” I pointed a finger at him before I held Linda’s hand. “You can go do whatever you want to do because Linda and I are going to have a talk, and you can’t stop us.”

That was a rather stupid move, and I can imagine how Lucas would react to me speaking to him that way in front of his sister. Strangely, he simply stared at me, causing a sense of dread to run through my stomach. I had made a very huge mistake speaking that way to him.

“Fine, then. You can speak to each other as much as you want,” Lucas said as he stepped toward me. “But once you are done, you better be ready to tell me what I want to hear.”

With that, he walked away, and I let out the breath I never knew I was holding. Lucas Cruz was a very dangerous man, and I had just annoyed the hell out of him.

CHAPTER 8: LUCAS