Lunar Crest University (Forbidden Fruit)

Chapter Forty-One

LUCA

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21ST, 2023

I ’m going to kill that motherfucker.

As I was getting into my car to go sit outside of Finley’s work like I normally do, an explosion bigger than fucking necessary went off inside my house. My house. Up in flames after the windows and the structuring I had spent months building were blown to smithereens. Was he trying to get the entire town of Lunar Crest’s attention? No doubt he had it, with pieces of my house lying in my neighbor’s yards and smoke billowing so high, you could probably see it in goddamn space.

I only came to my house after dropping Finley off for work earlier today because I was trying to fix my blood-stained floors.

Guess they’re fixed now.

Javier didn’t want to kill me; that’s why he waited until I was out of the house and in the confines of my car. No, he wanted to draw attention. He wanted everyone to come rushing over to hold me up until the cavalry arrived to investigate.

I didn’t even give him a millisecond. As soon as I recovered from the initial explosion, the tires were squealing as I backed out of the driveway and gunned it down the street—the pedal pushed all the way to the floor. If he was trying to distract me, that meant he didn’t want me to be there for whatever else he had planned.

Finley .

It’s really hard to fucking drive when you’re blind with anger, but somehow, I manage to get to Celestial Reads without wrapping my car around a tree. It’s dark outside, so I can see into the café perfectly, and I don’t see jack shit.

Flinging open my door, I climb out of the car in a heat of panic and rage, making sure my gun is tucked safely behind me in the waistband of my jeans. The open sign should definitely be switched to closed now, and alarm bells sound off in my head as I pull open the door and step inside.

It’s dead silent.

Finley isn’t standing behind the counter as she normally is, nor is she sweeping or cleaning or anything. There’s no one up front, and even the music usually playing isn’t now as I pull out my gun and point it at the door to the kitchen, tiptoeing quietly.

As I finally push the swinging door open, I see Oscar lying on the ground by the sinks in a pool of crimson liquid.

Fuck. Fuuuck .

Where is she? How did I let this fucking happen? I should’ve never left her here by herself over goddamn floors , but she had insisted. She told me nothing would happen, and if anything did, she’d text me.

Shoving my gun back in my jeans, I rush over to Oscar, kneeling next to his body as I examine him thoroughly. His chest rises and falls just barely, indicating he’s still alive, but there’s a giant stab wound to his chest that’s pouring blood like a fucking water spigot.

“Hey, hey, hey,” I say, patting his cheek gently. “Look at me. Hey. Look at me, sí ? Can you hear what I’m saying?”

Why is Javier leaving all this mess behind? It’s like he’s begging to be caught. His business, his empire—it means too much to him. None of this makes any sense.

The realization of what’s happening to him etches into Oscar’s face, his hand coming to hover over his wound as his eyebrows knit. He has lost too much blood, and his skin is pale—an ambulance would never get here in time, and there isn’t anything I can do for him now. The fear is evident in his dark eyes.

“Don’t touch it,” I tell him, grasping his hand as I lower my face even closer to his. I need him to focus on me. “What happened? Do you remember what happened?”

“I-I’m dying.”

“I know,” I whisper, and I squeeze his hand tighter. “I know, but you have to listen to me. I need you to tell me what happened. Where is Finley? Do you know where she is?”

Oscar’s eyes grow wider, and he starts to breathe heavily as he grips my shirt with his other hand. “She…she was up front. These men attacked me when I was t-taking out the…the trash. Stabbed me.”

They took her.

It’s what I already knew, but that doesn’t make it any easier to digest. They took my fucking girl. The thought is enough to make me want to embark on a murderous rampage and bathe in the blood of every single man associated with Javier. When I get my hands on that motherfuc?—

“They took her,” Oscar groans, “didn’t they?”

I grit my teeth so hard, pain soars through my jaw.

He moans. “We have to call the police.”

A growl rumbles through my chest, and I press the back of my hand to my lips, but it bursts out anyway. Standing, I swing my foot toward the nearest object, kicking over and over and over again until my chest is heaving with pants.

“We can’t call the police.” I swallow thickly. “If you call the police, they will kill her. Do you understand? If you tell anyone what happened here, Finley is dead .”

“But—”

“Listen. To. Me.” Crouching down next to him again, I shake my head faintly as I meet the devastated look in his eyes. “The police can’t help her, just like an ambulance can’t help you.”

“S-someone has to help her.”

“I’ll take care of it,” I say.

He frowns unsteadily up at me. “How?”

“I’m going to go get her.”

“You?” He sounds skeptical. “Against all those men?”

Of course, he’s skeptical. Normal people like Oscar can’t fathom the possibility of one man going up against a dozen. More than that, but he doesn’t understand. He also doesn’t understand that he’s spending his last moments with a man who has taken on six people at one time. A murderer. A man responsible for all this.

“Yes, me,” I reiterate as I pull myself to stand once more.

Oscar frantically grabs my ankle. “Don’t l-let anything happen…to her.”

There’s a glassy gleam in his eyes, and I know Finley is going to hate this. She’s going to be heartbroken. His death will hurt her in more ways than I can understand, and because of that, I kneel with him again, and I stay there.

She’d want me to stay with him in his last moments.

“She has to b-be okay,” he mumbles. “You make sure…she’s okay. Whatever you have to do.”

“She’ll be okay.” His eyes flutter as I speak, almost in relief at my words. “I promise you. She’ll be okay.”

She has to be okay. If anything happens to her, I will kill everyone, literally every person in my path until I’m physically unable to keep going.

Oscar’s eyes eventually close, and his bobbing chest stills. His hand resting on his chest falls to his side into the pool of blood underneath his body. It’s a shitty way to leave someone, especially someone who didn’t deserve this, but I have to go.

Two hundred and five.

I may not have killed him, but I’m the reason he’s dead.