Destruction Read online

David felt the cold settle inside once more, a chilling numbness that left him with only the clarity of his well-honed hate. It felt good. “Well, sometimes revenge is worth the graves we have to dig.”

  “Then, for your father’s sake, I hope one of them isn’t yours.” Harry didn’t even turn around this time, he just walked up the stairs.

  David stood listening to his footsteps ringing out on the metal, bouncing off all the concrete until the door to the first floor opened and shut. The man’s words hung around though, floating in the air, simmering… but none of it mattered. The plan was the plan, and it had been years in the making. There were too many promises, too many deaths wrapped up in the shit already, and even if one of the graves ended up being his, it wouldn’t matter.

  Revenge was all he had left anyway.

  Chapter Three

  Lianna

  “No, I’m not in Vail. Dad had to go on a trip for the company so we’re going to reschedule.”

  “Did you want to go out with us then? Mark and Tiffany wanted to hit up this new club called The Green Spot downtown. It’s supposed to be awesome.” Denise sounded hopeful, but as Lianna looked down at her pajamas, she already knew her answer.

  “It’s okay, I’m already in for the night. You guys have fun.”

  “Come on, Li, you never go out anymore. Just come party with us, get drunk, do something stupid and irresponsible for a change.”

  “Tempting…” She laughed and took another sip of her wine. “But I’m already halfway through a bottle of chardonnay so I think I should just hang out here tonight.”

  “Are you working?”

  “Not anymore, I promise.” Lianna found herself smiling as she leaned against the counter, cheek pressed to the phone to hold it against her shoulder so she could scrape the last of the food off her plate and into the trash.

  “Then fuck it, just come out with us. Call a car and meet us there, I can give you the address and—”

  “Denise…” Dropping her plate in the sink, Lianna groaned and headed back to the table.

  “Just do it, Li! If he’s out of town there’s no reason for you to be sitting at home alone. I can swing by and grab you if I have to!”

  “I’m at my dad’s place tonight and, really, it’s okay. You guys go have fun.”

  “You’re supposed to be my wingman, remember? Tiffany and Mark are always all over each other. I’ll basically be alone. I might even go home with some loser, all because you’re at home drinking wine and secretly working.”

  “Am not.” Lianna pulled back from the email on her laptop and clapped the thing shut like she’d been caught red-handed.

  “Liar,” Denise hissed, a clear laugh in her voice. “Whatever, if you want to be lame, go ahead and be lame. I’m going out. If you want to join in then text me later and I’ll tell you where we are. Mark has a yacht and you could be waking up on the ocean tomorrow morning instead of alone in your father’s house.”

  “Don’t be a bitch.”

  “Not being a bitch, just being honest.” Her friend let out a breath and then sounded a little more serious. “Did I mention Mark has a full staff on his yacht? A personal chef and a butler and everything?”

  “That sounds over the top.”

  “Your dad owns a private plane and a yacht.”

  Actually, two yachts, but that’s not the point. “I’m still not going out tonight, Denise. I’ve got wine, and television, and pajamas. I’m just going to relax after working all week, okay?”

  “Like you need to work,” she muttered.

  “You should try it sometime.”

  “Why?” Denise laughed, and Lianna just shook her head.

  “Remind me again why you went to NYU with me?”

  “Because the guys were cute and I could shop when I wasn’t in class?” Another loud laugh from Denise. “Oh! That’s Tiffany calling on the other line, if you decide not to suck later text me so I can order you to get your ass out of pajamas and join us.”

  “Sure, have fun.” The call cut off before she even had the chance to pull the phone away to look at it. On the screen the little red notification dot glared, taunting her with the voicemail her father had left when she’d refused his call.

  Part of her craved to hear what it said, and the other part wanted to ignore him like he had ignored her, but after a moment she opened it anyway. His voice came over the line just as she took another sip of wine.

  “Hi, princess. I know I’ve upset you by not bringing you with me for this meeting and I never meant to. This is just a different side of the business and it needed to be handled quickly. I would much rather be skiing with you this weekend than dealing with this, and I promise I will make it up to you, but I do hope you made some plans to replace ours. I’ve got some good news, I received confirmation that our acquisition of the company in Argentina may be progressing which means our next trip could be down there. Business before fun, but the country is beautiful and we could find something to do. I have to go now, princess, but I will be home soon.”

  She’d started smiling before the voicemail was even half over, and she chided herself for already thinking about forgiving him — but the fact that he’d called and understood why she’d been upset was nice. The fact that he was already planning to bring her with him on his next work trip was even better. Maybe he was finally starting to get it… which meant he might actually fix it.

  And that meant that her France based escape hatch wasn’t necessary. Yet.

  The Sotheby’s job shouldn’t even be tempting her at all, she’d worked too hard to be where she was in the company. Too many hours invested to throw it all away. She just needed to get a better balance in her life so that the company wasn’t everything. Her whole vacation day had been wasted working, but tomorrow she could go to her apartment and relax. If she left her laptop here she wouldn’t even be able to work — and maybe Denise and some others would meet her for brunch. Or she could see if any of her old art history friends would like to visit the MOMA or the Met. There were options to fill her time that didn’t involve working constantly, or abandoning everything to move to Lyon.

  A happy median.

  A social life and the job at her father’s company.

  Both of them could be happy, and the world wouldn’t end.

  Lianna stretched as she walked back to the living room, the buzzing voices of the television keeping her company in the empty apartment as she settled onto the couch. The shining white tile reflected the images moving across the screen where some sappy sweet romance movie had started while she’d been finishing dinner.

  No thanks.

  Click. Cooking show. Click. Reality show. Click. Commercial. Click. Dad?

  The volume was too low to understand the chipper looking woman on the screen, but she turned it up fast. “…to attend. Corporate magnate Robert Mercier is showing his softer side this week as he opens the Mercier Shelter for Women. While Mr. Mercier is well known for his contributions in the business world, he’s not often caught in the public eye, but he appeared today with his daughter Lianna as they cut the ribbon to open this…” The voice on the screen faded in her ears as she watched the flashes of images. Her father cutting the ribbon, smiling and waving at the cameras, all blond hair and dimples — the perfect CEO. Then they were both waving, his arm around her waist — a picture perfect father and daughter.

  Her voice came over the surround sound speakers and she cringed, hating herself for agreeing to that damn interview. “My father just wanted to do something to honor my mother’s legacy. I’m really just, um, glad to be here for it. It’s nice.”

  Nice? You’re such a fucking idiot.

  The news mercifully switched back to her father, his vibrant voice filling the room for a minute as he walked the camera crew through a tour. The one and only Robert Mercier, practically perfect in every way.

  Perfectly poised, perfectly dressed, and perfectly happy as a workaholic.

  And she was turning out just like him, min
us the poise.

  As Lianna sulked, promising herself she’d do something fun tomorrow, the reporter appeared in the frame again. “The facility is set to open in the next few weeks, and according to Mr. Mercier’s representatives they are already in active communication with support organizations throughout the city. We can only hope others follow in his footsteps. Back to you, Tom!”

  When the news anchors took over she slid the volume down a little and sighed. Waking her phone, the display revealed 9:17 in bright numbers, and she contemplated calling him back — but if he was in Europe it would be the middle of the night. And, regardless, she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to say yet. He was a good man, a great businessman, someone who gave back to the world in so many ways, and it still felt selfish to want him all to herself just because he was her dad.

  But she did, at least for one fucking weekend.

  Lying back on the couch, she tilted the wine glass back and forth, watching the pale chardonnay blur the skyline outside the floor to ceiling windows. The night sky was a black hole above the city, not a star in sight with all the light pollution.

  There are probably stars visible above Lyon.

  Muttering under her breath, she didn’t understand why she kept thinking about the job. It wasn’t like they’d even offered it to her; they’d just been open to a conversation. Sotheby’s hadn’t even mentioned an interview in the email — but the idea wouldn’t go away.

  Being the daughter, and thus the charmed employee, of the head of Mercier Systems had a lot of benefits, a lot of benefits that she couldn’t just ignore to pursue some random dream she’d had in college. But everything about working for her father came with a lot of strings. Threads of obligation, of responsibility, of being grateful that were hard to explain to other people.

  Fuck, it was hard to explain to herself, much less her dad, which was another good reason to wait to call him back. Lianna groaned and lifted the wineglass. Empty. With a sigh, she pushed herself off the couch and wandered back into the kitchen to refill. The stack of papers she’d laid out lurked underneath her laptop on the dining table, tempting her to just bury herself in work again.

  Damn it all.

  “Let’s just drink until we fall asleep. How does that sound, Lianna?” Talking to herself, she grabbed the whole bottle of wine and headed back to the couch. Glass refilled, cold and biting as she swallowed, she zoned out on the newscast. Something about a shooting, police investigating, blah blah blah. So much chaos in the world, so many angry people, and she was complaining about being wealthy with a six-figure salary working in one of the largest companies on the East Coast?

  “Fuck. Enough. We need something mindless. No more working, no more thinking tonight.”

  Leaning forward she set her wine down and grabbed the remote, flipping through until she found a movie and turned up the volume. It was a horror movie, complete with a soundtrack of taut strings that gave an atmosphere of tension to the scantily clad woman walking across the lawn in front of a house. As if anyone wore strategically attractive lingerie to bed? It was stupid, but mindlessly entertaining.

  Perfect.

  Smiling to herself, Lianna leaned back and watched the stereotypical chase scene. Slow-moving killer, co-ed running at full speed who somehow still got caught. None of it even remotely made sense, which made it more funny than scary. Still, a shiver rushed over her, sending goose bumps across her skin as the murderer leapt out and the music peaked.

  Turning to reach for the throw on the back of the couch, she caught a dark shape in her vision, too close, and then the sharp pull of someone’s fist in her hair made her gasp. Panic flooded her with an overdose of adrenaline and she kicked out, her foot colliding painfully with the coffee table, just as screams echoed across the surround sound. Her struggles sent her wine crashing to the floor, and an instant later she was hauled over the back of the couch. Lianna landed hard on the tile, but with the adrenaline rushing through her veins she made it up onto her knees, planning to run like the stupid girl in the movie, when the hand returned to her hair. Air hissed between her teeth, a whimper rising up as the man tightened his grip and then forced her flat. A knee between her shoulder blades pinned her painfully against the cold tile.

  “Let me go!” she shouted as soon as she caught a breath, her voice breaking, but there was no one to hear her in the empty building. It was a Friday night and the murder playing out on the speakers was louder than she was.

  No one is coming. Fight.

  Reaching back, she dug her nails into gloved hands, trying in vain to tear his grip free. A growl rumbled above her just before he cracked her forehead against the floor. Pain flashed like a firework behind her eyes, turning her stomach while she tried to protect her face. Her ears were ringing, and for a moment she was so stunned that she didn’t notice the jerking motions at her waist until she felt the cool tile on her lower belly.

  Oh God, he was taking off her pants.

  “NO!” Lianna tried to push up, but he moved and dropped his knee into her back again, crushing her until her ribs creaked. He was so heavy, too strong, and her fingers slid over the smooth tile finding no traction. Tears blurred her eyes as she whimpered, the sensation of his gloves brushing her thighs as he pushed the soft pajamas down making his motives all too clear. When he grabbed for her ankle to pull off the pants, she kicked her legs, and his knee dug harder into her back, pain radiating up her spine as it became almost impossible to breathe.

  “You want to fight me?” The rough voice preceded a hard spank across her ass, and then there was another, and another. Merciless, hot, and stinging. “Go on then. Let’s see what you can do. Try and run, whore.”

  With a sharp tug, her pants were removed, and then she was free. Lianna ripped air into her lungs, her ribs aching as she eased up onto her elbows. When he didn’t grab for her again, she lunged forward, scrambling to her feet to run for the security system by the front door.

  Panic button.

  She needed to hit the panic button so someone would come. So someone would know what was happening. Two minutes for building security, six-minute response time for police. She could survive two minutes.

  Wait, why hadn’t it gone off?

  The red light was blinking on the front of the security panel, glowing confidently as if it were still armed, and she was barely five feet away when the full weight of the man slammed into her from behind. The hard hit sent them both to the floor, bruising her knees as she caught herself on her hands.

  No!

  His arm wrapped across her throat, blood pounding behind her eyes as he began dragging her backwards — away from the panic button, away from the front door, away from escape. “That was pathetic,” he hissed against her ear. “Spoiled little cunt.”

  She couldn’t breathe, her lungs burning as she tried to claw at him, but his long sleeves were tucked into the gloves. Fight, dammit! She had to fight. She wasn’t going to die like the idiot girl in the movie. Reaching behind out of desperation, she went for his eyes. Stiff cloth. A mask. Before she could find the eyeholes he yanked his head back, and his grip on her throat tightened further, an oppressive blackness creeping in from the edges of her vision, her hearing fading like she was moving down a long tunnel.

  No. No. No. No.

  He twisted her suddenly and she found herself bent over the back of the couch. For a moment she didn’t even care as air returned to her once again, her lungs starving for it, but then his knees were spreading her thighs. Lianna choked on her first attempt to speak, reaching back to try and push him away. “Stop! Don’t! Please, don’t,” she begged hoarsely as she tried to bring her legs together.

  “Shut up, or I’m going to cut you.” The harsh voice came again, and she froze as she felt the sharp metal of a knife trace over her waist. Shivers made her muscles jump involuntarily, fear plucking away inside as the slow scratch of the blade kept her still. With a nudge, he spread her further.

  “I—”

  “I said shut
up.” There was a tug at the edge of her underwear, his fingers stretching the fabric, and then the tension gave way as he cut them off her. Tears burned her eyes, her heart still racing as she tried to catch her breath.

  “Don’t do this, you don’t have to do this.” A hard jerk on her hair silenced her, and then she heard the sound of his zipper. “Please,” she whimpered the word, body shaking as he shuffled clothing behind her. Light from the television played across the floor, and she lifted her eyes to the new scene. Bright sunlight, a group of beautiful young characters talking with concerned looks on their faces, but she couldn’t focus on the dialogue filtering through the surround sound.

  He was behind her, between her legs, holding her in place, and she knew what was coming.

  The first swipe of his fingers along her pussy made her buck against the couch, fingers digging into the cushions. Somehow, the worst part of it wasn’t the all too intimate stroke at the juncture of her thighs — it was his low chuckle behind her as he spoke. “Wet little whore, aren’t you?”

  “No!” The shout tore from her throat as she tried to lift up, but he shoved her back down, toying as he slid a single gloved digit deep inside. Lianna whined, clenching as if she could force him out, but he continued until she could feel the wetness he’d mocked her for.

  Why? Why? Why?

  “Tell me…” His cock brushed her next, the slick latex of a condom the only tiny comfort before he leaned over her, his voice growling, “What would your father think if he saw you now?”

  Heat bled into her cheeks and she grew desperate, scrambling for leverage, but her toes were barely touching the floor. “Let me go, please, don’t—”

  “Shut the fuck up and listen.” His hand stroked her cheek, reaching forward to grasp her chin and rub his glove roughly over her lips. “I’m going to take everything from him. I’m going to tear down everything he cares for, and I’m going to start with you. His sweet, little, princess.” The man snapped her head back, the nickname sending a cold shiver down her spine as the light from the television painted the ceiling in flickering waves. Fear pulsed through her veins when he brushed her pussy once more. She opened her mouth to plead, to beg, to barter, but he slammed inside her in one brutal thrust.