After leaving a short letter of resignation at the hotel desk, Noah lifted his suitcase and made his way out. The minute he stepped outside, he wasn’t alone anymore, though. Two huge men sandwiched him and didn’t even seem to notice Noah’s struggle to get away. They pushed him into a waiting limo and exchanged some words in a foreign language that Noah recognized immediately. Italian!
His stomach turned, realizing the obvious. Damian knew too.
***
After disconnecting her call with her grandson to announce her stopping by ‘to confess her latest interference’, her phone bleeped again and after checking the ID she answered with a grin.
“Darling, let me guess…you’ve heard about my great achievement and you want to congratulate me…”
The man laughed. “Sorry to disappoint. I wanted to brag about my great achievement, but you’ve got my full attention. Tell me.”
And Lucinda did, without letting any details out. To her surprise, her listener was more amused than in awe.
“Oh my God…Noah is not having a good night…Great minds not only think alike, but apparently also act alike.”
That made Lucinda sit up straight and she tapped her driver on his shoulder.
“Fenwick, park the car for a moment…” then she focused on the phone again, but before she could ask for more details, she was asked a question.
“On the road?”
“On my way to your son, to be exact. I want him to know the whole story, before he finds out from someone else.”
“You keep surprising me. You’re getting thoughtful.”
They both chuckled.
“Only to the people I love,” Lucinda grinned. “So watch your step.”
“You’ll love me after I tell you my story,” Damian sounded confident and when he started to reveal how his men had seized Noah from the street, Lucinda started laughing.
“Oh my, you’re right. Noah is not having a good night. What are your plans?”
“I have a great hell hole with his name on it,” Damian laughed too. “I can’t believe you let him walk!”
“Out of respect for the fact that Luke once loved this man,” Lucinda muttered. Maybe her Italian conversation partner was right. Maybe she was getting too soft.
“Well, I’m not giving him any credit for that. We Italians invented the vendetta, Lucinda. I can’t leave his deeds unpunished.”
“Even if you jeopardize your relationship with Luke?”
That silenced Damian for a few minutes.
“You have a point. Don’t mention anything to Luke, please. I will talk to him.”
“Fair enough,” Lucinda nodded. “Keep me posted.”
“I will. Enjoy your visit.”
“I’m sure I will,” Lucinda smiled and after a “Ciao” she disconnected the phone and gave Fenwick a signal to drive on. The amusement was all over her face. Noah got what was coming to him and her hands stayed clean. Perfect!
Her conceit obviously showed, because Reid raised an eyebrow the minute he opened the door.
“Feeling full of ourselves, are we?”
Lucinda just grinned, draping herself around the doctor.
“Aren’t we always, sweetheart?”
Reid nodded, taking her coat and looking at the limo.
“Your driver isn’t coming?”
“Fenwick is blissfully happy to stay in the car. He has everything he loves in there. Coffee. TV. Computer. It’s his own little world.”
Reid shrugged, closed the door and pointed at the living room.
“Go right ahead, Luke is waiting. I’ll get us some coffee.”
“Who knew you’d be such a great host?” Lucinda purred, giving him a wink, and then walked into the arms of her beloved grandson.
“My precious, you look even more handsome than usual, today.”
When Luke blushed, Lucinda started laughing in her familiar, wicked way.
“Ah…say no more. It’s in your eyes…”
“You better not watch too closely, then. It’s hot stuff…” Reid teased, as he put the coffee cups down.
“Don’t worry, I can take any heat,” Lucinda stated, making Luke moan.
“Grandmother, please. Not again.”
Again? Reid’s question was all over his face and Lucinda softly caressed his knee.
“I may have tried to obtain some…delicate information about your…private life earlier, but Luke is very reserved about sharing that with his own grandmother.”
“He’s a bit of a prude,” Reid nodded, ignoring Luke’s annoyed and warning look.
Enthusiasm – or was it hope? – made Lucinda’s eyes glimmer.
“Tell me about it,” she said suggestively.
“About Luke being a bit of a prude? Well…he…”
Lucinda slapped him. Hard.
“You know what I meant.”
“You want details?” Reid grinned.
After Lucinda nodded a little impatiently, his grin grew bigger.
“Is your own love life so boring, that your need stories of ours to feel human?”
Lucinda laughed out loud.
“Hardly, my darling. Just incurably inquisitive. But you look extraordinarily satisfied, so I’ll assume you’re doing okay.”
“We’re doing more than okay,” Reid assured her. “If I’d known that being the sex slave of a hot, blonde millionaire was so much fun, I wouldn’t have bothered with Harvard.”
“Reid!” Luke was back to the annoyance and warning, but Lucinda made an ‘ignore him’ movement with his hand and turned to Reid.
“Sex slave, huh? You’re really capable of taking a submissive role?”
Reid grinned. “I know! Mind-blowing, right? But it’s actually very exciting to let go of control. At least, with Luke it is. Never tried it with anyone else, nor do I plan to.”
“That’s good to hear,” Lucinda gave him a loving smile and now turned to Luke.
“And that’s all I needed to hear. For now,” her teasing turned into earnest when she continued, “But let me tell you why I came over.”
She told the men about her investigation that had involved some hacking of computers. She didn’t look too ashamed about that, of course. Especially because it had given her the evidence she had wanted. An answer to the question that had been haunting her. Who had tipped off Charles Laker?
“When it turned out to be Noah Mayer, I was so disgusted and furious…” Lucinda took another sip of her coffee. “I assumed it would have been some homophobe, but now it turned out to be very personal. He wanted to hurt you, Luke. Real bad.”
Luke nodded, glancing at Reid. So his lover had interpreted Noah’s remarks, during their encounter at Al’s, very well. Reid had suggested Noah could be behind it all, but somehow Luke didn’t want to believe it. He couldn’t accept Noah would consciously hurt him that bad. But apparently he now had to.
“That boy is really lost,” Lucinda said in a soft tone, hurt by the devastation on Luke’s face. “Because it gets worse.”
When she told them about Brian’s shocking discovery that Noah was asking money for sexual favors, Reid and Luke just stared at her.
“There has to be a mistake…” Luke muttered. “Noah was never…interested in sex…”
“Well, things have definitely changed, because he was very eager. Brian called me about it and that’s when I realized this was the perfect setting to get some proof. So I sent someone over to install some cameras. The poor guy just finished when Noah knocked on the door, so Brian hid him in another room. But I’ve compensated him for the inconvenience,”
“Of course,” Reid sounded like a robot. Luke looked like one, still staring at his grandmother.
“Anyway, Brian managed to get everything on tape. The whole Zoë story, his mentioning of the money he wanted for sex… so tonight I confronted him with the tape and he agreed with me that he needed to leave town. For good, this time. The minute he sets foot in Oakdale, the tape will be distributed. All over the place.”
“So he’s finally gone,” Luke whispered.
“He is. And he knows he’ll be watched, so I don’t think he will try to hurt you again.”
Lucinda grinned, thinking about Damian’s activities. No, Noah would definitely not try to hurt Luke again. Ever.
