Part 15
[Present-Lara]
"We need to leave or do you want to stay and weep over your lover's dead body?" Lucien asked sarcastically.
"He was not my lover," Lara said softly.
She could not believe her eyes. She had so many questions running through her mind but she had lost words. She could not even act how she felt, her face was blank but she was beyond surprised. She didn't know how to act after finding out that her ex had just come back from the dead. The one man she loved and equally hated, was alive and back in her life once again.
"He had a pretty face though," Lucien remarked as he nudged Michael's head with the tip of his boots.
"That's all he had."
Lucien looked at Lara. She was more beautiful than ever before. The night he had gone to her apartment he didn't have enough time to take her appearance in. She had run out of her apartment screaming hysterically, waking up the neighbors. He had made her unconscious and laid her down on her bed later but he had to leave immediately after.
She looked more like Cardia now. Her blonde hair reached her knees now and her eyes were dead. She was a little bit taller, though still shorter than Lucien. Her curves were full and she had an amazing figure as ever.
He drove them to Lara's house and she sat in the passenger seat unmoving when he killed the engine. "Do you need a red carpet to walk out?"
"Why are you here?"
"Of all the things you can ask, you choose to ask that," Lucien sighed. "I am seeing you after ages, can't you at least pretend to be happy?"
"I thought you were dead," she whispered. Tears began to roll down her cheek and Lucien rubbed them away. "You made everyone believe that you were dead. But if it wasn't you... who was..."
In the middle of her sentence realization dawned on her. "No way..."
"Yep," Lucien looked unbothered. "It was Parkinson."
Lara's head reeled.
He had already caused enough problems for Parkinson because he was jealous of his friendship with her but he had also killed him? Why?
"But how could that be? Wasn't he expelled? Did you... did you kill him too, Lucien?" her voice broke and Lucien looked at her with an expression Lara had never seen on his face before.
Sympathy.
"I thought you would be happy to find me gone," Lucien said unhappily. "And I did not kill Steven. That son of a bitch was just fucking lost in the woods. When I found him he was already dead."
At the back of her mind Lara knew Lucien would never deny if he killed someone. She knew he didn't care whether she knew about the murders he's committed or not. She would never tell on him. And even if she did, it didn't matter. Nobody in the entire goddamn world could provide evidence for the clean crimes he commits.
"But... if he was lost for months then... then how was the body still in good condition? What about his parents? Why didn't he come back to school and why didn't the school tell us about it?"
"I paid them enough to keep their mouth shut about the entire incident. And Parkinson was an orphan so nobody cared about his death. I held a funeral for him though, just 'cause he was your friend."
He said it as if he had done a big favor but Lara knew he was just trying to be considerate. And if he was telling the truth and Steven had been lost for months then at that point there was nothing for anyone else to do.
She had always thought it was better that Steven was expelled which meant Lucien couldn't hurt him anymore but indirectly he had killed him.
Steven and Lucien had identical hair and similar complexion and were of similar height. It was hard to tell who was who when their faces weren't visible. So when Steven's body was brought she couldn't differentiate because she looked only once. She couldn't look at his scarred face because it was too painful to watch.
She thought it was Lucien and that sight pained her. Knowing now that it was actually Steven...
She felt the tears starting to fall. She had technically killed him. If only she warned him when she still had time... if he knew maybe he would have not been falsely accused by Lucien and expelled and maybe he wouldn't be lost in the woods and be alive today.
Silence prevailed once more in the car. Suddenly Lara's phone rang. She looked down at the caller ID and found out it was Ria.
"Do you know where Michael is, Lara? Where are you now?" she asked the moment Lara picked up. Lucien raised his eyebrows.
"No I don't," Lara answered. "I am in my house right now."
"He was shot to death sometime this afternoon in the highway close to your school."
Lara didn't reply. She knew this of course. She was there when it happened. "You need to come down to the station."
She cut the call and Lucien laughed. "What do they think they can do anyway? I killed him, can they ever guess that shit?"
Lara didn't reply. She stared at the road in front of her blankly.
"Don't tell me you are sad for that motherfucker," Lucien unlocked the car and got out. "I have been stalking you for a long while to know he was hurting people in your college to scare you. The police are fucking dumb to not see it. I knew the moment I laid my eyes on him."
"Not everyone is as smart as you, Lucien." Lara opened the door and got out, too. He walked over to her as she put the phone back in her pocket. "I will walk down to the station."
"Will you tell on me, babe?" Lucien leaned against the car and Lara paused for a moment, considering.
"No I won't. Michael was being a pain in the ass anyway, I would have killed him myself," she smiled. Lucien stared at her in awe, it had been so long since he had seen her smile that way. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers and she kissed him back in reply.
"When you come back we are running away. You don't need to be here anymore and I need you back," Lucien said. "Let's go back to how we used to be before, let's have fun without worrying about the consequences."
"Things are different now," she met his gaze. "I am not that person anymore."
"I will never let anyone else touch you ever," he growled. "The only person who can ever have you is me and if I can't have you, nobody can. Do you understand me? You. Are. Mine."
"You're a fucking psychopath," she spit out bitterly. "You think I will still love you the same? You're mistaken. You vanish on me for five FUCKING years and suddenly come back and tell me you want me? What is wrong with you?"
"Everything?" he shrugged nonchalantly.
In a flash both of them had their guns out, pointed at each other.
"I don't mind killing you if that's what you truly desire," he smiled sadly. "But I really wanted a life with you, Lara."
"So did I but you lied to me, you cheated on me, you disappeared on me and had me thinking for five years that you were dead," a tear rolled down her cheek. "I love you, Lucien. But you are fucking insane and I don't know if I can deal with that shit anymore." Her finger on the trigger tightened. Her gun was loaded and she knew his was, too. "Every day I'm turning more and more into you and I don't like it one bit."
"Go down to the station Lara. Meet me later, we will talk," he lowered his hand. Lara didn't. She stared at him as he touched his head to the front of her gun. "I know you won't shoot me, you're too much of a coward to do that."
"Don't underestimate me," Lara threatened and he chuckled.
"Oh shut up, I know you better than anyone else. Tell them Michael was the killer. Tell them what you knew. Leave out the walking home together part. Just let them know what they want to hear. Everything they ask, answer them. I will save you from anything that will follow."
"But why?" She knew this had happened before. He had always somehow known exactly what to say at the exact time. Back during school days his family's connections and his charm had helped them cover up but what did he have now? And why would he help her anyway? Not a single hair on his head would be hurt even if the police knew he had murdered Michael. He always knew how to get out of any trouble unscathed. "If you think saving me will somehow make me like you again, you're wrong."
"I don't need you to like me," he chuckled. "I just want to scar you enough so all you can think about is me."