LOYALTY IS A LOADED GUN
939 Words
The warehouse was colder than usual.
Lucien stood with his hands in his coat pockets, watching the slow playback of a grainy security feed. Not from one of his own vaults—but from the old harbor compound, one long buried in his father’s forgotten ledger.
There she was.
Ariadne Vale.
On camera. Three nights ago. Alone. In a place no one outside the original family line was supposed to know about.
Lucien’s jaw ticked.
“She’s not what she says she is,” Nico muttered, pacing behind him.
“I know.”
“She’s not just feeding info to someone. She’s looking for something.”
Lucien didn't respond right away.
Because something had shifted in his gut. He wasn’t angry. Not even surprised.
He was curious.
She had infiltrated his world. Seduced it. Lied to it.
And he couldn’t look away.
---
Ariadne’s Apartment — 2:43 AM
A knock at the door.
Soft. Measured.
Not urgent. Not afraid.
She already knew who it was.
Lucien.
Ariadne opened the door in silence, meeting his gaze. He looked tired. More disheveled than usual. A day’s worth of shadow across his jaw.
“You’re early,” she said.
“We didn’t have plans.”
“We do now?”
He stepped inside without waiting.
She closed the door, heartbeat steady. “Is this a social call?”
“No,” Lucien said. “It’s a warning.”
She arched a brow. “From the man who just walked into my apartment uninvited?”
“From the man who knows you were at the harbor compound.”
A beat of silence.
So.
He knew.
Ariadne folded her arms. “What exactly do you think I was doing?”
“Answering questions I haven’t asked.”
He moved closer. Not threatening—but heavy. The air between them shifted. Dense with unspoken truths.
“I had that place scrubbed from our system years ago,” he said. “Only three people knew the access routes. One’s dead. One’s in prison. The last one… is me.”
“Then maybe your system isn’t as airtight as you think.”
Lucien’s smile was sharp. “Don’t insult my intelligence.”
Ariadne said nothing.
He stepped closer.
“I want to know who you are, Ariadne. Not just the version you sold me.”
Her pulse kicked up. She didn’t let it show.
“And what if I’m exactly who I say I am?”
“Then you’re a ghost,” he said. “Because no one named Ariadne Cross existed before five years ago.”
There it was.
He had started digging.
Not just watching.
She swallowed once. “You’ve been checking up on me.”
“I check up on anyone who gets close to me.”
“Paranoia looks good on you.”
He reached out then—slowly, deliberately—and brushed a finger along her cheek.
“No. Revenge looks good on you. That’s what this is, isn’t it?”
A crack ran through her calm. Thin. Dangerous.
“What do you think I want revenge for?” she asked softly.
Lucien didn’t answer. But he watched her like he almost knew.
Almost.
“Whoever you are, you should know this,” he said. “I’m not my father. If you’ve come for him… you’re ten years too late.”
Ariadne’s throat tightened. Not with grief.
With fury.
Because he was wrong.
She wasn’t too late.
Not if the Lazarus file meant what she feared it did.
---
Elsewhere — Delano’s Estate, Private Briefing
Delano poured himself a drink and pointed to the photograph on the projector screen. Ariadne Vale. Age 17. Year of the m******e.
“She’s alive,” he said calmly. “And she’s inside D’Arco’s circle.”
His lieutenant, Rami, nodded. “You want her pulled?”
Delano swirled the drink, thinking.
“No. I want her squeezed.”
Rami blinked. “You want to use her?”
Delano turned, eyes cold. “She’s walking through Lucien’s house like a ghost he doesn’t know is haunting him. Let’s give her a reason to scream.”
---
D’Arco Estate — 3 Days Later
Lucien sat at the head of the long table, flanked by his lieutenants. Nico. Andre. Two others from Chicago and Lisbon. He'd called them in for a single reason: a leak.
"We’re being watched,” Lucien said.
Andre leaned forward. “By who?”
Lucien didn’t flinch. “I don’t know. Yet.”
“But you have a theory,” Nico said.
Lucien tapped a folder. “I’m being lied to. Someone close. Very close.”
He didn’t say her name.
He didn’t have to.
But his silence was a declaration.
If Ariadne betrayed him, he’d bury her himself.
And if she didn’t… he’d burn the world trying to prove it.
---
Later That Night — Ariadne’s Apartment
She stood in front of the mirror, undressing slowly. Every bruise a reminder. Every scar a memory.
She had gotten too close. Not emotionally. Strategically.
Lucien was circling.
And now Delano had resurfaced.
She hadn’t expected that.
The man who helped orchestrate the killing of her brother had resurfaced.
And now he was watching.
She couldn’t run.
She couldn’t break.
And she couldn’t afford to fall into the one person who could destroy her from the inside.
Because the truth was…
Some part of her wanted to be caught.
Some part of her wanted Lucien to see her, all of her, and still—
Still not walk away.
But that kind of hope?
It was a poison.
And Ariadne Vale had already tasted enough death for one lifetime.
- Writer
