Ruined Heiress, Ruthless King

CHAPTER THREE: THE GILDED CAGE

Pemberton didn't fire. He looked at the tracking device on the bed, that tiny, pulsing red eye, and then back at me, his eyes filled with a desperate, watery sorrow that made him look a hundred years old.

"He's using you, Lily," Pemberton whispered, his voice shaking so hard the gun wavered. "Lucas Hayes didn't love your father. He was his greatest rival. They were playing a high-stakes game of chicken with the Blackwood merger, and your father lost because he was too honorable. Now Lucas just wants the evidence to finish the job and absorb what’s left of the Bennett spirit. He doesn't care if you're caught in the crossfire."

"Then why the gun, Pemberton?" I stepped back, my heels clicking on the cold marble floor. "If you're here to save me, if you’re the family friend you claim to be, why are you pointing a weapon at my heart?"

"Because I have a family too!" he hissed, a tear tracking through the sweat on his face. "Julian has them. He has my daughter. He told me if I didn't bring him the locket by midnight, I’d never see her again. He knows Lucas has you. He knows the key is in this building."

The air in the room felt thick, like it had been replaced by lead. Every man in my life was treating me like a chip at a poker table, a piece of leverage to be traded.

"The locket isn't here," I said, my voice rising in a fake panic I hoped would trigger the penthouse’s acoustic sensors. "Lucas took it. He took it the moment I got in the car. He’s probably decrypted it by now."

"Liar!" Pemberton surged forward, his face twisting in grief.

Suddenly, the lights in the room didn't just turn on; they exploded into a blinding, strobe-like white glare. A high-frequency tone ripped through the air, a sound so sharp it felt like a needle being driven into my skull. Pemberton dropped to his knees, clutching his ears and screaming silently.

Lucas Hayes stepped through a hidden door in the walk-in closet. He didn't look angry; he looked profoundly bored, as if this were a minor technical glitch he’d already solved. He held a tablet in one hand, calmly sliding a bar on the screen to dampen the sound once Pemberton was incapacitated.

"Marcus, clear the room," Lucas said without looking up from his screen.

Two men I hadn't seen appeared from the shadows like ghosts, dragging Pemberton out before he could even let out a moan. Lucas walked over to the bed and picked up the blinking tracker. He looked at it for a second, then crushed it under his heel with a sickening crunch.

"You used me as bait," I said, my voice trembling with a fury that felt like it was going to set the room on fire. "You let a man with a gun into my bedroom just to see who sent him. You didn't even care if he panicked and fired."

"I knew Pemberton wouldn't pull the trigger,"

Lucas said, walking toward me. "He hasn't the stomach for murder. But now I have the data I need. By allowing him in, I was able to track the specific security frequency Julian is using to communicate with his sleepers. I now have the location of the safe house where Pemberton’s daughter is being held."

He stopped inches from me. He was so close I could feel the heat radiating from his chest, the scent of cedarwood and cold metal wrapping around me. "You want to be a partner, Lily? This is the reality of the game. No secrets. No safety.

Just the cold calculation of the win. If you can’t handle the pressure of being the bait, you’ll never survive being the queen."

"I hate you," I whispered, the words tasting like copper.

"Good," he said, his gaze dropping to my lips for a fraction of a second, a flicker of something that wasn't business before snapping back to my eyes. "Hatred is a much more reliable motivator than love. It keeps you sharp. Now, put on the dress Marcus left in the dressing room. We have a gala to attend, and Julian needs to see that his latest pawn has been taken off the board and placed firmly on mine."