Monsters Wear Expensive Watches
1377 Words
Chapter Two
Monsters Wear Expensive Watches
I didn’t sleep.
Not even close.
By three in the morning, I’d rearranged my room twice, checked the lock on the door seven times, and reread the anonymous text so many times the words stopped looking real.
HE KNOWS WHO YOU REALLY ARE.
Every time I closed my eyes, my chest tightened.
Because the terrifying part wasn’t the message.
It was the possibility that it was true.
Rain tapped softly against the dorm window while Sarah slept on the other side of the room, one arm hanging off the bed, completely unaware that my entire nervous system was imploding.
I sat on the floor beside my desk with my knees pulled to my chest and stared at the second photo again.
Someone had followed me.
Not casually either.
The angle was deliberate. Professional.
Like surveillance.
A sharp knock hit the dorm door.
I froze instantly.
Three slow knocks.
Not frantic. Not impatient.
Controlled.
My pulse spiked.
Nobody visited our dorm at four in the morning.
Sarah groaned beneath her blanket. “Elena… if that’s your weird economics guy again, tell him to come back when the sun exists.”
I stood carefully.
Another knock.
My heartbeat thundered as I crossed the room and looked through the peephole.
Then I stopped breathing.
Lucien Mercer stood outside my dorm.
Of course he did.
Dark coat. Black gloves. Cold expression.
Like midnight had turned into a person.
“What the hell?” Sarah muttered sleepily behind me.
I unlocked the door before I could reconsider.
Lucien’s eyes swept over me immediately.
Bare legs. Oversized sweatshirt. Messy hair.
The intensity of his gaze made heat crawl unexpectedly up my throat.
“You shouldn’t open doors without asking who it is,” he said.
“You shouldn’t appear outside women’s dorms at four a.m. looking like a hitman.”
His mouth twitched faintly.
Not amusement exactly.
Close.
“I need to talk to you.”
My stomach tightened.
“How did you even get in here?”
“I have keys.”
“Why would you have keys?”
“Ashbourne belongs to my family.”
Right.
Normal rich-kid behavior.
I folded my arms. “You know that answer sounds insane, right?”
“Probably.”
Sarah suddenly appeared beside me looking half asleep and fully offended.
“Oh my God,” she whispered dramatically. “Lucien Mercer is in our hallway.”
Lucien barely acknowledged her.
His attention stayed fixed on me.
“Can we speak privately?”
“No.”
“Yes,” Sarah answered immediately.
I shot her a glare.
She ignored me completely.
“I’m going to brush my teeth for… thirty minutes,” she announced before disappearing into the bathroom.
Traitor.
Again.
Lucien stepped inside the dorm slowly while I shut the door behind him.
The room instantly felt smaller.
Not because he was physically imposing—
Though he absolutely was.
It was the energy he carried.
Controlled. Dangerous. Too observant.
His eyes landed briefly on my laptop screen.
The anonymous messages still glowed there.
His expression darkened instantly.
“Who sent those?”
Straight to the point.
I crossed my arms tighter. “That’s exactly what I’d like to know.”
“When did you receive them?”
“After you cornered me in the library.”
His jaw flexed slightly.
“Show me.”
“I’m not handing my phone to you.”
“Elena.”
“Lucien.”
The tension between us tightened sharply.
He took one slow step closer.
“Do you think I’m involved?”
The scary part?
I didn’t know.
And I think he saw that uncertainty on my face because something unexpectedly human flickered through his expression.
Not anger.
Disappointment.
“I told you to stay away from Blackwood.”
“There it is again.” I pointed at him. “You keep saying things like that. Like I’m already in danger.”
“You are.”
Silence crashed into the room.
My throat tightened.
“You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
Fear moved coldly through my stomach.
I hated fear.
Especially the kind that felt justified.
Lucien glanced toward the curtained dorm window before speaking again.
“Did anyone follow you yesterday?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t notice anyone unusual?”
I laughed nervously. “I go to a university where everyone looks like they commit tax fraud for fun. Define unusual.”
That almost earned a real reaction from him.
Almost.
“You joke when you’re anxious,” he observed quietly.
“I insult people when I’m anxious too. You should feel honored.”
His gaze held mine for a second too long.
Then his eyes dropped briefly to my mouth.
My pulse stumbled violently.
God.
Everything about this man felt dangerous.
Even silence.
“Why do you care?” I asked softly.
That question changed the atmosphere immediately.
Lucien leaned against the desk beside me, expression unreadable again.
“I knew your father.”
The room tilted.
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
“What?”
His gaze sharpened instantly at my reaction.
“You didn’t know?”
A horrible feeling crawled slowly up my spine.
My father died eleven years ago.
Or at least…
That’s what Mom always told me.
I swallowed hard. “What are you talking about?”
Lucien studied me carefully now.
Like he’d accidentally uncovered something important.
“How much did your mother tell you about him?”
“Nothing.” My voice came out sharper than intended. “He abandoned us.”
A long silence followed.
Lucien looked almost… conflicted.
Which felt impossible.
Men like him didn’t look conflicted.
They looked lethal.
“Your father worked for my family once,” he said carefully.
The words slammed into me.
“No.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“You’re lying.”
“Why would I lie about that?”
Because nothing about this made sense.
Because my father was supposed to be nobody.
Not someone connected to billionaire dynasties and secret societies.
Because suddenly every buried memory I spent years avoiding started clawing upward again—
My mother crying behind locked bathroom doors.
Arguments in whispers.
A man’s voice late at night.
And one sentence I overheard when I was eight years old:
“If they find her, we’re dead.”
I took a shaky step backward.
Lucien noticed immediately.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s not true.”
I hated how calmly he saw through me.
My breathing grew uneven.
“Did my father know your family personally?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Lucien hesitated.
Actually hesitated.
That terrified me more than any answer.
A knock suddenly echoed from somewhere down the dorm hallway.
Then shouting.
Students.
Doors opening.
Confused voices.
Lucien’s head turned sharply toward the sound.
His expression hardened instantly.
“What now?” I muttered.
A girl’s frightened voice echoed faintly through the corridor.
“Oh my God…”
Another voice followed.
“There’s blood everywhere.”
My stomach dropped.
Lucien moved before I could think.
He opened the dorm door sharply and stepped into the hallway.
Students crowded near the staircase at the far end.
Whispers spread rapidly.
Fear moved through the building like smoke.
I followed despite every instinct warning me not to.
Someone grabbed my wrist suddenly.
Lucien.
“Stay here.”
“I’m not a child.”
“No,” he said darkly. “You’re a target.”
Before I could respond, campus security rushed past us toward the stairwell.
And then I saw it.
Blood.
A thick crimson smear dragged across the polished hallway floor.
My pulse stopped.
A phone lay abandoned beside the stain.
Screen glowing.
One of the security guards picked it up carefully.
Then his face changed.
Slowly, he looked toward me.
My entire body went cold.
“Miss Vale?” he asked.
I couldn’t breathe.
“How do you know my name?”
The guard turned the phone screen around.
A message filled the display.
FIND ELENA VALE BEFORE LUCIEN DOES.
The hallway erupted into terrified whispers.
And beside me—
For the first time since meeting him—
Lucien Mercer looked genuinely afraid.
- Writer
