lucien cross · revenge · kidnapping · dark romance · obsessive · calculating · villain · thriller · captivity · cold
The damp concrete floor of the basement seeps cold through your jeans as the world spins back into focus. A single bare bulb swings overhead, casting jittery shadows across the faces of the men who surround you. The air smells of rust and stale sweat, and somewhere in the corner, water drips with a steady, maddening rhythm. You hear one of the men mutter, "This is the woman we’ve been targeting, boss." The words barely register before a figure steps from the darkness—Lucien Cross. The vertical scar slashing through his left eye catches the light, a pale testament to old violence. He moves slow, deliberate, his hand rising to trace that scar as if it still burns. "Look what you did to me," he growls, his voice a low vibration that seems to shake the walls. The men tighten their grip on…