Chapter One
Davis Lucas lived in a fortress, something straight from Batman or some other dark comic book. Dark. Scary. No doubt he played on that. He was dark; she’d seen photos of him in newspapers nearly every week. He was black-haired, and dark-eyed, and some said dark souled.
She’d gotten a close up look at him four months ago when he’d stood guard over her best friend in the hospital.
It was on behalf of that best friend that she stood on the doorstep of St. Louis’s wealthiest bachelor at fifteen minutes past midnight on the first Wednesday night in March.
Thunder rumbled and Payton squeaked and shivered. Clichéd, Payton. Clichéd. She almost turned around and ran back to her car. Instead, she held her breath and rapped her knuckles against the steel door.
No one answered.
Maybe he wasn’t home? As the thunder built, she tried one more time.
***
He’d sent his security detail to bed for the night, though he knew someone was monitoring him at all times. Luc paid them to be obsessive over his safety, and he paid extremely well. And he had their loyalty. He’d pulled the two German shepherds who normally roamed the property at night in the house with him. Not that he had any particular attachment to the animals, but he wouldn’t leave any beast to face the bitch that was Mother Nature.
He’d spent too many nights himself out in the lightning and thunder to subject anyone else—man or beast—to a surprise pre-Spring thunderstorm. Any loss of life was a waste. And he would not have his people, or the dogs, in the line of fire.
The dogs slept nearby, stretched out on rugs next to his chair. The house was dark, with only the light from the security monitor to illuminate the room. He had a monitor in every room on the property. Manny, the man who’d taken him in when he’d been fourteen, had lived by a very definite code of rules. At the top of the list was keep your eye on your land. Luc lived by that same code now, even though Manny had been gone close to ten years.
Luc had been buzzed by one of his night security team asking for permission to let his midnight visitor in.
He never got unexpected visitors. At least, not of the welcome kind. He had a few gold-diggers show up at his property every couple of months, but his security team knew how to deal with those women. This wasn’t one of those visits.
He hadn’t expected the person on his doorstep to be a little blonde waif who was apparently afraid of the dark... and the thunder.
He knew who she was, and everything about her. He recognized her from the backgrounds he had compiled on all the members of her team and from his own observations of her particular social group. He’d met her once or twice.
Dr. Payton Asher, a forensic scientist with the St. Louis FBI, who specialized in questionable documents. A handwriting expert. Blonde hair, freckles, and glasses, if he recalled correctly.
He couldn’t think of anything more boring.
What was such a wholesomely dull little creature doing on his doorstep tonight of all nights? This was the first night St. Louis had been under a tornado warning in the New Year; what was so important to bring her out in it? Or did she just not know any better?
Insatiable curiosity had him buzzing the door open. Luc laughed aloud when the girl jumped. Would she have the courage to step into the darkened house? He could guarantee she’d be safer with him tonight than out in the storm.
He wasn’t aware he held his breath until she took the first step inside. Then another. He exhaled. Ren, the largest of the dogs, raised his head and sniffed.
“Not now, my friend. This little trespasser is for me.” He doubted she was there to throw herself at him, though he’d had a few memorable nights when that had happened.
He’d always found money-grubbing desperation a major turn-off, and he’d made damn sure the women who’d tried it with him knew that.
But this woman was different. He doubted Payton Asher had ever thrown herself at a man, especially a wealthy one. She was too shy for that. All anyone had to do was look at her to see that.
Too pure, unless that Mayberry exterior hid the dark soul of kink or something. He was almost in the mood for a night like that, even with a woman who was a friend of a friend.
Were it only so. But Davis Lucas, known mostly to the world as Lucifer, knew the truth. A woman like her—clean, good, normal—didn’t belong with creatures like him. It would be best if he simply dealt with whatever had brought her to him, let her wait out the storm with him, then chase her off for good.
***
His house was weird, and it took Payton a few moments to put it all together. His fortress was made from shipping containers. She’d read that he strongly believed in recycling and had used over fifty of the steel containers to build his five story fortress. And wasn’t that what his main company did? Recycling? Hadn’t it made him filthy rich?
There were no main windows except for the front entry way’s forty-foot expanse of glass, just cold steel. Payton shivered again. While she definitely admired his ‘go green’ claim, could some effort have been made to make the place look like a real house? Like someone actually lived there? Instead of a cold steel fortress?
What was she supposed to do now? She’d stepped inside when the door had opened, but there was still no light and no clear path for her to enter the house. Who had let her in? Had the storm knocked out his power? Shouldn’t a place like this have backups, or something? Where was he?
She wished she had told someone where she was going. Just in case. His security man knew she was here, but would that make much difference?
Why had she been so stupid?
“I won’t resort to clichés.” The voice was disembodied, from behind her, and had her squeaking and jumping again.
“Mr-r-r. Lucas?”
“Hello, Dr. Asher, what brings you here so late?”
“I’m sorry to bother you...” She still couldn’t see him, but she knew it was the man she sought. There was something about the man the tabloids called Lucifer that made him so distinctive. And so very frightening.
“Then why have you?” His tone was bored, rude. But how could she blame him? People probably bothered him all the time, asking and wanting things from him. Hadn’t Cody said something about that once?
Cody. Her friend, and the main reason she was there. Cody and a little girl with frightened eyes. Thoughts of her friend gave her the courage she needed. She’d help her friend in any way that she could.
“Because... because... I have some questions for you.” Payton squinted toward the voice, wishing he’d turn on a dang lamp so she could see him. Lightning flashed behind her, the windows so large she almost felt she was still outside in the path of the storm.
Lightning flashed again, and she just got a glance of a tall, dark man leaning casually against a wall. He had two dark shapes next to him; huge, muscled animals. Fear had her turning back toward the door, toward her little sedan waiting just outside.
“Come away from the glass, if you’re scared, then. Questions about what?”
Payton shivered again, feeling stupid for not waiting. But morning would have been too late. She needed her answers long before then. Cody was filing the papers with the court at nine in the morning.
“I have questions about these forms.” Payton pulled her courage around her. “These guardianship papers you gave Cody—they are fake. Signed by only one person. You, Mr. Lucas. What have you gotten Cody involved in? Why would you do this?”