Chapter 64: Lucas and Wayne
Kaelric’s POV
The security personnel pulled her out despite her protests. She is being accused of a capital offence liable to death or banishment to the underworld; she is suspected of treason until proven not guilty.
When the door shut behind them, I exhaled, leaning back into my chair. But my chest didn’t feel lighter. If anything, the weight doubled.
Because the way she screamed her denial, or the way she acted confused, I read her mind, and she seemed entirely clueless.
Then who was behind the conspiracy? It’s either that she has gotten good at masking her thoughts or the actual perpetrator is still lurking around.
Larissa, my mind raced, I’d have to call her in for some questioning. But first, I’d have to look into Wayne and Lucas.
I closely inspected the footage from the night of the abduction, inspecting Aria and the male student as they walked into a dark path in the school. Could there be some secret outlet there?
And then, suddenly, they appeared on the street camera, walking into the casino, confirming my suspicion. I saw this earlier, but I didn’t inspect it properly. The secret outlet needs to be checked out as well.
The male student wasn’t Lucas, nor was he Wayne. Then who was he?
I summoned Wayne and Lucas, who were in the cafeteria at that moment. I waited for a while before they could respond.
They sluggishly walked into my office, and they didn’t seem sober; in fact, they looked drunk.
"Where were you two when I summoned about an hour ago?" I asked sternly, and they appeared to me as if they were truant students. If not for anything, they would face the consequences for skipping classes, even before the consequences of participating in a conspiracy.
Lucas and Wayne stood before me, their uniforms rumpled, their eyes heavy with the drowsy arrogance that came from too much drink. "Well, isn’t it obvious that we were very busy eating in the cafeteria?" Lucas said in a slur.
I could tell he was lying; they hadn’t even been to school today, and only came to school when they found out they had been summoned.
"Sit," I ordered.
They slumped into the chairs across from me, their postures careless, as though they weren’t staring down the mouth of a deadly accusation.
I folded my hands across my desk, letting silence stretch between us until Wayne shifted uncomfortably and Lucas clicked his tongue.
"Do you know why I summoned you both?" I asked, my voice calm and deliberate.
They exchanged glances, then Wayne shrugged. "Because we missed a class?"
I arched a brow. "A class, you say, because if I’m to count the classes you have missed, they are more than just one. But that’s one reason; there are other reasons, which I suppose you should have known about by now."
Lucas leaned back, smirking faintly, the defiant kind of smile that always begged for correction. "If this is about skipping class, you can save the speech. We’ve got other priorities."
"Other priorities, right, like abducting a fellow student,.." I echoed, tapping my fingers against the desk. "Like your visits to the casino?"
That wiped the smug look off Wayne’s face. His head jerked toward Lucas, who suddenly coughed into his fist as though trying to buy time.
"What are you saying? I don’t know what you’re talking about," Lucas said smoothly. "We don’t visit any casinos. We don’t even have the time." Wayne vehemently denied the accusations.
"You don’t?" My lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile. "That’s strange, because I have all the time-stamped footage right here."
I pressed a button on the console, and the monitor on my desk flickered to life. The footage rolled, showing Lucas and Wayne strolling into the casino at least three times in the same week, cloaked but careless enough to let their faces show in the external cameras.
"One footage is more intriguing than the others," I said, pointing to the recorded footage of their conversation with the vampires.
Wayne cursed under his breath, gripping the arms of his chair. Lucas’s smirk faltered into a thin, bitter line.
"Oops, did I strike a nerve?, So," I said quietly, pausing the screen on their figures entering the casino doors, "do you still want to deny it?"
Wayne’s jaw tightened. "Fine. We’ve gone there. A few times."
"A few?" I raised my brows. "You call three times in a week, ’a few’? What a good euphemism."
He had no answer. His head dropped, fingers twitching nervously against his knees.
Lucas exhaled heavily. "Look, yes, we go to the casino. But not for what you’re suggesting. We gamble, not abduct students." His tone was clipped, almost shameful, though he tried to mask it with pride. "We’ve been caught up in it. Gambling is addictive; you wouldn’t really blame us."
My gaze narrowed. "And your discussion with the vampires about abducting Aria?"
An awkward silence enveloped the room as they looked at each other, contemplating their next choice of words.
"I thought as much," I said, returning to arranging the sheets displayed on my desk.
Then Wayne spoke up, voice low. "They offered to cover some of our debts. In exchange for small favors, we had been carrying out some business with some other wolves at the casino before that night. We didn’t know we would have to deal with vampires."
"Small favors?" I repeated, the disgust curling in my voice. "Selling scraps of your honor for coins and liquor?"
Wayne’s face reddened, but he didn’t argue; he just lowered his head.
I leaned forward, my eyes drilling into his. "Tell me, Wayne and Lucas, if you’re so innocent, why is it that at the exact time of Aria’s abduction, you were seen entering that very casino? Why is it that your own words and your conversation about ’the abduction’ were overheard days before it happened?"
"Besides, you were spotted entering the casino also on the same day of the abduction," I said, directing my gaze at Wayne.
"That’s not what it sounds like," Wayne stammered. "I was drunk, I just went there per usual, gambling. Lucas and I didn’t want to carry out the job; I wanted to let them know that we weren’t interested in carrying out the operation."
"Drunk? Gambling per usual?" I asked, my voice sharp now. "When every piece of evidence points at you? When your debts tie you to the very people who wanted Aria silenced?"
His breathing grew heavier, his hands fisting on his knees. "I swear, I didn’t touch her. I never laid a finger on Aria. You can believe what you want, but I didn’t kidnap her!"
"Then give me the truth," I said, rising from my chair, my shadow falling across them. "If you didn’t do it, then who did? Who is the real perpetrator?"
The room was so silent I could hear the faint buzz of the lights above us. Lucas stared at Wayne, as though expecting him to break.
But Wayne clenched his jaw, sweat trickling down his temple. "I don’t know," he muttered.
"Lies," I hissed, then turned to Lucas, "You also don’t know?"
"I don’t know!" His voice cracked, desperation dripping from every syllable, "Besides, I wasn’t in the casino the night she was abducted,"
Wayne fidgeted on hearing what Lucas said, and looking at my countenance when he said that. "I might’ve been there. I might’ve gambled, I might’ve owed them, but I swear, I had nothing to do with the kidnapping. I never agreed to it, never joined them in it!"
I slammed my palm on the desk, the sound reverberating like thunder. " On the contrary, Lucas, you entered the casino," I said, further examining the footage properly,
"You are seen staggering at the entrance, talking to Zade and the Alpha successors," I retorted. "Do you expect me to believe you? When every piece of evidence, the footage, a witness and your debts to the casino are pointing towards you."
They both looked at me with wild eyes, fear bleeding through their defiance. "No matter what the evidence said, I know for sure that I had nothing to do with her abduction; I didn’t take her. Believe me or not, but I will not confess to something I didn’t do," he maintained.
Lucas, who had been quiet, suddenly spoke up.
"We had nothing to do with the abduction, we knew that it was risky to partake in such business, and we decided to pay them a visit to decline the business deal, we were prepared to face whatever comes out of not doing the business, just to find out that she had already been abducted and we don’t know any other perpetrator apart from Tracy."
The silence after his words pressed down heavily on the room. I stared at him, my mind racing. Either he was the best liar I’d ever seen, or he truly was a pawn in something far greater.
"We would have, but we couldn’t and we didn’t, someone else carried out that job," Wayne maintained.
"I’ll re-summon you two at the hearing, for now you will be put into detention for truant behaviors and a suspect for treason," I said as I called the security personnel to take them to the detention room.