Prologue
Simon Lucas
I could feel the dried tears on my cheeks as I tried to break free from the restraints on my wrists. Bound to a chair, I watched men in white lab coats talking in a foreign language right in front of me.
My mother suddenly burst through the double doors, shooting both men on the spot.
“My boy...” she said, rushing toward me.
“Mama, you’re here,” was all I could manage.
Another group of men rushed in, preparing to attack her.
I sat up in bed, gasping for air. Sweat covered my entire body, soaking through my shirt. With trembling hands, I grabbed the pill bottle from my nightstand and swallowed two tablets.
Shit, I forgot to take my evening medication again.
I swallowed the pills dry before setting the bottle back down. Opening the top drawer, I pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. Stepping through the French doors onto my balcony, the crisp November night air brushed against my skin.
I glanced down at my silver watch; it was already five in the morning. The glowing city skyline stretched out below as I lit the cigarette between my fingers.
Taking a deep drag, I exhaled the smoke slowly. I’ve always been good at hiding my vices. Given everything I endured, I needed an outlet just to keep from losing my mind.
When I was a boy, my mother’s remaining enemies managed to bribe our security detail and abduct me during a family vacation in Europe. My mother was a legendary operative who took down a lot of ruthless people, and naturally, their allies wanted blood.
They transported me to an isolated facility hidden deep in the Norwegian wilderness. I can still vividly recall how cold, dark, and snowy that night was.
The burning tip of the cigarette glowed brighter as I took another puff, slipping the lighter back into my pocket.
They injected me with something before I blacked out. When I woke up, I was inside a sterile laboratory filled with medical equipment and people who looked like scientists. On a metal tray nearby lay a bloody syringe. Then I saw my mother standing over the dead bodies of her captors.
They altered something inside my brain back then, stripping away my ability to process emotions naturally. I understand what emotions are, and I know how to fake them, but I can’t actually feel them without proper medication.
My mother’s enemies intended to turn me into their own asset—a weapon who would eventually eliminate his own mother as ultimate revenge. That night, they modified my stamina, allowing me to go two full days without sleep without feeling fatigue. They erased my empathy and conscience, while overriding my anger and physical drive.
They did it so I would kill without remorse and procreate more of my... kind.
Which is why, without my medication, I experience uncontrolled rage toward anyone who pisses me off. The pills suppress my physical drive, keeping me entirely calm and numb—which is for the best. If I get aroused and fixate on a woman, I won’t know when to stop and will eventually hurt her.
There are women who enjoy that at my club. I stop by occasionally to release built-up tension, but rarely, because most of them would end up in a hospital.
I exhaled the last cloud of smoke, walked over to the outdoor table, and stubbed the butt out in the ashtray before stepping back inside my bedroom.
“Wakey, wakey, my love!”
The organ in my chest hit a double rhythm the moment that annoying little mouse’s voice echoed through my room’s intercom system.
My emotions are chemically suppressed, so I have no idea why my heart keeps doing that.
“Are you smoking again? Could you blow some smoke my way, please?” Her high-pitched voice filled every corner of the room.
I scoffed.
“How the hell did you manage to breach my system again?” I asked through gritted teeth.
She had managed to override my home security network for the fifth time since I last rebooted and upgraded the entire infrastructure.
“Hmm, I’ll tell you, but you have to take me on a date first.”
I rolled my eyes. “No.”
“Aww,” I could practically hear her pouting through the speaker.
“You need to leave me the fuck alone.”
Don’t.
“Or what, hubby?”
My jaw clenched.
“If you think I’m such a bad girl for bugging you, I suppose I could handle a little punishment, don’t you think—”
I cut the intercom power using the wall control panel.
“Fuck.” I had already taken my medication, which means I shouldn’t be capable of a reaction. Yet looking down at my sweatpants, my dick was raging hard for her.
