Chapter 313: One More Guest

Meanwhile, in the living room, all three girls were still watching Lucas, waiting for the rest of the answer.

He looked at Gracie first, then back at them.

"With what you did to Durnik," he said, "I’m sure he’ll come after you."

The words landed clean.

No one rushed to fill the quiet that followed. Daisy’s hands stayed folded in her lap. Mia’s gaze held steady. Debbie didn’t blink for a second too long. Even the soft noise of the house seemed to pull back around the statement.

On the girls’ side of the room, another conversation started without a single word.

Mia glanced at Daisy.

Daisy glanced at Debbie.

Debbie’s eyes returned to Lucas and stayed there.

It was not curiosity.

It was expectation.

Lucas noticed.

He just didn’t understand it yet.

He assumed they wanted more detail, so he kept going.

"He might send people," he said. "Not himself at first. Men like him prefer distance when the anger is still fresh. If he can reach you through someone else, he’ll try that before he risks looking more ridiculous than he already does."

Mia’s stare sharpened.

Daisy shifted her weight against the arm of the chair.

Debbie’s face barely moved, but the message in it was obvious.

And?

Lucas frowned. "What?"

Nobody answered.

They only kept giving him that same shared look, the kind that felt less like a reaction and more like a decision already made. Even Gracie, who had walked into this house earlier under open suspicion, could read the change now. The coldness from before had not fully disappeared, but it had bent into something different. Less rejection. More calculation. Like the problem was no longer her presence in the room, but what might happen if she left it.

Lucas leaned back against the couch and rubbed his jaw once.

He still didn’t get it.

Earlier, they had looked at Gracie like she was an intrusion. They had dressed up for the visit, closed ranks around him, and treated her arrival like a disruption that needed handling. Now the same three faces were aimed at him with a silent pressure he could feel but not immediately translate.

What the hell was happening?

He thought they didn’t want her here.

He thought bringing her home had already tested their patience.

Now they were staring at him like he was one sentence away from the only acceptable conclusion, and somehow late for it.

Lucas’s eyes moved from Mia, to Daisy, to Debbie again.

Still the look.

Still no explanation.

Just three women waiting for him to catch up to a decision they had already finished making.

Mia was the one who broke the silence.

She turned to Gracie, voice even, almost careful. "Is there anywhere safe you can go?"

It was a simple question on the surface. Between women, it carried more weight than that. Mia was not only asking for an address. She was asking whether Gracie had real cover, real protection, or just the kind of temporary place that fell apart the moment a powerful man got angry enough to dig.

Gracie understood it immediately.

She shook her head once. "No. Not anywhere that matters. Not anywhere he couldn’t reach if he really wanted to."

That was enough.

The three girls turned back to Lucas at the same time.

If the earlier look had been a suggestion, this one was heavier. Clearer. Less patient. Mia’s eyes held him. Daisy’s arms loosened only enough to show she was waiting. Debbie did not even pretend to soften it. The message sat in the middle of the living room without needing a single extra word.

Lucas stared at them.

Then he let out a short breath and lifted one hand.

"Okay. Okay. I’ve heard you."

The surrender in his voice was mild, but it was still surrender.

He looked at Gracie. "Would you like to stay here, or do you already have somewhere else in mind?"

Gracie hesitated only a second. Her eyes moved from Lucas to the three girls, then back again. She was not foolish enough to miss the politics in the room, but she also was not foolish enough to reject shelter after the day she had just survived.

"I’d like to stay," she said. "If they agree."

All three girls answered in their own way before Lucas could speak.

Mia gave a small nod.

Daisy said, "We don’t have a problem with it."

Debbie added, quieter but firm, "As long as you’re comfortable here."

Just like that, the border that had been so sharp when Gracie first walked in finished changing shape.

Lucas glanced at the three of them, then rubbed the back of his neck. "Alright. I’ve done what you guys want."

Debbie tilted her head slightly. "So we requested something?"

Lucas gave her a flat look. "I saw the eyes. No need to explain."

Daisy’s mouth twitched like she wanted to deny it and could not quite manage. Mia looked away a little too smoothly. Debbie only raised her brows, the picture of innocence from a person who had absolutely participated.

Gracie sat there watching the exchange, caught between relief and the strange realization that she had just been voted into the house by the same women who had earlier treated her like a threat.

Lucas tapped the arm of the couch once, done with the debate. "That’s settled then."

Mia stood first. "Come on. We’ll show you the room."

Daisy rose with her. Debbie followed a second later, already turning toward the hallway like the matter had moved from argument into practical arrangements.

Gracie got up more slowly, still adjusting to the shift, and followed them out of the living room.

Lucas remained where he was for a moment, flash drive and laptop still in front of him, listening to their footsteps fade down the corridor.

He had answered the question.

He had read the looks.

He had given the house one more guest.

And somehow, despite winning nothing in particular, the three of them still walked away like the vote had gone exactly as planned.

---

Meanwhile, far across the city, Durnik still had his phone in his hand.

The screen lit his face in the wreckage of his office as he called again.

Then again.

Then again.

Each unanswered ring only pushed the fury deeper into his chest.