The Lesser of Two Evils - NC-17, Chapter 56 (May 27, 2016)

[jml]

Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for continuing this. gr8 chapter

[angelofgrace]

oh this story is a masterpiece.... i'm so so so so happy you didn't abandoned it... i really hope you'll be able to update soon... thank you, thank you, thank you....

[somethingeasy]

This chapter started off with a fascinating beginning. The twists are becoming more intricate and delicate. I love how everything is up in the air right now, and dependant on so many factors. What happens to Chloe from this point onwards depends on exactly what Morgan’s mood and motivations are right now, not to mention just how much he actually knows about who Chloe is.

And it’s also fascinating seeing how Lex is trying to prepare for every eventuality, where he’s passing the word around stating that he wants Chloe returned home safely, promising rewards to any possible informant, while ALSO getting a hefty ransom ready no informant except for Morgan himself comes forward. It’s really amazing seeing how many threads he has running to get Chloe home safely again, and how he’s maintaining on top of all of his plans.

Lionel had always chased after public approval and the inclusion in high society. His marriage had been another deal; a tie the upper crust couldn't ignore even when his money was gauche and brand-new. He donated to charities in order to obligate various hosts to invite him to functions where he could meet the rich and influential of Metropolis. He crafted Lex's education to let him move smoothly within those circles. It galled Lionel to see his success, because he knew his acceptance was conditional. Lex was born into the elite, and wore it effortlessly no matter how many times he was told he wasn't good enough.

This was a VERY interesting comparison run, not only between Lionel and Morgan, but also between Lionel and Lex. It’s fascinating seeing how Lex looks through Lionel’s eyes, not only as a product to be shaped, developed and eventually sold/disposed but also as competition. I LOVED the idea that Lionel would be actually galled by how Lex outshines his own father in a myriad of ways.

Morgan Edge had no claims to society, nor did he care to buy them. He earned his money off the books, and kept it to himself. If he made charitable contributions, no one was aware of them. From what Director Curry had said, Edge was proficient with rackets and his expertise in cleaning up after himself was no more or less than necessary.

No man who'd been a successful criminal for decades would stoop to killing for fun. Lex clung to the thought, even as it illuminated another unsavoury truth; no man who'd been a successful criminal could ignore the opportunity to rid himself of a reporter investigating one of his murders.

This was a brilliant assessment of Morgan as well. I’ve only seen Edge as a common thug, but now I can actually view, understand and respect him as a formidable, ambitious, unapologetic, intelligent and cunning mafia lord. I finally see Edge is not actually less than Lionel, but just follows different methods to success. In fact, I loved the idea that Edge might actually be more honest, in his own twisted way, about the kind of person he is. He’s a crime lord, plain and simple. Lionel’s a crime lord too, but hides it away, and even seems embarrassed by it to some degree. Morgan is unapologetically a crime lord, and he’s damned good at it.

“Then why do you sound so scared,” she countered. “At least let me help you! I'll come over and we can figure out what she would do if she had the chance.”

Lex curled his hand around his car keys so violently he felt his knuckles stretch. “No, I don't think she'll be able to get herself out of this and come back, but I can get her back. When my father had her, I knew what he wanted, and now – I'm tracking down the current situation.”

He grimaced at his wording, afraid Lois would grasp the implication and decide he was lying. The last thing he needed was a heckling young woman prodding his guilt the moment she saw he was able to manage a deep breath.

It was unexpected seeing Lois brought into the scene in such an intimate and integral way, but I LOVED it. I loved that Lois is fully away of the situation, and right on the edges waiting to lend her own formidable resources to help. I’m not sure whether Lex is right in refusing her help, but I like that Lois has decided to trust and respect him, for now, and agreed to stay on the sidelines by his request. It’s GOOD to know that they two of them are communicating and, more or less, working together. At the very least, they both are listening to each other. Chloe needs all the help that she can get from her side, and Lois’s help might prove to be the unexpected resource that was NOT anticipated by Lionel, and therefore might be the key to her rescue.

“Lois, if you let me get her back safely, I swear I'll let Chloe publish as much of this as she wants,” he swore vehemently. “She'll have direct quotes and photos, if she wants. This is not about me, but it's happening in my world. I know I can help her, just like I know an outsider would get stonewalled. This man who has her – he's a businessman. He's not a good person, but he understands a deal. I'm prepared to put more into this deal than any other.”

His rant went on too long, hinted at too much emotion and irrational need, but Lois seemed to defrost toward him. She inhaled slowly, pausing as her temper cooled.

“You have the rest of the day,” she told him. “If I don't hear from you by tomorrow I'll call every agency I can find in the phone book.”

squeeee! I loved that Lois sensed Lex’s intense emotional investment in Chloe, and realized that he probably wants her cousin home safe as desperately as she does. It’s great to know that Chloe and Lex will have at least one person on their side (emotionally) once their inevitable relationship comes out into the open.

“Bye, Uncle Gabe.” She hung up, lips moving in a prayer she would have bet good money she'd forgotten in the intervening years since her last church service. Lois tried to leave her mind open to direction from any power, and heard only silence.

Lex Luthor had the rest of twenty-four hours, and after that she'd see him and anyone else who'd even looked at her cousin in a military lockup with his thumbs in screws. Lois had the distinct feeling she'd been seeing every one of those hours tick by through the night.

heeee! I love it! Lex is busy pursuing all channels to get Chloe back home safely, and Lois is poised right on the edge of action, ready to rush into the rescue as well. Chloe is in a really horrific place right now, but at least I have hope that she WILL eventually be saved, and delivered back home to her loving, reassuring, understanding cousin. It’s wonderful to know that she won’t be alone in trying to deal with her trauma in the aftermath. She’ll have BOTH Lex and her beloved cousin there to lend emotional support, in whatever form she might need it.

But I’m getting far head of myself
Let’s just wait to see her actually escape from her evil, horrific situation first, shall we? Yikes! Please update soon, Nonky!

[kitten]

Chapter 36

“Lucas!”

His brother's voice rang through the trees, cold enough to slice off branches. Lucas turned back and started running, not eager to face Lex again but even less happy to consider pissing him off. As he made it around the house, he saw Lex hanging up his cellphone and putting it away.

“Hey, did you find – anything,” Lucas asked, tacking an awkward ending on a sentence that would definitely provoke Lex's anger.

“No.” Lex didn't say anything else until they were back in the car, headlights pointing out a lonely path in front of them. “You were serious about wanting to help?”

Lucas nodded, scrubbing cold hands on his knees. “I feel really bad about this. I didn't know anyone else would be here or I never would have given the map to them.”

Lex had already decided his half-brother's gambling days were over. The next time he got in over his head would either finish him off or teach the lesson no amount of handouts could. When the irresponsible behaviour had only hurt Lucas, it had been his choice not to do better. Now that someone innocent had been injured by it, mercy was gone.

“We can't change that now,” Lex said tersely.

He was fighting the urge to snap at anybody, and Lucas had played his small role without knowing how or why. Society disregarded bastards, but his father's younger son had been getting into trouble for years. Edge wouldn't have had to ask many people to find out how to get Lucas owing him. The steep debt was probably allowed to rise higher than Lucas could hope to pay off simply in cash. Technically, the young man was too young to gamble even in a casino. He was not quite twenty and his life skills consisted of small time grifting and betting.

Lex had always thought his brother's life was his own business. It wasn't as if they'd even met before Lionel produced a teenage Lucas like a rabbit out of a hat. Back then it had been a threat to replace Lex's leadership with a more malleable CEO. The situation had not allowed for any fraternal bonding. The plot had failed, Lucas had wandered off, and Lex had given him money when he was in need. He was too young and uneducated to bring into the company, and too wild to try to protect.

“This isn't your fault,” he told Lucas quietly, putting the car into gear and beginning the drive back to the city. It was easier to speak when he could only feel the quiet watchfulness without having to meet his half-brother's eyes. “Dad never did right by you or your mother, and I honestly didn't know you existed until he aimed you at me like a gun. I thought it was enough to toss you some money and make sure no one else came after you for being a Luthor. I should have known there would be people who would try to use you.”

“I can take care of myself,” came the reply, followed by a light scratching. Lucas was scrubbing his fingernails on the dash, gradually clawing through the leather. “I knew there was something up with those bets, but they kept taking my marker. I thought I just needed one good return and I'd be set for a long time. I'm not really employable in Metropolis. Thought I'd get out of town.”

It would be tricky hiring a juvenile delinquent who also happened to be a deliberately lost son of Lionel Luthor. Not many respectable businesses could take the chance of alienating LuthorCorp. Lex couldn't have hired Lucas either, unless he wanted to set up another showdown with his father. With Lionel sick and settling his estate, there would be no danger from Lucas. The stockholders and lawyers could be appeased with some paperwork guaranteeing the younger son wouldn't be getting significant power.

“I understand,” he told Lucas. “I'm going to need to focus on helping Chloe for a while, but after that I want to talk about hiring you. It's not going to be corner office, but you'll have a salary and some protection. I've been trying to insulate myself from anything you could do to me, but it was always Dad who was the danger. I know it wasn't your idea to takeover a corporation in your teens.”

The scratching paused, and Lucas held down the button to scan for radio channels. “You don't have to hire me – I wasn't going to say anything about this,” he said. “I'm not proud of my actions.”

Lex cleared his throat, unsure how to express his empathy. He had been manipulated many times, and each time felt like a violation of his will. He tried to see every angle, but Luthor politics had hundreds of angles. No amount of education gave eyes in the back of one's head.

“I'm not trying to keep you quiet,” he said. “If Chloe wants to prosecute, I'm going to insist you testify exactly what you know. This could turn into the biggest scandal in our family history and I don't care as long as she's okay. I'm not inclined to decide for her if her privacy is worth pressing charges. Dad is going to be dead inside a year, and she might have a lot more to deal with long term.”

Flicking off the radio, Lucas scrubbed at his hair. It was hanging in greasy strands over his forehead. He was always on the cusp of being homeless, but never quite there. Despite his recklessness, he had friends and girlfriends.

“Are you still living with that woman,” Lex asked.

“Hannah? No, her husband came back – again. I'm going different places. It's not like I have that much stuff, you know?”

Nodding, the billionaire turned out onto the highway. Leaving the trees made him feel freer, and he hit the gas without noticing how fast he was going. If there was ever a legitimate need for a sports car's extreme performance, it was getting him back to Metropolis that night.

“You should stay at one of our buildings for a while. You don't have to move in for good, but Edge might be looking for you now,” he told Lucas. “The next few months are going to be dangerous for both of us.”

“And Chloe.”

Lex felt his shoulders bunch and rolled them forcefully. “Chloe will need some support,” he agreed.

He intended to guard both his brother and Chloe, at least until Lionel died and his will was read. Any offspring with Luthor blood would be subject to a lengthy and intrusive study once the inheritance was announced. If she was pregnant, it might mean a life-long connection to his family.

“Would she keep it,” Lucas asked. “If she was pregnant?”

“She's . . . caring. I think it's possible,” Lex answered. “It's her decision if it comes to that, but I wanted to spare her having to make it.”

Plans unfurled in Lex's mind, passing the time he drove until they were within city limits. His phone rang several times, but he was ignoring his FBI contacts now. The FBI was too blunt a tool to use against Edge. He needed to make sure they were gathering evidence far behind him while he freed Chloe.

“Lucas? Chloe has a cousin in the city who knows she's missing. She doesn't know all the details, but I asked her to wait to tell anyone else. I have until morning,” Lex said. “I want to drop you off with this cousin: Lois. You can keep her informed and try to stall her from making any moves that will get Chloe killed. Can you do that?”

“Sure thing. What's her last name? Is she cute?”

Lucas had inherited his appreciation for women directly from the Luthor genes. It was almost enough to make Lex smile.

“She's an Army General's daughter and good at hand-to-hand combat. Be nice to her; she's worried about her cousin,” he said. “Tell her I'll get Chloe back.”

“I'm very charming,” his half-brother said sincerely. He looked out as Lex stopped at the curb. “Which one?”

“Lois Lane, the building straight ahead. She is armed, so mind your manners.”

“Please.” Lucas strolled up to the building like he owned it, scruffy jeans and dirty hair no obstacle to his confidence.

Lex waited until he was buzzed inside, then kept driving to his own apartment. He would check in with his contacts and put out an offer for Chloe's safe return. He would have to couch it as bargaining for his father's safety, and that of any companions also taken at the time.

He parked on the street to have his car available, and tipped the valet to keep it from being towed. The doorman greeted him and he nodded firmly.

“Any visitors tonight,” Lex asked.

“Not since you left, sir.”

“If a young lady arrives, send her up immediately,” he said.

There were no messages waiting in his penthouse, just a blatant emptiness he couldn't ignore since Chloe had pointed it out. The expectant air of a home without inhabitants made the decor feel more like art installations than functional pieces. Lex often wondered why people who were barely at home had live-in servants when he did perfectly well at night, but he wished for someone to meet him at the door. No one noticed his presence or absence, and it was the same as not mattering.

He pushed away the twinge of loneliness and went into his office. His round of phone calls told him what he'd known from the country house; Lionel and Chloe were nowhere to be found. His father had elaborate rituals to guard his privacy. The very security he'd created around himself was acting against a rescue effort.

Lex authorized his spies to buy a line on where Morgan Edge did business. He told them to send out the offer for his father's safe return, as well as compensation for anyone else snatched with his father. His employees were all competent, but people were afraid of Edge. By morning, someone would be tempted. He had to hope negotiations moved quickly. He believed Lois Lane would be glad to see any Luthor in jail. She wouldn't understand the danger of reporting Chloe missing.

He sat down to wait for news, ignoring the calls that were only questions he couldn't answer. When he next spoke to someone, he wanted to have something concrete about Chloe and how he could get her back. Lex turned his chair to the window and stared out into the night.


Metropolis hadn't looked so dark to her since the first night Lois helped sneak her out past curfew, Chloe thought. Then it had been for midnight fast food indulgence, and a relatively safe walk down to the neighbourhood stores. She'd had her brash and fearsome cousin with her, and Chloe could still remember the thrill of walking out into the unknown.

She had been thirteen, and no one had ever tried to hurt her beyond playground slurs. Chloe hadn't believed anything would happen, because the world didn't work like that; people didn't hurt each other for no reason. There were wars, and crime, but she was an ordinary girl on a regular night. She was not a target.

Her rise to being Lionel's favourite was the least special she'd ever felt. She couldn't even dig up a scrap of her better moments with Lex, or her short moment of false victory.

There was no thrill, or even feeling. She had shut down bit by bit until even the danger faded for her. She needed to get away, but on foot wasn't an option. Edge would have to see her as worthless and let her go.

“I was chosen for my discretion,” she said passively, pretending to study her manicure. “I'll be missed if I don't check in soon with my agency. I assure you, gentlemen, I won't recall a thing about tonight after I'm on my way.”

Lionel made a subtle motion on the seat, but his hands remained on his drink. Chloe forced a blank smile to her lips; that of a vapid whore waiting for a tip. She knew it was risky to bring attention to herself, but they weren't going to forget about her. Her odds of surviving improved the faster she got away from all these men.

Morgan Edge nodded with a lazy glint in his eyes. His face was rugged and aged prematurely. He was bigger than Lionel by fifty pounds, probably a few years younger and certainly more muscular. The look was cloying, and it made her feel the psychic imprint of all of his body down on top of her. If he had no stake in personally, he could give her to his men like a party favour. She couldn't tell him she knew he was a murderer. It was her only power and it didn't matter unless she was alive to accuse him. Chloe had to hide that small advantage tight inside her hand, and use it to make a fist.

Her frantic alliance – the FBI, Lex's investigation, justice – was far away from the world she was in while seated in a criminal's limo.

“You're a modest girl,” Edge said fondly. “It's obvious you're much more than the entertainment. You need to come with us. We're going to the hospital.”

His words were flat and innocuous. She needed a doctor. There would be help, witnesses. Except a man like Morgan Edge didn't pick up unfortunate young women and drive them to the emergency room personally. A man like him probably sent a lot of people to the hospital, but he wouldn't be seen dropping them off. She'd be a fool to think it was that easy to be safe.

“I'm okay,” she sniffled.

The crime boss reached under the bar and came up with a baseball bat, swinging hard and fast at Lionel's middle. Chloe shrieked and ducked away, but the bat kept at Lionel until he lost his grip on the seat and fell to the carpeted floor. His body rolled away from her, so she couldn't see his face anymore. He wasn't making noise, and he was twisted unnaturally. It was impossible to tell if he was dead.

“It's too bad our friend Mr. Luthor took such a nasty fall,” Edge said, leaning the bat on his knee. He cupped his hand over the weapon and nodded. “Luckily, my driver is very good, and he'll get us to the hospital right away. I only regret my factory is so hard to find at night. Every single building looks just the same, and the ambulance would never get the right one. So easy to be lost.”

Chloe dropped any pretence of jaded courage and pulled her legs up underneath her, hugging herself as she shook.

“Please let me go! Please! I won't say anything,” she begged. “Please, I haven't done anything . . . I won't do anything to you . . . I don't care what you do to him.”

His eyes scanned her deliberately, and she could almost see cracks ruining his implacably polite mask. “It's a tragedy you're so marked by your surroundings, Miss Sullivan,” he drawled. “Everything I'd heard about you suggested a compassionate soul. Perhaps Mr. Luthor simply ground on you the wrong way. I'll try not to make the same mistake.”

Edge poured himself another drink and sipped it leisurely, casting his eyes between the warehouses outside the car and the man on the floor. He didn't look at her again.

[starmoon]

great update i can't wait for more. i just hope everything will work out in the end.

[Pufkinz]

Wow... Really happy for the beating Lionel has recieved, hope he gets some more!! I really hope, Lex's move pays off and word gets to him the minute Chloe is spotted, cause I'm geting a feeling of "out of the frying pan into the fire" situation for Chloe.

Thanks for the update!!!!!!!!!

[Kit Merlot]

I knew there was a reason I loved Morgan Edge--anyone who can casually beat down Lionel Luthor is okay in my book.

[Flyingwoman]

This is getting a little terrifying. What does Edge want from her?

[zadie]

This story is seriously dark but that only makes me love the characters more. Testing them through adversity makes for unparalleled development. Very interested to see where this is going.

Excellent work (please continue soon)

[georgee5]

So I'm caught up. Started from the beginning last night so I would remember the nuances, and OMG! I absolutely hate acronyms, and look what you just made me do I am glad you are updating again, I hope we get to read an ending to this story. It probably won't be a happily ever after, but I'm assuming it will be a dead Lionel and a Chloe & Lex on the way to mending their various hurts/pains?

And now I am off to read "Witness Protection" because Zannie kept on you about it. I'll read, and if I agree, you might have another asking you to take it off the hiatus list.