Wicked Liar by Faith Summers

Chapter Fourteen

Candace

I gaze out the window, and I have that weird sensation again, just like the other night.

Like I’m being watched.

How, though?

It's pitch-black outside, and what I’m looking at through my window is a mass of buildings over sixty feet away from me. This side of the apartment is also more private.

The sensation I get though makes me wary and I almost reach for my clothes to put them back on. The thing about it though is I’m not scared.

There’s a sexually charged vibe working its way through the air that actually makes me want to linger in my nakedness. Which is completely ridiculous. If somebody is watching me, then it can’t be anybody good.

No one is watching you, Candace.

I’m being paranoid. Paranoia is setting in again because I’m seeing Jacques tomorrow, the auction is two days away, and I can’t get Dominic out of my head. That damn kiss shouldn’t have happened. Now it has it’s screwing with my mind.

I slip into the shower for a quick wash, then slip into my bed. I switch the lights off and try to sleep but sleep doesn’t come for me the way I thought it would have given my exhaustion.

First, I was thinking about Dominic and what I’d do when I next see him, then I found myself thinking about the past and my parents. From time to time the past sneaks up on me and I get stuck on a loop in my mind.

The parents I remember loved me so much. They were kind and loving to everyone too.

People will remember my mom for her baking. Those cookies of hers were my favorite thing. They weren’t just cookies. She always had some meaning behind them that would mean something to a person. Then there was my father. He was the kind of man to do anything for you.

I just wish he didn't take that job and wish even more that Uncle Lucas hadn't been in our lives. I got that wish a little too late because he disappeared the same week my parents were murdered.

No one has seen, nor heard of him since.

He and my father couldn't have been more different. They looked similar, but that was as far as their similarities went. Papa was good and Lucas was evil. The worse thing about it though was nobody we knew saw that side of him. He was lying in wait like the snake he was to take the most precious thing my father had, my mother.

I saw the way he looked at her and knew from an early age that he was in love with her and jealous of her love for my father.

When Papa landed himself in debt, Lucas seized the opportunity to send him away.

Both my parents worked for the D’Agostinos and the Manellos. Mom was a maid and Papa a gardener. It was when the Manellos went bankrupt that things went south for us. My parents didn’t earn enough working for the D’Agostinos like in the days prior to Stormy Creek, and Papa liked to gamble. He didn’t have a gambling addiction, he just got dealt the losing hand by the wrong person and things spiraled out of control. I heard my parents arguing about it. That was how I found out that things were bad, and also how I found out Uncle Lucas was going to help.

Mom begged Papa not to take any help from him. I remember how she begged. It was the kind of begging where you just know there’s more than what meets the eye. There was.

Uncle Lucas got Papa a job that meant he’d be away for weeks on end. While he was away working at a job he thought would pay the debts off, my uncle had other things in mind for my mother.

Unknown to Papa, Lucas turned her into a prostitute.

Lucas told Mom if she slept with him and others the payment would help my father pay his debt and his life would be spared. So, she did.

And when I made the mistake of running into the truth, Uncle Lucas punished me in the vilest of ways, over and over again.

No...

I mustn't think about that.

I mustn't remember.

Bringing my hand to my head I furrow my brows and squeeze my eyes shut as I push those thoughts away.

It's been years since any kind of thought like that entered my mind. Sometimes I can almost, almost forget what he did to me.

Almost.

Years ago, I thought if I could just forget, then maybe the threads of time would forget too, and it would be like it never happened.

Therapists classified me as having severe anxiety, OCD, and PTSD after my parents' deaths. However, nobody knows what I experienced before they died.

I roll onto my side and push the memories out of my head. I can’t think about the past tonight, and not when the present is so unstable.

My present world has been rocked off kilter by the one man who’s managed to baffle me all my life. If there’s one thing that’s consistent about Dominic, it’s that.

I manage to settle and fall asleep, but it feels like I've barely rested when my alarm goes off.

I feel like a zombie when I finally roll into work and the first thing I see is an email from Massimo asking to meet in his office in an hour.

Since he doesn’t usually request impromptu meetings, I know it’s probably going to be something else. He’ll either want to talk to me to see how I’m doing, or it will be to do with something that might be going on. Whichever it is I need to go in with a clear mind.

I sit in my chair and my thoughts go to the little angel in my bag. Taking it out I look at it and once again think about that kiss yesterday. I wish there were some magical way I could heal my heart. There isn’t though. Not when it comes to Dominic D’Agostino, because my heart belongs to him and that’s not a good thing for me.

* * *

“I need you to adjust my diary,” Massimo says, leaning back against his chair. “I have to move all my low priority meetings a month ahead.”

As he looks over at me sitting opposite him, a thin line of worry tenses his jaw and I know he's stressed out. Instantly, I know this meeting is about the trouble that sent Dominic home.

“A month?” I raise my brows and widen my eyes.

“Yeah, looks like I’m going to be spending a lot of time outside the office. And I might need you around for some special meetings.”

“Of course,” I answer.

Special means secret. That is why he keeps my job separate from Jenna, his secretary. While she does the standard things a secretary would normally do, I take care of the other parts of the business that only someone he trusts can do.

“What’s happening, Massimo?” I ask, hoping he'll tell me more than he did nights ago.

He presses his lips together and thinks for a moment. “We don’t have anything concrete yet, but that's what's worrying me. We can't find anything, and I don't want any nasty surprises like the past."

He seems so different now from the guy I grew up with, the guy who saved me. I’ve watched him turn into this leader he is where he tries to take care of everyone. I can see worry has gotten to him now because things are different in his life with the little family he has.

“You’ll figure something out.” I nod with conviction.

“Thanks. I'm trying." He inclines his head to the side and his gaze clings to mine. "How are you feeling today?”

I set my shoulders back and sit straighter against the chair. “I’m okay.”

“Dominic might be my brother, but I hope you know you can talk to me.”

“I know,” I answer confidently.

“You loved him, Candace. When he left, I watched you pick yourself up like you always do and start over. I don’t want you to fall apart again and not when I’m here to help.”

“That’s sweet of you.”

He laughs. “You and I both know I am not sweet.”

“You are for me. I think… when it comes to Dominic, the best thing I can do is leave things as they are.” Those words feel wrong, especially after that kiss yesterday. Leaving things as they are is definitely not a reflection of what my heart wants, but my heart has a way of landing me in trouble.

“Is that because of Jacques? You seem to like him.”

God… please don’t strike me dead for allowing my oldest friend to believe a lie. What should I say now?

“He... likes me,” I state, and that’s not a lie. People can see Jacques is interested in me.

What I feel bad for is possibly hiding information. The problem in this circle we revolve in is no one is ever truly good. Jacques might be fine for business, but he might have a link to the past I need. That link doesn’t affect Massimo.

“Maybe that’s what you need right now. Someone like that to be fond of you.”

“Maybe.” I attempt a smile.

"When are you seeing him again?"

"He's taking me to lunch."

He smiles at that. "Two dates in a week. It sounds serious."

"I'll see what happens."

“I'm glad you like him. Be careful, though, Candace." The caution that seeps into his eyes catches my attention. "I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn’t tell you to be careful. He has the green light from me, but like me, Jacques is no ordinary man.”

“I will be careful. I promise I will." I already had every intention of being as careful as I could be with Jacques, but it looks like Massimo has something more on his mind. “You trust him, don't you? You wouldn't want him to join the Syndicate if you didn't trust him, right?"

Massimo draws in a steady breath and rests his hands on the table. "Over the last few years, I've turned away powerful alliances who wanted to be part of the Syndicate. They could have been good for business. I realized that I kept doing that because trust has a deeper meaning for me and the handful of people I actually trust are already there. To have the vision we want, I knew I couldn't keep turning good people away. Jacques is the first person who's come along to sway me. He has everything I'd want in someone to join us, everything we'd need to start building in strength. So, trust doesn't really have a part in this, because I don't know him. What I know is he would be an asset to us."

That tells me everything I need to know and cements my reasons for not wanting to ruin a good business relationship. "Well, I trust you know what you're doing."

"I hope so. It’s a big deal for me, that's why I’m eager to get past the shit troubling us.”

"I understand that completely. You focus on what you need to and don't worry about me. I'll be okay."

“Just promise me you'll come to me if you want to talk.” Kindness and warmth are what I see when I look at him. Qualities he doesn’t show everybody but has always shown me.

"I promise."

"Good."

I stand. “I guess I’d better get started on my work. See you later.”

“See you.”

I make my way back to my office and consider what Massimo said about Jacques. He'll be here soon to meet me, and nervousness is gnawing away at my insides.

This is the first time in my life that I'll be doing something so risky and uncertain. And so unlike me. I wonder though what would happen if I'm right.

What if Jacques can lead me to Richard Fenmoir and I find out he was the man who sent those men to my home to kill my family?

What if by finding that out I open a box in hell that was supposed to remain closed?

That information Papa took got him and Mom killed, and I've never been able to find anything at all to get justice for their deaths.

I'm not stupid. Nothing is ever that hard to find, and not when you have the best people, with unorthodox methods searching for answers. The reason no one can find anything was always going to be that someone worked hard to keep it that way.

I already know that anything I do could spell danger for me if I dig too deep.

All these years, no one has come looking for me.

I won’t be a fool and think it went unnoticed that I escaped death. I went to live with the D’Agostinos. That means being under their care and protection. I know that’s what kept me safe, and probably still does, along with the fact that the man who killed my parents wore a mask. He never knew I’d previously seen his face. I think if he knew I wouldn’t be here today.

When it comes to my parents' deaths, I know anybody would help me in a heartbeat, but I have to be sure about what I’m looking into.

Of course… if I find out that Richard Fenmoir is the man responsible for my parents’ deaths, I wouldn’t deal with that part on my own, and I wouldn’t care what that would mean for Jacques.

I just hope he's not dangerous. If he is that would land me in a different kind of trouble. I'm only telling myself he can't be if Gibbs checked him out and came back with nothing amidst.

When I get to my office I rearrange Massimo’s diary like he requested, rescheduling a month ahead. It takes me all morning.

Jacques is supposed to meet me for lunch in five minutes so I start putting my things away. A knock sounds at my door when I stand to grab my jacket.

“Come in,” I call out.

As the door swings open my heart stills when I look at Dominic. He walks in, eyes glued on me, but his face is unreadable.

“We need to talk,” he says, cutting past pleasantries.

“Unless if it’s about work, I don’t think we should.”

He bares his teeth, then his lips part to answer me but another knock on the door steals his words.

Damn it, that’s supposed to be Jacques.

“Come in,” I say and sure enough it’s him.

The look Dominic gives him when he walks in actually scares me, reminding me who he is.

D’Agostinos Inc. is a reputable company, but not many people know it’s run by mafia men who are as ruthless as they are merciless. That was the reminder I got from that one look Dominic gave Jacques.

“I’m sorry I hope I didn’t interrupt anything,” Jacques says looking more at me than Dominic.

“No, I’m ready to go,” I answer.

“Actually we were talking,” Dominic cuts in like the asshole he can be.

“No, we were not. That discussion was over,” I shoot back.

“No… it was not over. We are not over,” he says and I don’t miss the inference he’s making.

“Perhaps I can come back a bit later,” Jacques says, not missing the meaning either.

Panic races through me when I see the dark jealousy in his eyes.

My God, no… I can’t allow him to be jealous, and not of Dominic. Dominic is messing with my plans, emotionally and physically. I can’t blow my chances with Jacques in the auction.

“No, we can go now,” I cut in before Dominic can talk. I can see him gearing up to tell Jacques to fuck off or something like that. “Dominic I’m going on a lunch date with Mr. Belmont. I’m sure you can talk to Massimo about whatever it is you need to talk to me about. I know you wouldn’t want to cause any upset to a client Massimo considers respectable.”

That does it. It calms him down. He’s like me when it comes to Massimo. He won’t want to mess up business relations.

“No, I wouldn’t,” Dominic replies. “Enjoy your date. I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Nice to see you again Mr. D’Agostino,” Jacques says. The smugness on his face infuriates me, and Dominic.

The crude expression Dominic gives me and the hardened stare Jacques throws back makes me feel like I'm caught between two well-dressed predators who want to fight to the death over their prey.

“And you,” Dominic finally answers.

Jacques turns back to me and gives me his arm. “Mademoiselle, ready when you are.”

I take his arm and I don’t look back as we walk out.

My heart pounds in my chest a thousand miles an hour as I process what just happened, and what Dominic said.

He said we weren’t over.

Aren’t we?