Wicked Liar by Faith Summers

Chapter Thirty-Four

Candace

It’s dark. So dark, but I can hear them.

There are voices of men in the house.

I can hear Mom too, crying.

The men come at this time every night when Papa's not here.

He doesn't know.

They come for her, and they come for me.

Uncle Lucas comes for me, and sometimes he’s not alone.

I foolishly thought if I went back to doing as I was told, he’d leave me alone.

He hasn’t though since that night, and since then I can’t sleep. I can’t eat.

My bedroom door creeks open and I hear him breathing. I grip the sheets and press my body into my bed. Tears sting the backs of my eyes when footsteps echo against the floorboards. They get closer and closer.

“Little whore, I know you’re not sleeping,” Uncle Lucas taunts. “Get the fuck up.”

Another man comes into the room when I sit up. I can’t see their faces and the other man doesn’t speak.

It’s just Uncle Lucas giving his command.

A faint light goes on and I see his face.

Like the monster he is, he grabs my throat and I scream.

“Your mother is a whore and so are you," he snarls, barring his teeth. "You little bitch. We’re going to have you tonight.”

As his hand clamps tighter around my throat and my clothes are ripped from my body, I scream and scream and scream.

Then suddenly I see them, my parents.

They’re dead.

Their bodies are on the ground.

My mother burned.

My father headless.

I jump out of the nightmare and land in Dominic’s arms, crying so hard I can’t catch my breath.

“Candace, baby, I got you. Angel, I got you. You are safe,” he mutters, holding me.

I hold on to him so tight, but it’s like I can’t get close enough. I can’t feel safe enough even though he mutters those words over and over again.

“You are safe.”

Dominic holds me just like that until the soft rays of sunlight peek through the windows, and I cry until I have no voice left.

It’s been years since I had such a terrible nightmare. This is the result of simply seeing Uncle Lucas' name written on a notepad and hearing Dominic was looking for him. This is what happens to me at the mere mention of that man's name.

Nobody would ever know what he put me through.

Uncle Lucas is never far from my thoughts, but I try to push him out of my mind as best as I can, battling between thinking and not thinking. It's something I've mastered over the years, but every now and again I stumble and fall. What happens when I bring those painful memories to the surface of my mind is this. I fall apart. This feels different though because nobody was actively searching for him before.

Dominic said Uncle Lucas loved me. I didn't know how I didn't vomit on hearing such an absurdly laughable comment I know not even he believed. After my parents' deaths, Uncle Lucas looked like he left town because he was scared. As time went on though people looked down on him because he abandoned me. Dominic would have thought that too, but he was just being nice last night.

It's been easier to forget everything Uncle Lucas did to me because of his absence in my life. Now the prospect of him coming back is cutting into me.

What if Dominic finds him and I have to face him?

I don't know if I could.

What if Dominic finds out what I did with him, or rather what he did to me?

I wince, as bile rises in my stomach. He must never know. I can't tell him. I don't want anyone to know.

Definitely not Dominic. What would he think of me?

Maybe he won't want me anymore...

“Candace…” Dominic pulls away to examine me and cups my face. “How are you feeling?”

I dab at my eyes and try to compose myself, but it doesn't work. I can barely look at him through my puffy eyes.

"I'm okay."

"I can see you aren't. Baby, what were you dreaming about?"

I shake my head. "I can't talk about it." It's the first time I've ever said that, and he looks as worried as I expect.

We were supposed to go to work today but I don't think I can. I don't even have the strength to fake being okay. When I lay down, he strokes my hair.

"You're worrying me, Angel. What's going on with you?" Dominic asks.

"I don't feel well."

"What do you need?"

I meet his questioning stare. In the bright sunlight, his blue eyes remind me of the sea again. The sea in Sicily. It's so blue and beautiful. Warm and inviting. You could sit and watch the rolling waves rise in each crescendo, and listen to the wavering winds sing to you. I feel the same magic when I look at him.

"You," I answer, and he lowers next to me.

Carefully, he places a kiss on my forehead and pulls me closer. The steady, controlled rhythm of his heart beating in the steel cage of his chest is what soothes me and I fall asleep again.

When I wake, it looks like the early hours of the morning, like the sun is just about to rise.

Dominic isn't next to me. I can hear him though, talking on the phone outside the room.

Determined not to have another day like yesterday, I shuffle out of bed and pull on one of my baggy t-shirts and shorts.

I walk out of the room and see him standing by the long French Windows at the end of the landing. He's shirtless, and the inky black Bavarian dragon on his back looks more pronounced against the contrast of shadows and sunlight.

He turns at the echo of my footsteps, and a warm smile spreads over his handsome face.

"She's up, Massimo. Call you later," he says into the phone and ends the call. "Morning, Angel."

"Good morning," I answer and meet his lips when he comes closer to kiss me.

It's amazing how we feel like that couple we never were and wanted to be.

"You slept all day baby, you must be hungry."

I'm not hungry, but I feel the weakness in my body normally associated with a lack of eating.

"Yeah, I'll get something before we head out."

A lock of his slick black hair drifts over his eye when he tilts his head to the side and regards me with a riveting stare. "No. I'm going to cook you something amazing, and you're going to stay here today. Cory will watch you. I won't be gone for too long. We have one of those special meetings I need to attend."

That sounds like the same type of meeting Massimo needed me for too. I usually take the minutes and note down anything important they discuss. I definitely have to go.

"I want to go to work today. Dominic, I need to be at that meeting too if it's of the special variety. Besides, I haven't left the house in days."

With his lips pressed together, he continues to stare at me and I know he has questions about my sudden strange behavior.

"Is there any chance you're going to tell me what's wrong with you? I know you aren't okay. Are you worried about the Richard Fenmoir situation or what I found regarding your father and uncle?"

I ignore the quiver of nerves that flutter in my belly. "Yes. Yes, to all of it. I get like this sometimes and it's the first in a long time I've had to think about the past." There was no part of that explanation that was a lie. I just haven't told him everything.

"Okay, will it help to go to work? Massimo is cool if you need time off. I told him you weren't feeling well."

"I want to go, and I like helping you guys."

He dips his head. "Alright, well I'll go cook while you get ready."

"Thank you."

* * *

We get to work at nine and prepare for the meeting.

Massimo has it scheduled for half an hour's time.

When I got in with Dominic, I was grateful neither Massimo nor Tristan looked at me in any way that made me feel bad about the auction. Because I was so embarrassed, though, I made myself scarce and headed straight up to the meeting room.

I get everything ready. The room we use is small. It's on the top floor of the building and used to be a storage room.

Inside there are no cameras, no phones, no windows, just the door.

There's nothing in here that can be used to spy or listen in. The meeting room the Syndicate meets in is similar, just bigger in size to accommodate the members. I am not allowed in those meetings for anything. While Massimo may trust me to do this, it's not expected or required for the others to do so.

I've never complained because, to be honest, those guys make me nervous. Not that anything is wrong with them. It's just who they are that unnerves me.

At nine-thirty, Massimo, Tristan, Dominic, and Aiden come into the room and sit around the little table. I always sit next to Massimo.

The only equipment we have here is a computer that's not connected to the buildings' Wi-Fi, and an overhead projector.

"Okay, guys, let's begin," Massimo says, and I pull out my notebook. "It's been nearly two weeks since we learned about the Order, and since then a few things have happened."

I have no idea what or who the Order is but I start taking notes. My job isn't to ask questions. Often I piece things together and try to figure out what might be happening from there.

"Today I want us to start by looking at everything we have so far and assess what we might be missing," Massimo adds.

At that Dominic switches on the overhead projector. The computer screen on the wall that's linked to it comes on at the same time.

"These are our guys," Dominic says, and the screen starts populating with men who undoubtedly look like criminals.

One picture after another comes on. Each man has that look that screams beware and stay the fuck away. I can tell from the same look that they aren't like the men I'm in the company of. There's nothing honorable in their eyes. Just a hardened, soulless gaze.

There are four of them on the screen so far with their names under their pictures. Kazimir, Karl, Bradford, and Federico. When the fifth man's image populates the screen and I recognize him, sheer, black fright sweeps through me and seizes my heart.

"Oh my God," I breathe out and bolt to my feet. My hands fly up to my mouth as I scan over the image of the man before me.

Those dark, cold eyes that remind me of a vulture stare back at me and I can't believe what I'm seeing. Just like the first time I saw him, I take in the sharpness in his profile and the hardness in his face.

His name is Tobias. That's what it says there.

Instantly, I remember the list of names on Dominic's notebook. Federico Santana and Tobias Navarro were two he'd listed.

Tobias Navarro...

That's him. My parents' killer.

Tobias Navarro.

After all these years I have his name.

The last time I saw this man, he ordered my death.

"Do what you want with her and get rid of the body after."That's what he said just after he shot my mother and cut off my father's head.

Panic, unlike I've ever known, closes up my throat, cutting off the air to my lungs and I start to shake and cry, just like that night so long ago.

I only look away from the face of my parents' killer when Dominic takes hold of my shoulders.

It's strange, as I look at him, we could be there again. Back at the night when my parents died. He held me then too, and all I could do was scream and cry.

"Candace, what's wrong?" he asks.

"That's... him," I stutter. "He killed my parents. It's him, Dominic. He did it."

As soon as the words fall from my lips, Dominic's eyes snap wide.

Massimo and Tristan are at my side, Aiden comes over with a glass of water.

I don't get to see or say anything more, what little air remained in my lungs leaves, and then I'm falling into darkness.