The Deception series boxset: FaCade, Cadence, Beneath Innocence (29 page)

FAYE. GOD, SHE WAS THERE again in my dreams, so vivid I could smell her scent.

“Argh!”

I smothered my face in her pillow, the one I TRAVELED with. I didn’t give a fuck if that made me a pussy. Yeah, I was a film star but I was also human and I was dying inside without her.

My body wept and my heart beat out of my chest. I wanted the crippling throb to ease so I could focus on anything but the hole in the pit of my stomach that swallowed another piece of me every day I woke up without her. I wanted to be set free from the constant ache I’d felt since the day they told me her plane went down.

I loved her then, and my love for her now was killing me slowly.

Men are funny creatures. We love fiercely when we find the right woman. Family, friends . . . none of it matters when you have the one. We fly the nest and our love and life, our
everything,
revolves around the love we harbor for our woman. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my family and friends but if it came down to a choice she would have won every time.

I didn’t need anyone but her. Men don’t need much to function. It’s true what they say; you only need the love of a good woman. I had that and lost it.

I couldn’t believe she was gone. If she was dead I would have felt it, I would have ceased to exist. I was barely existing now; an apparition of my former self. I was breathing but not really present in the world. My heart was dying. There was still a beat but no sound.

Thoughts tore at my mind. Was she scared? The sound of the crash, the twisting and crunching of metal, the whooshing of air as it was sucked from the cabin, the heat from the fire that lit up the engine on impact. My beautiful girl; scared, screaming and crying. Did she think about me as fear took hold of her and held her in its grip?

They found no bodies. They said the fire was too bad and refused to allow us the pictures. I knew my woman was still out there. My soul was tethered to hers and it still sensed her essence. I would find her. I would never rest until I found her.

My phone buzzed, startling me. I reached across the bed and grabbed my cell. My best friend, Jenson, had finally text.

I have someone willing to take us to the location of the crash site. Be ready in one hour

At last, progress. I would start there.

AN HOUR LATER I WAITED outside my hotel room for Jenson. I pulled my baseball cap further down over my sunglasses and tightened the hoody so my lips and nose were barely on show. I looked like a weirdo but that meant people stayed away. I couldn’t risk being recognized by a fan.

I ignored the heat as it soaked into the black fibers and made sweat pool in every pore. I sighed in relief when Jenson pulled up in a van, until he gestured for me to get in the back. My brow scrunched but I was too anxious to argue. I opened the door and got in.

A scrawny guy sat in the back looking like someone was about to jump out and shank him. He was nervous, his eyes moving rapidly, his teeth worrying his bottom lip.

I shut the door and ignored the guy itching at his arm like something was crawling under his skin. I was in the film industry and Jenson was a famous rock star. I knew a tweaker when I was shut in a van with one.

“Please tell me you’re not our tour guide?”

He looked up at me, then away, shaking his head. “No tour needed, sir.” Sir? I didn’t think anyone had ever called me
sir
before. I waved my hand in a continue gesture. I was being irritated at breakneck speed. “I work out in the field where this plane crash happened. It’s a vineyard. I pick grapes, sir. We were told not to come into work that day but I left something there the day before and I needed it, so I crept in.” His eyes kept darting to the door like he was waiting for it to fly open. What the hell was he scared of? His hand went back to tearing into his flesh. “A plane landed in the field, it was amazing. I have never seen a plane up close before.”

My heart was on a rampage, raging war with my ribcage. “When you say
landed,
you mean crashed?”

He stared straight at me, his eyes finding focus as he leaned forward. “There was no crash, sir. The plane landed perfectly and a car came. Men went on board and came out with a woman. She was unconscious and then they placed her in the car.”

My woman, my fiancée, the love of my life was alive . . . but taken, which meant she could be found and whoever had stolen what was mine would die painfully, choking on his own blood.

I couldn’t breathe. The anger, fear and relief all bombarded me at once. There was no air. My phone vibrated against my leg, grounding me. I slipped it free but the number was unknown.

“Who’s this?”

I heard a gasp then a drop of the phone. Then . . . her!

“I’m sorry. I’m going to get ready now.”

I scrambled to loosen the hood, pulling off my hat and glasses, trying to suck in oxygen. My Faye.

“Faye . . . Faye . . .”

The line was dead.

The tweaker’s audible gasp brought me back. God, of course he would recognize me, fucking figures. Why was he scrambling for the door? Usually they scrambled towards me.

Turning to me, his head shook from side to side as his wide eyes filled with fear and confusion. “You were there. Is this a test? Please don’t kill me.”

Shit, he was tripping out on something; a bad batch of whatever he pumped into those veins. He was so pale you’d have thought the Devil had appeared to him.

“Dude, relax, you’re about to stroke out.” I moved towards him but he flinched and started crying. I banged on the adjoining wall to get Jenson’s attention.

I heard his door open and close before the back of the van opened. The tweaker spilled free, landing in a heap at Jenson’s feet. “It is him! He killed Rahul and stole the woman!”

It took five seconds for it to register. A further two for me to collapse to my knees. And one more before his name left my lips in disbelief. My brother . . . my twin brother . . . ”Dante!”

‘PLEASE FUCK ME, MR. TROY.’

‘Please fuck me, Mr. Troy.’

‘Please fuck me, Mr. Troy.’

My insides were disintegrating, I was dying. He wasn’t lying. It was all there like a horror movie playing back at me. The pleasure on my face a betrayal to Cade, to us, to what we were to become. Did I deserve this? I knew loving Cade after loving Dante would cause people to talk, but no one knew what we went through. No one knew how much it hurt when he left and never looked back, and all for what? A misunderstanding. I waited. I shouldered the guilt of what I felt needed to be done for Dante to have a better future and this was what he had done with it.

He was so far gone. Broken beyond repair. He functioned on depravity, humiliation, power and retribution for something that never even happened. What a waste of life, of a son, a brother and a man I would have loved forever.

“Turn it off. You’ve made your point!”

I glowered and he gestured to Malik with a chin jerk to turn it off, his grip on my arm loosening to release me. My mind was retelling my entire life in snap shots blinking image after image, memories happy and sad rapidly into the forefront of my mind causing a headache to form. I needed to be away from him. I needed to let this all sink in and I needed a plan because there was no way in hell I was marrying him and giving him a child to raise.