The Deception series boxset: FaCade, Cadence, Beneath Innocence (46 page)

Her image appeared on the screen.

“I hope you’re watching this, Cade. I found a bug in my phone and Dante warned me he has someone in our inner circle working for him. I don’t know who to trust. I hope you remember the box I kept our most precious memories in and understood my clue. Well, obviously you did or you wouldn’t be looking at me now.”

She giggled, the sound lighting my heart.

“People can take your soul and destroy it. They can break down your will. Break your body, your heart, but our memories are precious and the foundation of who we are. I told you when you asked if Dante raped me that it was complicated. He raped me of you, us, me, my memories. I was so lost with no connection to who I was. I woke up seeing everything in black and white and only a sadistic, lying predator to fill in the color and he did it with watercolors, blurring the images to the reality.”

Her beautiful eyes filled with tears, the mass of them spilling over the edge until she swiped at them angrily and smiled sadly.

“I sensed you, though, despite it all. I sensed I was missing someone deep in the soul of me and I should have been stronger for you. I will never forgive myself for being so easily manipulated.”

She sighed, lowering her eyes in shame. “God damn it, Faye! You have nothing to be ashamed of!” I shouted at the screen, angry that she wasn’t real and couldn’t actually hear me.

“I love you, Cade, so damn much but I need to go back to find and destroy the horrible tapes he has of me and I need to take him down so he can’t ever come after you for loving me. I’m so sorry. It was all more lies and tricks, the pregnancy. I found out I’m not pregnant. He has a woman, Delia, she is a doctor. I believe she has been injecting this hormone into me. God, how screwed up is all this, Cade? How did we get here? It’s all so surreal. I would give anything to be back on that beach with you slipping your ring down that thread. I know that thread is broken now. Please forgive me.”

She wasn’t pregnant and she was there on her own trying to take him down.

My cell trilled, making me jump. I swiped the tears soaking my cheeks and brought the phone to my ear. “Hey, man, Alex is missing.”

“What?”

“And that’s not all . . . Blue’s awake.”

“I’m on my way.”

IT MADE EVERY PART OF me clench up when I passed through the doors to Blue’s hospital room. I had avoided this like the plague. I felt the guilt infested in every fiber of me. I was the reason she was in there.

Her face had gone down from the swelling but the bruising painted every inch of her skin. I walked over to her bed and placed my hand down on hers. She was trembling. Tears filled her startling blue eyes. I could see the rest of Beneath Innocence sitting in the back of the room, and Jenson standing by her bedside

“I’m so sorry, Blue. He will pay with his life for this.”

Her hand slipped from under mine and she slowly reached for the table that came over her bed with a piece of paper and pen resting on it. Her hand trembled as she attempted to write something down.

Frank . . . Frank . . . Frank!

“You want Frank?” What the hell, she hardly knew him.

The whole bed shook from the rattle of her tremor, her head trying to shake. I placed my hands down on her hips trying to stop her from panicking but had the opposite effect; an inhumane cry retched from her. “No . . . please!” her muffled cries called out despite her fractured jaw.

Jenson pulled me away roughly. “You can’t touch her anywhere but the hand, Cade.” He was torn up and I felt every ache with him. They had destroyed the woman he loved. “When I asked her who did this to her.” He swiped at a few stray tears and came close with gritted teeth. “She kept writing Frank, Cade!” My vision blurred as sickness rose in my stomach. No way, Frank adored Faye. He was capable of a lot, but brutal rape? My head was buzzing, blurring out the room.

“Where the fuck is he, Cade?” I couldn’t speak, memories flashed in my head from all the years Frank had worked as Faye’s number one. “Where is he?” Jenson’s hands fisted my shirt. He was desperate and breaking just like me.

“He said he needed to take some time off. He said he couldn’t handle that Faye willingly left.” I shook my head, her words echoing back at me, ‘
Dante warned me he has someone in our inner circle working for him.’

I turned to single out Kenny. “On that payroll list?”

Kenny shook his head. “There was no Frank.”

I closed my eyes and counted to three to stop my jaw from cracking my teeth. “What about a Jeffery Franklin Morgan?”

I knew when his pupils dilated and his shoulders stiffened.

“Fuck!” A growl ripped from Jenson’s lips. “He’s dead, Cade, him and Dante. We need a plan.” I nodded in agreement.

Adam, the drummer for Beneath Innocence, stood from his chair and came over to us. “Look I know Cade and you used to dabble in the underground fighting scene and shit, but fuck, Jenson, we’re a rock band and Cade’s a movie star. We were and still are well out of our depth. Look at what they’re capable of.” He was scared and rightly so but he wasn’t safe all the time Dante and Frank still breathed air.

“We need help,” Jenson said, nodding at me.

“Who the fuck can we ask to help us kill people! Fuck, I don’t know if I could even be a part of this.” Adam said, pacing the floor.

“You
are
a part of this! You’re one of us, and look at my woman, Adam.” Jenson pointed to Blue. “I don’t care what we have to do or who we have to hire to help us do it. I will do Frank myself! And I want the others who helped him. I won’t rest until I make them pay.”

We all startled when a man’s voice boomed into the room. “I’m glad to hear that! And no hiring necessary. I will give you the men you need. I get to kill this Frank, that’s my only condition.” A greying man, easily six foot six stood inside the door, his expensive suit a contrast against the rugged beard and tattoos creeping up his neck.

“Who are you?”

“Daddy.” A broken whisper came from Blue and then a wince and a moan of pain.

“She doesn’t tell people about me and avoids me best she can. But she is my baby and those disgusting parasites have no idea whose wrath they have brought upon themselves.”

FRANK! THE MAN WHO HAD been my bodyguard for all these years . . . he had been more than that. He was like a father to me, and all the time he was a spy for Dante. How long had Dante been planning this fucked up game of his?

Frank picked Delia up and slung her over his shoulder like she was a meat sack, blood dripping from her.

I ran back to my room, only just making it back to the toilet, and retched again. Was it Frank who had brought Alex here? How was I going to get him out of there?

“Faye!”

I bolted upright from the sound of Frank’s voice, turning to peer at him standing at the bathroom door watching me. “What?”

“Thought you should know, Dante paid more. It’s as simple as that. Debts need paying.”

“Fuck you, Frank. I let you live in my house! I fucking cared about you!”

“I know and I still do care about you, princess. It’s just business, but it doesn’t mean I don’t care about you, because I do.”

I laughed. “Are you for real right now?” He shrugged, a blasé expression on his face. I narrowed my eyes. “Both you and Theo. Fuck. You do know what he did to me?”

His face darkened and he pursed his lips. “Yes, and he paid. Dante made sure he paid. We never wanted to hurt you, Faye, but you humiliated Dante. What the fuck did you expect him to do, smile and roll over? This is Dante, he doesn’t take any shit, you know that.”

My mouth fell open and I shook my head sadly. “Jesus Christ! You’re all insane! Are you taking the same shit as him? We were kids for God’s sake”

He sighed, rolling his eyes as if bored with me and walked away. I’d never seen this side to Frank. His betrayal hurt more than Dante’s did. We’d spent holidays and vacations together with him and his wife; if it was his real wife. I wasn’t sure what was real anymore. Only that I was fucked.

I refused to accept that. Dante thought I was still his timid Star, the girl he’d met in school who had bowed down to him every time, taken his mood swings and still loved him for it. Hell, I’d killed my soul when I terminated our baby, just to give him a chance at life.

It was all insane. How the hell did they expect to get away with it?

My stomach ached when I thought of Cade. I hoped he’d found the disc. I knew he wouldn’t understand but I needed to tell him, to try and explain.

Pushing myself off the floor and walking back into the bedroom, I rubbed at my face. I was so tired. I ached everywhere; my head constantly pounded and my eyes were sore from so much crying.

I needed a plan. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, let Dante do this to me, and to Cade. Cade didn’t deserve this, he had been nothing but supportive after Dante disappeared, never overstepping the line with me until eighteen months later when neither of us could ignore our feelings. And even then we’d fought it in respect for what Dante and I had once had.

I barked out a laugh at that thought.

“You okay?”

I jumped as Malik’s quiet voice came from behind me.

Turning around, I quirked a brow at him but said nothing. He stepped into my bedroom, his eyes low to the floor. “Look, Star . . .”

“My name is Faye!” I shouted at him. “Why the fuck won’t anyone listen to me!”

“Faye. I just . . .” He sighed, his face tightening slightly as he closed the door behind him and walked over to me, slowly perching on the edge of my bed.

“I never thought he would go this far,” he whispered, both of us aware of the cameras. “I thought he was just going to tie you up, humiliate you. I never . . .”

“Oh, come on, Malik!” I hissed, looking at him with disgust. “You allowed it to happen! You were a crucial part of this fucked up plan. You’re as bad as he is!”

He nodded. “I’m not excusing myself, at all, and I’ll be honest, if Dante hadn’t killed Theo, I would have. I’m far from innocent.” He looked at me, guilt written across his face as his hand slid over mine. “I just, I dunno, nothing has ever made me feel this conflicted before. I just want you to know that if you need a friend . . . I know life is going to be nothing but hard for you and well, well I’m here if . . .” he lowered his voice, his cheeks tinged with a red flush, “ . . . if you ever need to talk or just a hug.”

I couldn’t hold onto my eyebrows as they shot into my hairline. Snatching my hand back I glared at him. “I needed a hug when I was hung from the hook in that room for days. I needed a hug when Dante first manipulated me and turned me against myself. I needed a hug when Dante hit me, when he abused me, when he . . . when he hurt me.” I couldn’t hold back the tears, the river spilling from me as I moved away from Malik when he tried to take my hand again. “Where were your hugs then, Malik?” I spat.

“I know, and I’m sorry. You have to understand, none of us got the real version of events. Dante told us you’d been with Cade behind his back for months; you’d aborted his baby because you wanted to be with Cade. I know he believed all this, but he made us believe it too, Faye.”

I looked at the floor, unable to process his sudden need to repent. “Even if I fucked half the school behind his back, nothing justifies this. I didn’t ever go behind his back, I loved him but we were kids.” I put my hand up when he opened his mouth to reply. “I’m tired, Malik.”