Page 74 of Beautiful Liar

Cold steel met my skin just under my ear and I stiffened. I could fight Luca but that would mean giving away my position and I didn’t think the two morons with Tomás would wait until I beat the fuck out of Luca before attacking me. So I waited for Luca’s play.

“Go save him,” he whispered.

Slowly, I reached for the blade. Fucker handed it to me sharp edge first. By the time I wrapped my finger around the hilt, Luca had melted back into the darkness.

I didn’t know Luca’s game but took the offering anyway. Sabriel had Tomás in front of him, gagged and zip tied. I almost lost my shit then and there. Tomás’s eyes were wide, face painted with blood. I needed to end these fuckers for touching what was mine. Death would be too quick.

Balancing the dagger in my hand, I broke cover.

Kade’s attention veered to me first, his hand already reaching behind him for an unseen weapon. Stupid motherfuckers. In a quick jerk, I launched the blade. It sang through the air landing on its mark. Kade’s head whipped back, the blade deep into his left eye. Before he hit the ground, I was already moving. Sabriel was faster. Already pulling out his weapon. But his fate was sealed the moment he pushed Tomás to safety to get a two-handed grip on his chrome Smith & Wesson. I stomped my foot onto the trip plate and lunged into Tomás, taking him down just as the spiked mace swung down, grazing my elbow. It slammed into Sabriel, impaling him against the rock wall at his back. The mace didn’t swing back.

I lifted myself to look at Tomás. His face pale, eyes wide, blood from a wound at his temple. “Are you okay?” Before I thought about how stupid that question sounded, it’d already pushed out of my throat.

He shook his head. The gag still in his mouth. Eyes tearing up. Of course he wasn’t okay. Not yet. There was still onethreat to consider. And I felt his approach this time.

I spun, catching Luca by surprise. I slammed into his hips, forcing the air out of his lungs. But the fucker was slimy as fuck. Something pinged on the floor. A knife or a gun, I didn’t bother to look. Maybe Luca was the enemy, maybe he wasn’t, but I was fucking tired of his games.

On the ground, he scissored his legs and kicked at my Achilles heel, forcing me on my ass as he popped onto his feet. I spun my body, ready for the attack, thinking he’d go after me.

Nope.

The fucker went for Tomás, had him in front of him with a blade to his throat just as I got to my feet. If I thought I didn’t love Tomás, this fucking emotion strangling me said otherwise. That was the truth I’d fight for. That was the truth I’d give anything for.

And Luca knew it.

Luca spat a wad of blood on the ground. The face paint brought out the hard edges on his face making him look fucking insane. Still gagged, his hands zip tied behind him, Tomás couldn’t do anything.

“Let him go and I won’t fight you,” I said, taking a step closer.

Luca cocked his head, his curious eyes on me. Separating the two halves of Luca Mancini had been something everyone struggled with. The whispered rumors of his insanity, trying to kill his own mother, being put in a mental institution, on meds, tearing the wings off butterflies. But how he masked himself to the world while on kills had fascinated me. A transformation from a civilized lie, to who he allowed himself to be wearing the paint. This was Luca. Standing in front of me. Trying to make sense of his world.

The paint set him free.

And that put fear in my heart. Free men were the mostdangerous. They had everything to lose. I wondered what Luca had to lose. What he cared for, fought for. I knew the fuck it wasn’t Alessandro or his family.

“Do you remember what you asked me back at the bar?” I asked, ignoring the scared as shit look on Tomás’s face. The warning of me to stop my approach in his large brown eyes. “You were right. I lied. The correct answer to your question is yes.”I love him.

I didn’t need to elaborate. Luca knew exactly what I meant and what I would do to save what was mine.

Luca pressed the edge of the blade deeper into Tomás’s throat. Blood pooled around the steel, dripped down his throat. I stopped moving. “I’m done with your games, Kieran,” Luca said. “Face down. Hands behind your back.”

Seeing no other way to save Tomás, I did as the fucker said. Once I was on the ground, he released Tomás and approached me. With one knee on my back, he zip tied my hands behind me. Then he pulled that fucking collar out of Tomás’s bag. I felt betrayed. Tomás had brought it. Thought it an actual option? By the look of regret in Tomás’s eyes, I wasn’t so sure.

“It isn’tyouI want.”

His words were like ice inside my veins. Luca’s words back at the castle tasted like deadly poison on my tongue.“You do love him. Do not lie. Lies fester. They stain what could be. Even if they fall from the lips of a beautiful liar. Tell me, Kieran. What would you do to protect your beautiful liar?”

“Anything,” I had blurted.

“Remember that when the truth finds you.”

I hadn’t considered what truth Luca meant, not until now.

He cut Tomás’s binds, freeing his wrist. Tomás lowered the gag, swallowed hard. “Luca,” he said. “Let him go. You got what you came for.”

Yeah, betrayal hurt like a motherfucker. Tomás had known Luca was after him and he’d gone willingly to the slaughter.

Chapter Thirty

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