Page 73 of Beautiful Liar

My mind started to feel the weight of the dead against my soul. Alone in the darkness, the faceless emerged. Like a dark wraith needing justice to find peace. Not everyone in this place were killers, mobsters, evil. Whole families were erased as a lesson to those wanting to live the life. Mothers, children, families. Although I’d never killed an innocent child or even a woman, I had killed fathers, sons, brothers.

The thought of our own vengeance plans poured over me like ice water. Tor after the people who killed his mother. How many innocents would need to bleed along the way? Wren’s need to find answers to his mother’s death. Pointing his finger at Alessandro. Me willing to kill Alessandro just to give Wren peace. When would it ever fucking end? Henry had asked that question once.

“When they are all dead,” I had answered.

But there were so many dead.

I’d never been squeamish around dead bodies. I had done my share of wet work over the years. But the catacombs were different. The number of bones, bodies buried here stretched to the hundreds, at least.

Bones. The legacy our fathers left us. Nothing but bones.

Forensics had made leaving a dead body to be found a risk. Even cremation had become too expensive. Bones were hard to grind and turn to dust. But with no body to examine, the cops had no case. More than 600,000 people went missing annually in the United States alone. Hiding a body was more economically sound. And the whole place was a tomb. Rumor had it that it had been rigged to cave in if anyone disturbed the graves. Nothing would come out of this zone intact. Sorting through the rubble would cost millions. And then what would be left behind?

The catacombs were a perfect hiding place for the dead and should never be disturbed by the living.

An echo of sound reached my ears. Sweat beaded my brow. I blinked away the haze, the light trembled in my hand, and I quickly snuffed it out. I should’ve checked my blood sugar before I headed down here. Dependence on something so mundane for other people made it so fucking unfair. I clipped that thought. It’d do me no good and would get me killed. With my sense of sight muted, I relied heavily on sound for my sense of direction. I’d memorized the layout of this place. Branches of narrow tunnels wound through the mountain. Most ended in dead ends. And in total darkness, getting lost in this place would cost your sanity. The thought made the hairs on my body stand on end. I reverted to thinking about the voices. The only place the voices could come from was this main vein leading to the aqueduct outside.

I moved slow, deliberate, the voices getting clearer as I narrowed the gap between us. My eyes caught the wave of light illuminating beyond an archway leading into a wider chamber.

I’d never worked with Kade or Sabriel, but I knew of them. Kade had come up from Poland with his father, a steel worker, and his mother. He’d joined the life against his father’swishes and when Kade fucked up a deal, they killed his parents for it. Sabriel was third generation criminal. He’d been a bully at the onset. Liked young girls. There was no shortage of information when you knew where to look. And I made sure I looked. “I’m not going to ask you again,” the voice came from Kade. “Where is it?”

“I don’t know.”

My blood ran cold at the sound of Tomás’s voice.

“Gag him and let’s get the fuck out of here” Sabriel said. “This place gives me the creeps.”

I heard Tomás pleading, voice tight, some shuffling. My mind played it all in my head. Them forcing Tomás into a gag. Hurting him. My first instinct was to charge the fuckers, but that would be a good way of getting us both killed. Once I rounded the corner, I’d be exposed. I needed a view of the layout. I needed to plan. I inched my way around a pillar wall, pressing myself against the limestone to get a better look of the layout. Patience was the key to all engagement. Despite the need to rip these motherfuckers’ heads off their shoulders for touching Tomás. Hurting what was mine, I swallowed that shit down. My heart pounding too damn hard, pulsing in my ears by need. Raw, violent need to end these motherfuckers. So engrossed in my own internal war, I missed the unsettling of the air around me as something shifted behind me. The hairs at the back of my neck stood on end as Luca materialized out of thin fucking air at my back. He pressed his body into mine. The smell of oil paint and mud surrounding him blended in with the stench of the cavern.

Fucker.

He sniffed my neck. “Your scent gives you away,” he whispered, his warm breath peppering against my skin. “Is that Dior?”

The realization that Luca got the drop on me rattled through my brain, bringing me into a much sharper focus ofthe threat around me. I fucked up lowering my guard. I fucked up letting my feelings for Tomás get in the way of securing my surroundings. I should’ve known better than to assume there were only two threats.

Too fucking late.

I felt Luca’s breath against the shell of my ear. “What are you willing to do to save your beautiful liar?”

I didn’t have to answer. Luca fucking knew I’d do anything to save Tomás.

The two guards started arguing about which way to go. Kade wanted to test the guards at the gates to get the fuck out of the school now that they had their target while Sabriel wanted to return to the castle and wait for Luca. Luca cocked his head when Sabriel mentioned his name.

“What the fuck for? That fucker’s insane. It’s better we don’t hook up with him.”

“Boss wants them both.”

Why the fuck would the Mancinis want me? What play were they making against Tristan? Questions I’d get the answers for soon enough.

“I’d rather put a bullet in his head,” Kade said.

Sabriel shrugged. “Fuck if I care.”

I could’ve sworn Luca smirked.

The chamber was lit by a portable light casting a glow of about twenty feet around the room. “Look,” Luca whispered so close to my ear that I felt his breath tickle my neck. Then he slowly lifted his finger to a section of raised ground that looked smoother than its surroundings. A two-by-two metal plate camouflaged in dirt. Then Luca lifted his finger, leading my eyes to a mace above the trio. A booby trap.

I’d thought the rumors of the catacombs being booby trapped were bullshit. A way to get people away from venturing into the graves. I’d been so fucking wrong.

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