CADEnce (Deception Book 2) (23 page)

MY HEART PUMPED ADRENALINE AROUND my body, giving me the courage I needed. Timing was crucial. Dante was nearly home and the game had ended twenty minutes ago. I wasn’t sure where Malik was but I knew Frank had gone for a shower and this was the only chance I would get.

I tiptoed through the house until I came to the door leading me to the room Frank was staying in. Taking a few gulps of air to try and steady myself, I pushed the door ajar and slipped in. The scent of man sweat was pungent in the air, my nose wrinkling as a sweet smell assaulted me as well. What was it about men and smells? He needed to open a window.

I scanned the room briefly before creeping over to the bedside table and opening it, pulling the pictures which were once a fond memory of Cade capturing me in my most natural state, changing, sleeping. He wanted what no one else got to see . . . the real me, and now I was using them in a fucked game Dante had forced me to play. I needed the upper hand to turn them on each other. I pulled the last one from my bra and dropped it with the others inside. I felt so dirty, my whole body shivering with the disgust of what I was about to do. But I needed to do it. I had to.

Lifting my dress, I slipped my panties down my thighs and kicked them towards the base of his bed, just enough so they could be seen.

The shower turned off and I blew out a breath, trying to still my frayed nerves. This was it. It was too late to change my mind, not that I would anyway. I’d had enough. I needed to do this for Cade. And for Jenson and Blue. Their lives would never be the same again and my heart ached for them.

I tore open the top of my dress, the buttons flying in all directions, a small ping echoing in the silence when one hit the mirror and bounced off.

I held my breath, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip so I didn’t cry out as I braced my whole body. From my knees to the junction of my thighs I dug my nails in and tore upwards. I saw some of the wounds on Blue; this bastard liked to claw at his victims, a predator marking his prey, playing with it before devouring it. I knew I could take one hit if he didn’t use his full strength, and hopefully that was all it would be before Dante came in and found the scene.

My senses were hyper alert, everything sounding and feeling so much more intense. A click of the bathroom door unlocking—
Thud!
The handle dropping—
Thud!
The door swinging open—
Thud!
My heart panicking—
Thud, Thud!

“What the fuck happened to you?” He was still wet, water beading over his powerful frame. Fuck, he was huge. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to take a hit. I slowly took a step back, the extra distance, albeit it tiny, giving me that little bit more courage before I answered.

“Dante happened.”

His brow furrowed as he looked to the door then back to me. “He’s back? He did that to you?”

I laugh mechanically, shaking my head and telling him no. Shit, I felt crazy, my frantic heartbeat making me dizzy. “You did this to me.”

He tightened the towel around his waist, his eyes narrowing in confusion. “What the hell, Faye?”

“Don’t you mean Star? Dante’s Star?” Taking another step back, I drew in a breath and went for it. “PLEASE DON’T!” I called out, flinching from the change in Frank’s demeanor, but sheer determination allowed me to do what was needed. “NO!” I screamed again. “DON’T. PLEASE DON’T!”

His body stiffened, his lip curling up into a sneer. “You ungrateful little cunt. I took care of you, killed for you and this is how you repay me?” His slow menacing steps towards me had me backing up quickly against a wall. “I thought that spineless prick Malik was planting shit. Nearly strangled him with his own cock last night.” His palm swiped out down my cheek. “You want your fucked up boyfriend to believe what, Faye? What is this? An affair? An assault?”

I gritted my teeth. “You’d know all about assault Frank!”

His head tilted to the side, his intense blue eyes studying me before a sadistic grin spread across his lips. “Ahh, that’s what he wanted the pictures for. Did he show you all the nasty things I did, Faye? Try to frighten you, because it clearly hasn’t worked. Here you are practically naked, begging for me to hurt you.”

“Fuck you, you animal.” I spat in his face.

“I’ve never let you see that side of me but you came looking for it and if you want to play games, Faye, let’s make them look realistic.” His hand slipped from my cheek to grip my throat, his arm rising up with me attached. My feet tried to keep the ground beneath them but he was a lot stronger than I anticipated. Where the fuck was Dante? He should have been back by now.

My hands gripped his wrist as I choked for breath.

Bringing my face towards his, he kissed the tip of my nose. “Bye, sweetheart.” He palmed my ass with his free hand, raising me higher before throwing me across the room. I lost my breath when my body impacted with the top of a dresser, the ornaments smashing under my weight and some clattering to the floor. My ribs screamed, and before I could do anything, a hand gripped my hair, pushing me down.

“That is a cute ass.” His other palm came down hard to smack my ass cheek. “You have no panties on. Is that an invitation? I’ve never really seen you that way but it would make your scene more believable, right?”

Fuck! No, no, no. I shot my eyes to the door, the first time in my life praying for Dante to walk through it. This wasn’t how it was supposed to play out. Why the hell did nothing ever go right?

He wrenched my head back, whispering in my ear. “I’ll pretend you’re that whimpering little cum bucket, Blue.”

I reared my arm back as hard as I could, ramming my elbow into his ribcage.

He released me with a shove. A sinister belly laugh ripped from him, the sound making me shiver. “Nice effort. I like my toys to be riled up before I fuck every hole they have.”

I would rather die than let another man touch me that way again. “You’re an animal!”

He smirked. “I may be, sweetheart, but she was a slut and everyone knew it. She liked being used up. Her body was built for a big bad cock like mine. She’s a snake, leading Jenson, the stupid fuck, on all that time and fucking everything else with an erection.”

I swiped at some blood I felt trickling down my lip. My tooth must have pierced my lip when I hit the dresser. “So, she deserved what you did to her?” I asked, incredulous.

“She broke rules, Faye, betrayed what she was paid to do and could have got Dante killed. Betrayal has consequences and Dante gave me the pleasures of dishing them out. You know better than anyone that retribution is something Dante takes seriously.” He chuckled.

“Oh, I do know. And he’s going to want it on you when he knows what you did.” I smirked.

“You mean what I’m about to do.” He took a step towards me with each word he spoke. “I’m going to fuck your ass, tear you up nice and good. Fuck, I might even taste the blood that pours from you, savor you on my tongue before I kill you and dump you in Malik’s room.”

My mouth dropped open in shock and fear. “You don’t have time,” I rushed out.

“Then I’ll have to be quick.” The back of his hand came out fast, so fast I didn’t have time to move before it cracked me across the cheek. Pain exploded, making my eyes water and buckling my knees.

His meaty palm wrapped around my ankle. I kicked out, catching him off guard, causing him to stumble backwards straight into a full length mirror that stood in the corner of the room. The shards rained down behind him and I took the opportunity, pushing up to my knees and crawling away.

His foot hit my backside with power, sending me face first into the floor. My nose popped, a deep cry bursting from me with the pain as a warm river flowed from it. Motherfucker.

“You keep flashing that gash at me Faye . . .” His fingers gripped me by the back of the neck, lifting me clean off the floor and pushing me forwards onto the bed. “And I will fuck it.”

With every ounce of hate, fear and strength I had left, I thrashed and screamed and kicked and attacked, scratching and slapping at him, gouging at his skin with my nails as I tried to bite at his flesh.

He mocked me with a laugh. I was no match for him. I should have known Dante would be late; he always ruined everything. It was funny, really. I’d always thought it would be Dante that took my last breath from me, but a man who had been my friend, a father figure for many years, was going to rape me and watch in delight as he snuffed my existence out easily and with as much pain as he could deliver.

Thump.

My eyes bulged and relief burst from me when I saw Malik instead of Frank. He dropped a lamp he must have picked up to hit Frank with.

I sat forward and looked down at Frank who was out cold on the floor.

My mouth fell open as a scream tore from me, shock and relief all coming out of me in a high pitched wail.

I WAS ANXIOUS TO GET home and hide away while I medicated. Star mentioned feeling uneasy on the phone about Frank. She caught him taking pictures of her and she was growing worried about the new development of his
unhealthy attention.
God, she always prettying up situations with words. He was fucking perving on her; he and Malik probably planned Delia coming here without my drugs so I’d have to leave and they could be there with Star. Fuck! My mind was driving me crazy.

I didn’t give the boat a chance to fully stop before I was off it and bounding up the dock.

Opening the front door, Star’s screams greeted me and turned my body to stone. My heart forgot to beat as my head screamed numerous scenarios at me, my body on auto-pilot as I ran through the house towards her screams.

Nothing prepared me when I burst into the room. Star was in complete disarray, her body beaten, her dress in tatters, and her mouth wide open, screams ripping from her one after the other as Malik stood over her.

Red was all I saw. It blanked out every rational or human thought in my head. It demanded to be fed. It demanded liberation.

In a haze of movements, almost like I had stepped out of my body and was watching the scene unfold from a distance, I moved into the room, bent to pick up a shard of broken mirror, then leapt across the bed and jammed it straight into Malik’s neck. His hot blood sprayed over my face, making me blink with each spurt that slapped my skin. His eyes enlarged, pure disbelief and shock in them as his mouth dropped open to make a gargling noise.
Yeah you’re dying motherfucker, believe it.

I pulled the mirror free and then stabbed him in the groin, over and over in a fit of unkempt rage; euphoria and ecstasy flowed through every single blood vessel in my body. “I FUCKING WARNED YOU!” I screamed, deafening out Star’s hysteria.

His body had fallen into me. I shrugged him off and shivered, looking down at my shaking hand, my blood and his mingling together; he got to share fluids with me after all.

I dropped the glass and winced from the raw wound on my palm, and that was when I noticed an unconscious Frank in nothing but a towel, Malik’s dead eyes staring up at me from next to him, blood draining from him in a current of dark crimson pools.

Fuck. I’d known him a long fucking time and I’d butchered him.

“It was Frank! It was Frank! It was Frank!” Her erratic screams repeated.

What? It was Frank?

“Don’t fucking move.” My eyes turned to the door to see Jenson holding a gun at me! And I’d left mine in my study because my mind wasn’t functioning right.

Oh, great! And in came my asshole brother. I should have killed him when I had the chance—In the womb with the cord wrapped around his neck.

Fuck!

I reached down, grabbed the shard and dragged Star against my chest, holding the piece of mirror to her throat. I would never kill her but they didn’t need to know that. “Stay away, fucker, or I’ll pop her artery!”

Her body jerked so much from her sobs that my bloody hands kept slipping off her.

“Calm down, baby, it’s okay,” I soothed in her ear.

A loud snap rang out. My body jolted as my right shoulder set on fire, an agonizing pain bursting through me. What the fuck?

I fell backwards off the bed with Star in my arms, our bodies landing with a heavy thud on the floor. I felt it; the mirror cut into her. I had never felt sick from the violence I inflicted but the uncertainty of what I just did because that punked up little prick shot me made my insides spin, and chaos ran rampant in my head. She fell from me, her body rolling on to Frank and Malik.