Little Liar: A Dark Taboo Romance (The Web of Silence Duet Book 2)

After having my stitches cleaned and my wounds checked over, I go for a shower and get dressed, despising myself every second of it all.

I shouldn’t be standing here, staring at myself in the bathroom mirror, at my chest. At the scar that will definitely look like an explosion went off in my chest. I shouldn’t be wondering if Olivia will find it ugly, or what she’ll think of the impending scar on my side, or the fact I failed to protect her.

She might never want to see me again. I was supposed to keep her safe.

I always seem to fail.

I’m surprised Dad and Molly even entertain me. I’m the reason Olivia is gone—I didn’t get her away from all of this when I had a chance. When Dad said to run, I should’ve dragged Olivia onto my bike and taken her to the other side of the world.

That’s exactly what I’ll do when I get her back. I’ll make Molly and Dad move too. They won’t be safe here, and I need them now.

Dad’s by my side at all times. Give it five minutes and he’ll be done with his physio and hunting the building for me, then telling me to take my meds and watching me swallow each one to make sure I don’t skip any.

Who would’ve thought that the man I nearly killed would become my crutch?

I stop outside one of the bedrooms upstairs at the sound of two voices.

Not that I want to listen in to whatever the fuck Base talks about in his free time, but I’m curious about his drive. Why the hell is he working with us, and what does he get out of it? He was forced to work with his cousins through his grandfather, and he’s… what? Married to someone at the same time as having a girlfriend?

A girlfriend who’s the daughter of Tobias Mitchell. The asshole must have a death wish.

I can see them clearly.

Base is holding her face, wiping under her eyes, and gently kissing her forehead. She’s upset—maybe because she’s being comforted by someone who’s the equivalent of a wet towel wrapped around a fucking tree with no personality.

Wait. Is she… is she pregnant? I can see the bump. It’s huge. Like she could pop any moment, though she has a slim face.

Please tell me she didn’t procreate with this douchebag.

Then he’s leaning down and pressing his forehead to her bump, and when he starts speaking to his unborn kids, the twins, I take that as my sign to stop watching them through the ajar door.

I think, if Olivia wants one, I’m going to do that one day. I’ve witnessed her smiles when holding a baby, and the way she looks at them when nearby. I’ve no idea when or how or if I’ll ever be good enough to take on the role of a father, but if Olivia wants a family, I’ll give her one. I’d give her the fucking world if she asked.

I’ll ask my dad for help. He’ll keep me right. However, telling him his son wants to put a kid in his daughter doesn’t seem like a conversation for anytime soon.

One day, he’ll see me as Olivia’s partner, or Olivia as mine. Will he choose which one of us remains his child? I couldn’t imagine him not being my father.

I stop outside Molly’s room, knock twice, and push the door open, peeking in to see she’s leaning over a shoebox that’s pierced with holes.

“Oh, hey. She’s been moving around a lot. I think she needs a bigger box.”

Did you feed her?

“Yeah. Please don’t ever make me touch a maggot again.”

I silently laugh as I crouch down to look in the box. I need to get her a tank. Apparently my farmhouse is obliterated. Molly managed to get my pet out before the flames engulfed it.

So, technically, I’m homeless.

Dad said I could stay at his place since Mom is gone. He’s filing for a divorce and said she’s no longer welcome in his life. I hope she gets hit by a bus or contracts a deadly disease.

Molly sighs and sits on her bed, and I tilt my head at her, silently asking her what’s wrong.

“I miss Olivia. I’m worried about her.”

I know, I sign, standing tall. For being close to fifteen, she’s kinda short. Way shorter than Olivia, and she seems sheltered, probably due to the trauma of her life before she came to the Vize family. I wonder how dark her story really is though? Only some people know mine. I don’t like discussing it, but maybe if I tell her what happened to me as a kid, she’d open up and feel comfortable enough to talk and feel better for having someone close to her, able to understand.

She’ll be fine. She has me.

“Kai,” a voice comes from behind me. “There you are.”

I’m going to kill him.

Base pushes the door open, his hair ruffled at the top, his lip swollen from, I’m guessing, that blonde girl biting him. “My assistant is about to go over everything for tonight. You coming, Kai?”

He’s trying to push my buttons. I might need to push him out of a fucking window, head first.

I groan inwardly. I need to hold myself back from hitting this asshole. He’s been calling me Kai all fucking day, and I might actually kill him.

“His name is Malachi,” Molly snaps. “My dad already told you to stop calling him that.”

Thanks, kiddo. She might be my favorite now.

I crouch down to check on my Cordelia one last time while Molly watches the way I handle her—she watches everything I do. Copies me. I sat with her all morning showing her some signing movements and how to change the box.

She’s not afraid of my pet. If anything, Cordelia’s been keeping Molly busy during all this. Maybe, just fucking maybe, if we get out of this, I’ll let her have sleepovers at me and Olivia’s house.

Teaching her things about Cordelia and even signing makes me feel important, like I have some sort of purpose. And then there’s the way she smiles at me, like I’m the best person in the world. She gets excited to see me like a…

Like a little sister.

She says my name as I go towards the door.

I turn, waiting for her next words, but she lifts her hands and thinks for a long second, making sure she gets the movements correct.

You saved me, she signs perfectly. Now you need to save my sister.

When I get to the meeting room, Dad is there. The blonde girl stuck with Base—who I now know as Luciella—is eating a sandwich while her father glares at her partner from across the table.

Abigail walks in, Adryx behind her, looking pissed off too. Why is everyone moody today?

Barry stands when everyone is seated then lifts a small drone for us to see. “We need this as close to the manor as possible. Preferably their comms room. I can use an electromagnetic radiation blocker to disable their entire system. So far, I can only do that for one hour. But it should be enough time to get Olivia out and back to this building for me to cut out the tracker.”

He lifts what look like grenades. “These release the same thing, but they need to be dropped in the north and west side of the manor. They’ll basically remove the first defense barrier for me to then use the drone to infiltrate.”

“The party is on the south side of the manor,” Adryx adds. “Someone needs to be in the middle of the room. And the other person needs to be in the pool room.”

I’ll go, I sign, and Adryx repeats it in words.

“Base will go too. He’s the worst driver, but he can get you here quicker. Xander will distract everyone so you can all escape without detection, but I can’t go. My father will notice me from a mile away.”

“I’ll tail you. If anyone follows, I’ll kill them,” Tobias says. He seems bored and fed up, but he glances at Adryx. “You keep your end of the deal. Nothing happens to my daughter. You know more than anyone how important she is to me.”

Adryx nods. “Right.”

“What does he mean?” Abbi asks. “Do you have a daughter?”

“Of course not,” Adryx replies. “Can we move on with this plan? What happens when we get Olivia here?”

Barry goes into detail about needing Olivia in the medical room so he can cut the tracker out safely, without damaging her nerves. He tells us it’ll hurt, and he can administer some pain relief, but not if we get her here with little time to spare.

When the system is temporarily disabled, no one can use their radios. Phones will be cut off. Signals blocked. And if we’re caught, we need to fight our way out of the manor without Olivia getting hurt.

Tobias is happy to go, even though he’s free now, after escaping prison and faking his own death. The story was reported on by news outlets for weeks.

“Can you shoot?” Adryx asks me, and I shake my head.

“I’ll teach him.”

Base must be insane if he thinks I’ll let him teach me anything.

“You’re going to fire guns here and draw attention to us?” Luciella asks, mortified.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere, princess.”

Tobias narrows his eyes. I have a feeling he hates this guy, and I completely understand why.

She glares and leaves again, and Base rolls his eyes. “She acts like she hates me, even though she was all over my dick last night.”

Tobias jumps out of his chair and punches him across the face.