Wicked Liar (Dark Syndicate 3)

I know what he means, after all, I saw him in bed with my mother.

For a fraction of a second, there's a shift of sadness and regret in my father's eyes as realization dawns on him too.Everything, however, evaporates from my mind when the man takes out a little bottle from the inside of his jacket and throws some sort of liquid all over Mom.A whiff of the pungent smell burns my nose, and the instant I realize what it is, the nightmare really begins.It's gasoline.

A snap of a lighter flickers on and suddenly my mother is on fire.The man holding her drops her as the flames cover her body.

The anguished cry that rips from my throat is so intense I think I might die from the sight of the flames on my mother.My screams mingle with those of my parents and tears blind my vision.

"Tell us where the information is, and I might put the fire out," the man taunts.

"I don't have it!" Papa shouts."Someone took it. Please. Please, I beg of you, please."

The man stares Papa down. The seconds that pass between them feel like lifetimes and there's a moment something changes, and I just know it's over.

It's over and there's no one to save us.Our closest neighbors will mind their own business and the only people who might be able to help live at the bottom of the hill.

Giacomo D'Agostino is, however, so engrossed with his ritualistic remembrance of his wife I'm sure he won't hear a thing.He'd probably never suspect anything anyway out of the ordinary happening in the Ricci household.

Time stands still, my soul breaks, and the world stops when the man fires one shot into my mother's chest.Before I can get over the shock, he pulls a long-bladed knife from his sheath and cuts Papa's head off before he can utter another cry.

Like a scene from a nightmare, both my parents lay dead before me.Papa's body, his head sitting next to it in a pool of blood and Mom still on fire.I can't stop screaming and crying.

"Do what you want with her, make sure you dispose of the body after," the man orders.

He means me.

Oh, God...

He's talking about me.

I'm going to die.

The men file out of the house and I scream harder when the clothes are ripped from my body and I'm pushed naked to the floor.

I scream and scream and scream as the man who is holding me gets on top of me.I try to fight, but he's too strong and fierce.

I can't form words; I'm just screaming and crying.Wailing for help.

One second the man's disgusting head looms over me, with his hot, raw breath husking.The next thing I see is his head falling from his body.

Before I can quite realize what's happened, blood sprays into my eyes, and the man's headless body collapses onto mine.

I blink and I can just make out Massimo's face before me.He's holding a long knife, blood is on his face too, and he's looking down at me in horror.

"Candace," he calls to me, but I'm screaming so much I can't answer.

Terror sets in as my mind tries to process what happened, and screams continue to pour from my body, coming from deep in my soul.

What did just happen?

My mother... my father.

They're dead...

"Candace, it's okay. It's okay," Massimo says, pushing the man's bulky body off me.

"Guys get in here," he shouts.Footsteps echo on the floorboards outside.

I can't see anybody. Tears and blood blind me.