Wicked Liar (Dark Syndicate 3)

Chapter Four

Dominic

“How bad is it?” Massimo asks.

I’m almost afraid to tell him.There’s nothing I’m going to say today that won’t make them worry for their families' lives.

“You guys should probably sit,” I answer.

Massimo moves over to his desk to sit on the edge while Tristan and I pull up the nearby chairs.

“You got my last note, right?” I ask Massimo.That’s probably the best place to start.

Massimo goes over to the safe and returns with two pieces of paper.One is a copy of a page from a contract I sent him eight months ago.The other is the anonymous letter I found years ago that started this journey.Both are key documents and pieces of the puzzle we’ll need to create the big picture.Ironic that both documents were found by me.

The contract is what I’m referring to.Massimo hands it to me. I have the original copy at home, but that is a copy of a copy I stumbled over by accident.

It seems to be the last page of the contract.Except, instead of names at the bottom section, there are the initials:

M.V, R.B, L.V, T.N, K.G, B.F, F.S

Beside each initial are the signatures of the people who signed this agreement to The King.

“I’m sure you know who the first three initials belong to,” I say quirking a brow.

“Mortimer Viggo, Riccardo Balesteri, and Levka Volkov,” Tristan answers.

“Yes.”

Mortimer Viggo was the first person to tell us about the King.That was just before Tristan killed him.Mortimer was the leader of a notorious group of Bratva Assassins called the Circle of Shadows.Riccardo aligned with them first then Levka, another Syndicate member.

The other names, including the King, are part of the bigger picture.When I left, we knew there were five more people who teamed up with Mortimer in the plot, but we didn’t have a clue on how to find out who they were.

Finding the contract opened the door, and I’m about to open another.

“I found out who K.G and B.F are,” I declare, and Massimo and Tristan’s eyes widen.

“Who are they?” Massimo asks.

“K.G is Karl Grunberg, and B.F is Bradford Ferguson.Both are high profile international black-market dealers.Both were on the world’s most-wanted list until they died, five years ago.” This is where things are about to get extremely interesting.

Massimo shakes his head. “Before they died?Dominic five years ago would take them outside the time frame.Wouldn’t it?”

“They faked their deaths,” I smirk and pull my smart pen from my pocket.One press of the button on the side syncs it with the computer, and seconds later the file I want appears on the overhead projector’s screen.I open it and bring up two pictures of our new friends.

The first is a notice from the C.I.A website, with mugshots of Karl and Bradford confirming their deaths in a shootout.The article was dated five years ago and has details of their bodies being found in Sweden.

I open another file I saved from what I picked up days ago.When Tristan and Massimo see the images of the two men walking in the alleyway, they look at me in complete surprise.

“That’s them,” Tristan states.

“Yes. I haven’t found out why they faked their deaths, but I guess for our purposes it’s not really important.What’s important is they’re alive and they’re in L.A.”

“L.A? As in here?” Massimo’s brows snap together.

“L.A. as in here, Boss.”

I bite down hard on my back teeth because I’m just getting started.There’s more they’re not going to like.Seeing these men and getting their details was just one thing.If these images were all I’d found, I would have just sent Massimo another note so he could look into it.Finding these images, however, led me further down the rabbit hole where I found enough to alarm me.