Wicked Liar (Dark Syndicate 3)

I close my eyes and will myself not to scream.So it was true. Human Trafficking.That’s what Papa got himself into.I can’t believe we're talking about the same man.

“What were you doing to his wife?” Massimo demands.

“I told her she could help pay the debts by selling her body.Tobias had his eye on her.”

“It wasn’t just him was it!” I shout.He’s not telling the story right.I don’t want him to leave anything out.“You did too. It was all bullshit so you could get to her.You were in love with her. All of this was about her and what you did when she couldn’t love you.That’s why you came for me.”

A tear runs down my cheek and Dominic puts his arm around me.

“Is that true Lucas Ricci?” Massimo asks.

“Yes. It is true.”

Of course, it was true. That punishment he gave me was for Mom too.She knew what he was doing to me and neither of us could stop it.I used to catch her crying in the early hours of the morning after he'd gone.I knew she was crying for me.Crying, because she couldn't protect me.

“What next? What did you do next?” Massimo is asking the question like he’s already figured it out.Since I haven’t yet, I’m hanging on to every fucking word.

“I told the boss what William did, but I never told him that I managed to steal the chip back from him.The men went to retrieve the chip and kill him and his wife and his child.”

There it is. The answer. It was Uncle Lucas who planned that whole event that ripped my world apart.He set the whole thing up.

“It was you….” I mutter and he looks over to me.It’s possibly the first time he’s looked at me in over twenty years and resembles something close to human.

“Wonderful. Now tell me who Richard Fenmoir is.Your boss. I know he’s the king, and you work for him.Tell me who he really is. ”

From the bewildered expression on Lucas' face, I can see he wasn’t expecting that question.He looks if possible worst just for hearing it.

“No… I can’t tell you that. Please, I can't,” Lucas pleads.

“Tell me,” Massimo shouts. “Fucking tell me or I’ll cut you up and rip you apart.All these long years you’ve been in the background pulling strings and enabling our enemies to come for us.My father is dead. This ends here Lucas Ricci.”

“Please spare me. Please. He’ll kill me if I tell you.That was why I couldn’t allow William to take the files and expose us.He was going to expose him too.After what William did, you have no idea what I had to go through to get back in his good graces.It was only because I had the chip why he spared me.Please, let me go. I’ll disappear.I’ll go away far from here, and I won't cause any more trouble.”

Massimo snaps his finger at Cory and another round of electricity is unleashed.The scream that rips from Lucas’ throat makes me curl into Dominic’s chest and grab on to his shirt.

I’ve reached my limit. Now I know what happened I’m at the peak and even I can’t watch a man who hurt me so deeply suffer the way he is.

But it’s like nothing to Massimo or any of the men standing around us.I look up to Dominic and my soul cowers when I see the soulless look in his eyes as he watches Lucas.He almost looks more terrifying than the others, and I realize it’s because Lucas is one more person who was responsible for his father’s death.

One more hand who dealt the blow.

When I look back at Lucas and Massimo pulls out his gun and shoots him in the thigh already holding the knife, I feel Massimo's pain.Not Lucas’, Massimo's. It pulses through the air like the electricity Lucas is being tortured with.

Massimo’s father died in his arms.Giacomo D'Agostino, one of the kindest men I've ever met died in his son's arms.He didn't deserve to die in such a way, and after everything his family had gone through.

Whatever Massimo does to anybody won’t be enough to make up for that nightmare.

Lucas vomits and pisses himself.Blood runs from his face and his mouth.He’s a sight more fitting to a horror film.

“One. More. Time. Give me his name.Now.”

Lucas looks like he’s on his last lap and I think he’s just realized the only escape from those chains bounding him and the ruthless man before him is death.They’re not going to let him go like he thought they would.

“Name!” Massimo shouts and his voice echos off the walls.

“The state's attorney,” Lucas stutters.“It’s James Astley.”

What the hell?