I will be leaving with Malia in tow—tied up or not—in the next few hours. I may not trust The Omen’s plans with me, but I believe he has his daughter’s best interest at heart. What matters is her safety and not where me and my “godfather” stand.
For every lie he feeds Malia, it’s harder for me to take his word.
As he said, this trip will help make my mind up on her.
This trip will give me the opportunity to make her mine or break her and unravel everything The Omen is trying to weave together. In his haste to gain my trust, the man has given me an arsenal of information to give his doting princess and turn him against him if I wanted to.
Thirty
Liam
“IWANTTOSHOWyou something,” The Omen says after he’s finished hashing out the details of his plan. “I think you deserve to know.”
I don’t answer, just follow as he leads me out of his office then out of his house. It’s fucking cold outside, and I shiver against it. The Omen leads me down a path that’s adjacent to the woods that outlines the property. A building comes into view and as we come to the top of the hill I see a small cemetery beside it.
A chill wracks through my body colder than the winter air and dread fills my bones. I know the man isn’t going to kill me, but I have a feeling I’m not going to like whatever he’s showing me.
We come to a stop in front of a set of unmarked tombstones that are separated from the others. The Omen bows his head as we stand in silence and the cogs in my mind begin to turn.
“They’re buried here,” I rasp out, something churns inside of me that’s equally disbelief and rage.
“I never said I was a good man, Liam,” The Omen says. “I try to be good to those I care about but understand my life has been paved by corruption and blood. My business built from illegal money and even more blood. And I’ve always been a bit selfish by nature.” He turns to me, and my body vibrates from anger. “Call it a character flaw.”
If I had a gun on me still, The Omen would be my second victim in the last six hours. I can’t remove my eyes from the slabs of concrete sticking out of the ground. It’s almost as if I am looking at unmarked headstones of soldiers who died in a war and no one could identify. There’s nothing heartfelt about what I’m looking at. Nothing personal that shows who is under my feet or that they were loved.
I nearly choke. The thought so cruel that my knees nearly give out. I can’t yell at The Omen or even swallow past the lump lodged in my throat. My parents are just here, and we weren’t even given the option to visit them.
Well, their real graves at least.
“They have marked graves in Arlington.” My words come out as a whisper; my pain evident in them.
The Omen sighs. “False gravesites I had installed for you, your sister, and grandmother to visit.”
I shake my head. “I remember the caskets; I held my sister as they were lowered. I remember—”
“Empty,” he admits in an equally pained voice. “Nadya is buried there where you’re standing, and Joey here.”
Joey.
The nickname grating on my nerves like he has the right to talk about my father like a friend. Whether they were or not, what kind of sick fuck keeps bodies on their property?
I shake my head against the thought, realizing who I’m talking about. My tongue feels heavy as I will myself to tell mygodfatherto go fuck himself with his daughter’s dagger.
“Your mother fell pregnant with you in our sophomore year of high school.”
He starts to talk, and I’m done hearing about his past with my family. I turn on my heel and walk toward the mansion, toward my car, toward Malia—I’m not even sure which.
“Your grandparents cut Joey off and he knew about my family’s role in the criminal world, he wanted to join my side to make sure Nadya was taken care of. Thatyouwere taken care of, Liam.” I hadn’t noticed my feet stopped moving until he finished. I hear his footsteps come closer; my back stays turned away. I can’t look at him, not now. “Joey ran with me for my father and became my right hand when I stepped into power. I could see it wasn’t what he wanted for their life, but at sixteen it was his best option.
“He was my best friend before he started working for me. We played baseball together, went through girls before we found the ones we wanted. He saw firsthand how cruel my world could be and once his sister was taken and never seen again, he decided it was time to leave. Most don’t leave this life with theirs intact, but I couldn’t kill my best friend. My brother.”
“Why are you telling me this? I don’t give a shit about your bullshit memory lane” I ask.
The Omen walks around me, so I’m forced to look at him. “Because, Liam, your father was a good man, and I don’t want you to think that since he worked with me that makes him a monster. I think that’s why he didn’t want you involved in this life. He didn’t want you to seeing him as evil so much as the man who loved you and your sister more than anything.” He shrugs. “They’re unmarked because I wanted you and Xana to have control over their tombstones should you ever come around.”
I shake my head. “Xana won’t ever be involved in this. She’s too pure, it’d eat her alive.”
“Very well, but you’d risk denying her the same truth that you were? What happens if you fall into the life of crime now you’re involved with Malia? She deserves to know her family’s history. The real one, but that decision is yours and yours alone.”