Chapter 29: Little Liar: Chapter 29

The beeping won’t fucking stop.

It only grows louder the more awake I become.

There are voices. Two voices. I think. Unless there’s only one and it’s echoing. I can’t zone in on it enough to figure it out.

Did Olivia sneak into my room again and not turn her damn phone alarm off? Why is it still beeping? What is she saying to me?

She better go back to sleep. I’m too tired to wake up just yet—her cheer practice doesn’t start until the afternoon, so we could have a lazy morning with a movie. Maybe she’ll let me go down on her again like I did a few nights ago?

Parker has been silenced, and although Mom is now hellbent on Adam being her chosen suitor, I plan on taking her far, far away from all of this.

“Malachi.”

She sounds different—maybe she’s been up crying all night so her voice is a little hoarse. Did she have another nightmare?

They rarely happen when she’s with me, but maybe they’re getting worse? I’ll need to do some research to figure out how to stop them from plaguing her mind.

There’s a heaviness on my chest, and I want to stroke my fingers through her hair. I can’t smell it like I usually do. I mentally frown because I can barely move my face.

Then there’s a second voice. It’s distinctly different. Fuck. Did our parents just walk in and see us in bed together? We aren’t doing anything.

Did they find out I’ve been fucking around with Olivia while she’s passed out. Are they about to ruin this entire thing for me? I said I hadn’t touched a girl before. I hadn’t kissed one. I hadn’t fucking tasted her.

What would she do if she knew I was nothing but a little liar?

She’s saying my name again.

My brain short-circuits because none of the voices around me belong to Olivia.

One is soft, the other harsh, but I can’t focus enough to recognize who they belong to.

Trying to open my eyes, I groan, or attempt to—there’s something in my throat. I try to swallow, but I end up choking, sending whatever’s beeping erratically to up its tempo. My hand lifts to feel what’s in my mouth, but I hear a gasp, and someone grabs my wrist.

“Dad! Get the nurse! He’s awake!”

There’s a scuttle of shoes, a hand coming to rest on my face—not soft and gentle like my Olivia’s. No, this is a rough hand. Large. Their fingers grip my cheek. A firm tap that has me trying to open my eyes, but I’m so fucking weak, and my body aches.

“Come on, son. Come back to us. You need to wake up now. Please.”

Is that my dad? Why is he here, begging me to wake up?

Wait.

Hold the fuck on.

I’m not in my bed at home.

I’m not lying with Olivia in my arms. She’s gone. She’s not here. She… No.

They took her. They have her. They fucking stole her from me.

Fuck, everything hurts. What the fuck happened?

“You should go for something to eat, sir. He’s not fully awake,” I hear someone say. “Give him a little time.”

“A little time? My son has been in a coma for three weeks after being shot in the goddamn chest! This is the first sign of life he’s had and you’re telling us to leave the room?”

Eight years ago, he was the one in a hospital bed. I wasn’t with him; I was behind bars for putting him there. I hurt him, and he shouldn’t be here with me now, trying to make me wake up.

Yet here he is, his hand still on my face, refusing to leave my side.

Did I wake up in a different body? Does he know I’m Malachi?

My entire body screams at me as I try to sit up, but I can’t.

“Let’s go, Dad.”

I try to move again at the sound of Molly’s voice.

None of this is happening. I’m in a fucking nightmare, and Olivia is waiting for me. She’s not gone. They don’t have her. I refuse to believe it.

Where is she? Why isn’t she here? Did they not manage to save her?

Fuck. Where is my fucking sister?

I manage to crack one eye open and instantly wince at the sensitivity overload, a bright light blinding me, burning into the back of my eye socket.

I might be dead already. It would make sense. I always knew I was going to hell, so they shoved me in a room with my father, and he’s about to start getting revenge on my unmoving body.

“I’m not leaving my son,” I hear him snap. “I haven’t left his side for three fucking weeks, and I don’t plan to leave him when he’s about to wake up. You’ll need to drag me out.”

“You’ve barely slept, Mr. Vize.”

“I’ll sleep when my son is awake and well and my daughter is back with us.”

Back with us.

Olivia really isn’t here.

My eyes burn behind my lids—I’m so fucking useless because my girl is gone and I can’t even open my goddamn eyes, never mind try to save her.

But then everything goes silent, the world stops turning, my heart starts beating, my lungs no longer controlled by a machine as I hear her echoing scream; see the horror in my eyes as she’s dragged away from me while a force knocks me on my back, a burning sensation spreading across my chest.

All I can see is how scared she was when I was numb, dead, unblinking with a stab wound in my side and a bullet in my chest.

I shouldn’t be here.

They have Olivia.

My fucking sister.

A pain I can’t describe tightens my chest even worse as both eyes ping open to the burning lights and I force myself to sit up.

Dad says something I can’t understand given the panic going through me. Someone is holding my shoulders, pushing me back down. A cold sensation rushes up my arm as they inject something into a line connected to me.

Against everything in me, I stop fighting, and the last voice I hear is my dad yelling about getting someone in here now.

My eyes open slowly. I feel disorientated but more in control than the last few times I’ve tried to wake up.

There’s a lump in my throat. Constantly there, strangling me every time I hear voices beside me but am unable to tell them I’m awake.

My body aches, yet I can’t move. My fingers barely jitter as I close my eyes and try to focus.

Molly is talking about school, and Dad is explaining something about mathematical calculations. I think she’s doing homework.

“The answer is fourteen,” I hear someone say in a Russian accent.

My eyes slide open. This time I find a darkened room, a lamp to the side lighting up the small table in the corner, where Molly is scribbling on paper with a calculator in front of her.

“How did you know that without doing the calculations?” she asks, and my eyes follow her gaze to the large form in the chair beside her.

The beeping of the machines starts increasing as I stare at Adryx Reznikov.

His gaze lifts and clashes with mine.

I throw myself up despite the pain lashing at my chest, something pulling on my arm and tearing the skin. Before I can collide my weak fist with the brother of the man trying to marry my girl, Dad grabs me, putting himself between us.

“Calm down. He’s on our side, remember? Calm down, Malachi.”

“It’s normal to react this way. You went through a lot,” Adryx says, crossing his arms and bouncing his knees. “And don’t worry—you’re in one of my safe houses. No one will find us.”

Olivia, I sign to my dad.

“She’s with my brother. She hasn’t been harmed, and we’re working on getting her back.”

My eyes snap back to him. I want her back now.

“Not gonna happen,” he replies, and I feel like slicing his throat with one of the needles in a tray beside the bed. “She’s in one of the most secure buildings my father has. The Reznikov manor.”

Go get her, I sign, my hands shaking the more I think about her being stuck in there.

“I no longer have access. You see, myself and Sebastian were caught intercepting their mission, and now we’re also in hiding. Mainly because my cousin is a fucking useless idiot and had your address in his GPS tracker on his phone, and my father traced it.” He shrugs. “He already had an idea that I was working against him though, so my dear cousin is alive—for now.”

Dad pats my shoulder. “He’s helping us.”

I grit my teeth. Why?

“I have my reasons,” Adryx adds, pulling a box from his pocket and slipping a pair of glasses onto his face before taking his phone out too. “We tried to get Olivia out a few days ago and failed. She’s got a tracker in her arm now.”

My eyes widen, and I drop back on the bed, my entire body aching from being out of action for weeks. My legs are already tingling, my toes hurt, and I have spasms in my arms. But nothing compares to the twist in my heart at Olivia’s position.

“We can’t just break in and take her either,” Dad tells me, running his hand through messy hair, his face coated in a beard he’s never grown in his life. It’s three weeks of no shaving, barely sleeping, and worrying.

Why? I sign before my hands drop into my lap.

“There’s a proximity trigger. If she leaves the manor, it’ll kill her.”

My eyes slide shut, my lungs shriveling to nothing as my heart rate accelerates. The tingling sensation in my legs worsens, spreading to my arms and fingers, and I drop my face into my hands because I don’t have a clue what to do.

This is a bad dream, a nightmare. None of this is real. I’m hallucinating again. I must be. All I’ve been doing recently is losing my mind—this is just the result of it. Olivia is trying to wake me up in bed now, or I’m standing in the woods, the sitting room, the bathroom, and I’m blank and stuck in my head.

Stuck in this fucked-up dream.

I lift my head, the room spinning, but I manage to sign one more question despite how exhausted I am, how fucking dizzy I am.

Is she hurt?

“She’s safe,” he replies, not really responding to what I asked. “Xander, believe it or not, is on our side. Our father isn’t exactly the easiest to go against. He has my brother under strict orders and is hell-bent on them finally marrying and having his next heir.”

I feel sick. Has he fucked her?

“No.” He shakes his head. “Xander has no interest in her, and she’s made it perfectly clear she has no interest in him. It’s you she keeps asking about.”

Why can’t I just cut it out of her arm and save her?

“The tracker is attached to her nerve. It will kill her instantly if she tries to remove it or run.”

I grit my teeth, trying to get to my feet and wincing. I need to get up. I need to be active. I need to save her.

To add salt to my wounds, he adds, “If Xander doesn’t impregnate her soon, my father will do it. She’s already been off her birth control pill since going to the manor three weeks ago.”

“Like hell he will,” Dad snarls. “We need to hurry up with this plan.”

I look between them, waiting for someone to elaborate on this big plan that’s not in fucking motion.

“We have some aid,” he clarifies. “My cousin is acquainted with people who can help us. As long as we help them keep someone hidden, they’ll help us.”

He checks his phone then sighs. “They’re arriving in the morning. I suggest you get as much rest as you can because we need to make a plan and get Olivia away from Igor as soon as possible.”

The day after, I feel a little more alive. I could barely sleep with worry and anxiety and fucking zaps of pain, so the nurse came in and gave me something to numb the thoughts and everything else—my dad slept in the spare bed beside me, while Molly slept upstairs with Abigail.

It’s just great that she’s here. Just fucking great. One more person to remind me why I’m not good enough for Olivia.

Dad said she managed to get away when Base and Adryx were caught. They beat up the guards and killed them, but their names were already flagged with Igor Reznikov. But Abigail was already gone. It took that asshole Xander a week to find her and have one of his trusted guards bring her here.

Something tells me she’s here against her will though. She’s definitely got something going on with the brothers.

“Where’s the purple-haired one?” Base asks as I follow them down a narrow corridor.

“She’s asleep,” Adryx says.

His cousin chuckles. “You would know that, wouldn’t you? I wonder which brother she’ll choose?”

“Shut your fucking mouth. Your best friend isn’t here to save you from me strangling the shit out of you.”

“Kade will defend my honor when he’s home.”

Dad shakes his head beside me, his walking stick holding his weight. He was shot in the leg; nothing fatal or worse than what I did to him, but he’s struggling to walk again.

We make our way into a meeting room. There’s a long table in the middle and a whiteboard on the wall, with one single bright light hanging from the low ceiling.

I can smell fresh paint.

I focus on that as Sebastian gestures to the blonde beside him. “This is my wife, Luciella.”

She grimaces. “I’m not your wife.”

He fists his hand and closes his eyes.

“Nikita is your wife,” she snaps, shoving her chair out and getting to her feet, then rearranging her large shawl around her body. “I’m going back to the room.”

He tips his head back and mutters something in Russian, staring at the ceiling as the door slams behind her—then sighs and continues with his introduction, nodding to the older man sitting with his arms crossed.

“This is Tobes. He’s a little evil.”

He glares at him. “Don’t test my patience.”

“And a little touchy,” Base adds. “He doesn’t like me very much because I’ve made both his daughter and his son come.”

“One more fucking word, Sebastian, and I’ll put you in the ground.”

Dad tilts his head at the older man. “You should be dead.”

The man he’s speaking to raises a brow. “I’m surprised you aren’t, Jamieson.”

I give him a confused look, and Dad clarifies, “I was his lawyer years ago.”

Base puts his hands on his hips. “And you didn’t think to mention that you knew the Vize family earlier?”

The man shrugs. “I don’t need to tell you shit.”

Base tuts. “Fucking family.”

“We aren’t family and never will be.”

He moves on to the next man as I shove aside a chair for my dad. He accidentally drops his walking stick, and I lean down, ignoring the burning in my side and chest and nearly ripping my stitches as I pick it back up for him.

There’s an awkwardness in the way he thanks me, then he clears his throat, and we turn our attention back to our company.

“This is Barry. My assistant.”

The guy cocks a brow. “I’m not his assistant.”

“Technically, you’re my best friend’s assistant, so you kind of are.”

“Fuck off, Base.”

The older one tuts, leaning back in his chair.

Adryx gestures to him. “Since my cousin has no idea how to introduce people, this is Tobias Mitchell. But I guess you already know him.”

Shit.

The entire world has heard of him—and his son.

He’s psychotic—probably worse than me, and I know that’s saying something. I’m surprised he’s here and not hunting for the woman who technically put him in jail.

I guess we have something in common. We’d ruin our lives for the people we love and have no regrets.

What’s the plan?

“If Olivia doesn’t agree to marry Xander by this weekend, my father plans on taking her that night,” Adryx says.

My jaw tics. Meaning?

His lips press together. “He wants an heir who isn’t a fuck-up like me and my brother. He told Xander they’d pretend the child was his.”

I stand, but Dad grabs my arm. “Acting on impulsive anger won’t get her back, Malachi. They’re powerful people, and we need to be smart. If you barge in there, we could lose her forever.”

You expect me to sit around and do nothing?

“We aren’t doing nothing,” Adryx says. “We have a plan. My father is hosting an event in the manor next week. Masked. Olivia will be forced to attend. The tracker forces her to remain in the manor at all times.” He drops into his seat and sighs. “But Barry is working on a way to disable their entire system. Long enough to get her back here and remove the tracker. Safely.”

My spine straightens. Could that work? Could I get her back?

Fuck. There’s a rush of hope.

“Xander can get two of us inside. But we need to wear masks too to hide who we are. Olivia will be wearing a gas mask—it’s what she requested through Xander. It’ll help to identify her.”

My lip twitches.

My good girl.

Not that I need to know what mask she’ll be in. I don’t even need to see her to know she’s nearby. I’ll be going. I’ll wear my gas mask too.

“What do you get from all of this?” Dad asks. “I know you aren’t doing this out of the goodness of your heart or for that girl sleeping in your bed.”

Adryx smirks. “I get to kill my father.”