Little Liar: A Dark Taboo Romance (The Web of Silence Duet Book 2)

If this girl keeps trying to open Cordelia’s tank, I might need to put a padlock on it and set some boundaries. She’s in my room, touching all my shit while she asks me far too many questions that go unanswered.

Olivia sits on the bed I just fucked her on, trying not to laugh at the look on my face when she knocks her fist on the glass and asks to hold her.

I glare at Olivia, silently begging her to help.

“She’s asleep,” she tells her. “Maybe Malachi can show her to you when she’s awake?”

Absolutely fucking not.

Molly grins. “Okay! I’m going to ask Dad when we’re ordering pizza!” Then she skips out of the room.

Ordering pizza? To my damn house?

What is this?

Olivia hugs me from behind. “I think you’re starting to like her.”

I grunt and pull her arms from me, spinning her round to my front. Her eyes are still glazed from her orgasm, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes are red and puffy. I’m surprised Molly didn’t ask her why she’d been crying, since it’s very obvious. I think the teenager was more interested in seeing my pet than anything else.

“You look worried,” she says.

Flattening my lips, I shake my head, tucking strands of hair behind her ears. Come on, I sign. Before she breaks something.

Olivia fixes her clothes to make sure Dad isn’t going to know we just fucked around, then kisses my cheek and takes the lead. I watch her ass like I used to do when I was a teenager. This time, I can lean forward and grab it, making her muffle a scream and slap my hand away.

Dad is sitting at the dining table, his head in his hand, while Molly texts on her phone and chews on her gum. She blows a bubble, pops it, then continues to tell our father that she’s going to the mall with friends tomorrow.

“What’s the plan?”

“Your mother is gone,” Dad says.

Olivia frowns. “Gone as in… she left?”

“I told her to leave. She won’t be an issue any longer. I’ve sent documentation to the Reznikovs to inform them we’ll be pursuing harassment and attempted kidnapping charges if they continue to push my buttons. In the meantime,” he says, looking up at us, “you’re both leaving.”

“Leaving?” Olivia replies while I sit down, spreading my legs and crossing my arms. There’s no point in me having any input. He’ll want her to leave for her protection—nothing to do with me.

“Both you and Malachi aren’t safe here. I’m going to get you out of town without Igor finding out.”

“What about you and Molly?”

Molly pops another bubble and looks up from her phone. She probably wants to know too.

Before Dad can reply, there are three knocks on the front door.

Getting to my feet instantly, I give Olivia a look that tells her to stay where she is as I make my way to the door.

I swing it open, frowning at the random guy I’ve seen hanging around Adryx and Xander. His eyebrows rise, then he smiles like we’re best friends. “You must be Malachi. Can I call you Kai?” He reaches his hand out, but someone grabs his wrist and drags him away.

“There’s no time for this shit. If my father finds out we’re here, it’ll be my fucking head next.”

Adryx Reznikov is standing beside Abigail, both of them staring right through me. He speaks again. “Malachi, this is Sebastian—my idiot cousin who just killed one of my father’s closest allies and the main reason why he’s in a bad-enough mood to send about forty people here to collect Olivia. They’ve been ordered to kill everyone else on sight.”

I blink, staring at them, unsure if I should try to kill them or to question whether or not I’m high, because why is there a Russian Scot at my front door with the brother of the man who’s trying to steal my girl? And why the fuck is Abigail here?

“So you all need to leave,” Abigail says as she pushes past me and goes straight to Olivia. “Igor is sending people here. Right now. You need to run. We have somewhere you can go.”

Adryx takes up the entire doorway as he walks in, his cousin in tow with a goofy grin as he tries to defend himself.

Olivia frowns, looking over at me, Dad holding Molly close to him. He’s unsure of their presence, as am I.

“We can’t be caught here,” Adryx says, pulling out his phone and going to stand by my father. “Go to this location. My father doesn’t know it exists and won’t think to check there. Take the girl too. They’ll kill all of you and take Olivia.”

I don’t trust them, I sign to my dad.

“It doesn’t matter if you trust me or not. If you don’t leave in the next twenty minutes, you’re as good as dead.”

His cousin, Sebastian, crosses his arms with a frown. “How did you know what he said?”

“I know sign language.” Adryx doesn’t look at him as he sends my father the location. When he glances up to see Sebastian scowling in confusion, he sighs. “Someone close to me is deaf. Do I need to explain more, or can we fucking leave before my father’s men storm the place and finds us conspiring against him?”

“There’s no one deaf in our family. You don’t have friends either.”

“Shut up, Base.”

The other guy shuts his mouth and rolls his eyes. “This is too dramatic for a Tuesday.” He narrows his eyes on me. “So you really can’t talk?” he asks, and I imagine slicing him into pieces—slowly. “Or do you prefer being mute and mysterious to attract your little sister?”

Adryx shoves him. “I’d be careful speaking to him like that. He’s more the act now, think later type.” His eyes shift to my dad momentarily—he must know what I did to him and why he struggles to walk.

A pang of guilt hits me again. I never felt bad before—he made me snap. He made me react the way I did. If he hadn’t hated me my entire time in the Vize house, then I wouldn’t have lost my head and attacked him.

I think.

Adryx clears his throat, grabbing my attention. I apologize for my cousin’s ill manners, he signs. He’s a dick.

I think I like this guy, but I hate Base—he’s like an insane little puppy who won’t fucking stop. Images of me kicking him off a cliff keep springing to mind, and I might need to do just that.

“I think I could take him,” Base stupidly says.

I narrow my eyes, silently telling him to fucking try it.

“I think he’d fight me if I tried to fuck his girl.”

“That’s my goddamn daughter,” Dad snaps.

“Please just ignore him,” Adryx says. “Your cars are all bugged. You need to take mine, and we’ll have my driver pick us up at the end of the forest.”

“I’m going with them,” Abigail adds, hooking her arm into Olivia’s.

“The fuck you are,” Adryx retorts. “I’ll drag you out of here kicking and screaming.”

Why are you helping us?

He shrugs. “I hate my father, and he’s using my little brother for power. I want to wipe him out and his empire. You have no idea what it’s like being a Reznikov child. We’re untouchable, but at a price.”

Base whistles. “As I said, dramatic. Can we leave? I think Kai might kill me if I stand in his vicinity any longer.”

I mentally kill him, chopping the little asshole into cubes of flesh and feeding him to a wild dog. His mouth annoys me, his accent is giving me a headache, and I think if he keeps giving me that goofy look, I might hit him.

The older Reznikov brother turns to me. If you don’t trust me, trust that I won’t do anything to risk my girl losing her best friend.

Both Olivia and I glance at Abigail.

They’ll kill the young girl too. Keep her safe. They’re animals.

No one is getting anywhere near Molly. Over my dead fucking body. She’s a pest, but she’s my little sister.

Checking his phone, his lips flatten. “You have fourteen minutes.”

With that, Adryx gives Abigail a firm look until she huffs and goes with him, and Sebastian grins at me as they leave through the back door.

Olivia covers her mouth. “Oh God.”

Dad shoves his phone into his pocket and grabs his walking stick. “My driver won’t make it here in time. Molly, grab your bag. You two don’t have time to pack.”

I chew my lip, deciding whether to go with them or stay and fight. I’ve never been one to shy away from a threat, and I’m not a runner. I didn’t even run from the officers when they came to arrest me.

“You’re leaving with us.” Olivia takes my hand tight, squeezing it. “I won’t leave without you. Like you said, he has an army and you’re one man. It’s suicide, and I need you. We all need you.”

Dad steps forward. “This isn’t up for debate, Malachi. Move.”

For once, I don’t want to hit my dad or tell him to go fuck himself. The worried look in his eyes means he fears for me. Which is insane and confusing because the guy should hate me more than anything.

Molly is watching me. Her eyes are glazing over, and she’s terrified. A part of me, maybe the big brother in me, wants to keep her safe the most. She’s my little sister, and it’s my job to protect her. I already failed at being a brother to Olivia. I’m not going to do that a second time.

My nostrils flare at the thought of someone hurting either of my sisters.

I can’t leave Cordelia here either.

What the fuck do I do?

When I give in, I go to the front door first to check if the area is still clear and safe for us to run into the woods.

As soon as I open the door, pain lashes at the side of my head—someone’s swung a metal pole at me, knocking me into the door frame. Then a foot connects with my chest, and I’m thrown back as air rushes painfully from my lungs.

“Malachi!” Olivia yells as I try to get up. Someone grabs a fistful of my hair when I get to my knees, but I shove my elbow into their face to get them off me.

I get to my feet and back myself into the kitchen, where Molly and Olivia are hiding behind Dad as loads of suited-up men in white masks flood the house.

Some have guns, some have blades, and some have bats and poles and other weapons.

Fuck.

“Grab her,” I hear someone say in a Russian accent. “Kill the rest.”

“Run!” I yell at Olivia.

A gunshot goes off, and I see my dad go down.

It’s the only warning I get before I grab Molly and run with her. They’ll shoot her, and I refuse to let anyone hurt this hyperactive teenage kid. She’s crying as I pull her into the washroom, pulling the washer out the way to open the small hatch and pushing her in.

Stay here, I sign, but the lost look on her face tells me she hasn’t a clue what I’ve said. “Stay,” I force out, and she nods.

But when I turn round, someone grabs me by the throat and a fist jabs into my side. It burns, and the gasp I let out has me glancing down to see a blade plunged into my side.

Gritting my teeth through the inferno ripping through me where the metal is lodged, I grab the asshole by the shoulders and drive my head into his nose, breaking it instantly. He lets out a painful groan, silenced by my head driving into his again, knocking him to the ground.

I hold my side, the warm liquid seeping through my clothes, and yank out the blade, hunching over at the pain. Fuck. It’s like I’ve been punched with fire and it’s lashing all around me, my breaths coming out as pants. I screw my eyes shut, grip the handle of the blade, and slice it across the guy’s throat.

Leaving him there to bleed to death, I drag the washer back in front of the hatch to keep Molly hidden, then go into the front room to find Olivia.

I freeze when I see her and Dad on their knees with guns pointed at their heads. Dad has blood coming from his leg, his nose bleeding, but Olivia is untouched. No one has hurt her.

Molly is safe. No one will find her where she is. At least I managed to keep one of my sisters safe.

Igor Reznikov chuckles, pulling a toothpick from his mouth and tossing it. “Kill him.”

The first thing I hear is Olivia’s screams—then the sound of a gunshot right in front of me. There’s a second smack of pain to my chest that knocks me right back. My ears ring instantly, yet I can hear Olivia screaming louder, even though it’s like she’s growing further away.

I try to sit up, to get to Olivia, but I fall back down.

“Leave them. We got what we came for.”

“You motherfucker!”

A second gunshot goes off, but I’m unable to move as I stare at the ceiling. It’s morphing into different shapes, like a kaleidoscope.

Get up. I need to get up.

My dad is grabbing at my face, his palm pressing to my chest—it burns, as if I’ve been punched with a fiery fist.

“No, no, no. Please, son. Please open your eyes. Malachi!”

Someone’s begging for me to stay—then another, softer voice is there. Younger. It’s not Molly. It’s a memory.

Behind my gaze, flashing in and out of images, I see Olivia grinning at me and holding up seven fingers in her princess dress.

The image distorts, and I’m being pushed on a swing.

“Will we go for some ice cream?” I hear as the world darkens around me.

“You’re such a good kid, Malachi,” the darkness says, echoing and falling into the distance as my mind goes silent.