Blood & Lies (A Twisted Duet Book 1) Read online

  BLOOD & LIES

  An Unapologetically Twisted Romance Novel

  By

  Bella J

  BLOOD & LIES

  Copyright © 2017 by Bella J

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This novel is a work of fiction. While reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imaginations. Any resemblance to people either living or deceased, business establishments, events or locales is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used.

  Edited by Ansley Blackstock

  Cover Design by Q DESIGN

  Table of Contents

  AUTHOR’S NOTE:

  DEDICATION:

  Prologue

  CASTELLO

  1

  CASTELLO

  2

  TATUM

  3

  CASTELLO

  4

  TATUM

  5

  CASTELLO

  6

  TATUM

  7

  CASTELLO

  TATUM

  8

  CASTELLO

  9

  TATUM

  10

  CASTELLO

  11

  TATUM

  12

  CASTELLO

  13

  TATUM

  14

  CASTELLO

  15

  TATUM

  16

  CASTELLO

  17

  TATUM

  18

  CASTELLO

  19

  TATUM

  20

  CASTELLO

  21

  TATUM

  22

  CASTELLO

  23

  TATUM

  24

  CASTELLO

  25

  TATUM

  26

  CASTELLO

  SNEAK PEEK

  OTHER NOVELS BY BELLA J

  UPCOMING RELEASES

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  AUTHOR’S NOTE:

  Blood & Lies is unlike any other novel I’ve written. But these characters have been in my head for so long, and they just wouldn’t shut up. So I had no other choice but to tell their story, and it ended up being my best writing experience.

  Please be aware that this novel contains scenes of public humiliation, abuse and sexual situations that may be triggers and make some readers uncomfortable.

  This novel is dark, it’s twisted, and I understand that it’s not for everyone.

  DEDICATION:

  Blood & Lies is dedicated to everyone who appreciates the darker, twisted side of romance.

  Prologue

  CASTELLO

  Two caskets. Two painful reminders that we would never know peace again. As I watched my brother and father slowly being lowered into the ground, I knew that a war had begun.

  My family thought that we’d been at war for years, fighting to rule the streets of our city. The battles that had been fought in the past will be nothing compared to what lay ahead. Everything had shifted, and nothing will ever be the same again. Our family will never be the same again.

  I will never be the same again.

  I glanced at my mother standing to my right, which was another huge change for us—for me. It used to be Carlo who stood to my right. No matter where we were or who we were with, I would always be on Carlo’s left. Why? Because his rank demanded it. As the Underboss, the next in line to be head of the family, Carlo would always stand to the left of our father. This way everyone would see who my father’s successor was, and show him the level of respect his rank earned him.

  To Carlo’s left would be me, and to my left it would be my younger brother, Vico. Our position gave a clear indication to the succession of the family.

  But from today it would all change.

  Here I was standing to the left of my mother, the place where my father stood for over thirty years. A man’s wife whom he loved and respected always stood to his right. With a small step behind him she would show her submission to her husband.

  Today my mother showed her approval of me being the new leader of the family by standing just a tiny step behind me.

  I hated it.

  I didn’t deserve it.

  I didn’t deserve her approval or anyone’s respect, because I didn’t want the burdens that came with it. But I had no choice. This was my new place.

  My mother wiped away a tear. I thought about placing my arm around her, but how do you console someone when you have so much grief of your own?

  Our family had been torn apart, and now it was up to me to put it all back together. My life was no longer my own as I held the future of everyone who once served my father in the palm of my hands. Too many depended on me, so the luxury of living a free life was no longer mine.

  Beneath the black veil which hung over my mother’s face, she looked up at me as the Priest said his last Amen.

  “Promise me, Castello.”

  She didn’t have to say it out loud. I already knew what she wanted me to promise her, what she needed—and expected—from me.

  “I promise, Madre.”

  She nodded before turning around and walking back to the car. I couldn’t leave yet, so I stayed behind and once again stared at the two open graves in front of me. My father’s heart was too weak to handle the news of Carlo’s death, which is why we were burying two Fattore men today. What no one knew was that there should have been three open graves. I died alongside my brother that fateful night…and now I will suffer in Hell for the rest of my days.

  1

  CASTELLO

  Seven months later

  She had no idea what was going on. The drug that still lingered in her veins had her disorientated, and I was pretty sure her vision had been affected, too. Blonde hair stuck to her face, sweat beading on her skin while she shuddered as chills wracked through her body. I kept watching as she tossed and turned on the bed scrunching up the old dirty sheets beneath her while she cried and mumbled words that made absolutely no sense. Lines formed just above her eyebrows as she squeezed her eyes shut. Clearly she was in pain, but I didn’t care. I didn’t give a flying fuck that her face was contorted with agony. In fact, I relished her pain. It soothed the darkness inside me. It silenced the monster as I continued to stare at her, witnessing as she slowly started to resurface to reality—her new reality.

  I’ve waited months for what was about to happen. I’ve dreamt about the moment when she would realize she no longer lived, but only existed. Soon she would discover there are worse things to fear than death, and that eternity in Hell would be a far lesser punishment than what has now become her world. Her world now only consisted of one thing…me.

  Tatum Linscott would never know peace again. This all would be her payment, her atonement for what she has done, for what she has taken from me and my family. I planned to break her, then mend her, and then break her again.

  The scary part—I would enjoy every fucking moment.

  “Everything is going according to plan, brother.”

  I looked
up from the monitor and watched as Vico took a seat next to me. I didn’t say anything as I turned back to watch the woman on the screen.

  “They don’t know she’s missing yet,” Vico continued. “Her parents usually check in with a phone call every second night at ‘round about eight.” He leaned back in his chair. “They won’t call before tomorrow night, and the fact that she won’t answer won’t raise any suspicion just yet since she’s been missing a lot of phone calls lately. It’s not unusual for her to not be at her apartment when they call. Apparently she’s been quite the party girl the last few months.”

  I sat up and placed my elbows on the table, my hands clasped under my chin. “Does your associate have what we need?”

  “He does. He will deliver the package within the hour.”

  “Good. The drug is starting to wear off, and we need it by the time she wakes up.”

  “We’ll have it in time.” Vico turned to the monitor and sighed. “Of all the women in the world, he had to choose the one who in the end destroyed him.”

  There was the slightest hint of anger in his voice. I understood the reason for his anger. He had every right to be. Our family had been broken because of this woman and the choices that had been made because of her.

  “It’s something we’ll never understand, Vico. But we will punish those who have wronged our family. I will make sure of that.”

  Vico placed his hand on my shoulder. “I know, brother. I have no doubt that you will do right by our family. Revenge is within our grasp, Castello. I can practically taste it.”

  I turned my head to glance at him and nodded. There was no doubt in my mind that I would get the revenge I promised my mother. The day I watched them lower my brother and father into the ground was the day I vowed to avenge their deaths, no matter the cost.

  “Let me know the second it arrives.”

  Vico got up from his seat. “I will.” Then he walked out of the room.

  I continued to watch her, the anger simmering inside me. The road to my family’s pain and the hunger for revenge had been paved with images of this woman’s face. It all started with her, and it would all end with her. I would make sure of it.

  Her eyes started to flick open and shut. She groaned clutching her stomach, and I knew she was about to throw up.

  “Fuck.” I jumped up, pressed the red button against the wall, and the steel door unlocked. Within seconds I was next to her grabbing her shoulder and pulling her onto her side. No way was she about to get out of this that easily, by choking to death on her own vomit.

  Violent jerks caused her back to hunch forward as her body expelled bile and fuck knows what else from her stomach.

  “Jesus.” My two thousand dollar suit was covered in vomit, ruined.

  Vico came storming in. “What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t fucking know. How much did you give her?”

  “The regular dose.”

  Suddenly a bout of projectile vomit erupted from her mouth. “You fucking sure?”

  Vico rushed to my side, panic written all over his goddamn face. “Yes, I’m fucking sure.”

  I looked up at him as I continued to hold her body over the side of the bed. “Was she drunk when you took her?”

  “Well, yeah. She was passed out when I found her. But I gave her the dose anyway to make sure she wouldn’t wake up before we got here.”

  “Jesus Christ, Vico.”

  “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to be drunk.”

  “Fuck.” I looked back at her, her face sickeningly pale. If she died now our plan would be ruined. Then all these months of planning would have been for nothing.

  “Go get Doc.”

  Vico didn’t move.

  “Vico, I said go get Doc.”

  He jerked upright and rushed out of the room.

  After another vomiting spell her eyes started to roll back in her head, sweat trickling down her face and neck. Shit.

  “Tatum. You do not get to die yet, do you understand me? Not yet. Tatum?” I grabbed her cheeks with both hands and lifted her face toward mine. “Tatum, wake up. Wake up, goddammit.”

  Finally her eyes started to flutter open, her blue irises dark and glazed over. There was no color on her cheeks, and her chapped lips were starting to turn blue.

  I wiped away some hair that stuck to her forehead, hanging over her eyes. The smell of vomit on her breath was horrid and I tried my best to avoid the stench by not breathing too much.

  “Tatum, look at me.”

  No response.

  I tightened my grip on her cheeks. “Fucking look at me!”

  Her eyes opened, and the moment her gaze locked onto mine it was like new life suddenly got blasted into the color of her irises. For a second she just stared at me as if she was looking right through me, seeing all my darkest secrets. The moment was so unnerving, I didn’t even notice her moving her hand toward my face.

  A cold, soft palm pressed against my cheek and she leaned closer.

  “You,” she whispered, like she knew me. But she didn’t. No one fucking knew me.

  I took her hand in mine and slowly pulled it away from my face. She narrowed her eyes, studying my face. “How?”

  Vico came rushing into the room with Doc shortly on his heel, and I pressed her back onto the mattress, her eyes never leaving mine.

  While Doc was busy checking her pulse, her temperature, and setting up some meds, I lifted myself back up and stared down at the fragile, helpless young woman. I felt nothing. No remorse, no regret. There was nothing inside me that even remotely resembled any kind of sympathy or emotion—only complete emptiness.

  I gave a step back while smiling wickedly at her. “Welcome to Hell, donna.”

  The fear and confusion on her face sent a flurry of sensations down my spine. It was downright euphoric. All the time I spent preparing myself for this day, embracing the darkness that has now become my soul, I never could have imagined that it would feel…good. But it did. It felt liberating, like I finally had the means and the reason to set free the darkness that I knew had been hidden inside me all these years. I’m not the least bit surprised that it felt so fucking good. Something like this should feel good to a person without a soul, without a heart—to someone who was already dead and rotten inside.

  I watched as Doc pierced her ivory skin, pushing a needle into the vein in her arm. She didn’t flinch, and she didn’t fight. She just continued to stare at me like she had seen a ghost.

  If only she knew that from today this face would haunt her every second of her miserable life—or at least what’s left of it. But no matter how much she suffered it still wouldn’t be enough. Nothing would be enough to fill the emptiness that now consumed every part of me.

  As Doc pulled the needle out of her arm her body instantly relaxed into the mattress, but her gaze remained etched on my face.

  “Why?” she whispered, her eyes blinking as she struggled to keep them from closing.

  I smiled. “Today is the start of your penance, donna.”

  “Penance for what?” She breathed out as her eyelids grew heavy.

  Vico and Doc exited the room, and as I stepped out the door I turned back to look at her. “For murdering my brother.”

  With the push of a button the steel door closed with a loud thud, separating us from the person I hated the most in this world—the person whose pain would feed the monster that stirred in the darkest pits of my being.

  “That was close,” Doc said behind me. “Luckily you stuck to the regular dose or her heart would have given in with the amount of alcohol in her system.”

  I turned around to face him and straightened my suit jacket, and then remembered that I was covered in vomit.

  “Thanks, Doc. Don’t go too far in case we need you again.”

  “Of course, Castello.”

  Doc walked out and I glowered at Vico, making my disapproval known by a single fucking glance. “Our entire plan almost got ruined because
you screwed up.”

  “Like I said, I didn’t know.” He gave an intimidating step forward, his eyes just as dark as mine. But he knew that nothing about him intimidated me, never has. At twenty-five he was three years younger than me. And just like him I once was what our family calls a Capo.

  It was a mere four point two minutes that catapulted my twin brother into the role as Underboss. Four point two minutes made my brother the successor instead of me. Carlo, who now lay six feet underground wearing a morbid headstone as a crown was the one destined to take my father’s place as head of our family.

  But now, with him dead, his birthright has now become my curse. I went from Capo to Boss within the blink of an eye. One bullet and a simple phone call was all it took to change my life and to turn me into the soulless bastard that I was today.

  I inhaled, trying to calm the anger that had me clenching my fists. Vico had the tendency to provoke the anger in me.

  “We can’t afford mistakes like this, Vico.”

  “You think I don’t know that?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I think your hunger for revenge is strong enough to let you make stupid mistakes.”

  “And yours? You cannot tell me that you don’t want revenge as much as I do.”

  “Oh believe me, it’s all I think about. But I know how to control it, how to feed on just enough in order to make sure that in the end my need for vengeance will be sated.” I stepped closer wanting to drive my point home long and hard. “Control yourself, Vico. I love you, but I won’t hesitate to remove you from all of this if I suspect that your lack of self-control will jeopardize our plan. This is bigger than you and me. This is bigger than any of us. This is about showing the entire goddamn world that if you fuck with a Fattore, not even God will be able to save you.”

  The way Vico’s eyes turned almost black, the way lines formed grooves on his forehead as he scowled at me I could only imagine how much he would have liked to plant a fist on my face. Vico had always been the loose cannon, the one whose actions no one could predict. Before Carlo died Vico was the one that stayed out all night, bringing home drunk girls and screwing them until dawn.