Chapter 15 LIAR
XV. LIAR
Two months earlier
Enzo helped me clean the mess. We placed Maria in her bed, covered her with the sheets, and left my father at the office on the table where I smashed his head.
After we met with the lawyer and signed every paper that handed the Ricci fortune to me, I had more than enough to buy the House of Clowns.
When we left, Enzo went into the kitchen. I watched him turn on the gas. I could hear the hiss in the silence. Then he lit a match. Flames crawled up the walls, eating everything. Maria. My father. Even the lawyer we paid enough to stay quiet for life.
And while the house burned, we walked behind the house, where we first met almost a year ago. Enzo and I made a pact. We slid our palms open and pressed them together. Warm blood ran between our fingers.
“In better and worse, we promised, we would always stay together.”
And one thing was certain.
We would end this as it began.
With a hunt.
I was back in the House of Clowns, and lately, it wasn’t the best. Clowns started leaving after too many people died. They were scared they’d be next. Rocco hadn’t paid anyone in months, stacking bills and debts with the locals who kept us fed and supplied.
Ever since the Circle fell apart, he had been starving, and people who starve are the most dangerous ones.
I knocked on his office door and walked inside. For him, it was just another day drowning in whiskey and regret. For me, it was the day I took everything he had.
“Hey, Rocco,” I said. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.” He lowered his feet from the table, bottle still in hand.
“Would you be interested in selling the House of Clowns?”
His eyes widened, then narrowed. “To you?” He laughed.
I cleared my throat. “No. But I have someone interested.”
“Half a million euros,” he said. “Not a cent less.”
“Done.” I smiled. “He just wants me to sign the papers.”
He laughed again. “First, I want to see the money, kid.”
“I’ll arrange that,” I said. “Two hours enough?”
He nodded, smirking. “More than enough.”
I left the office and walked down the hallway, all the way to the end. After checking no one was around, I pulled the phone from my pocket and called Enzo.
“He agreed to sell it for half a million,” I said. “Can you bring the money?”
“Fool,” he laughed. “Yeah, I’ll bring it in an hour.”
“See you soon.” I hung up and headed up the stairs to the attic.
By the time I reached the top floor, I could hear the laughter from above, along with a thick smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke. The freaks, as Rocco called them, were having fun, probably playing one of their twisted games.
Mia sat on the lap of the two-headed man, Yuri and Viktor, who were arguing about whether the cards were shuffled correctly.
A dwarf with tattooed eyelids poured gin into a cracked teacup, and a girl with scales along her neck blew cigarette smoke through her gills, watching it twist into perfect rings.
They all looked up when I entered.
“Hey, look who crawled back,” Mia said. “The golden boy.”
“Deal me in,” I said, dragging a chair closer. The leg wobbled beneath me.
Yuri and Viktor laughed as I tried to balance. “We’re playing Two Truths and a Lie,” one of them said. “Cards are boring when you’ve got nothing left to bet.”
“Except your soul,” Mia murmured.
I winked at her, and as they dealt me in, the circle kept spinning. They traded truths and half-truths, laughter breaking between them. Luci, the dwarf, said he killed his twin in the womb. Ariel, the scaled girl, confessed she drowned a man once and brought him back just to do it again.
When it came to me, I hesitated. But Mia leaned forward, her beard brushing her collarbone, and dared me to do it. “Come on, pretty boy. Don’t be shy.”
I smirked.
“Alright,” I said with a laugh. “One, I want to fuck my brother’s girl. Two, I already did. Three, I bought the House of Clowns.”
Silence.
Then Viktor barked out a laugh. “The last one. That’s the lie.”
Yuri nodded. “No one’s that stupid.”
Mia tilted her head, eyes narrowing. “Unless,” she said, “he really did.”
I laughed, raising a brow. “I guess we’ll never know.”
I laid my cards on the table and watched their faces drop as I showed them a full house. “So, I won?”
Luci waved a hand. “I’m out of here.”
I laughed. “No hard feelings, man.”
I shook hands with Viktor and Yuri. “Guess that means I get the best bed here.”
“Won fair and square,” Mia said, turning toward them. “Besides, you two handsome fools are sleeping with me anyway.”
They all laughed.
I stood and headed downstairs, closing the door behind me. And soon my phone buzzed in my pocket. Enzo messaged;
The money was ready.
Tonight, the House of Clowns was mine.
Present day
“She’s gone!” Mia came running, gasping for air.
I turned to her. “What the fuck do you mean gone?”
“She ran. She’s not here anymore,” she said, eyes wide.
“Fuck!” I shouted.
Enzo looked at me, already knowing what might come next. What would happen if the voices returned. But when I was with her, they never spoke. Around her, my head went quiet. Maybe that was all I ever needed, to show someone the darkest side of me and have them stay anyway.
I laughed under my breath. “Doll isn’t going anywhere,” I said.
I ran outside. Mia tried to follow, but Enzo stopped her. I knew exactly where she would go.
I went down the stairs, through the tents, and into the woods. The ground was wet, mud clinging to my shoes. My face tilted down, and I noticed her bare footprints, and beside them, a man’s. Two sets that were larger and heavier.
“Fuck,” I growled.
The Circle got its hands on her. They must have.
I tore through the dirt path, breath sawing in my throat, following the trail toward the tents. My fault. All of it. I had led them straight to her.
A scream split through the trees. Hers. It had to be.
Light spilled from the seams of the tent ahead. I crept closer and peered through a gap in the canvas.
There were two clowns inside with her. The same bastards from earlier. They still didn’t know I owned the circus; most of them thought I was just another performer, a nobody with a director’s uniform.
“If he can have her, why can’t we?” one of them slurred, his painted grin stretching as the other bound her wrists with the red silks the aerialists used to dance through the air.
She screamed again, and her fist cracked against his jaw. But they only grabbed her harder, tearing fabric from her body.
My jaw locked. My fists curled until my nails bit my palms. I will kill them for touching her.
And as I tilted my head, I saw the axe leaning beside the tent ropes.
How convenient? Almost like the gods were watching.
I snatched it up, swung it onto my shoulder, and stepped through the tent’s main entrance.
They didn’t notice. Not at first.
I crept up behind one, tapped his shoulder. “Sir. Sir,” I mimicked in a high-pitched voice. He waved me off.
“Sir.”
But then he turned, just in time for the blade to kiss his face.
“Am I fucking interrupting?”
The axe split him open, dropping him like a puppet with cut strings. I wrenched it free and swung again, this time at the second clown. The blade met his hand, slicing clean through. He screamed together with her, just as I roared back.
The next strike buried deep in his shoulder, near the neck. His voice gurgled out with his blood.
He tried to crawl away. I raised the axe and brought it down, burying it in his shoulder, cutting through his throat. He gurgled, choking on his own blood, and went still.
I let the axe fall and ran to her.
She was twisted in the red fabric, and as I was by her side, I unfolded it from her legs and caught her as she fell into my hands.
Her eyes were swollen with tears. She stood there, still, looking down at me. Frozen. She didn’t blink.
“Hey,” I said, pressing my palms to her cheeks, tapping gently, but she didn’t move.
My hand slid to her shoulders.
“Doll, say something.” I shook her once, harder. “Chiara,” I whispered. “Hey.”
I stepped back, staring at her.
I finally got what I wanted. Another broken doll. But not her. I didn’t want her to be like this.
“Fuck it,” I muttered under my breath, grabbed her, cupped her face, and crashed my mouth against hers.
The kiss hit hard, left me breathless. My tongue twisted with hers, and even though I had promised myself I wouldn’t kiss anyone again, I broke that promise with her. And it was worth it.
She lifted her hands to my neck, pulling me closer, kissing me back.
I lowered her to the ground, still tasting her, our mouths clashing, tongues tangling. My fingers worked down the laces of her corset, loosening it until it fell away. Her breasts were bare, warm against my palms. I ran my hand up, cupping her, the other sliding to her hip, pulling her closer.
She broke the kiss for a second, her gaze locking on mine. Her hand came up, brushing my face, before she kissed me again.
And I didn’t want to stop. Not for a single second.
When footsteps approached outside the tent. She froze, her fingers caught in my hair.
“We should go hide,” she whispered. “They work for the Circle.”
I looked up. Above us, the trapeze strings still hung, wooden balconies with ladders were high over the ground.
“How about up?” I whispered, my lips brushing hers before I kissed her again.
She rose, still kissing me, moving slowly, almost forgetting I had just killed two people in front of her. As she walked toward the ladders, I turned to the bodies. I dragged the dead clowns to the water barrels once used for the elephants, shoving them under until they sank down in the water.
Then I went after her.
She was already climbing, her hips swaying, her ass perfect under the light. At the top, she turned, sat down, and pulled her thong from her hips. She tossed it down at me, biting her lip.
I knew I shouldn’t fuck yet. The tattoo on my cock was still fresh, the skin still healing. But I wanted her anyway.
I climbed up, spreading her legs as she lay back. Her skirt fell open around her, and I brushed the hair from her forehead.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting soft,” she whispered against my mouth, her lip caught between her teeth.
“Shh,” I said, chuckling. “Don’t tell anyone.”
She moaned softly and kissed me again. “You’ll have to fuck me until I forget,” she said, laughing under her breath.
I lifted her leg with my knee, pressing into her, but then I rolled us over. She ended up on top, breathless, eyes dark. She slid off her skirt, grabbed the trapeze bar above, and moved toward the edge.
Then she jumped.
“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted, frozen.
“Catch me,” she said, swinging from the trapeze, naked except for her socks, her hair loose and wild, flying around her.
She was so damn beautiful.
Behind her, the lights began to dim, and I knew I had to catch her, even if it meant fucking her on that trapeze.