FaCade (Deception #1) (23 page)

My gut twisted at the tone in his voice, it was angry but also sad. “It will be.” I smiled at him, I was learning who I was. “It was only the starter. By the time we get to dessert, Bernard will need a new carpet.” I winked at him, trying to lighten the situation.

His lips twisted before he started to chuckle. “Then I think we need to get to the main course.”

I frowned at him. “I need a starter first.”

He ignored me and stood up, pulling his jacket back into place. I stared wide-eyed, my jaw dropping when he took a big breath and dropped to one knee by my side. He took my hand and slowly looked up at me.

“I know we’re already engaged but I need to do this, to once again signify our relationship. We’ve been together since the beginning of my memories, Star. I can’t lose you, I refuse to lose you. I know the past few weeks have been… challenging and I promised, as I still promise, to get us through to our future. Because that’s all I see, a future with both of us in.”

My heart thundered in my chest. My throat was restricted, making it difficult for my lungs to do their job. My mind was a chaotic mess, making everything hazy and dreamlike. He reached into his inner pocket and retrieved a small blue velvet box. When he flicked the lid open, I peered at the gold band, a huge blue sapphire glued to the top. It was hideous. It wasn’t me or my taste. I recognized my memories failed me but I knew I would never have gone for anything so gaudy.

“What…?” I took a deep breath. “Where’s the other ring?”

He blinked at me, his teeth grinding so hard I could hear the scrape of them over each other. But he ignored my question. “Marry me, Star. Give yourself to me, all of you. Show me you love me.”

His selfish proposal stuck in my throat. What happened to his previous adoring one, the one my memories actually allowed me to remember? His loving words, his worship as he slid the ring onto my finger down a piece of string?

“I want you to propose like you did last time. When the time is right. When I know who I am.” I hadn’t wanted to say it but my brain hadn’t told my mouth.

“Like last time?” He echoed my words, his eyes turning black as his face paled. His eyes were curious, almost accusing as his head tipped to the side and he scrutinized me like I had stabbed him in the back.

I nodded faintly, aware I had pushed too far.

“I remembering little by little. I remembered a number earlier when you answered it’s all coming back Dante I just need more time.” To stall! I didn’t voice the last part. He stood up slowly, his action causing my body to brace itself. He brushed at his suit, his fingers sweeping the material as though removing lint that wasn’t there.

“You know,” he said quietly, too quietly. “The previous proposal is forgotten, Star. I don’t care how I proposed last time; I was trying to make a fresh start here.” His voice was growing louder, his tone deeper, his fury higher. “But as usual, you have to spoil it, just like you ruin every other – fucking – thing – I – try – to – do.” I squealed loudly when he snatched a large handful of my hair and hauled me out of the chair. “I’m sick and tired of your selfishness.” My hands lifted to his as I tried to prise my hair from his fingers, the pull burning my scalp. My knees thudded on the floor as he dragged me across the room.

Bernard stared at us with shock, his huge round eyes and the other diners’ following our journey out of his restaurant. Davies smirked as though amused at my refusal.

“Dante,” I hissed when my knees scraped over the cobbles. I attempted to stand, but his powerful hold pushed me back to the floor. “I will,” I cried. “I’ll marry you. I’m sorry.” My hands clawed at the stones beneath me until I resembled a dog on all fours scurrying along beside him.

He scoffed and shook his head. “I’m not sure I want you anymore. You’re nothing but a selfish whore! And in front of fucking Davies of all cunts to be there. He will find this so funny!”

“I’m sorry!” I choked out as tears blinded my way, not that I needed to see where I was going with Dante’s stern navigation. A man outside a bar, smoking, gawped at us as we passed.

“Hey!” he shouted. “Are you okay?”

Dante stilled immediately then turned, his body tensing further. “Keep out of this.”

The guy stepped forward. “You’re hurting her. She’s not a dog!” His voice was low, accusing but confident. “Let her go and we’ll forget all about this.”

Dante scoffed, a cold chill emanating from him. “I don’t think we will forget all about this.” Malik suddenly appeared behind us. Where the hell had he come from?

I gasped as the guy held up his hands when Malik pulled out a gun and trained it on the guy’s head. “Whoa!”

“Malik!” I wheezed. “What are you doing?”

His eyes shot to mine and his brow creased as he struggled with his own actions. He shifted his gaze to Dante, then back to the random. “Go back inside if you want to continue living.”

This wasn’t Malik. He was suddenly cruel and as twisted as Dante. “Malik. Put the gun away!”

I was flung upright, my body heaving with Dante’s manipulation. “Shut the fuck up! You’ve caused enough trouble tonight!”

I never found out what happened next. Dante’s fist crashed into my head and everything went black.

“IT HURTS SO MUCH,” I sobbed.

“What can I do, Faye? I feel so helpless.” He crawled up onto the bed I was lying on. His warm protective body curved around mine. “You didn’t have to go through with this, Faye. He would have done the right thing.”

I moved my arm to grip on to his. “I couldn’t do this to him. He has a future, this would have ruined it. What if he didn’t do the right thing? You know how he can get.”

I felt his disapproval varnishing me. “Then I would have.” It was a whisper falling forbiddingly from his lips. My eyes closed, refusing to let my mind wander into that impossibility. I turned to face him. He was so beautiful …Dante?

“Yes it’s me. I’m sorry Star.” My eyes fluttered open; he was older than he was in my dream. A throb on the side of my head began a steady thump. My knees screamed for some relief. “I’ve got the doctor coming to dress your knees. I lost it. I’m sorry. You pushed me… you just keep pushing.” Exhaling the breath I’d been holding, I didn’t look directly at him

“I don’t want that woman touching me. I can see to my own needs.” My stomach stirred and I knew I couldn’t swallow down the rising vomit.

I sprinted from the bed. Ignoring the disapproval from my knees, I dropped down over the toilet just in time for my stomach to eject everything inside it, which wasn’t much. The retch tightened my stomach muscles so forcibly it reminded me of the pain I felt in the dream.

The younger image of Dante once again clouded my mind, his gentle touch and tone. The younger man was a complete contradiction to the older version.

I felt him before he actually made himself known. “The doctor will be here in ten minutes. You’re sick.”

Pulling myself to my feet I shook my head. “I said I don’t want her here.”

He stepped towards me. I cowered, making him stop. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Star.”

Was he serious? I could barely stand. I needed courage. I couldn’t let him turn me into this.

“I won’t be a victim for you to lose control on, Dante. This,” I pointed to the bruise I knew marred my face, then down to my scraped bloodied knees. “I don’t know what I did wrong.” I sounded weak to my own ears, my voice barely a whisper. The truth was, he flipped a switch and was once again the man from when I first woke up with no memories in that holding cell. It was terrifying. Where was the man I had memories of? Where was the man in my dreams
? Where were you? Why did you abandon me?
My enigma, haunting me. I was drowning in the unknown.

“You keep searching for a past that doesn’t matter now! You may not remember it but I do and I don’t want us to be who we were then. Things are different now and this is your life NOW, so you fighting me, trying to recreate a past is meaningless to the NOW! It’s getting old!” Every word travelled across the air to attack me like a physical slap.

“Now you’re sick, let the doctor look at you,” he continued once his temper had simmered back down again.

“It will just be something I ate,” I mocked. I hadn’t had a chance to actually eat anything before I was dragged from the restaurant.

His eyes lowered to slits. I was being bold and brave considering what he had done to me earlier. There was a woman inside me who was defiant and she wanted to smash through the walls. Her voice was faint, but grew louder and louder every day.

I knew he was angry; it was derived from a fury, not just from that one sentence. He was mad at me or at everything. Fuck only knew what made him this way but something had because the man who lived in my memories was not the one simmering on the edge of rage in front of me.

“She’s here.” Malik’s voice came from behind Dante and then a hand came up to his chest, red nail polish blazing from each perfected nail.

“Let me by,” she cooed. She was too personal with him and the cheek of her over-familiar hands was an insult to me. How dare she come into my house, claim we were friends and then act like she had a secret with MY fiancé? How dare he raise his hand to me and treat me the way he did?

He moved aside and she made sure to get as close as possible as she shimmied against his body. Even her cheeks were tinted red with lust, the freaking whore. Screw that.

She smirked and turned to me, eyeing me up and down and tutting. Her whorish mouth opened. “Oh dear, Star. Let’s get you cleaned up. What happened?” Like she didn’t know.

It happened like I wasn’t in my own body, a reflex. My hand balled into a fist, reared back and flew at her full force. The crunch I felt under my hand was fucking amazing.

Blood exploded like a paint gun bullet hitting a target. Her head sprang backwards and her body followed, leaving her screaming on her back.

“That happened, only it was a little harder and to the right. Don’t worry about cleaning me up. You should clean yourself up.”

Stepping around her, I pinned Dante with a glare. “If you want that ring on my finger, you’ll keep this whore out of my house and out of your bed!” I spat, moving past him. My heart stammered inside my ribcage when he grabbed my wrist, halting my retreat. I didn’t turn to look at him, I just held my breath.

“I told you she hasn’t been in my bed. It was the truth. I’ll get her out of here and you won’t have to see her again.” I released the breath and nodded my head. “You will put the ring on and we’ll forget tonight happened.”

He released my wrist, and I moved my feet forward, shooting Malik a glare. He had proved I was alone in this. He worked and was friends with Dante, not me. I was just his friend’s property.

I went to the studio, locking the door behind me. My legs gave out and I crumbled to the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees.

I allowed the tears to come. They came with a wave of loneliness. I felt incomplete, like I was back in that cell. My heart felt empty, missing someone who was not there anymore.