Seductive Secrecy (Shadows series) (40 page)

Fortunately, we weren’t able to hear anything that had
happened in their room, either.

“Are you able to spend the day with us?” my father asked, “Or do you already have plans to head back to your villa?”

I glanced at Cameron with a question, and he answered with a smile. “If it’s all right with the two of you,” he said, “we’d like to stay another night.”

Once we’d gone upstairs for the evening, I’d told him how much
I enjoyed being here. I knew this wasn’t the way Cameron had
intended to spend our vacation, and being guests in my father’s house wasn’t the most romantic situation for us. But he was doing this for me, and I would make sure to thank him later…in the shower, since the bed couldn’t handle any more of our magic. Even more, I knew that the painting supplies and twin easels my father had left in our room really intrigued Cameron. It was another reason for us to stay. He was just as excited as I was for the opportunity to paint in Europe.
With the house sitting directly on the water and the balcony
overlooking the Mediterranean, we’d have a fantastic opportunity to create our art in an entirely different environment.

My father was sincerely trying.

“We’d love to have you for as long as you’d like to stay,” my father said. “Wouldn’t we, honey?”

Victoria paid no attention to him. Her eyes were fixed on her plate, though she wasn’t eating the fruit on it. She was cutting it into
small pieces and circling it around with her fork, mashing it all into
pulp.

“Victoria,” my father said, trying once again to get her attention.

She slowly glanced up and met my gaze. Something about her had changed.

Everything, actually.

Her eyes had gone cold, her expression hard. It was a look I’d seen many times, in Lilly. “Of course, dear,” she said, “I’d
love
to have your daughter here even more than she already is. It’s all about her anyway, isn’t it?”

My father looked at her. “Is there something wrong?”

“Not for Charlie. Nothing’s ever wrong for her.”

Cameron gave me a worried look. “We can go back to the villa,” he offered, “if you’d rather have time alone.”

She looked back at her plate. “Like that’d make a difference.”
She was mashing more violently now. “She’s always there…even
when she
isn’t
, she
is
.”

“Victoria,” my father said. He reached for her hand and stopped the motion. “What’s gotten into you?”

She threw his hand off and slammed her fork on the table.
“What’s gotten into
you
, Dr. Luna?” She was shouting now. “You used to be
focused on what was important for us…you used to pay attention to
me, and me only, because that’s how you behave when you
love
someone.”

“It isn’t the time or the place for this.” His voice was stern.

She leaned over and smiled in such a horrible way as she
caressed
his cheek. “Well, this is where and when it’s going to happen,
sweetheart.”
She swept the plate from the table, knocking it across the dining
room. It shattered against the tile floor.

We were stunned watching it happen.

Then we looked back to her as she stood from the table and drew her hand from behind her back. She was holding a gun.

My father slid away from the table. “Victoria, what the hell are you doing?”

“I’m making things right, Marvin,” she said. Her voice wavered as she slowly brought her arms down and aimed the gun.

It was pointed directly at my head.

My father’s eyes shifted toward me as he talked, keeping his
tone quiet and even. “I don’t understand…what are you making right?”

“
This!
” she shouted, shaking the gun in my direction. I flinched. “This…fucking mess you’ve made of everything because of
her
.” Her eyes followed the gun and landed on me. “I gave you a chance to be something more than just some trashy little whore finger-fucking herself in the bathroom of a hotel. I picked you up out of the gutter
and made you shine…I took care of you, gave you
everything
, and you thank me by having your father bring down my whole fucking
world?”

I glanced at my father as I put the pieces together in my head. She knew I had masturbated in the employee bathroom of the hotel I’d used to work in? That was the same night the Recruiter had showed up to offer me an interview. “I didn’t—”

“Oh, you did. He told me everything last night…how you two
worked together to ruin the mansion, how clever you were at
figuring out how to keep your hands clean while you threw everyone else to the wolves…including me.”

“That isn’t true, hon.” My father was trying his best to keep her from pulling the trigger. With a gun pointing at his daughter, I couldn’t think of any other reason why he would call her
hon
. “I told you to get as far away as you could. Don’t you remember? I was helping you escape.”

“You wouldn’t have had to if that little bitch hadn’t insisted that you open your fucking mouth and tell the world about everything. She was supposed to die. Why couldn’t she have just died?”

I saw Cameron out of the corner of my eye, reaching for my hand. Victoria saw it too, and shook the gun in his direction. “Don’t
move, Boy Scout, or I’ll make her watch
you
die instead.” She
glanced back at me, and I flinched again. My breath was coming in gasps, and my heart fluttered uncontrollably. “After you took everything from me…
everything
…you then had to take the attention of the one man who loved me.
”

I made myself speak to her, in spite of my fear. “That isn’t true, Victoria,” I said. “I just wanted to know my father.”

“Oh, I know…you can’t stand to have any other woman take a
man’s attention away from you.” She breathed in deeply and
released it slowly. “You’re just as much of a slut as your mother was.”

My mother?

Cameron spoke up then. “What the fuck are you talking about? How would you know Charlie’s mother?”

She smirked, but the action felt forced. Deceitful. And her eyes never left me. “My love for the brilliant Dr. Luna didn’t start in the mansion,
Cee
.” She was taunting me now. “It goes back much further than that…back to a bar in Boston…back to the fucking whore of a bartender who preyed on a handsome med student who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.” She saw the recognition on my face.

“You really
did
know my mother.” It was slowly sinking in.

“Victoria,” my father said, “You worked at that bar? The same one as Lilly?”

She tried to smile, but it didn’t seem possible for her anymore. “Yeah…we both fucked your father. But I was the only one who loved him.” She didn’t turn in his direction, obviously ignoring his
question.

“I don’t understand. What…what are you saying?” He was pleading.

“All you’ve ever done is choose someone else over me,” she
shouted, finally facing him. “When I sat near you in the school
library you and your friends droned on, or when I stood next to Lilly on the
other side of the bar and ate up every fucking word you said, or
when I
waited for you to notice how much I loved you in that
mansion…don’t you see? It’s always been them, not me. And then when you finally did come along, it was
her
.” She was talking to herself as much as to the rest of us. “Maybe it was a mistake to recruit her...maybe she should have been left in the gutter where she belongs.”

It didn’t fit together yet. I couldn’t recall Lilly ever mentioning Victoria’s name to me and I knew I had never met her before the mansion. If they were friends, I wondered why that was. “If you and my mother were friends, then—”

“We weren’t
friends!
That woman was trash. I should never have wanted her sloppy seconds, the scraps she had left behind.” She looked directly at my father when she said it. “I gave up everything for you...my mind...my heart...my face.” She scowled.

The expression was all too familiar. As I analyzed her features I realized they were, too.

“You were in the library while I studied,” he repeated while he
shook his head. “And at the bar the night I met Lilly?” Confusion covered his face. “I don’t remember you. How…how do I not remember?”

“Get a good look.” She leaned in closer. “Do you notice anything significant?”

I didn’t need her to take another step toward me. The similarities
were screaming. My hand flew to my mouth. “You look so much
like… my mom did.” The familiarity I kept feeling from the unmasked Victoria all made sense now.

“Yeah…I had a little work done. I don’t look anything like that little girl you stepped over…who you walked around to get to Lilly. So I tried my best to look like what you wanted…I tried to look like her. That’s why you don’t remember me, Marvin.” Her smile was now in place. It spoke of her insanity. So did the frown that replaced it as she looked at my father again. “I did it for you. I did
everything
for you...so you would love me.”

“But I’m with you now, Victoria.”

I knew he didn’t mean that. He was keeping his reaction calm and controlled.

“But you chose her, and then Charlie
the one you made with the whore!” She was crying now. “I sacrificed
everything
, and you gave up nothing for me
nothing!”

She was starting to repeat herself. It made her sound even more unhinged. The way her eyelids stretched wide and her lips pulled high over her teeth only reinforced my thought.

“You need to give me the gun,” he said, “so we can work this out rationally.”

She stood straighter. “I’ve already worked it out. This is how it‘s all going to end.”

His tone became firm. “Once Santo realizes what’s happening, he’s going to
”

“Santo is dead, Dr. Luna. He took a bullet to the head this
morning….while he was licking my pussy.” She sniffed and wiped away the black mascara tears that dripped down her bare neck. Her hands were shaking almost as badly as mine. “Where do you think I got the gun?”

We were completely unprotected. There was nothing that could stop this woman from pulling the trigger. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted her, but I never thought she would have taken things this far, this out of control.

The acid in my stomach began to churn.

But I was done hiding in the shadows.

“Enough of this bullshit,” I yelled. “What the hell do you want from us?”

My volume surprised Cameron; he jumped a little at my sound and his brows rose. He’d seen a lot of insanity throughout his life. I wondered if anyone had ever held him at gunpoint.

She looked at my father again. “All I’ve ever wanted was happiness...with you.”

“We can still have that,” he told her. “But you have to put the gun down.”

“No! No. I’ll never be enough for you. You’ll always choose her
now…always.” Her eyes shifted to me and her lip curled. “I don’t know why, though. She wasn’t even good enough for her own mother to love.”