Shiver of Deception (Soul of the Sinner- Book 5) Read online

  “Be a good girl and behave yourself, Bryn. I would hate to get blood in the car. I just had it cleaned.”

  I turned to meet Columbo’s cold eyes, and soon, darkness found me. My time was up.

  When I came to, I was in a small room. I sat up and glanced around, noticing that I was alone. They took Maya somewhere else. I walked over to the steel door, but it was locked. I began banging on it, yelling for someone to let me out, but no one ever came. I didn’t even know if anyone could hear me.

  After banging on the door and yelling for what seemed like hours, my voice became hoarse. Tears rolled down my face as I slid down the door in defeat. I laid on the floor, looking around the room, but there was no way to get out. I was in my own personal prison, and the only one with the key was Columbo.

  The door suddenly opened, and I watched the devil himself walk in.

  “I’m glad that you’ve finally shut up, Bryn. I was starting to get a headache.”

  “Where is Maya? She has nothing do with this. Let her go,” my raspy voice demanded.

  Columbo laughed as the door slammed shut and he pulled out the key. He walked over and knelt in front of me. “It’s my lucky day, Bryn. I got two for one! How lucky can I get, that the two of you would be walking down the street together?” He laughed.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I have been looking for both of you. I’ll be able to get rid of you both, and my world will be a better place.” He jerked to his feet.

  “Wait, why do you want to hurt Maya?” I managed to ask.

  His jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. “That bitch stole my grandson.” He spun and was gone.

  What was he talking about? The baby that Maya had and gave away was Columbo’s grandson? How was that possible? I fell onto my back and stared at the ceiling, thinking about everything Maya had told me. She said her father worked for a rich family and that she fell in love with his son. Her father wasn’t happy about it and neither was the man he worked for. She was involved with the son and got pregnant. Did she ever say what happened between her and the son? Shit… I couldn’t remember. Why couldn’t I remember?

  She had the baby, but she gave him away to protect him. Columbo knew she was pregnant, and of course, he would have wanted the baby. He would have groomed that baby into the monster he needed to take over the family business. Columbo only had one son, Steven. I was engaged to Steven. Shit. Did Steven leave Maya to be with me? Would Steven have walked away from her if he knew she was pregnant?

  I heard the door being unlocked, and a few seconds later, Maya was shoved into the room. Columbo walked in behind her and locked the door, putting the key in his pocket.

  “I think it’s time that you two are formally introduced. Bryn, this is Maya. This is the woman that gave birth to Steven’s only child, my grandson and the heir to the Columbo fortune. Maya, this is Bryn. This is the woman that Steven walked away from you to be with. The woman he was going to marry. The woman that murdered the man that you claim to love, the father of your child.” His mouth curved into a sinister smile.

  I don’t know how long I stopped breathing, but I know I did as my throat seemed to close.

  Oliver

  “The girl in the picture is Maya. She is always with some girl named Bryn.” The words kept replaying in my mind on the way back to the hotel. I didn’t ask Red anything else after I heard her mention Bryn. I just sat there and watched as she finished the breadsticks then told her it was time to leave.

  “Where are you taking me? You’re not some kind of nutcase, are you?” Red questioned.

  I forgot she was in the car and was close enough to the hotel that I didn’t want to turn around. “How about staying at a nice hotel tonight?”

  “Do I owe you now?” She tilted her head, and I realized what she was asking.

  “No. You will have your own room, and I have my room. I just thought you would want to sleep in a decent bed. I haven’t stayed at a shelter, but I am assuming they don’t offer comfortable beds? Or am I wrong?” I asked.

  Red agreed to stay at the hotel, and I was grateful she did. After making sure Red was safely in her room, I practically ran to the elevator. I needed to get to my room so I could talk to my father and call in Frank, Alex, and Thomas. We needed to find this girl that Columbo was looking for immediately. At least, now I had her name, and more importantly, I knew that Bryn was with her.

  Red didn’t mention last names, but how many Bryn’s could there be in Boston? It wasn’t a common name, so I figured it had to be my Bryn. I couldn’t believe that she’d been staying in a shelter. Why would she leave me if she had nowhere else to go? I couldn’t believe she would rather stay in a shelter than come back to me.

  I pounded on the elevator button once I was inside, thinking it would get me to my floor faster. As the elevator crawled along, my cell phone rang. Columbo was calling, but I was not in the mood for him. My first instinct was to ignore it, but I couldn’t. He’d get suspicious, and I still hadn’t found Bryn.

  “Columbo,” I answered, hoping he couldn’t hear the annoyance in my voice.

  “Get to the house now,” he demanded.

  “I am a little busy. What is this about?”

  “I found her,” he said before he hung up.

  Who had he found? Did he find Bryn, and was she okay? When the elevator door opened, I hit the button for it to take me back down. Once again, it moved as slow as fucking molasses and I wondered if it would have been better to take the stairs.

  When the door finally opened, I bumped into Frank and Alex.

  “What is your fucking hurry?” Alex snapped.

  “He has her,” I growled out, grabbing him by the shirt collar.

  “He has who?” Frank asked.

  “I don’t know. He could be talking about Maya or Bryn. All I know is, if he has Maya, it can lead us to Bryn.”

  “Who the fuck is Maya?” Alex questioned.

  “I can’t explain this shit to you right now. I have to get to Columbo’s,” I told them as I walked around them and started to run.

  “Oliver, call us if you need anything!” Frank shouted, and I yelled that I would.

  I doubted it was safe for me to be driving. I was driving far beyond the speed limit, tailgating and cutting in between other cars. I was a fucking road hazard and hoped the cops didn’t pull me over.

  When I pulled into Columbo’s driveway, I made sure I had my gun on me and that it was fully loaded. I also grabbed the spare gun out of the glove box. If Bryn was inside, I was leaving with her. The guards all nodded at me as I walked past, and the doorman pushed the door open for me as I walked inside.

  I glanced in all the rooms as I walked up to Columbo’s office. I didn’t even bother to knock, just pushed open the door. Columbo was sitting on the edge of his desk, and he was talking to a woman. His eyes widened when he saw me, and I walked over to him to see it was Maya.

  “Look at who I found, Oliver.” He smirked.

  Her teary eyes looked away from him, but she didn’t look at me.

  “Be nice, Maya,” he warned her as he leaned over and grabbed her by the chin.

  “Where did you find her?” I asked him, biting my tongue.

  “She was exactly where I expected her to be.” He smirked, but it didn’t make any sense. If he knew where she was, why in the hell didn’t he tell me?

  “Was she alone?”

  His focus returned to me and away from Maya. “Why wouldn’t she be, Oliver?”

  I shrugged my shoulders and stared at Maya, hoping she would look at me. I needed to see her eyes, so hopefully, I could read her. Was she with Bryn or was she alone?

  “What are you going to do with her?” I asked finally.

  “What am I going to do with her? You are going to find out where this bitch has my grandson hidden, and then you’ll kill her. Just like you killed the judge.”

  I would do the same thing to her that I did with the judge, fat bastard.

  Maya
kicked and screamed as I pulled her out of the house and tossed her in the trunk of the car. One of the guards walked to the passenger side, but I told him I’d handle her alone. I didn’t want anyone going with me. I pulled out my cell and sent a text to Thomas, letting him know that we needed to meet up again. When the GPS pulled up the closest lake, I sent the location to Thomas.

  My knuckles strangled the wheel as I listened to Maya kicking in the trunk. I hated knowing that she thought I was about to kill her, but there was no other option. I couldn’t stand to listen to her, so I turned on the music to drown her out.

  When I finally got to the lake, Thomas was already there. He was leaning against a black Suburban, and he didn’t look happy. Of course, Thomas never looked happy.

  I parked next to him and turned off the car. His eyes lifted when he heard Maya screaming and kicking the trunk.

  “That can’t be Bryn, or is it?” he questioned, his eyes narrowed.

  “Of course, it’s not Bryn.” Rolling my eyes, I walked over to the car and slammed my hand against the trunk so Maya would stop; or at least, I hoped she would.

  “We have a problem and not much time. Columbo wants her dead. I need you to take her ass to Maurice’s, and I’ll meet up with you later,” I told him, pulling the key from my pocket as I walked to open the trunk.

  “Wait a minute.” Thomas grabbed my arm before I let her out.

  “What the fuck is going on, Oliver? Who is this girl, and why do you want us to babysit her? She isn’t the reason we are here,” he roared as if I need the reminder.

  “I think she can tell us where Bryn is. Just take her, Thomas. I’ll meet you later after Columbo is convinced she is dead.”

  Thomas wasn’t happy about any of it, but he nodded. When the trunk opened, Maya’s frightened eyes glanced between me and Thomas. I took a deep breath and told her we weren’t going to hurt her, but she needed to keep her ass quiet and go with Thomas. She glanced past us, and I knew she was thinking she could get away. Thomas sighed and grabbed her by the wrist before she did exactly that.

  “You are going to owe me big time for this, Oliver.”

  I knew Thomas well enough to know that he would collect.

  Bryn

  I was frozen in limbo where all decisions and actions were impossible. With my back against the wall, I looked around the small dark room. It felt like a dungeon with a small table and steel door. There was no window, but there was a small bathroom. At least, I wouldn’t have to piss on myself.

  My mind refused to register the significance of Columbo’s words. Maya had been in love with Steven. The child that she gave birth to was his. It all made sense now. We had both been running from the same evil man. Maya was right to hide her baby from Columbo. He would have taken the baby from her and molded him into a heartless criminal. The baby would have been the perfect replacement for Steven. Just thinking about it shattered me and tore at my insides.

  When Columbo told Maya that I was the reason Steven walked away from her and that I killed him, her eyes went cold. She believed him, as fear and anger knotted inside me. How could she believe the man that she had been fearing?

  Columbo pulled her out of the small room, and she never looked back. He was going to kill her, and then he would kill me. I pulled myself off the floor and looked for any possible way out of this room, but I couldn’t find one. Panic like I had never known welled in my throat.

  My worst fear was about to happen. I would soon die.

  The jingling of keys startled me as Columbo pushed open the door and walked in. His brow pulled into an affronted frown.

  “One down, one to go,” he said with a significant lifting of his brows.

  “Where is Maya?” Nervously, I moistened my dry lips.

  “I don’t know, Bryn. If I had to guess, I would assume in cement or underwater. I hired the best man to get rid of her. I am sure…”

  “Shut the fuck up! You’re a sick bastard!” I yelled, cutting him off. “Does this make you happy? Killing women? What kind of man are you!” I spat out the words contemptuously.

  The beginning of a smile tipped the corners of his mouth. “I am a sick man, Bryn? I am sitting here with you. I can’t wait to see how you respond to Oliver. He’s the one who got rid of Maya, not me.” He walked up to me with a grin of amusement.

  “Oliver?” I whispered.

  “Your Oliver, who is on my payroll, killed Maya. He’s the perfect assassin. How do you think I found you to begin with, Bryn? I have connections everywhere, even in Chicago.”

  He was lying. He had to be lying. “I don’t believe you.”

  He shot me a twisted smile and pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll put him on speaker, so you can hear for yourself.”

  The phone only rang once before Oliver answered. “Columbo, I am on my way back.”

  No! Oh, God, no! Not Oliver… I was unable to face his mocking smile.

  “Did you handle the job?”

  “It’s been handled. You won’t have to deal with her again. I even got her to tell me where the kid is.”

  I felt sick.

  At Columbo’s sharp intake of breath, my stomach turned. I’d thought I could trust Oliver, but I was wrong. He was on Columbo’s payroll this entire time.

  “We’ll talk when you get back, Oliver.”

  “Sounds good, boss.” He ended the call, and I felt like I’d been sucker punched.

  “Are you happy now?” His voice was courteous but patronizing.

  Not Oliver… How could I have been so wrong?

  I didn’t answer him. Placing my back against the wall, I slid to the floor… heartbroken.

  Oliver

  “Pop, I can’t talk right now.”

  “Oliver, you need to get your ass back to the hotel,” he said with quiet emphasis.

  “Pop…”

  “Son just get here fast!” he yelled before hanging up.

  Fuck. I didn’t have time for this. I needed to get back to Columbo. Despite what my head was telling me, I rushed back to the hotel to find out what the hell my father was summoning me for.

  “I am glad you decided to listen for once,” he said matter-of-factly.

  There were two men sitting in his room. The dead judge and a man I had never seen before. He looked hungover and had salt and pepper hair and a beard that needed to be cut months ago. He looked frail, and his clothes looked clean, but they didn’t fit him. He must have lost weight.

  “Pop, what the hell is going on here? I don’t have time for this,” I reminded him.

  “You will have time for this, son.” His voice had depth and authority.

  “Okay, who the fuck are you?” I stared suspiciously at the stranger.

  “I am the person that killed Steven Columbo.”

  “What the fuck?” I pulled out my gun and pointed it at him.

  “Son, I know this is all hard to believe.” His voice held a rasp of excitement.

  “Yeah, you think?” My voice hardened.

  “Perhaps if you sit down, we can talk about this?” the judge said in a low, composed voice.

  As if he knew shit was going down, my cell started to ring. It was Columbo.

  “Are you on your way?”

  “Give me one hour. I’m having car trouble.” I hung up before he could reply.

  I looked between the three men who all had their eyes trained on me. “Talk,” I ordered, and I listened to the most unbelievable story I had ever heard.

  “I was in debt. I should have stopped gambling years ago, but I couldn’t. I gambled away the most important thing to me.” His voice was inflamed and belligerent.

  “Wait, you gambled away the most important thing to you?” It hit me then who this man was. “You’re Bryn’s father?” I gave him a narrowed glinting glare, and he gave a small nod.

  I again lifted my gun and pointed it at him. As I pulled the trigger, my father knocked my hand down and the bullet went into the wall instead of the kneecap that I was aiming for.


  “Oliver, this man is here to help.”

  “This man handed his own daughter off to pay a gambling debt,” I spat.

  “Wait a minute. What the hell do you care? I was told that Columbo is after my daughter because he thinks she killed Steven,” he questioned the judge.

  “I need everyone to shut the hell up and tell me what the fuck is going on,” I yelled.

  The Delucas gave my father one job. He was to keep an eye on the judge while they were helping me track down Bryn. After a lot of bourbon and gin, the judge liked to talk. After Bryn’s father killed Steven Columbo, he wandered into the courthouse for a lawyer. He stumbled into the judge instead. He made a full confession, and the judge recognized the danger of making a confession to killing Steven Columbo. He convinced Brian Dorsey to get help with his gambling and to keep his mouth shut. He had no idea that the Columbos blamed Bryn for Steven’s murder.

  “You would just let him get away with murder? Aren’t you supposed to make sure the law is followed?” I questioned the judge.

  “The Columbos are heartless and would have executed him.”

  “Shouldn’t you be impartial? It sounds like you hold a grudge? He wanted you dead, too. Is there more to this story?” I asked.

  “He was married to my sister. She started asking too many questions. She never wanted Steven to be raised as a criminal. He killed her. He killed the mother of his son and got away with it. I wasn’t going to let him do it again.”

  “He killed your nephew?” I looked at Bryn’s father.

  “He was never my nephew. He was the devil, and it hurts that he was killed, but it hurt more knowing what he was turned into.”

  Columbo wanted his brother in law dead. He killed his own wife. He had no fucking morals. Coming from someone who bled Deluca blood, that is a harsh statement.

  The same brother in law that he put a hit on helped the man that killed his son. I guess, in this family, blood isn’t thicker than water.