I’m not bitter. They belong together, but my life changed after that. Everyone pushed me to Langston like they thought we needed our own happily ever after. None of them know our true history. None of them know our past.
And then Zeke found Siren, and the pressure increased for Langston and me.
But I don’t want a happily ever after.
I don’t want to live in their dangerous world.
And I don’t need friends, especially girlfriends—I’m a lone wolf.
“Then I’ll keep it short. Siren and I are going on a pampered girls vacation to Santorini for a week, and we’d love for you to come with us. We are leaving in two weeks, I know it’s short notice, but hopefully, you can get someone to cover your clients for you.”
“I—” I start.
“You are not giving me some excuse why you can’t come right now. I have two weeks to convince you to go, and I want to spend every day of that persuading you. We haven’t seen you in six months, and we miss you.”
I sigh. “I’ll think about it.”
I have no idea how to get out of this. A girl’s trip sounds like my nightmare. Kai and Siren are nice enough, but to be trapped on an island with them for an entire week of gossiping, drinking, and sunshine?
No, thanks.
I wouldn’t survive a week with them.
Kai squeals excitedly like I just said yes, instead of blowing her off like I did.
“I have to go,” I say.
“Of course, will talk to you tomorrow!”
I end the call. Kai is going to keep to her word and call me every day this week. And then again the next week. There is no stopping her once she gets going. She’s the boss for a reason. Her orders are followed, no exception.
I don’t have a clue how to get out of this.
I walk back into the bathroom and look at the words again—five more days.
The words have started to fade, and soon they won’t exist at all. Then I’ll be second-guessing myself, thinking I made it up.
Five.
More.
Days.
What will Langston demand of me then?
I have an idea—and I suspect I just found out my excuse for why I can’t go on the girl’s trip. I’m with Langston—that would shut Kai up. She wouldn’t dare interfere if she thought there was a chance that Langston and I could get together. She knows nothing about my life here. She doesn’t know about Waylon.
Langston has a plan to extract a debt from me in five days.
I smirk as I drop the towel, knowing that Langston is watching.
I’m not going to wait five days. I’m done waiting, and I’m done playing by his rules. This is going to end much sooner than five days.
10
Langston
Liesel thinks she’s going to win.
Not this time.
We’ve been fighting since we were kids. Fighting an invisible war with each other—one that was never spoken about. One that neither of us knew the terms, rules, or even what we would win. We just knew that we had to win.
Since we were five, we’ve been fighting, hurting, deceiving one another.
Why?
Because hurt people, hurt people. And we’ve been damaged more in our youth than any of our friends could imagine.
Our battles didn’t always involve hurting one another. Although, that was the majority of what happened.
We were enemies—usually fighting and angry at each other. Liesel was chasing my best friend, Enzo, and I thought she was annoying. So I would tease her, piss her off. That’s how our relationship started.
Later as we grew into horny teenagers, the lust started. The attraction grew, but I was beneath her. She was after Enzo, the man with power, not me—his side-kick.
The lust turned to sexual frustration and then serious feelings we both had no right to feel, which just pissed us both off more. We both knew from a very young age that we could never ever be together.
If we could have escaped each other, if we could have never met, we would have. As much as we needed to stay apart, the world kept pushing us back together over and over again.
Things have changed.
We can’t keep living our lives like this. We can’t keep battling forever. This war has to end. This is the start of our end.
It’s not going to be easy for either of us, but it’s necessary.
We’ve both been holding onto secrets for too long, since I ripped half of that envelope out of her hand—it’s time.
Neither of us will give up our truths easily. We will fight with our lies until the bitter end. Until one of us finally breaks down, until one of us loses.
But as soon as either of us speaks the truth—that will be the end of us.
We will no longer be friends.
We will never have a shot at being lovers.
We won’t even be enemies anymore.
We will be out of each other’s lives for good.
Which is why I’ll drag out this final game as long as I can. I’m not ready to let go of Liesel yet.
I smirk when I see Liesel on the security camera in the lobby of the hotel I’m staying at. It seems that Liesel is ready for this to be over faster than I am.
She doesn’t get to be in control of this.
She doesn’t get to win.
She’s an excellent hunter. She can seek whatever and whoever she wants. There is nothing that can be hidden from her.
She found me—four days earlier than I’m ready to be found.
So I won’t let her find me.
She is a great hunter, but she’s rusty. She’s been away from danger for far too long.
I, on the other hand, never left the darkness. Over the last year, I’ve only let it deeper into my soul until I’ve become as evil as the world I was born into.
She can hunt all she wants, but she’ll only find me when I’m ready to be found. She should have learned that by now.
I watch on my computer as Liesel walks to the elevator in a tight red dress and heels. She came straight from the office. In the last month that I’ve been following her, I’ve never seen her out of her dress or heels outside of her condo, and she makes no exception today.
She likes the dresses and heels so much because it’s her suit of armor. It protects her and makes her more powerful. It’s not because she’s a girlie girl. She doesn’t love always being so dressed up. She just likes the power she’s able to wield while dolled up.
I take a quick glance around the hotel room as she rides up in the elevator to see if there is anything lying out that I don’t want her to see, but there isn’t. I already know that without looking. I travel light. All of my stuff is already in my backpack.
I close my laptop and stick it into my backpack before zipping it up.
I pull out my cell and switch the feed to my phone. I watch her exit the elevator with complete confidence like she belongs here.
I have thirty seconds until she makes it to my room. I spot a pen and paper on the desk and scribble on it before I move to the bed. I lift the ceiling tile, and pull myself up just as I hear her scan the hotel keycard she flirted her way into getting.
The tile pops back in place before she opens the door, and I switch the feed on my phone until I’m tapped into the security in my own room.
This is what I do for a living—security. I design security systems for the wealthy. Usually, on yachts or mansions, but it gives me the skills to tap into the best-designed systems.