Vicious Lies (Lies 1)

I’m not naive enough to think I could truly fight him. If he wants to torture me, rape me, kill me, he can. But I can make the memory one that haunts him for the rest of his life.

“If I answer you, you won’t believe me,” Langston says in a deep octave that vibrates through my chest cavity and hits me in the heart, making it beat rapidly in response.

“That’s right, you’re a liar.”

He smirks. “Same as you.”

“How long will you keep me?” He’ll hurt me to get whatever he wants—my pain may, in fact, be what he wants. He’s a sadistic bastard, after all.

I know what he did to Siren—all in the name of helping her. They are besties now, but she doesn’t know him like I do. She doesn’t know the true depths of his danger.

“Seatbelt,” Langston says suddenly out of nowhere.

I glance out the window and realize we are low to the ground. It looks like we are about to land in the ocean, not on land, but I know that isn’t true.

I buckle my seatbelt and stare out the window for clues as to where Langston will hold me captive until he gets whatever he wants from me.

I spot the small island we are about to land on. The water is crystal blue.

Caribbean?

Hawaii?

Maldives?

There are so many places we could be landing. I don’t know how long I was unconscious. For all I know, we could just be over in Key West, or we could be thousands of miles from Miami, like the coast of Australia.

Langston won’t be telling me the truth, but hopefully, the airport will have signs once we land to tell me where we are.

We approach the rough-looking runway, and I’m glad I put my seatbelt on. The runway looks more dirt than concrete.

I brace myself, and I notice Langston do the same as we make a rough, bumpy landing.

I stare out the window, waiting for a building or other planes to come into view. None do.

The plane slowly creeps to a stop, but no cars drive up to greet us. No security comes to check our passports.

It seems we’ve landed on an island in the middle of nowhere.

I look over to Langston, who is looking at me curiously with a small grin lifting up his sharp cheeks, like he knows it will piss me off that he took me to a place I’ll have trouble escaping.

If there were men here on the island, I could escape. Use my powers of flirtation to get one to help me, but I can’t use that power if there are no people.

“Would you like to change, or are you going with the castaway look for our entire trip?” Langston says, his eyes dragging up and down the dirty rags I’m wearing.

I want to change, but he’s won enough for one day.

“How long?” I say, my voice tighter.

“Long enough that your boyfriend will get worried. Long enough that he will give up looking for you and find someone else to become the future Mrs. Waylon Rogers.”

I shake my head. “Waylon will never stop looking for me.”

Langston laughs. “I give him six months tops before he moves on. He’s planning on running for office, and he knows that having a beautiful woman on his arm will serve him well.”

Beautiful—that’s the only characteristic that Langston uses, like beauty is all that matters.

“Don’t underestimate him. He has money—more than you do. And we both know that men with money usually get what they want.”