Cruel Lies (Lies 4)

“I’m not a good man, Phoenix. I haven’t been loyal.”

“I never asked you to be.”

“I know, but you deserve a man who is.”

Her hand touches my shoulder. “Falling in love means you don’t get to choose how. You just fall. I know you’ll never love me back, but I’d rather have the love of my life in my life than live with no love at all.”

I release her wrist, and she walks into the house. My eyes squeeze shut as the wind picks up, hitting me forcefully in the face, as hard as the reality of my situation.

I’m married to a woman who loves me and deserves to be loved back—something I can never give her. A woman who is a wonderful mother to my children.

Yet my body yearns for a woman who hates me and will never love me. A woman I can never love in return. A woman who is the biological mother of one of my children but gave him up.

My life is a fucking disaster.

One of my own creating. If I had just left Liesel alone, I wouldn’t be in this mess. I wouldn’t be questioning everything. I would be focused on what’s important—being a good father.

I hear a car pull up on the gravel drive, so I walk to the front deck, already knowing who it will be.

Enzo and Beckett are stepping out of the car when I walk up to the driveway. Enzo has a heavy scowl, while Beckett is smirking.

“Find Rowan?” I ask, crossing my arms as I lean against one of the poles on the deck.

“Yes, no thanks to you,” Enzo says.

I look around into the back of the SUV; I don’t see Rowan.

Beckett laughs. “We took him to Enzo’s house to have a doctor look him over.”

“You should put a bullet between his eyes, not fix his wounds, after what he did to Liesel and me.”

“Oh, relax, dude, you’re both made of stronger stuff than that. What you two went through was barely a scratch,” Beckett says.

My brows pinch. “So that makes what you did okay? Hiring a man to kidnap and torture us?”

“We didn’t hire him. He already works for us,” Enzo says.

“Fire him or I quit,” I say.

“That’s not my decision,” Enzo says.

I shake my head. “Then tell Kai to get her ass here. I thought you were my family, my brothers, but I was wrong. You are nothing but lying scum.”

“Don’t blame Kai, she may be in charge of the Black empire, but she didn’t make this decision on her own. This was a group decision,” Siren says as she walks from behind the car.

I didn’t notice the second car pull up.

Siren—she’s really alive.

My eyes water, and my heart swells, seeing her alive. I’ve missed her. She’s the only person who truly understands me. Everyone else here I consider family, I’d die saving any one of them, but only Siren would I die twice for.

Until now.

“I already know about your betrayal. You faked your own death to hurt me. How could you?”

“How could you kill Liesel’s fiancé? How could you kidnap and threaten to kill her?” Siren walks toward me and puts her hands

on both of my cheeks. “You were out of control, Langston. Liesel came up with a plan to get back at you—I just went along with it.”