Trapped by Lies (Truth or Lies 3)

I see Archard’s reluctant face. He wants to talk to us in person—too fucking bad.

“Tomorrow. The next game will happen tomorrow. You won’t have to leave the ship. But you will face your greatest weaknesses. Those you care about and love will be at risk. And you won’t be able to save them, even from yourselves,” Archard says.

Kai and I exchange glances at the warning for the game. The clue proves a problem because Kai no longer has anyone she loves. Her father was the only person she loved, and after his betrayal, she hates him.

And I am not capable of true love. Sure I love Zeke and Langston. I care about Liesel and Kai, but my father, who created this game, wouldn’t know about my feelings for any of them. And the clue specifically said love; my father made sure I never loved anyone.

Love equalled weakness to my father. And my father made sure I never showed weakness by doing something as stupid as falling in love.

19

KAI

ARCHARD’S WORDS haunt me all night.

Someone I love is going to be hurt, and there is nothing I can do to prevent it.

It scares the crap out of me.

And I don’t sleep one second all night.

Enzo doesn’t either.

But neither of us talk about what the game could be. He just holds me in his arms all night.

After our first fuck, we both intended to spend the rest of the night fucking each other’s brains out. But after Archard spoke, we couldn’t. They only way we could have had sex would have been slowly, intimately, and vulnerably. And neither of us wanted that moments before we were going to have to compete.

So we didn’t.

We didn’t speak.

We didn’t fuck.

We simply held each other all night, both of us dreaming about what tomorrow was going to hold.

Hurt someone I love.

The only person I love is Enzo.

But I doubt I will be the one hurting him.

And Enzo loves no one.

I thought he did, and he just didn’t show me. But after hearing Liesel speak, after fucking him so hard last night, I know he truly doesn’t love me. He can’t love. His heart is too broken to love. Whatever his father did fucked him up in a way I’m not sure I can fix him. And that breaks my heart.

We’ve been living in the shadow of Milo hunting us. So consumed by running from him and trying to figure out how best to kill him that we both forgot about the game. And that we were going to have to compete against each other.

I’m the first to leave the bed.

I’m the first to shower and get ready.

The first to declare us nothing but enemies.

This round is going to be harder than the first. The first round, my father chose the game. This round, Enzo’s father designed it. And somehow, despite my father being the man who sold me, I think Enzo’s father may have been worse.

The game Enzo’s father chose for us is going to be much harder than the first. And even after one of us wins, who knows what the consequences of that win be.

After the first game, Enzo sold me because he thought I betrayed him. It led to a war we will eventually have to wage against Milo.