Consumed by Truths (Truth or Lies 6)

ght you could fool me? Really? I’ve been one step ahead this entire time.”

“Go!” Archard shouts.

I grip my gun and wait for Felix to shoot at me like Enzo warned. I need to dodge the bullet first, then shoot him. I can’t be caught off guard. But apparently, Felix is in no hurry to kill me. He keeps talking.

“Actually, the first thing I’m going to do when I win is have my way with Liesel. She’s a hot piece of ass, don’t you think?”

Don’t be goaded. Be ready for the shot.

Felix tosses the gun back to his left hand.

“I’ll keep her around for a few weeks until she’s broken. Then I’ll kill her.” He tosses the gun back to his right.

“Her child is of no use to me. I’ll have one of my men kill him.” He tosses it back to his left. He’s not left-handed. He’s a good shot with his right, but a terrible with his left.

“And then, I’m coming for your children.”

I growl as he tosses the gun back to his right hand.

“But they aren’t hiding with your father. They are hiding with Langston.”

He tosses the gun to his left hand, and I take my shot.

I fire, aiming right for his heart.

He realizes his mistake a second too slow. He tries to fire with his left hand, but misses any serious organ, and instead hits my shoulder. But I hit my target—his heart.

I watch him fall slowly to his knees as blood spills from his chest. I walk over to him so I can watch the life leave his eyes.

I stand over him as he falls back, but his chest still rises and falls for another second, for one more beat of his heart—spilling more blood.

“You lose. I win. Love wins. Beckett sacrificed his life to save me. Enzo sacrificed his life to save me and our kids. They both knew I was stronger than you. Because love is stronger than hate. Love is stronger than evil.”

And then Felix stops breathing. He’s gone—dead.

I’m safe. My children are safe. But the sacrifice that was made was great. The loss was everything.

I close my eyes as the tears fall. There is much to do. I have to figure out what to do with the men. I have to set Liesel and her child, free. I have to tell Langston the news. I have to find a way to tell my babies about what their father and uncle did to protect me.

But that can all wait. My heart is broken—a piece of it gone forever over the cliff and into the ocean. I tried to save him. But it wasn’t enough. The only way to protect them all was to stay dead, to stay hidden, because only one of us could survive. Only one got to live.

But I failed at staying dead, and now Enzo is gone forever.

Death will never part us. Enzo’s words ring in my ear.

Then why do I feel so alone? Why do I feel so cold? Because death won. We are apart. There is no happily ever after. Just survivors, trying to find a way to live without the love they lost.

27

Kai

I’ve been lying on the ground for over an hour. And I felt every second of it. I know the pain I felt. Time didn’t move faster or slower. It just kept ticking, moving on like I didn’t exist.

I can’t keep laying here on the ground—suffering in my heartbreak.

I have to get up. I have to set things right. I have to go be a mother.

But standing up and opening my eyes to the pain is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.