Perfect Lies (Mind Games 2)

“Oh, baby sister. We all want things we shouldn’t have. Even you. Just because you love him doesn’t mean you should. Love is a choice, like anything else.”

She’s wrong. I had no other choice from the moment I met James. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Listen to me. If you do whatever course you’re set on right now, you . . . Just don’t do it. Promise me you won’t do it. Don’t hurt Sadie.”

I was right, then, to pick James’s plan. I already did in Annie’s future. “I’m broken. I don’t know anything anymore. I can’t feel it like I used to.”

She sounds desperate, sounds like before when she thought we could get out of this mess together. “Let me feel it for you, then. Let me make this choice.”

We breathe together for a while. I wish I could see her. No. I don’t. Not with what she’s already seen me do. I hope I never have to see her again. “I’ll figure it out,” I say, taking my eyes off the sky and looking toward the city, toward where James has probably been waiting for me for hours now, frantic. “I always do.”

“Not this time. Please, Fia.”

“Don’t worry about me. It’s my job to take care of you, remember? Stay out of this. Stay safe. That’s all I want.”

“I’m coming—”

“No.” I sit up straight. “No. You stay far away. Stay far away where you’re safe. I’ll be fine. I’m always fine.”

“Fia—”

“I love you, Annie. Go live. I won’t call again.”

I hang up. I won’t. I will never call her again.

I wander back to the hotel. I don’t know what time it is until James opens the door and yells it at me as though it has any meaning whatsoever. And then he takes me and holds me, but I don’t lose myself in his arms.

There is nothing left to lose.

I am already gone.

ANNIE

Fourteen Hours Before

I SIT ON THE FLOOR AGAINST THE BED, NUMB WITH horror and shock. “Do you have Rafael’s number?”

“Yes,” Cole says.

I hold out my hand. “Call him. Let me talk to him.”

“I don’t think—”

“Call him!”

His voice is soft to balance my scream. “Okay.”

“What can I do?” Eden asks, her hand on my shoulder.

“We need to know where Fia is. Is there anyone you can call, anyone with Keane you trust?”

“I know where Keane headquarters is,” she says. “I’ll get tickets on the next flight to New York and text Adam what’s up.”

I nod.

“Here.” Cole puts a phone in my hand and I listen as it rings.

“Who is this?” Rafael answers, his voice lacking all the musical play it had when talking to me. I was such an idiot to ignore that his voice changed when talking to women.