by Ella Miles
I roll my eyes. “Yes, please come in. I don’t hate you or anything. You haven’t betrayed my trust every chance you get. Shouldn’t you be telling me not to trust you?”
She ignores me. Probably smart.
She throws off her leather jacket, revealing her toned arms and giving me a better view of her tits beneath her thin white shirt.
She notices where my eyes have landed.
“Zeke, this is important,” she huffs, putting her hands on her hips, which only makes her boobs look bigger.
I let my eyes drift up lazily. “You have five minutes to talk, and then I want you out of my house forever.” I don’t add that I want her out of my life as well. But not before I fuck her, then marry her, then kill her.
“Hugo is working with Julian. The car accident wasn’t real. He faked it,” Siren says.
I walk over to my bar. Yep, this conversation is definitely going to require a drink. At least a glass in my hand will keep me sane or give me something to throw at her when she pisses me off.
“Zeke, are you listening? Did you hear what I said? You can’t work with Hugo because he’s working with Julian.”
I pour the scotch three fingers high. Yep, I’m going to need every drop.
“Zeke!” Siren grabs my arm, and I spill a couple of drops of the scotch.
“Why the fuck did you do that?”
“Listen to me! You can’t work with Hugo. Not because you think it will somehow get under my skin to be working with my ex.”
I lift the glass to my lips. “You mean current husband.”
She rolls her eyes. “Hugo is an ex, trust me.”
“I don’t.”
She sighs. “You can’t work with Hugo because he’s working with Julian. Together they faked the accident. Why, I don’t know, but I’m guessing to try and manipulate us both.”
I take a sip. “Are you finished?”
“That’s all you have to say?” She crosses her arms and pouts her adorable lips in the way that says she’s not going to let this conversation end until I agree with her. And I do agree with her, but I hate letting her win. I prefer to watch her squirm like she is now. But I said only five minutes, and I’m sure our time is about up.
“I know,” I say just as she opens her mouth to spill more info that will convince me of Hugo’s loyalty.
“Wait… you know?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Hugo wasn’t in a major car accident. I’ve been through enough accidents to know that you don’t just sit up in bed and eat Jello the next day. And that hospital doesn’t have the capabilities to save a man from major injuries anyway. It’s why you took me to Julian to save my life.” Dammit, I forgot she saved my life. Although after everything that’s happened since, I’m not sure if it was a blessing or a curse.
She leans against the counter, her head falling back. “How’d I miss all of that?”
I run my hand through my hair because I know exactly how you miss all the obvious signs that someone is lying to you. “Because you fell for him. You loved him. Even if you don’t currently. People become blinded by love.”
Our eyes meet, and the unspoken past slides between us—love. Neither of us ever said it. I was close to feeling it. The closest I’ve ever been with a woman. But I never said it. And now, I never will.
It wasn’t love. It was attraction, lust, loneliness. I saw a pretty woman who was smart and a fighter, and I fell. That’s all; it wasn’t love—just me falling out of my orbit.
“So, you won’t work with Hugo?”
I take a drink, hoping to avoid this conversation. Because there is no reasonable explanation I can give her as to why I need to work with Hugo. Even knowing the truth, without telling her about Lucy. And enough people already know about her. I can’t risk her life by telling Siren about her as well. It’s a miracle she didn’t hear Julian whisper into my ear. Although, there’s a good chance he will eventually tell Siren about Lucy. I won’t be the one to be disloyal to Lucy, though.
“Zeke?” Siren’s voice is full of hesitation, because she can read me too well. She knows that I’m avoiding.
“How can you still work with him when he isn’t on your side? Why?”
Because I need to know everything they know about Lucy. I need someone that I may be able to flip. Someone who is vulnerable. Someone I can use as leverage. And Hugo Martinez seems like the perfect man.
Julian wants me to fall for his tricks. So I’ll let him think I fell.
I look at Siren with a raised eyebrow. “I’ve worked with plenty of people who aren’t on my side.”
Her face falls when she realizes I mean her.
And then she walks over to my bar and grabs the scotch bottle. She takes a swig straight from the bottle as if she needs the courage to say what she needs to say next.
“We haven’t had sex,” she says.
My head snaps to her. Whatever I expected her to say that wasn’t it. I expected her to try and convince me to not work with Hugo. Not tell me something honest about herself.
“Well, that’s not true entirely. Hugo and I haven’t had sex since we were married.”
My mouth falls open into a huge gape. I don’t know what to say to that. She wants it to change things. But I won’t let it. She lied to me about being married. No, she never said she was married, but she manipulated me into thinking she wasn’t married, which is somehow worse.
Then she used me to cheat on her husband. I don’t care how horrible he is. If he’s that bad, then divorce his ass. Or at least tell me the truth, so I can decide if I want to participate in her infidelity. So I can at least protect my heart from falling for a married woman.
“Is that supposed to make it better that you cheated on him with me?” I ask.
She takes another sip of the scotch and then puts the bottle back before hopping up on my counter with her hands in her lap. She looks so young sitting there like that. Not like that strong independent traitor of a woman I know she is.
“No, it’s just the truth. You want the truth? I’ll tell you.”
I’m not sure I want the truth, not anymore. Not from her. But apparently, I do because I don’t tell her any of that. And I listen like I might fall off a cliff if I don’t catch every syllable she speaks.
“We fucked one night in the backseat of my car.”
“The same one you rescued me in?”
She nods.
Shit, now I know I really hate that car.
“Hugo was my first. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t magical. It was messy and painful and uncomfortable. But that was my life.”
God, I really don’t want to hear about how another guy took her virginity. But I don’t stop her from talking.
“But I knew afterward that he was the man for me. I didn’t want perfect. I didn’t want romance. I wanted real. And Hugo was as real as it got. He taught me self-defense. He taught me how to play guitar. Encourage me to write songs, to sing to get through the pain of my childhood instead of turning to drugs. He saved my life. He brought me back to life.”
Siren can play guitar? God, I would do anything to hear it. And she writes her own songs. I’m desperate to hear just one of them. What would she write about me?
“So when I found out the truth—that the reason Hugo didn’t want me doing drugs was because he was already addicted. That he sold drugs to make enough money to buy them. That he was in huge debt and was going to be killed if he couldn’t pay it back. I did everything to save him.”
How does this story make me wish that I was Hugo? She already saved your ass as well. Hugo isn’t special. Tell me more…
“I tried to steal something valuable enough from Julian to pay off Hugo’s debt. But Julian caught me. I thought I was going to die, but he offered me a trade. He would pay off Hugo’s debt, if I worked for him for ten years. I agreed. I would have done anything.”
Anything.
�
�So I went back to Hugo. We got married. And then I went to Julian to work. I thought Hugo would wait for me. I thought we’d get our happily ever after eventually. We were young, after all. Ten years was nothing. And we could still see each other whenever Julian didn’t demand work from me. But the first chance I had to go home, I caught Hugo with another woman in our bed. A woman he’d been fucking our entire relationship.”
I can feel her heart breaking. I want to run to her. I want to protect her. Comfort her. But I can’t. I can’t show her that I care.
“Do you have any idea the pain I felt at having a man I loved betray me like that? I gave up ten years of my life to save him? And he was cheating on me the whole time.”
“I have an idea,” I say.
And then I see a tear roll down her cheek, and I break. I can’t just watch her cry without doing something.
Slowly, I walk over to her. She leans away, thinking I’m going to make fun of her pain.
Maybe a stronger man would have. But if there is one thing I understand better than most, it’s pain and heartbreak. And I don’t wish that kind of pain on my worst enemy. I’d rather be shot than deal with a broken heart.
Carefully, I reach my thumb up to her cheek and brush away the tear. Careful, not to do more than just touch the tear. Don’t let any feelings in. Don’t give her the wrong idea.
“You’ve never fucked him since you got married?”
“No.”
“Have you fucked other men?”
She nods. “I wanted to hurt him for what he did to me. So for a while there, I fucked every man I could find just to hurt him.”
She means she fucked any man she could to numb her own pain. I understand; I feel the same way.
“In some states, you wouldn’t be considered married, since you never consummated the marriage,” I say.
She smiles, weakly. “Do you consider me married? Because I don’t. It’s only real on paper.”
I lean forward and smell her hair. Fuck.
“You aren’t getting out of your betrayal on a technicality.”
“I’m not trying to,” she breathes back. “I just want to know what you think. Am I married or not?”
I take a step back. Don’t fall for it. Don’t fall under her spell. It could all be a lie.
“Why are you still married to him? Why didn’t you divorce his ass as soon as you found that whore in bed with him?”
She smiles when I call the woman a whore. “I can’t.”
Julian said as much. “Does it have something to do with a prenup?”
“Yes.”
“Why sign something if you knew it would trap you in a marriage forever?”
“Because I thought it was forever. I loved him. It didn’t matter what the prenup said.”
“What did it say?”
She shakes her head. Apparently, it’s the one truth I won’t be getting. “It says that I will be married to Hugo Martinez until one of us dies.”
I sigh. One step forward in the truth with her and two steps back.
“Do you still love him?”
“No, seeing him in that hospital bed confirmed it. When I went to the hospital, I wasn’t sure what I felt. My feelings were complicated when it comes to Hugo.”
I nod. My feelings are complicated when it comes to you.
“Divorce him,” I say.
Her eyes flutter, shocked.
“Divorce him. Whatever you have to pay him. Whatever you have to give up, it’s worth it to be rid of him.”
She doesn’t answer back, but I have a feeling she will never divorce him. Which means I have to let her the fuck go.
“Can I kill him since you obviously won’t divorce him?”
She sucks in a breath but then shakes her head no.
“Why not? You hate him. He’s ruined your life. Most women who were cheated like that would want him dead or at least tortured for what he did.”
She looks off into the distance past me. “I loved Hugo once. Really loved him. And I think even though he was cheating on me, that for one magical moment, he loved me too. And as much as I want to hurt him for hurting me, for ruining my life, I can’t betray those people we once were. I can’t denounce that love. Because it was real. And it was special. It was everything. And if I ever have hope of feeling that again, I have to believe in love. That love exists and that it should never be crossed. Even when both people fall out of love. Even when two people fall into hate.”
Like us.
But we never fell in love. We came close. But it never happened. She stopped it from happening.
Siren wipes her eyes and then rolls her shoulders. This conversation is over.
“I think my five minutes are up.” She jumps down from the counter. “Do what you need to do when it comes to Hugo. But just know that he can manipulate people just like I can. And unlike me, he has no problem lying with his words. So make sure you are the one doing the betraying this time.”
She starts walking toward my front door. Leaving me for the first time on her own accord.
And for once, a small part of me doesn’t want her to go.
“Siren,” I say.
She stops. “Yes?”
“Ask me again.”
She narrows her eyes, trying to understand what I want her to repeat. A moment passes, then another.
“Do you consider my marriage to Hugo real?”
“No.”
She smiles lightly and then walks out the door. And I know I’ve fucked up because I just sparked a hope that will never happen. Siren will never be mine, and I’ll never fall for her again. She may not be in a real marriage, but she’s lied and betrayed me enough that I can never trust her again. I shouldn’t give her hope. I shouldn’t give myself hope. I should be cold and calculated with her.
But maybe I need to think that in a different universe, we would have a chance. One in which we didn’t have other people to be loyal to. One in which we always told each other the truth and always chose the other person over everyone else.
I need hope that in some other universe, we are living together happily ever after. Because in this world, all we are ever going to do is destroy each other.
7
Siren
Zeke gave me hope, and somehow that is worse than making sure he ended things between us for good. Because now I have hope. Now my heart flutters in my chest, pretending that I’m about to become Mrs. Zeke Kane, instead of being stuck with a name I hate.
No, I’m not Aria Martinez married to the asshole Hugo Martinez. Zeke said so himself—our marriage isn’t real.
But I’m not Siren Kane either.
I’m Aria Torres.
I’m an expert manipulator, man-hater, and slayer of men.
Even after my last three years are up with Julian, this is who I will always be. I don’t even know how to hold down a normal job anymore. I’ve been doing this for Julian for so long. And some part of me likes it. I like making men pay for their crimes. I like traveling. I like the adventure. The control. The power.
I like it all.
The only thing I don’t like is having to answer to other men. Men like Julian Reed and Hugo Martinez.
But somehow I’m not sure I’d mind answering to Zeke Kane. Although, I’d argue back and want him to listen to me as much as I listen to him.
Fuck hope.
I don’t get to have hope.
This is my life. And my goal hasn’t changed. I need to get Zeke free of this world and back into his. Zeke thinks Hugo can help him do that, but he’s wrong.
I’ve played all the cards I have when it comes to Zeke. But I have one card left to play with Hugo. And I’m going to play it.
I drive recklessly fast back to the hospital, where Hugo is lying with a fake injury.
And as I make the last turn, I spot a familiar-looking truck driving just as recklessly behind me.
Really Zeke? You say you want me out of your life, yet you won’t leave me alone for five minutes when I want
to do something by myself.
That’s okay. He can watch the show and see how weak Hugo is. Zeke can see how he doesn’t really want him on his side.
I park my Corvette illegally in a no parking zone. I don’t care if it gets towed. It’s Hugo’s car anyway. I prefer beat-up, older cars. Cars with plenty of muscle, heart, and grit. Just like I like my men.
I strut inside. If this was a bar, I’d be turning heads. I nod at the woman behind the nurses’ station, but I’m not stopping. I’m pretty sure it’s still visiting hours, but even if it isn’t, I’m not letting that stop me.
I throw the door open to Hugo’s room; his eyes pop away from the stupid TV he’s been watching all day.
Carefully, I close the door behind me, wishing the door had a lock, but it won’t take long to do what I need to do.
“You fucking, lying bastard,” I say.
Hugo cocks his head to the side as he flicks off the television. “And why would you say that?”
“Because it’s fucking true.”
I march over to his bed with more fury in my eyes than when I caught him fucking another woman in the bed I bought for him.
And I’m rewarded with him recoiling into his bed like the slime that he is. I love this power that I have in this moment. And I almost don’t want to do the next step because once you use your power, it starts fleeting. You can never be as powerful as you are when you make the threat and display. When you enact the threat, your power starts slipping until you earn it again.
I grab Hugo’s hospital gown and jerk him out of bed. He stands immediately, his hand holding onto mine.
“Oh, look at that. He can stand,” I say, with vengeance in my eyes.
Hugo blinks rapidly. He wasn’t expecting this.
Hugo may have taught me self-defense. He may have paid for classes for me to learn Krav Maga. But I’ve never used the skills I learned on him. Even when he cheated on me. Today that changes.
“Only because you’re holding me up,” he says.
I let go. “Still standing.”
I take a step forward, forcing him to take a step back.
“Why are you working with Julian?”
