Heart of a Liar

by Ella Miles

  I take a second to think about what I should do next. I need to get ahold of Luca. I feel in the pockets of my dress, trying to figure out if I have any cash on me or anything to give the waiter in exchange for using a phone. My heart suddenly stops when I feel the cold metal of my phone.

  Those idiots, I think.

  I pull the phone out and dial Luca’s number. It rings once and then twice.

  “Ivy?” Luca asks into the line.

  “Yes.” I exhale, finally able to breathe again, just from hearing his voice.

  “Oh, thank God! Where are you?”

  “I am…not sure. I don’t think I’m still in the US but I’m not sure.”

  “We’ve been tracking you for a while and I’m triangulating where you are right now. I’ll be there in about five minutes.”

  I smile and sink back into my chair. Luca is on his way. I’m saved. This nightmare is over.

  “Hurry,” is all I say.

  “I will, love,” Luca says before ending the call.

  I look around, trying to find the restroom to clean myself up before Luca gets here. I find the one small restroom in the back and go inside. I look at myself in the mirror. I have a bad gash on the hairline of my head. My face is pretty bruised up, but I don’t think it’ll even need medical attention. I splash some water on the cut to get rid of the blood and then run my hand through my hair, trying to make it look more normal so that I don’t shock Luca too much when he sees me. I look down at my wrist that is a little red but not really noticeable. The rest of my body seems perfectly fine.

  I try to collect myself and get rid of the anxiety still pulsing through my veins. That was by far the craziest, scariest thing I’d ever been through. And, hopefully, it will be the scariest thing I will ever go through. It all happened so fast, and I was only conscious, thankfully, for a very small part of it. But it’s still crazy to think that this is what my life might be like if I dated Luca, a prince.

  Will my life be filled with running from crazy lunatics who want to kill me? Will my life be lived in fear? Or is this a one-time fluke that will never happen again?

  I take a couple of deep breaths. I don’t even know why I’m worrying about it.

  I don’t want to be with Luca, I remind myself.

  Who am I kidding?

  After almost dying, I don’t care that he lied to me. I just want to be with somebody I love and who loves me back. Despite all the lies.

  I walk back out of the restroom to go look for Luca, who’s hopefully going to be here any second now. As soon as I step out, I feel a man’s hand grab hold of my arm. I freeze because I know it’s not Luca’s hand. I slowly look up to see a large man dressed in a suit, holding on to my arm. I don’t think it’s either of the two guys who kidnapped me earlier. But it is also definitely not Luca.

  “Come with me.”

  “No,” I whisper.

  “You don’t have a choice,” he says as he starts walking me forward.

  He’s right; I don’t have a choice. He has more strength in his hand than I do in my entire body. I don’t know what’s going on with the royal family. Why are people so desperate to kidnap me? But it looks like my luck has run out. I’m going to be kidnapped twice in a twenty-four-hour period. And, unlike my last captors, this man seems much smarter and stronger.

  I walk as slowly as I can, hoping that Luca will come before I’m shoved back inside of another van. But we make it all the way out of the small coffee shop, and he hasn’t come.

  I see a large blacked-out SUV sitting in front of me, only about five feet from the entrance of the coffee shop. The man holding my arm picks up speed when we are outside. Like he thinks I’m going to make a run for it or something. I’m not. His grip is still as strong as it was before. There is no getting out of this. This time could be the end. My only hope is that maybe they don’t want to kill me. That these guys actually want a ransom.

  He walks me to the door, opens it, and shoves me inside.

  This is the end. I’m never going to see Luca again. I’m never going to be able to tell him that I love him despite everything. That I would give up my entire life for him. Marry him tomorrow and always live with the fear. Because I love him.

  16

  Luca

  I fucked up.

  I’ve done some horrible things. I lied. Cheated. Stole. Done anything and everything to hide my one secret. The one secret that no one could ever find out. I’m not even sure that I can tell Ivy my secret. But getting Ivy involved in my life might have been the worst mistake I’ve ever made.

  I can’t lose her. I won’t lose her. But, now that she’s so entwined in my life, I don’t know how to protect her. I have no idea how to keep her safe. I don’t even know if it’s possible to keep her safe. But I have to try. I have to find a way. She’s too important to me.

  I’ve been a nervous wreck for the last twenty or so hours since she went missing.

  Even though I knew that our country had the best military, detectives, people looking for her, searching for her, it still wasn’t enough to reassure me. Even though I knew that they would find her. I believed they were the best, and they knew what they were doing.

  I wasn’t sure, when we found her, if she would still be alive or dead. That was the one thing my security team reassured me. They kept telling me that, most likely, she had been kidnapped because the kidnappers wanted a ransom. If the prince had finally found his princess, they thought that I would pay anything to get her back.

  Who knew that she would be able to rescue herself? Who knew that I wouldn’t have to do a damn thing to save her?

  It just makes me love her more. Want her more. It makes it even harder for me because the only way I will truly be able to keep her safe is to say good-bye. To stop loving her. Because my life is anything but safe.

  So, when Andy jumps out of the SUV to go into the small coffee shop where Ivy is, I can barely breathe. I know they won’t let me out of this car, not until they find the men responsible for Ivy’s kidnapping. Not until they know that it is safe for me. But it takes everything inside me to stay put, and the only reason I really do is because I know that they will do everything to keep me inside, including tasering me to keep me safe.

  He disappears inside, and it seems like hours are passing even though I know it hasn’t been more than a couple of seconds. But each second that passes, my breath gets shorter, my heart beats faster. With every second, my body turns cold, as I imagine a life without her, which would simply be no life at all.

  Then, suddenly, the door to the coffee shop is thrust open, and Ivy is being pushed through as Andy tightly holds on to her arm. But, still, I can’t breathe. Because, as she walks to the SUV, she looks terrified. I can still see the feistiness behind her eyes, the defiance at trying her best not to follow his orders. But she doesn’t feel safe. It’s a feeling I wish I could take away from her, but I can’t. She’ll never be safe again, and it’s all my fault.

  Andy opens the door and shoves her inside, and I want nothing more than to throw my arms around her to protect her and love her and never, ever let her go again. But it’s clear, as she’s being shoved into the car, that she doesn’t know I’m here. I’m afraid that, if I grab hold of her without her recognizing that it’s me, it’s going to scare her even more. I’m also slightly scared that, when she does recognize me, she is still going to hate me. For bringing her into this mess.

  But I can’t hold my arms back when I see that she’s been hurt. Her head has been sliced open, her face is bruised, and her wrists are red, most likely from rope.

  “Ivy!” I throw my arms around her, needing to feel she’s actually here.

  I feel her take a deep breath when she instantly knows that I’m here. That it’s me.

  I feel the tears rolling down her cheeks before I see or hear them.

  “Shh…it’s okay, baby. I got you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you ever again,” I say, telling her a promise that I can’t guarantee or kee
p. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry,” I say, rocking her back and forth in my arms in the backseat of the SUV.

  “I thought I was never going to see you again,” she whispers through the tears, like it’s difficult for her to even speak right now.

  “Oh, baby, I would never let that happen. You’re my whole world. I wouldn’t be able to survive without you.”

  “Don’t ever let me go again,” she says.

  I exhale deeply. “I won’t. I’ll never let you go again,” I say, relieved that she wants to be near me even though I hate that this is what it took for her to want to be around me. I didn’t want her to fall in love with me this way. So, I won’t let her tell me that she loves me today. I want her to love me on her own terms.

  I see Andy eyeing me in the rearview mirror, and I already know what he’s asking without saying. Am I taking you to the hospital or the palace?

  We’ve known each other too long to not be able to read each other at a moment’s notice.

  “Are you hurt anywhere else? I can see the cut on your head, the bruises on your face, the redness on your wrists, but it would really be best if we took you to the palace first and had a doctor meet us there rather than going to the hospital. Or do you need medical attention first?” I ask.

  Ivy rests her head on my chest while I stroke her hair. “I’m not hurt. You can take me to the palace,” she says.

  When she says palace without hesitation, it’s clear now that she believes me. That she believes that I’m a prince.

  “Palace,” I say, looking at Andy in the rearview mirror.

  He nods and mumbles something into his headset, letting the other bodyguards know where we are headed, so they can follow suit as he begins driving in that direction.

  “What happened, Ivy? Tell me everything.”

  I feel Ivy swallow hard as she wipes the tears that have slowly stopped flowing down her face. “I’m not sure entirely. I remember being in the restroom at your office in Albuquerque, and then the next thing I know, I woke up in the back of a van with my arms and legs tied together.”

  I try to keep my body calm and just continue to stroke her hair. The last thing she needs is for me to get anxious or angry. She needs someone calm who can keep her calm and reassure her that everything’s going to be okay from here on out. But that’s the last thing I want to do. I want to find these guys, punch them, and kill them. No, killing them wouldn’t even be enough. I want to make them feel like they’ve lost everything because that’s how I felt when I realized she was gone.

  “How did you escape?” I ask. I’m in shock that she is lying here, in my arms, and not trapped in an abandoned building somewhere, most likely with a bullet between her eyes.

  “I don’t think the men who kidnapped me had much experience or had done this many times before. My arms and legs were tied together, yes, but the ropes were loose. I was easily able to get my arms and legs untied by myself.”

  I nod as I listen to her every word, imagining her being in that position, scared to death.

  “I knew I had to untie myself and get out as fast as I could because they were talking about strapping a bomb to me and using it to kill you,” she says, lifting her head and looking at me square in the eyes. “And I couldn’t be the reason you died. I couldn’t let them kill you. It was the only thing that kept me going.”

  I can’t breathe. She loves me. If I didn’t know before, I know it for sure now. She wasn’t worried about herself. She was worried about me.

  Andy swerves the car over to the side of the road, coming to an abrupt stop. He jumps out of the SUV while he mumbles something into his headset, and all the other bodyguards stop around us, forming a protective shield.

  Andy runs around to Ivy’s door and throws it open. He grabs her and throws her outside. I glare at Andy as I jump out of the car after her.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I scream at Andy while his hands travel all over Ivy’s body. I run to where he has thrown her against the wall of a building, her legs spread and her arms up. But I don’t make it far, only a couple of steps, before several of the bodyguards grab me and force me back to the SUV.

  “Let me go. Now!”

  “I can’t do that, sir. I have to keep you safe,” one of the bodyguards I don’t recognize says.

  “I’m the prince. Let me go. Now,” I say.

  “I can’t do that, sir. My orders come from the queen. I must do everything to keep you safe for her and the country.”

  “Ivy’s not going to hurt me. Now, let me go.”

  I watch in horror as Andy requires Ivy to take off her shirt in the middle of the sidewalk while a dozen other bodyguards stand, surrounding her, some with guns drawn. Others are looking away, keeping a small crowd that has formed, while others seemingly search for another threat on the street.

  Andy skims something long and black over her bra while I search for Ivy’s eyes. She can’t see me though, as the guards have shut me back inside the SUV, and the windows are tinted dark black. But I can see her beautiful brown eyes. She doesn’t look scared. In fact, she looks incredibly calm and still. She is not focused on what Andy is doing. Instead, she is looking straight at me even though she can’t see me. With just the expression on her face, she’s trying to reassure me that this is okay even though I have no idea how it could be.

  I glance back to see what Andy is doing, and that’s when he reaches his hand inside her bra. I about lose it. I throw myself at the bodyguard who is babysitting me in the car. He wasn’t expecting me to attack him, which gives me just enough time to unlock the door and shove him out. I jump out after him, ready to pummel Andy to the ground even though he is twice my size.

  I start running toward her when Ivy says, “Stop.”

  I stop even though I think she’s wrong.

  A second later, Andy pulls a small device from her bra and hands it over to one of the other bodyguards. The bodyguard begins running away from us. Andy then looks at me and nods. I run the rest of the way toward Ivy, finally understanding what’s been happening.

  We throw our arms around each other. We each let out a long exhale. We kiss again and again and again. I don’t care that Ivy’s standing in the middle of the street, half-naked. I don’t care who is watching. We just need each other more than anything else. We slowly pull away, both breathing fast and heavy.

  “I didn’t save myself. I almost killed you. I almost killed us both. They didn’t let me go. They let me escape on purpose so that I would bring the bomb to you. Andy saved us.”

  I shake my head. “You saved us both when you told us the story. And don’t ever think otherwise.”

  I begin to hear and see the flashes of light that I’m sure have been going off every second since I stepped out of the SUV. Paparazzi are here, taking pictures of us, invading our privacy, letting the whole world know that Ivy is mine. If I thought it was too late to protect her before, it’s for sure too late now. She’ll never be able to walk the streets of Europe again without being noticed, and it won’t be long before the US realizes who she is and who I am, too.

  “Come on,” I say, throwing my arm around her.

  I lead her back to the SUV with Andy walking in front of us, trying his best to protect us from the invading lights and cameras. I help her into the car and then climb in afterward. Andy starts driving again, slowly this time, trying to get around the people who are swarming our cars.

  In all the commotion, I realize that we forgot her shirt. It is still lying on the sidewalk on the street behind us. I take off my shirt and hand it to her. She puts it on but not before eyeing my body up and down, eating me up with her eyes. I’m desperate for the feeling of our bodies being so connected together.

  “I’m sorry,” I say.

  She cocks her head to the side with a small smile on her lips as she adjusts her shirt. “What do you have to be sorry for? It’s not your fault that some crazy people decided to kidnap me and then tried to kill us both.”

  I see the
feistiness in her eyes, and her bright smile has returned. It seems that she thinks she’s truly safe now. She doesn’t realize that this is going to just keep happening over and over and over again.

  “I’m sorry that, by the time we get back to the palace, your half-naked body with me pressed up against you, kissing you, is going to be all over the news, all over social media, all over everything here,” I say, looking at her with remorse, trying my best to show her how sorry I am that her first experience with the media is going to be this.

  She laughs, and I raise my eyebrows at her.

  “Good thing I’m not ashamed of my body then.”

  I laugh. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

  And I don’t know what I’m going to have to do to keep her. But I’ll do anything. Including lie to her.

  17

  Ivy

  I don’t know why I feel so calm, but I do. Maybe surviving a near-death experience twice now in twenty-four hours makes you appreciate every moment even more. Maybe that is why I feel calm right now. Maybe it has something to do with the adrenaline that has been pumping through my body. Maybe that’s what science would say, but I don’t think it’s the truth. I think the reason I feel so calm right now is that my head is currently resting on Luca’s chest. I think it’s the fact that I get to hear Luca’s heart beating again. That I know that he is still alive and that the threat has now lessened. That is what is keeping me calm.

  It’s because I love him. I just haven’t had a chance to tell him yet. I’m not gonna wait for the perfect moment, like I initially thought I was going to do when I finally saw it was him in the back of the SUV. I can’t wait. I have to tell him because every second that passes is precious. Who knows how many more seconds either one of us will have?

  I try to sit up, but Luca tries to keep me from moving by holding me tightly in his arms.

  I chuckle. “I’m just sitting up, so I can look at you. I’m not going anywhere.”