by Ella Miles
Twisted Vow
Sinful Truths Book 2
Ella Miles
Copyright © 2019 by Ella Miles
EllaMiles.com
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Cover design © Arijana Karčić, Cover It! Designs
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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Free Books
Truth or Lies World
1. Siren
2. Zeke
3. Siren
4. Zeke
5. Siren
6. Zeke
7. Siren
8. Zeke
9. Siren
10. Zeke
11. Siren
12. Zeke
13. Siren
14. Zeke
15. Siren
16. Zeke
17. Siren
18. Zeke
19. Siren
20. Zeke
21. Siren
22. Zeke
23. Siren
24. Zeke
25. Siren
26. Zeke
27. Siren
28. Zeke
29. Siren
30. Zeke
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About the Author
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Truth or Lies World
TRUTH OR LIES SERIES:
Taken by Lies #1
Betrayed by Truths #2
Trapped by Lies #3
Stolen by Truths #4
Possessed by Lies #5
Consumed by Truths #6
SINFUL TRUTHS SERIES:
Sinful Truth #1
Twisted Vow #2
Reckless Fall #3
Tangled Promise #4
Fallen Love #5
Broken Anchor #6
1
Siren
I’m not the one in need of saving.
I repeat those words over and over to myself.
They are true.
I never speak a lie. Or even think one.
I chose this life.
I was given an option, all those years ago, and this is the life I chose for myself. I chose to work for Julian Reed. I chose to take down dangerous men. I chose to live my life on the edge of right and wrong. I chose to use my body as a weapon.
And I enjoy what I do.
I may hate my boss—Julian Reed.
But I love hurting men more.
Men have done nothing but hurt me. Men promise me the world. They promise me their love. They promise me their fidelity.
Ha.
No man can ever keep his promises. No man’s heart is truly pure. No man can keep his dick in his pants when he’s faced with a flirty woman, even when he wears a ring around his fourth finger.
Every man deserves exactly what he gets from me. And Zeke is no different.
Zeke Kane—I didn’t know his name, not until he spilled his secrets. Not until I learned he works for the infamous Mr. Black. Rumor is the former Mr. Black died a few years back. And there is a war raging for the new heir of the throne of one of the most notorious crime organizations in the world. Mr. Black has his hand in everything. So Julian taking him down would make him one of the most powerful men in the world.
I’m sitting crooked in the chair in Julian’s living room as I type on my laptop. And have been for the last few hours.
Ever since I accomplished my mission—getting Zeke to spill his boss to me—I’ve been searching for everything I can find about Zeke and his former boss.
I click on a grainy picture. Two men of similar age stand next to Zeke. Zeke and a blonde man flank the man in the middle, who must be the new Mr. Black.
My heart thumps in strange patterns as my eyes skim from each man, and lastly, land on Zeke. He’s wearing his classic outfit of dark jeans and a black T-shirt. But in this picture, his hair is down. He looks grizzly and bulky and so fucking handsome.
I snap the laptop closed as I feel my cheeks heat.
Nope, not happening. I can’t be lusting over the man I just locked up in the basement of his house.
Right now, there are at least three guards watching Zeke. I don’t need to be thinking about him. I need to be thinking about the next mission Julian is going to give me.
I’ve worked with Julian long enough to know what he’s going to say before he even says it.
“Good job, pet,” Julian says as he enters the living room with two scotches in hand.
He hands me one, then grips my shoulder in a congratulatory way.
I snarl. “I think you can stop calling me ‘pet’ now.”
Julian smirks as he sits down on the couch opposite me and crosses his lower leg over his knee in the way only men do. He sips his scotch, staring me down.
“Why? I like the nickname. It’s been years since I called you that. Since the night you broke into my house and we came to an arrangement.”
I sip on the scotch, staring Julian down in equal measure. “My name is Aria; I suggest you use it.”
“Well, that’s not any fun. You let Zeke call you all sorts of fun names—Siren.”
I narrow my eyes.
He chuckles. “Siren was the perfect name for you. What I love even more is that you told him exactly who you were with one word, and he was too stupid to realize his own mistake.”
I feel agitation rise in my chest, but I don’t take the bait.
I’ve always felt that breaking into Julian’s house was my worst mistake and my strongest moment. That night, years ago, changed my life in ways I can’t describe. Ways that are too painful to relive right now…
But what I did to Zeke feels exactly the same—I hurt him. I outsmarted and overpowered a built man. I feel strong, yet everything I did was painful. What if Zeke is the one man who doesn’t deserve what I did to him?
Sure, he’s a man, and he deserves to pay for mankind’s sins. But what if he truly isn’t a sinner?
What if I made a mistake? He said he didn’t sell those women. What did he do with them then? How did Julian get his money if Zeke didn’t sell them?
I down the rest of my drink, needing to forget about Zeke at least for tonight, and alcohol will help me do that.
Julian smiles and downs his scotch. He refills his drink at the bar cart in the corner of the room and brings the remainder of the bottle to fill my glass.
He sets the bottle on the coffee table between us. His eyes blaze as he looks up and down my body. I’m still wearing nothing but a robe. I know how badly Julian wants me, he’s made his feelings perfectly clear several times before. But that doesn’t mean he will ever get me.
I don’t tighten the sash to cover up more of my skin. Julian may be my boss, he may control my life, but I control him too. And I won’t relinquish any of my power.
Julian holds up his glass. “To you.”
I hold up mine as well, and we clink our glasses together before returning to drinking.
“I mean it. I think this is your best work yet, Aria.”
I nod, it is my best work. Usually, it doesn’t take this much effort to get a man to spill his secrets. A lap dance. A little too much to drink. A slip of my hand
on his thigh.
But I knew from the moment I met Zeke that he was different. He would require more. And my suspicions were proven right.
“Your idea to pretend you were being sold to see if Zeke would take the bait and try and save you was incredible. I truly believed that you thought you were being sold,” Julian says.
I stare down at the scotch in my glass, those feelings coming back to me. “That’s because if my plan failed, if Zeke didn’t buy me, I would have been sold.”
Julian stills.
“You wouldn’t have saved me. You would have let a man buy me,” I say, my words full of hate.
Julian shrugs. “I would have.”
I shake my head, my anger spilling out of me. “You’re an asshole.”
He chuckles. “You already knew that.” He sets his glass down on the table and leans forward. “But, you know why I would have let you be sold to any man?”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t need me or any man to save you.” He pats my thigh as he says it.
He’s right. I don’t need a man to save me. I always save myself before any man has a chance to save me.
But his words don’t stop me from being mad. Yes, if I had been sold to another man, I would have shot him dead and escaped before he had a chance to touch me, but that doesn’t absolve Julian of his other sins.
“Why did you do it?” I ask, my voice trembling as I say it. This time, I wrap my robe tight around my body, ensuring Julian can’t see any of my skin.
He falls back in his chair, seeming to choose his words carefully. He doesn’t have to ask for clarification on what I’m asking. He knows. Because we had an agreement, and he broke it.
“Zeke needed motivation,” he answers.
“No! I was handling him!” I snap back.
“And I was tired of waiting. So I just provided a little push.”
I take a deep breath in and out, so I don’t kill Julian right now and ruin everything I’ve been working so hard on for the past four years.
“You had me tied up and dragged in front of a room of strangers,” I say calmly with my eyes closed, reliving one of the worst nights of my life.
“You had me manhandled upstairs to your bedroom,” I open my eyes, needing Julian to see exactly what he did to me.
My eyes burn red and tears water the corner, ready to spill free.
“You ripped the clothes from my body.”
I have to look away for a second as the tears spill, and my body shakes with rage. I exhale deeply, letting it all out before I face Julian again.
“You spit alcohol into my eyes—I could have gone blind.
“You hit me, kicked me—I could have died.”
The last part is the hardest. But he needs to hear every fucking word of the pain he caused me. Not that he cares, Julian Reed doesn’t have a heart. I learned that a long time ago. It’s one of the reasons I’m in this situation to begin with.
“You pulled out your cock. You shoved it between my thighs. And if Zeke hadn’t shown up, you would have raped me.” My body may tremble, but my voice is strong. I spit every word out. Every drop of pain and fear I felt that night.
I’m a tough, skilled woman. I know how to get out of most situations. I know how to save myself. But I couldn’t save myself that night. I signed a contract with Julian years ago. If I had fought back, I would have broken the contract, and I would have lost everything I’ve worked so hard for.
Julian knew that. He knew I was defenseless, which is why he attacked me. Because he wanted to, not because he wanted to push Zeke into spilling—I was close to doing that on my own. In fact, Julian’s little stunt almost killed me and probably delayed Zeke telling me the truth.
“You made me depend on a man to save me,” I growl.
“I did,” Julian says, not backing down.
I want to punch him, kick his ass for what he did to me. But like I said, I signed a contract—one that I have no hope of getting out of, at least not like this. If I lay a finger on Julian, I lose—every-fucking-thing.
He knows I won’t touch him.
“Never again,” I say.
Julian shakes his head. “No, you said your peace, now it’s my turn. You work for me, Aria. Me! You made your decision, now live with it. And when I decide to deviate from our original plan, you don’t fight me on it, and you don’t get to lecture me. If you do it again, there will be consequences. Understand?”
Julian’s voice is full of threats, but they aren’t empty warnings—they are real. And his punishments hurt worse than anything any other man could ever inflict on me, because Julian knows me better than anyone else. He knows my weak points, and he knows where to push to deliver the most pain.
So as much as I want to argue back, as much as I need Julian to promise never to lay a finger on me again—I can’t.
Instead, I down more of the scotch. I need it in order to sleep tonight. But it sure as hell won’t be under Julian’s roof. I’ll go take one of the small boats out and sleep on the water. I’ll feel safer that way—sleeping out under the stars, rocking along with the waves.
I grab the bottle of scotch and pour myself another glass, while I stare Julian down, letting him know everything I think and feel with my eyes, since I can’t say them with my words.
I hate him.
“I’m going to bed,” I say, downing the glass of expensive scotch meant to be enjoyed slowly, not chugged like a shot of cheap tequila.
“You know what your next task is?” Julian asks.
I stand and set the glass down on the table. “I already used all the power I have against Zeke. He no longer cares about me. He doesn’t even like me. In fact, I’m pretty sure he hates me. There is nothing I can do to convince him to turn on his boss. You are going to have to do that on your own. I did my job.”
I turn, intending to walk the fuck out.
“Your job isn’t finished until I say it is, Aria.”
I stop. I take it back; it’s not only ‘pet’ that I hate him calling me. I also hate it when he calls me Aria, Siren, and any name really. I hate it all.
Julian walks up behind me and runs his hand through my hair, brushing it over one side of my shoulders, exposing my neck so he can stroke it.
“You’re right, Zeke hates you. Use his hate then.”
I swallow hard, refusing to cry any more in front of Julian. But I can do the task Julian gave me, just like I do every other task.
Use Zeke’s hate—that I can do. I strut away from Julian. I know a little something about hate.
2
Zeke
It’s been a week.
A fucking week.
I’ve been locked up in this cell under the house I rent from Julian for a week.
The bars hold me in the filthy basement, but they aren’t what concern me. With enough willpower and strength, both which I have, I could break the bars within minutes.
But once I escape from my cell, I have guards to take out—three to be exact.
Again, not a problem. Even though they are armed, and I’m not. I could take on a hundred men by myself.
Escaping is the easy part. The hard part is ensuring my friends are safe. Julian knows who my boss is. And he wants him. He wants to use me to get what he wants from Enzo Black; I just don’t know what that is exactly. Does Julian want his power? His empire? His status? Or is there something more about the Black empire that I’m not aware of?
The bars and guards aren’t holding me in this cell, my need to protect my boss and friends is. If I run without killing Julian first, they will never be safe, even if I never return to them. And they’re my family. I grew up with Enzo and Langston—I consider them brothers.
Why didn’t I kill Julian when I had the chance? I didn’t owe him a damn thing.
Because I’m an idiot, that’s why.
An idiot who fell for a siren.
No, that can’t be true. I didn’t fall for her. At least, I didn’t fall in love. I just fell u
nder her spell. I let her manipulate me. I let her use her body and my need to protect the innocent against me.
Except Siren isn’t innocent.
So I shouldn’t want to protect her, except… Fuck, I have no idea what I want anymore when it comes to that woman.
Do I want to destroy her like I do Julian?
Do I want to punish her for what she did to me and for putting my family in danger?
Do I want to fuck her hard against a brick wall?
What. Do. I. Want?
I run my hand through my long hair. I really wish I had a scrunchie to tie my hair up with because it’s driving me crazy right now.
No—focus. I need to protect my family—Enzo, Kai, Langston, Liesel.
I need to write a letter. I need to send something to warn them while ensuring Julian doesn’t find out where they are.
If I call, he could track them.
But a letter that’s not even written to them…that could save them.
That’s my new goal, to convince the guards to give me a pen and paper to write on. Should be easy enough. The guards have already brought me food, books, a new pillow and blanket, and even whiskey. They don’t care what I do as long as I stay locked up in the cell. Apparently, Julian and Siren haven’t decided how to get me to break—to give up Mr. Black. They don’t realize I’d rather die a thousand times than give them even one shred of information that could cause harm to my family. I’ve spent my entire life protecting them. I’ve sacrificed my life before to keep them safe; I’ll do it again.
