Stolen by Truths

by Ella Miles

  “Milo,” I say, as the familiar chills of his presence pulses through me.

  He doesn’t answer; he simply steps forward to stand next to me.

  I try to keep my body from reacting, but every cell in my body responds to this man. He’s physically hurt me. He’s threatened the love of my life. He’s tried to take an empire that isn’t his to take. He’s the worst kind of bully, the kind that needs you to bow down to him in order to feel powerful.

  “When is Enzo coming for you?” his voice is gentle, light, not meant to be threatening, but intended to lull me into a false sense of calmness.

  “He’s not coming,” I say as calmly back.

  He snickers. “He’s coming. He may not be capable of love like you are, stingray, but he can’t let such a gem go, not without retaliation.”

  My head snaps to his. “What did you just call me?”

  “Stingray.”

  “How…how do you know that name?” My bottom lip trembles as I speak.

  “I won’t answer your question, until you answer mine.”

  Lie, tell him what he wants to hear, make something up, because I have to know how he knows the nickname only three men have ever called me—the three men I trust more than anyone else in the world.

  But I can’t answer him, and he will refuse to answer me just to spite me.

  “What do you want, Milo?” I ask, trying to let my curiosity go, and pretend he didn’t just pull at my heartstrings by asking me that question.

  His fingers brush over my shoulder blades, and my icy shield takes over, freezing him out. He won’t be able to penetrate what is left of my heart. He won’t be able to make me feel pain. I’m invincible.

  And then he leans down to whisper in my ear, even though there is no reason to. There is no one here to hide his words from. But he does it because he knows how it will impact me, and he likes watching my body shutter.

  “I always thought you were the stronger one. And I think in the end, you will be the one who wins.”

  I swallow, and I feel his eyes on my throat.

  “Then why didn’t you choose me to begin with? Why make a deal with Enzo if you think I’m going to be the one who wins?”

  “More questions. What makes you think I will answer?”

  “Because you want me to know the answers.”

  He smiles, smugly.

  “So smart, my stingray.”

  “Is Zeke alive? Is he here? Are you torturing him?”

  He chuckles. “You still believe in fairytales, don’t you? You believe no one you love can truly die. Well, I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, sweetheart. But people die. Every damn day. People who deserve to die and those that don’t. It makes no difference. Everyone dies. And your friend, Zeke, is dead.”

  I step toward him with tears in my eyes. Not sure if I feel relief that Milo hasn’t been torturing Zeke somewhere this entire time, or grief that Zeke is truly dead. He didn’t make a miraculous resurrection like Milo did. He’s just gone.

  And maybe that’s the least cruel thing of all. That Zeke doesn’t have to live in this cruel world anymore. His soul is free.

  “Then why did you call me stingray?” I ask. I see movement behind Milo—Felix. He’s standing in the doorway watching us. I send him a look of help. To do something. To help me. Or to send for Enzo.

  Felix disappears, and I have no idea if he’s going to help me or not.

  “If you want answers, then you answer me first,” Milo’s voice is dark and heavy.

  I need to send for Enzo. I need to send out the alert, but my body is frozen with fear. From just the sound of his voice.

  One long press and this can all be over. Enzo and his team will be running through the tunnels to get me. But I’m not ready. I shake off the frozenness of my body and realize I need an answer as badly as Milo needs an answer from me. The torturous wait will drive us both crazy.

  So I answer Milo in the only way I can, “Enzo won’t come until I call him.”

  I won’t tell him how I can call him, but just that I’m the one who will make the decision. And then I wait for his answer.

  “I got the information from your friend,” he says, smiling as he says the word ‘friend.’

  My hand slinks up my neck, prepared to press the button on my earrings. I won’t let Milo hurt me. It would kill Enzo as much as it kills me if he does. I just need to hear his answer first.

  “What, friend?” Surely, Langston or Liesel haven’t been talking to Milo.

  “Felix.”

  Fuck!

  My eyes go wide as I realize Felix has been telling Milo everything we have been talking about. I remember letting it slip that Enzo calls me stingray during one of our talks. Which means I can’t trust the information Felix gave me. The tunnel is most likely a trap. I can’t send Enzo to his death.

  My hand falls away from my earring as I choose between my life and Enzo’s. It’s not even a choice.

  Milo smiles. “You see, no matter what you do, you will lose. I’m smarter than you. I deserve the throne. I deserve to rule the underground not only here, but in America too. I will be unstoppable. I’ll control the waters from here to Miami. But first, I’ll make you my queen.”

  I laugh. “I will never be your queen.”

  “Maybe not, but you will have my child.”

  I cock my head. “No, I won’t. I can’t have children.”

  “Well, at least I will have fun trying.”

  I don’t wait for him to speak again. I run. Enzo can’t save me. I’m all alone. I run and run and run. I won’t be taken. I won’t let Milo have me. My plan failed. And if my feet fail, I will lose everything.

  22

  Enzo

  Kai sends messages, but they aren’t enough. I need more. I need daily, if not hourly, updates. I need to know more than broken messages. I need to hear her voice, see her face, hold her in my arms. Until then, the doom growing inside me is going to continue to increase.

  Langston brings in a large sheet of paper, big enough to cover the bed.

  “What are you doing?” I ask.

  “You are going to draw a detailed map of the mansion, the guards you remember, the security, everything. We found the tunnels Kai told us about. We have the team ready to move in, but you are the only one that knows the layout of the inside.”

  I stare at the large, white piece of paper. I don’t know if Langston is doing this because it will really help the men to know or if he’s using it primarily as a distraction, but I take the marker from his hand and begin to draw everything I remember.

  Liesel sits in the corner of the room watching me. She’s dressed in dark jeans and a tight T-shirt. She’s staring at the gun in the back of my pants as I draw.

  “You know you aren’t coming,” Langston says, as he looks at Liesel.

  She frowns. “One—you don’t tell me what to do. I don’t take orders from anyone. Two—I can take care of myself. And three—I’m a part of this team same as everyone else. In fact, I came up with this plan, so I will be going if I want to.”

  “You aren’t going,” I say, without looking up.

  “But—” she starts.

  “You aren’t going, Liesel, and that’s final. You don’t know how to fire a gun or have any combat skills. We don’t need to worry about protecting you too. You will stay here with Yolie. You will be able to connect to the security system and alert us to where Milo’s crew is,” I say.

  Liesel huffs but doesn’t argue.

  I continue drawing the map of everything I remember and try to distract myself from what Kai is going through.

  But in a second, my world changes. The laptop makes a high-pitched sound, and we all run to it—Langston, Liesel, and me.

  “What’s happening?” Liesel asks.

  “I don’t know. An alarm is sounding. Did Kai send an alert to be rescued?” I ask, staring frustrated at the screen.

  The door opens, and Yolie pops in.

  She races to the lapto
p, pushing me out of the way to look at it.

  “What’s happening? Is Kai alerting us?” I ask.

  “She hasn’t pressed the button to send for us, but her heart rate is up. Dangerously up. Two-hundred and climbing.”

  “It could be from exercise. You said Felix took you out to exercise twice a day,” Langston says, trying to calm us.

  “He wouldn’t do that for Kai. Milo wouldn’t want her strong to be able to defeat me. He would want her weak. And she hasn’t gotten to exercise in the weeks she’s been there,” I answer.

  “People’s heart rate goes up for a variety of reasons, it doesn’t mean she’s in distress,” Liesel says.

  But Yolie’s look tells me she is on the same page as me. Kai’s heart rate never goes up. She’s calm, too calm sometimes. This isn’t exercise. This isn’t a nightmare she’s dreaming about. This isn’t simple distress at overhearing a conversation or anxiety from being trapped in a cage. This is different. This is life or death. Which means our time is up.

  “What do you want to do?” Yolie asks.

  “I want to go rescue the woman I love.”

  23

  Kai

  I run for an hour before my feet fail me.

  Each step was painful. I haven’t been wearing the sling around my arm and running that hard, and that fast through unstable terrain has left my shoulder throbbing.

  My still-healing leg burned with every step, barely keeping up.

  But worst of all was the worry in my chest. I tried to stay calm, knowing Enzo would notice the rise in my heartbeat, and any change would cause him to run to my aid.

  So with each step, I kept my breathing slow. I focused on the beauty of the ground, instead of the heavy panting growing closer behind me. And my heartbeat held.

  With every moment that passed, the urge to press my earring and alert Enzo to come grew stronger. I need his help. I won’t survive without Enzo coming for me.

  But we can’t trust Felix. It could be a trap.

  I considered trying to type out a message as I run, but that would have slow me down too much. Milo would have caught me.

  I’m surprised he didn't catch me quickly. But then again, Milo probably liked the chase.

  But then my broken shin hit a rock. I didn’t lift my leg high enough to step over it. And I tumbled down to the ground.

  Now I lay eyes closed on the hard earth with Milo standing over me.

  I just lost the biggest battle of my life.

  I can feel the darkness consuming me already. He’s only standing near me, but my brain is working overtime imagining all the things he will do to me. All the ways he will break me. All the ways he will ruin me.

  Press the button. Tell Enzo. Come save me.

  But I would never want Enzo to risk his life to save mine. I love you, Enzo. Hopefully, my love for you will get you through the pain that will await you when you do finally find me.

  I open my eyes when I’m ready to face the darkness.

  Milo has crouched down and is staring at my face.

  “I once loved as you do. But that love was taken from me in the worst possible way. Because of that, I no longer have a heart. And I make it my mission to destroy anyone else who I see loves like I used to. You shouldn’t love as strongly as you do. Love shouldn’t consume you. It will take everything from you.”

  I feel his pain with every word. He was hurt in a way I have yet to experience, but I’m afraid Milo is about to show me.

  Milo grabs my neck before I have a chance to move.

  And then he pushes my legs wide apart as he settles between them.

  Shut down, now. Shut down! I scream at my body. I can’t feel this. I’ll never survive.

  Milo’s eyes turn sad. As if what he’s going to do will break him as much as it will break me. “You don’t deserve this. If I could do this to Enzo, I would. He’s the one who deserves this. But I have to teach one of you a lesson. It’s the only way you will learn how wrong loving someone else is.”

  “Please, just let me go. Don’t rape me,” I whisper.

  Milo shakes his head.

  “My body will only open the hole in your heart to get you to listen to me. My story is what will cause you to give me your heart willingly.”

  I have no idea how those words can be true, but in the end, I'm afraid they just might be.

  24

  Enzo

  The tunnels work like a charm.

  We get into the mansion completely undetected. And Felix is waiting for us when we reach the end.

  “I’ve already switched the cameras to your feed. No one knows you are here,” Felix says.

  “Thank you,” I say, happy Kai learned to trust Felix in the same way I did. “We have teams at all the gates ready to break them down, and my team is filing up through the tunnels quickly. We are bringing this entire organization down.”

  Felix nods. “Good, this needs to end.”

  “It does.”

  “Where is Kai? Milo?” I ask.

  “Not sure, watch out,” Felix says, firing his gun behind me.

  And so the war starts.

  I start shooting, and Langston follows up behind me. It feels weird not to have Zeke on the other side watching my other shoulder. We are incomplete with just the two of us, and it’s all the more reason to make Milo and his entire team suffer—for Zeke.

  I don’t think as I take down man after man. My brain switches to automatic fighting mode, and that doesn't include any emotions. I could probably single-handedly take down every man in this mansion. My father programmed me that way. But there are more of Milo’s men outside the mansion, more gathering nearby. And I have hundreds of people ready to fight them all for me. Because they want me to be their leader.

  I see the blood of my enemies being spilled, and the sight only drives me further deeper into the house.

  “Any sign of Milo or Kai?” I ask into my earpiece.

  “No, we don’t see either of them on any of the security cameras,” Liesel answers.

  I growl. Either Milo knew I was coming and turned the ones aimed at him off, or they are somewhere the cameras aren’t.

  The basement.

  They must be there. “How is her heart rate?” I ask as I fire another shot.

  Silence.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “Kai is strong, just stay alive,” Liesel says.

  I can’t stay alive if Kai is hurting.

  I fire off several rounds, pushing men back as I make my way to the stairs. I have to find her. I need to know she is safe.

  I reach the basement stairs being guarded by five men. My suspicions were correct; they are in the basement.

  One, two, three, four, five.

  That’s how long it takes me to take down five men with five shots.

  They all fall, one blocks the door with his limp body, but I pull his corpse away from the door as easily as I would move a sack of potatoes.

  I throw the door open, practically yanking it from its hinges, and then I run down the stairs with my gun aimed. If I see Milo touching Kai, I will kill him without giving him one more second to breathe.

  Down into the hole underground I go.

  “Kai!” I scream into the darkness, but I see nothing. I get no answer.

  “Kai!” I yell again.

  I run to the cage Milo kept me in. The door is open, and I dart inside even though I can clearly see through the bars the room is empty.

  Kai was here. I can smell and feel her in every essence of the room. I don’t see any blood, no sign of a struggle. Whenever she left, she left willingly.

  I walk over slowly to the bed and feel in the crevices of the wall. The heart I carved is gone, but the knife remains.

  Fuck, she has no weapon.

  But she took the heart. When I started carving it, I didn’t think she would ever see it, it was for me. But I think somewhere in my heart, I knew she would be here, and she would need it.

  Please let it be enough to protect h
er. She still hasn’t pressed the alarm on her earrings. Please be somewhere safe. Please know that I love you.

  “Enzo!” Langston yells.

  I look up with a gloominess in my eyes.

  “Have you found her?” I ask.

  “No.”

  A deep fear grows stronger in my belly. Where are you, stingray?

  “But the mansion is secure. The grounds are secure. We won,” Langston says.

  “No, we didn’t win until we find Milo and Kai. Not until Milo is dead, and Kai is safe. That’s when we win.”

  “Have you found her?” I say into the earpiece.

  “No,” Liesel answers.

  “I thought the earrings were supposed to be able to track her.”

  “They are, but wherever she is, we lost the signal,” Liesel says.

  Fuck.

  Langston nods. “What is our next move?”

  “Are there survivors?” I ask, meaning our enemies.

  “Yes.”

  “Bring me them. And Felix. I want answers,” I say.

  Langston heads upstairs and brings me two of Milo’s guards.

  “Felix?” I ask Langston.

  He shakes his head as he shoves one of the men toward me. The prisoner’s hands are tied with rope.

  I pull a knife from my pocket. “Tell me where Milo and Kai are.”

  I’ll do whatever it takes to get answers. Every second that passes is another where Kai could be in incredible pain. Each second that passes is one where I might never get her back. And these two men will be the first to understand just how far I will go to find her.

  25

  Kai

  It’s been hours. Or has it been days or years?

  Reality doesn’t exist for me in the same way anymore. All I know is darkness covers the sky.