Betrayed by Truths: Truth or Lies Book 2

by Ella Miles

  Langston is ripped. He has thick thighs, a slender waist, and muscular arms. His body is marked with scars, similar to Enzo. Similar to my own marks. He just has fewer than me.

  He smirks. “Like what you see, baby? Does my body turn you on, while my friend is dying? You know a good fuck might be the only thing that could cheer me up.”

  It’s clear he doesn’t want to fuck me, he’s just trying to find any way to hurt me. So I ignore his disgusting comment.

  “I’m sorry,” I say.

  He huffs.

  I nod toward his scars. “This life has hurt us both, remember?” I glance down at my own scars covering my arms from the cuts and gunshots. “You’ve just been given a chance to have control; I haven’t. I promise to you; I won’t mess up again. I may not be able to bring Zeke or any of the other men back. But I promise to you I will live my life carrying that pain as I do these scars. And I will do everything in my power to right my wrong. If that means throwing the games on purpose to let Enzo win, I will. I promise.”

  Langston’s eyes harden, and I think he’s going to attack me. But then he exhales as if my words brought him some level of comfort.

  I want to hug him, but I can’t handle touch. And he’s practically naked.

  But I can see the pain. He needs comfort even if he won’t accept it. Even if he will throw me across the room for my effort.

  I hesitantly start toward him, not initially letting my actions known. Then when I get close, I wrap my arms around him quickly.

  It feels like fire in my lungs at the touch. Uncontrollable pain surges through me as I hug him, but I don’t let go.

  Langston tries to fight me off, but I hold him tighter despite my own agony.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t want or expect you to ever forgive me. But I promise I will spend my life making up for any death I caused.”

  He tries again to free himself from my grip, and he could if he truly wanted to. Instead, I tighten, and he relents. He needs this hug.

  I feel the heated tears on my shoulder. I feel his warm breath on my neck. Both should feel like comfort. Instead, they feel like tiny knives stabbing me over and over. But I don’t let go.

  He cries hard into my shoulder, his arms finally wrapping around me as he breaks for his friend—grieving for what he might lose.

  Forever passes. Or at least that’s how it feels to me. Like hell has engulfed me before Langston finally lets go.

  His eyes are puffy and red, but he no longer looks at me like he wants to kill me—that’s a start.

  I pick up the clothes and hand them to him. He slowly takes them and starts dressing silently. When he finishes, he says, “You really can’t stand being touched, can you?”

  I open my eyes, realizing I haven’t been able to look at him since I hugged him. My body shakes, icy sweat has soaked my body, and I’m frozen from the cold chill that has formed a layer over my skin trying to protect me from the evil.

  “I can’t.”

  “Then why did you do that?”

  “Because you needed it.”

  His eyes soften, and I know he can’t forgive me if his friend dies, but he respects me for what I just did. For putting him above my own needs.

  “Those men really hurt you, didn’t they?”

  I can’t answer. “I’ll go get you more coffee,” I say, needing a minute to myself after what happened.

  I return a few minutes later with more coffee for both of us. Even though I prefer iced, I drink the warm liquid trying to calm myself as I sit on the floor. Langston finally sits as well. Staring at me as often as he stares at the door that still hasn’t opened.

  “You should get a blanket. Warm yourself up. You were like ice to my touch.”

  I shake my head feeling the panic take hold of me. “I can’t.”

  He frowns. “Are you too cold to move?”

  “No, the blanket just won’t help. It’s a survival mechanism my body learned when I was taken. To shut down so I can’t feel as much. My skin turns cold, my heart barely beats, so my organs need less oxygen to survive.”

  “I’ll get you a blanket.”

  “No, the blanket won’t help. The panic attack is too great. I won’t be able to tolerate the touch right now.”

  “But you let Enzo touch you?”

  I feel the water in my eyes. “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  I chuckle gently. “I have no idea. I should hate him as much as he hates me.”

  Langston nods.

  And then we are silent. We wait for the door to open. But it never does. With each minute that passes, I know the outcome—Zeke’s dead.

  Finally, the door opens and the doctor stands in the doorway, covered in more blood than I knew was in a human body.

  He’s dead.

  There is no way he survived this.

  And with his death, I know I sealed my fate. Enzo will kill me for killing his friend. I’ve seen what he does to men who cross him. He will never forgive me for this.

  Langston shoots up, but I remain seated. The fall will hurt less when I collapse from the pain if I’m already sitting.

  “Did he?” Langston asks.

  “Zeke’s alive—for now.”

  He’s alive.

  12

  Enzo

  He’s alive.

  That’s the text message I received from Langston.

  Zeke is alive.

  I don’t know for how long. I don’t know if he will survive for another hour, another day, another week. Or if he’s out of the worst of it.

  But he’s alive.

  I grin, which means I can bring Zeke vengeance while he is still breathing. He will know I killed the man who did this to him before he breathes his last breath. Or he’ll know when he finally opens his eyes and decides to rejoin the living.

  Either way, it’s what I’ve been needing to hear.

  My heart aches a little less knowing Zeke is still alive. The tightness in my chest has loosened, which will make it easier to do the job I’m about to do. But my anger hasn’t, which won’t bode well for Billy, Alastar’s right-hand man and the man who tried to maim Zeke. After doing some digging into Alastar’s crew, I learned Billy was the most likely culprit of Zeke’s wounds. They use our security equipment, so I was able to hack the system and get security footage. Billy was the fucker who hurt Zeke.

  I climb up the ladder of the yacht Billy calls his home. My veins pumped with excitement when I realized he’s at sea. I prefer to do my work here on the sea rather than back on land. I feel more alive on the water.

  I didn’t bring any of my men with me. I would never ask them to seek my revenge. Never put them in danger when I can handle the threat myself.

  That’s one of the reasons the name Black has become even more of a legend since I took over. My father was evil, killing men who didn’t deserve to die. I, on the other hand, am fair, but when someone crosses one of my men, clients, or me, they pay with their life.

  Killing Billy won’t be enough. I need to make an example of him so no other man will ever cross me. And the world will know Black is still alive and well. That marrying Kai didn’t make me weak, if anything, it made me stronger.

  I thought pretending Kai was my wife would make me appear stronger, but it hasn’t. I’m about to remedy the situation—by telling the world the truth. She’s mine by force, not willingly. The only person to ever be told differently was Dallas, and he’s dead now. The rest of the world has heard rumors I’ve married, which is why I was attacked. They will know the truth. She’s my slave, nothing more.

  Kai thinks I’ve mistreated her in the past. She has no idea what I’m truly capable of. She will be my slave in every sense. She deserves to feel the pain of hurting someone I love.

  But for now, I need to focus on my current task.

  My feet hit the top deck silently. The security on the ship is of the highest caliber. Alastar is wealthy and will ensure his men take no precautions. They have too many enemies to not be secu
re at all times.

  But he forgets I invented most of the security he uses. The cameras are mine. The alarms are mine. Even the men who work for him were trained in my ways, the man I’m hunting included.

  So getting around the security team is easy enough.

  But I don’t want to get around the security system. I don’t want to go unhidden. I want to slaughter any man who dared to cross me.

  So instead of sneaking through the ship to the main panel to shut off the cameras, I make my presence known immediately.

  I remove my dark jacket, letting the white of my shirt underneath light up on the cameras.

  “You want me! I’m here!” I say into the night, knowing every man on this yacht has been notified of my existence and is making plans to take me out.

  They should. They should shoot me in the head on the spot instead of trying to torture me into telling them what they want to know.

  But they are too stupid and cocky. They think a dozen men can easily hold me back while they torture me.

  I silently laugh. They have no idea. No idea the training my father put me through. No idea what I’m capable of given the right motivation.

  The men descend as I expect them to, with weapons drawn all aimed at me.

  “Drop your weapons!” one man yells in my direction.

  I don’t even have a weapon out, but they already see me as a threat.

  I slowly reach into my pants and produce my gun. I hold it up to them, then drop it on the floor, my heart racing fast not from the fear but in anticipation of what I know is coming.

  “Put your hands up.”

  So predictable.

  I do.

  And then two men grab my arms, forcing them behind my back as they start walking me brutally forward.

  They don’t even bother tying my wrists together. They think two large men holding me with dozens of guns aimed at me is enough—they have no idea.

  I’m walked down into the depths of the yacht—to their leader, Billy.

  It’s exactly what I want. I will kill these men for who they work for. But Billy is who I want. He’s the one who tortured Zeke. He’s the one who ordered Zeke to die because I wasn’t there to torture instead.

  Billy isn’t the leader, but he is the leader of this ship. Similar in rank to Zeke. It’s only fair that I repay him with the same scars he caused Zeke—the same pain. But unlike Zeke, he won’t be surviving the night.

  The door opens, and I’m shoved inside with the two men still twisting my arms behind my back roughly, like that is going to force me to do what they say. I can still feel the metal of their guns pointed on me from behind, but I don’t give a shit about any of them.

  I care about the man standing in front of me—Billy.

  “I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to set foot on my ship, Black. Not after what I did to your man,” Billy says not bothering to rise from his seat.

  I smile smugly. This will be too easy.

  “I just thought I’d repay you for your hospitality the last time you hosted one of my men.”

  His eyes darken. “It will be I who shows you the same hospitality I showed your man.”

  I growl roughly. “I’m giving you one chance, Billy. Save your men. Surrender to me now, and I’ll let them live. I’ll even give them a chance to change their loyalty and work for me. If not, they will all die.”

  “It will be you who dies after you tell us what we want to know.”

  “And what is that?”

  “We want what everyone wants. We want the power of Black. We want to be granted the title. We know the title is earned, not born into. When we kill you, we will earn it.”

  I laugh. “You want to know if killing me is enough to grant you the title? You don’t know the ways of my organization. There is only one way you become Black, and that isn’t it. You can kill me, but it won’t solve your problem. Black will just be reborn again, with a leader just as ruthless as I am.” If I die, Kai becomes the leader. And that scares the shit out of me.

  “Then we want to know how to destroy you. We want the codes to your bank accounts. We want a list of your allies. We want the blueprints to your security systems.”

  “You can’t destroy Black. Even if you were to torture and kill me, you would be no better off than you are now. In fact, you’d be worse off if you killed me, because the new Black would be pissed. He’d take over, and his first task would be to hunt you down and kill you, slowly. You’re lucky I’m here.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because I intend to kill you quickly. Zeke’s alive, and I want to go back and tell him the good news that I’ve killed you.”

  That’s when I make my move. I jerk my arms, not caring if they pull my arms out of their sockets. The sudden twist of my arms brings the men on either side of me to my knees because they refuse to let me go. Refusing to let me go will be their deaths.

  I dive behind one, as the bullets start raining, killing the first man. Then I grab the other and slit his throat with the knife they never took from my pocket.

  Like I would board a hostile enemy’s yacht with only one weapon—idiots.

  I take his gun and start shooting. The men start retreating down the hallway. I slam the door I know is bulletproof and invincible to attack. I built this yacht after all. I know the security. I know Billy would keep the most secure room for himself.

  And now he’s trapped. His men can’t get in, but they will hear his screams and know they are next. Some might even go overboard and swim for shore rather than let me kill them.

  Billy’s eyes go wide in fear. He may be the leader. He may be used to torturing and killing people, but he doesn’t usually get involved in a fight until the enemy has been weakened.

  He’s used to hurting men who are already injured and weak. Men who are tied up, making them easy to torture.

  I wipe the blood from my knife on my jeans. I want a fresh knife when I cut and dice him like he did Zeke.

  “What do you want?” he already asks, his voice wavering with fear.

  I smirk. “Already trying to bargain for your life, Billy? We haven’t even gotten started yet.”

  “I have money; you can have it all.”

  Jesus, this man is pathetic. He’ll be pissing his pants before I’m done with him.

  “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time, Billy.”

  “I didn’t. I didn’t touch your friend.”

  I shake my head in disgust of this man.

  “Lying, that’s not going to save you.”

  I take a step forward, holding the knife loosely in my hand.

  His eyes dart around the room, in search of an escape.

  I wait for him to draw his weapon, but then I realize what he is looking for—a weapon.

  I chuckle. “You are the worst. You don’t even have a weapon on you at all times, do you?”

  I toss him the gun I’m holding. “You get one shot, so you better make it good.”

  He barely catches the metal, bobbling it before gripping it like his life depends on it.

  It does.

  His hand trembles, and he fires in my direction without steadying it.

  I don’t even have to dive out of the way to avoid the path of the bullet, that’s how far he missed.

  “You missed.” My lips curl into a devilish grin. “My turn.”

  I disarm him with ease. Then my knife presses hard into his chest, mimicking the first wound he caused Zeke.

  Billy cries out from the plunge of my knife into his lungs.

  “It hurts, doesn’t it? Soon you’ll have trouble getting oxygen into those lungs because of the gaping hole.”

  I pull on the knife then stab into the other side of his chest. His hand reaches up to try to stop me, but I bat it down like it’s a fly.

  “Oh, don’t cry. We are just getting started. I haven’t even got to the good part yet.”

  I stab him hard into his stomach, twisting to create as much damage as possible.


  “I’m being kinder than you were, Billy. You used a gun to create most of the wounds on Zeke. A bullet that exploded into his body. My knife goes in and out cleanly. It’s more personal this way.” The blood from his body oozes everywhere, and if I weren’t holding him up, he’d have collapsed to the floor already.

  His body jerks forward, trying to collapse from weakness.

  “Not yet, you don’t get to die yet.”

  He moans and cries.

  “Please.”

  “Please what?”

  “Just let me die.”

  I crack my neck. This is the best part—when you’ve finally broken them. They no longer wish for life, just death. Because not existing is better than living.

  “Do you remember the last thing you did, Billy?”

  “No,” he moans.

  “Then let me remind you. After you shot him multiple times, you beat him. But I don’t have time for that, and you are too weak to survive. You tied his hands behind his back so he couldn’t fight back. You had men holding him so he couldn’t fight instead of facing him one on one like a man. Then you tried to castrate him.”

  He shakes in my grasp. “Please.”

  “You missed; I won’t.”

  I stab him in the groin as he cries like the biggest pussy alive. I release him and let him crumple to the floor, but his screams don’t stop. Every man aboard the ship hears his cries. And if they weren’t terrified before, they are now.

  The blood spills out of Billy quickly as I stand over him. He got off easy if you ask me. Because within a few seconds, he’s dead.

  I pick up the gun and head to the door to kill the rest of his men. Once I’m done, word will spread of what happened here. The Black name will be restored.

  Then all I have left to do is deal with Kai for risking Zeke’s life in the first place. I’ve never been so happy about punishing someone before. It will cement her hatred for me, but it’s necessary.

  No one goes unpunished—least of all Kai. I’ve been thinking of her as a weakling who I needed to treat with careful movements because of the pain she’s been through.

  But the second she signed the papers, wanting to become Black, the game started. And I can no longer treat her like a princess. She wants to be in this world; then she gets to live with the consequences of her decisions. And I don’t regret that I’m going to enjoy punishing her.