Empire of Lies - Whitney G. Page 0,68
make sure the police won’t get involved.
Response: Are you still coming to the Poker Night Bill is hosting next weekend?
The responses continue to come in, and I read each and every one of them. Stunned that these men are more concerned with covering their asses than anything else.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Trevor shakes my shoulder. “Why are you looking like that?”
“Because Poker Night or not, they’ll just find a way to do what they do to someone else.”
“Makes sense,” he says. “I don’t think people like that will change overnight.”
“I think people like that deserve to die.”
He nods, picks up a few sheets of paper. “I can call the school tomorrow and see what the terms of deferment are. We’ll probably have to take some super basic classes and—”
“Did you not hear what I said?” I knock the papers out of his hands.
“Yeah. People like that deserve to die. I agreed with you.”
“I heard that part.” The phone is still buzzing with their responses. “I’m waiting for you to say that you’ll help me do it.”
His eyes widen and he’s looking at me as if I’ve grown two heads. “Michael, you’re joking, right?”
“I’m not laughing.”
“Michael, there’s so much shit running through my mind right now, so many things that I need to fucking process, and I can guarantee that one of them isn’t becoming a goddamn murderer.”
“It’s not murder if they killed you first.” I don’t feel bad saying that. “I’ll never be able to process this shit until they’re gone.”
He stands up from the table. “I’m calling social services tomorrow. I’m going to tell them that he walked away and that we need mental help. Especially you, no offense.”
“None taken.”
“Good. I’m going to try to sleep more than five hours tonight and see if it works.”
We both know that it won’t—it never will, but I give him an encouraging nod anyway.
“Wait, Trevor,” I say, before he can leave the room.
“Yeah?” He looks over his shoulder.
“If you still can’t sleep and this still haunts you after so many years, will you help me get some of them back?”
He stares at me for a long while, and then he lets out a breath. “No, I won’t help you get some of them. It’ll be all of them…”
It takes ages for us to “cope” with the so-called tragedy—we’re cycled in and out of therapists’ offices every other month. It’s not until we both enroll in graduate school that we become somewhat sane. (And by “somewhat” I mean fucking barely.)
His advanced degree is in business accounting. Mine is dual. English and Forensic Science.
He goes into the corporate world—finding numerous ways to makes millions. I slip into the darkness—finding ways to do the same.
After several years, we return to the promise we made about getting every one of those men back. Armed with enough experience in the real would, with enough knowledge to begin to build, we start with the richest client and work on a six-month plan, to get him to his grave.
I didn’t care how many more years it took. How long each job would take, who I would have to pretend to be. Since I’d never be able to rest in peace, since I was always too weak to save myself, I could spend all of my waking hours preventing them from hurting someone else.
All or nothing…
—
END OF EPISODE #2
Contents
Also By Whitney G.
Preface
King of Lies
King Of Lies
About King Of Lies
Prologue
Meredith
Meredith
Meredith
Michael
Meredith
Meredith
Meredith
Meredith
Michael
Michael
Michael
Meredith
Michael
Michael
—
Queen of Lies
Queen Of Lies
About Queen Of Lies
Prologue
Michael
Michael
Meredith
Michael
Michael
Meredith
Meredith
Meredith
Michael
Michael
Michael
Meredith
Meredith
Michael
Michael
—
Legacy of Lies
Legacy Of Lies
Prologue
Meredith
Michael
Michael
Meredith
Meredith
Meredith
Meredith
Michael
Meredith
Michael
Michael
Michael
Michael
Michael
Meredith
Meredith
Michael
Meredith
Michael
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Also By Whitney G.
Legacy Of Lies
Book 3 in the Empire of Lies Series
Whitney G.
About Legacy Of Lies
From the New York Times bestselling author of Reasonable Doubt & Turbulence, comes part three of a sexy and thrilling serial.
We’re in this together—lie for lie, truth for truth.
We’ve both been damaged by our pasts, both terrified of building a future…
Still, there’s a sliver of hope for the both of us—if one of us is willing to fold first.
He’s the king of lies, I’m the queen, and together we’re going to build one hell of a legacy...
This is the final installment in the Empire of Lies trilogy.
Prologue
Michael
You really are hopeless.
You’re reading this book in your bedroom right now—coffee or tea in one hand, fully charged vibrator in the other. Wistfully defiant and shamelessly hopeful, you think that this final part of the story will be everything you want. Everything you need.
Despite the fact that I’ve shown you my hand for over two hundred pages and told you exactly what to expect, I can sense