Fated Lies (Lies #3) - Ella Miles

1

Langston

I’ve seen death so many times that it’s as routine as breathing for me. Usually, death occurs at my hand.

Not this time.

This time it’s happening at the hand of a woman I thought would never see murder. I thought if I did the killing, it would keep her pure, innocent, and intact.

I was wrong.

Liesel Dunn is just as savage as I am. She can kill in cold blood as easily as I can, and that’s terrifying. There is no stopping her now. Now she’ll come for every single one of us.

Liesel pulls the trigger, and my world stops.

I didn’t think she had it in her. I really didn’t think she did. But the tears, combined with her pulling the trigger on one of my best friends, one of the only people I love, has me convinced.

Fuck…

Everything happens in slow motion and at double speed.

My lungs and heart slow down so much that my body is basically a standing corpse, not getting enough oxygen or blood. While Siren falling to the ground happens so fast that I don’t even notice where the bullet hits her.

Siren can’t be dead.

No.

There is no way I’ll believe it. I’ve seen death. I’ve seen close friends ‘die,’ but they turned out to be fine. So even though I’m watching Siren drop with my own eyes, it doesn’t mean she’s dead.

I drag my eyes to Siren’s chest. Her chest is rising. She’s still alive—for now.

I want to run to Siren. To stop her suffering, to help her stay alive, but Maxwell still has a gun pointed at me. Liesel still has a gun on Siren. If she hasn’t already killed her, another shot could. I have to make my next move carefully.

It’s impossible to think, though. All I can feel is Liesel’s pain. Unbearable, devastating, just lost the love of her life kind of pain.

She really did love Waylon.

That suffocates me. My own airway begins to strangle me with her tears, her agony pulsing off her in waves. It’s the purest thing I’ve ever felt.

How could she have loved him? It doesn’t make sense to me. Nothing I noticed between her and Waylon told me she loved him.

Except she fucked him like she loved him. She was going to marry him. She wouldn’t take his money. She wanted to be his equal. Maybe I was very wrong about her and Waylon’s relationship? Maybe he didn’t hurt her? Maybe he was trying to protect her from me?

I can’t process it. I’m overwhelmed by her pain and mine. We are two broken hearts who just lost the love of our lives.

No—I didn’t lose Siren, not yet. I can still save her.

Zeke has the exact same idea and is hopping in his chair with his legs still tied together, but his arms free toward Siren and Liesel.

I take the moment to disarm Maxwell as Zeke tackles Liesel and wrestles the gun away from her. She doesn’t put up much of a fight. She’s too broken—completely heartbroken.

The threat is over. Zeke and I both have the guns.

I return my gaze to Liesel as Zeke aims the gun at her.

“This is for Siren,” Zeke says.

My heart stops.

Zeke should get to kill Liesel for what she just did to Siren. Whether or not Siren dies, Liesel deserves it—not to mention her other crime…

I turn away.

I can’t watch.

But suddenly my body is flying. I’m not thinking straight. I’m not thinking at all. I run as fast as I can, knowing that I’m fast enough. There is nothing that could ever stop me from getting to Zeke, from stopping him from hurting Liesel.

“Get the fuck off me. She deserves to die,” Zeke yells, a man who hasn’t yet accepted what has happened to the love of his life.

“Put the damn gun down, Zeke,” I say as I point my gun at him.

I won’t let him hurt Liesel, my huntress. He can’t hurt her. He can’t kill her.

“No—no more games. She dies today, not however many months you want to wait to get answers. She’ll never give them to you. She dies today.”

Liesel is ignoring our fight. She doesn’t give a damn if she dies or not. She’s drowning in her own tears. She would probably prefer us to kill her and make the pain stop.

“Liesel isn’t dying today,” I say, still holding onto Zeke’s back. Zeke is twice the size of me. Physically, he’s stronger. The only way to beat him is to outsmart him, which in his grief just might be possible. But he’s not