Page 2 of King of Lies
Harris drives us through the castle gates and down the long and winding road that leads to the highway or whatever it is they call it here. It’s a two-lane road that twists and turns through the hills before it spreads out to four lanes under a huge bridge.
The piano strains of an old Billy Joel tune softly fill the car, reminding me that life isn’t sunshine and rainbows, and I need to remember that more hard knocks are handed down than not. I should have already learned this particular lesson long before Rhys Alexander crashed into my life and made me fall in love with him.
But that’s just how it goes.
My phone rings and I press my eyes closed. I know exactly who it is. I don’t want to answer but that’s not right. I owe him an ending. I slide my finger across the cool glass to unlock it.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Where are you?” he demands, his brogue deeper and thicker than normal. The refined tones have given way to something darker, edgier, and definitely dangerous.
“I’m leaving,” I say quietly.
“Why?”
“We had a deal.”
“We did,” he says after a moment. “But I still want to you to tell me why.”
“I know,” I whisper. “I know it all.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” he clips out.
“I know it was all fake,” I reply. “Every last bit of it.”
“Come back.” He changes the subject. It’s almost as if he can just brush away what he doesn’t like. Like batting away a fly. It’s a nuisance, an inconvenience, nothing more. “I’ll meet you at the castle.”
“I can’t do that.” The car lurches to the right but I ignore it.
“I’ll come to you,” he offers. “Just tell me where you are.”
“No,” I whisper with my heart clenching painfully in my chest. If he comes for me, it’ll all be for nothing. I won’t be able to say no to him when he lures me back to my demise like the piper and his lost children. “We had a deal.”
The car lurches again.
“Where are you?” Rhys asks and I look out the window and see that we’re almost to the big overpass just before the exit for the airport. “Hen, tell me.”
“Please don’t call me that.” That pet name used to warm my heart, now it makes me wonder if it was because he had a hard time remembering who I was. I wasn’t his fairytale; I was a means to an end. A pawn.
“Where are you?” he repeats.
“It doesn’t matter,” I whisper. “I’m already gone.”
“No.”
“Ma’am,” Leo says. “I need you to put your seatbelt on.”
“What’s happening?” Rhys demands.
I move as fast as I can to comply. I drop my phone down to the bench next to me as I click my belt into place and pull it tight. I hear Rhys’s voice yelling for me but I can’t understand what he’s saying.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Harris says.
“Watch out!” Leo yells and then the car is filled with the sounds of breaking glass and crunching metal as my screams fill the air.
My face smashes against the window next to me and an explosion of pain blasts through my face and rattles around in my brain, silencing me.
