Page 91 of Cunning Lies
“What did he tell you about your parents?” he asks, his voice low and controlled. “How did he explain their deaths?”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand, and my fingers twitch at my sides.
“I already told you,” I say nervously. I kneel, picking through the pieces of ceramic. “It was a burglary. The robbers were armed. Now, will you help me clean this up?”
He kneels down, grabbing the biggest shards of the vase.
“You believe every word out of his mouth,” he says.
“He’s my uncle. My only family.”
“I bet he told you that this wasn’t a dangerous job. But you know what?” He rubs the back of his neck. “If it were Dice or Niko who had taken your marriage contract—if Cherry liked women—if you had been married to any of them,and not me,you’d already be dead.”
My gut sinks. What do I say to that?
“Why am I even doing this?” he mutters to himself. “Why do I care about your loyalty to Jay when you won’t even give me half of that respect?”
“Will you shut up about my uncle?” I shout, grabbing the shard out of his hand.
“He had your parents killed,” he says.
Blood pumps in my chest like a ticking time bomb, throbbing in my ears.
How can that be true?
“The burglary? It was staged,” he says. “He hired the contract killers.Youwere supposed to be in there!Youwere supposed to die that day, but the fucker felt guilty when he saw you in the back of the car. Don’t you get it, Vi?” He leans in closer and his minty breath washes over me like a film of plastic, ready to suffocate me. “He’s using you too.”
I smack him across the face, but it’s only after I’ve struck that I realize I still have a jagged piece of ceramic in my hands. The skin right below his bottom lip is broken. He licks the wound, then bares his teeth at me. I should feel bad—I didn’t mean to cut him—but I’m furious.
Kenzo is saying this to hurt me. To manipulate me. To tear me away from the only stable person in my life.
I don’t believe a word he says.
“Now, you’re lying,” I say.
“Deep down, you know that I’m telling the truth,” he growls. “Damn it, Vi. You’ve been lying to yourself for so long, you probably don’t even know what’s true anymore.”
Exhaling slowly, I drop the shards. But everything is red, and I can’t hold it back.
“What do you even want, Vi? Is it money? Candles? To adopt children? Did you even get a choice when it came to this job?” He chuckles, but there’s nothing funny about this. “You don’t know, do you? You’re just a puppet.”
“Fuck you!”
I lunge at him, taking him by surprise and knocking him down to the ground. The shards jab into his back. I pound my fists into his chest and he grinds his teeth, taking each blow. I don’t stop until I can’t breathe. Because if he’s right—
If he’s right—
Kenzo grabs my body and we both roll until I’m pinned underneath him. His hard-on is raging between us, stabbing against my stomach, but his eyes pierce my soul.
“You would rather believe a man who lies to get money. Who commits insurance fraud, making people believe that he’s their long-lost relative. Who uses you like a whore just to get people to pay for things neither of you need.” He searches me for understanding, but every inch of me is full of anger. “I don’t give a shit what you do, but believing himover me?That’s what fucking hurts, Vi.”
I spit in his face. Any sort of reason escapes me as I lurch forward, trying as hard as I can to bite him, but he pushes himself off of the ground and storms down the hallway toward the kitchen. He grabs the candle I made for him and hurls it against the wall. It crashes into a pile of wax and glass. He flips the glass coffee table and it careens against the wall too, shattering it into a million pieces. My hand smacks my mouth, shock vibrating through me.
His eyes reach mine and both of us hold still. Shards of glass. Chunks of wax. Ceramic fragments. The broken remains of a home. There’s a darkness in his eyes that I can’t read—guilt, maybe, or sadness—but before I can figure it out, he storms toward the balcony.
“What are you even doing out there?” I demand. “Calling backup so your soldiers can kill me? Because you’re too much of a coward to do it yourself?”
He flips around, rage swarming his eyes. “I can’t think straight when I’m around you,” he howls. His nostrils flare like a predator, and my breath catches in my throat. I take a step backward.
