I need to get off this yacht before I start showing. I’m only six or seven weeks. I have time. But the only way to escape without anyone following me is to finish the games. Only then can I ensure Enzo will be forced to let me go.
So I get dressed in shorts and a tank top, and for the first time in the last month, I leave the bedroom.
I walk up to the pool deck; the sun is blinding me as I step outside. But that’s not what’s burning my eyes. It’s what I’m looking at, or really whom.
Liesel.
Langston.
r />
Enzo.
All sitting on lounge chairs in swimsuits. All with a drink in their hand. All jaws dropping to the floor at the sight of me outside my bedroom.
I’m tired of letting Milo control me. I’m tired of letting my demons drive every decision I make. I’m tired, and I want this all to end.
“What are you—” Langston starts.
“Coming to get some sun? Good, your white ass needs some,” Liesel says, cutting off Langston.
I nod. “Yes, I need to get some sun.”
I take a seat next to Liesel. Enzo is the only one who is silent, but it doesn’t matter. He’s the only one I feel. But unlike hundreds of times before, it’s not the electric connection pulling me to him that I feel. And I don’t feel the heat emanating from his body.
He’s cold, like me. I feel his pain. I feel his anger. I feel the heartbreak he’s caused others. And I feel fear.
MY BREASTS ARE CRUSHED beneath his weight, until my chest is so heavy I can’t get air.
My legs are spread wide, too wide.
And his length forces himself inside me, like a blade through my body. Slicing over and over.
I OPEN MY EYES, and I see the tears in Enzo’s eyes as he watches me live a nightmare right in front of him.
I know it was Milo who hurt me, but when I close my eyes, it’s Enzo. That has to be an omen. Milo and Enzo were half-brothers. The same darkness in Milo lives in Enzo. I can’t trust him. I can’t trust anyone.
“Sorry to interrupt the pool party, but I just wanted to let you know the fourth game will start tomorrow,” Archard says out of nowhere.
Everyone’s head snaps to him as he speaks, but as soon as he finishes, all eyes are on me.
I’m the wild card.
No one knows what I will do.
Will I fight to win?
Or will I purposely lose and let Enzo have the empire?
No one knows my truth.
Liesel and Langston may know my secret, but not how I plan on playing the game.
They don’t know how I will protect my secret—my child. Or my heart from falling for Enzo again. He’s dangerous. Every time he’s tried to save me, I’ve ended up getting hurt. He can’t be trusted with a child, even if it’s his.
5
ENZO