Stolen Lies (Truths and Lies Duet Book 2)

by Nikki Ash

  To an outsider, Talia and I in my Maserati look like any other rich couple. Carefree and happy. We’re happy, that’s for damn sure. And we’ll be carefree the moment I have my hands around my brother’s throat. Until then, we’ll keep hunting his awful ass down.

  “We’re almost there,” she says, yawning. “Are we really going to stay at the beach house?”

  “You mean the Cliffside monster stairs home?”

  She laughs. “Remember when I made you carry me up all those steps?”

  “Remember when I fucked you on four hundred rocks and made you mine?”

  We both smile.

  “It won’t always be like this,” I promise her. “The people in Greece know they can’t fuck with me. They can try and I’ll hunt their asses down. If they’re smart, they’ll pay their taxes, do my bidding, and be fucking merry.”

  “Is that all?” she asks dryly. “Want them to suck your dick too?”

  “That’s your job,” I tell her with a smirk.

  “You have to admit, you like it when I negotiate using blowjobs.”

  “Your blowjobs are the true secret behind world peace. Too bad you only give them to a tyrant.”

  She taps at her lips and feigns a thoughtful look. “Maybe I should spread the love around.”

  “Maybe I should spread you over my lap and make you fuck me the rest of the way.”

  “I did not come through all this to die in a ditch because my sex freak husband wanted to have more period sex while driving a million-dollar car.”

  Three mil, but who’s counting.

  “There’s always the ride home,” I tease, gripping her jean-clad thigh.

  The rest of the trip we drive in contented silence. I know she’s nervous about finding him, but I’m eager as hell. It’s long overdue.

  Rather than going to the hotel the Galanis always stayed at, I take her straight to the Cliffside home. It’s my first destination. We pull into the driveway and I lean over to kiss Talia.

  “How long will it take to find out if Aris is at the hotel?” she asks once we park.

  “He’s not there,” I state as I climb out of the car.

  She follows me, grabbing my hand. “What? What do you mean?”

  “If there’s one thing I know about my brother, it’s that he likes to play games. He doesn’t trust anyone. You think he’d give such an obvious clue to his man?”

  Talia stops to frown at me. “No.”

  I caress her cheek. “No, because if the man was found out, then he’d tell me. And if Aris knows me, he had to know I’d find out because I’m not fucking stupid.”

  Her plump lips purse, making my dick thicken with need. Not now, but soon, I’ll have those lips on me again. “He wanted to lure you to the hotel.” She lets out a rush of relieved breath. “So we outsmarted him then?”

  “Did we?” I muse aloud, darting my eyes to the house.

  Her blue eyes flicker with fear, but I shush her with a kiss. “He knew we’d stay here if we came looking for him at that hotel. He’d attempt to catch us off guard.”

  She pulls away, whirling around. “Where’s Adrian?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” I say with a grin as I lead her over to the front door. “Let’s get you inside. I want to fuck you in the hot tub.”

  Her shoulders are tense, but she trusts me as I guide her into the home. As soon as we walk inside, we see Aris. Gun in hand and evil fucking smile on his face.

  And then Adrian tackles him from behind.

  Aris’s eyes blink open slowly. He looks like shit. I’m not sure he’s showered recently and the scruffy beard he’s sporting doesn’t make him look refined. It makes him look like trash.

  That’s what he is to me.

  Trash.

  Ready to be kicked to the goddamn curb. Indefinitely.

  “The almighty Demetriou reigns,” Aris snarls, finding his venom past the haze of recently being knocked out.

  I snort. “Nothing’s changed, little brother.”

  His brown eyes dart to Talia, who’s perched in my lap like a fucking goddess waiting to be worshiped. Rather than worshiping his queen, he spits her way. She flinches and I hate that he holds some sort of power over her.

  Not for long.

  Adrian is still as a statue, leaned against the wall like a fucking gargoyle. All it takes is Aris to move the wrong way and Adrian will pounce on him, gutting him like he gutted Basil. The violence ripples from Adrian in waves like heat from the sun. Powerful, malevolent, unforgiving.

  “You didn’t think you’d go on terrorizing me and not get caught in my web eventually, did you?” I stroke my fingers through Talia’s blond hair, my eyes fixed on him. “You’re caught now. Nothing but a useless fucking moth, struggling to get free.” I flash him a smug grin. “You, Aris fucking Demetriou, are a victim now. Something to be destroyed and ruined. Forgotten.”

  “Fuck you,” he snarls. “Your theatrics are boring, Kostas. Get the hell on with it.”

  “Personally,” Talia pipes up, her voice wavering slightly. “I find his theatrics quite charming.”

  “You always were a dumb bitch,” Aris growls, fighting against his restraints.

  “They’re mouthy as fuck when they’re looking death in the eye,” Adrian bellows from across the room, making the three of us look his way. His hateful glare is fixated on Aris. I should let him deal with my brother, but that wouldn’t be fair to Talia. She suffered too. This is her vengeance.

  “I’ve been planning your death for a while now,” I tell Aris. “I imagined all the ways I’d cut you and drain you of your blood. How I’d make you suffer slowly. But then I realized it’s not up to me.” I pat Talia’s thigh. “It’s up to her.”

  She rises from my lap and I rake my eyes down her perfect jean-clad ass.

  “I trusted you,” she says, her voice small as she picks up the knife from the table. “I tried to comfort you.”

  “Aww,” Aris taunts, his nostrils flaring. “You thought your magical pussy would make me all better? Sorry, princess, but your cunt is just like every other cunt out there. Although, you squealed like a little pig when I shoved my dick in it.”

  She freezes and I’m tempted to leap over the table to crush his fucking skull. But I won’t. Not unless she asks me to. And my brave wife doesn’t ask for help. She slowly approaches him, like a viper ready to strike. The knife in her grip gleams in the light.

  “You raped me,” she accuses, her voice breaking. “You took advantage of my kindness and then you took advantage of me.”

  He laughs hatefully. “It didn’t feel like rape when you were impaled on my cock. It felt like vindication.” He sneers at me. “How does it feel knowing I popped that cherry, big brother? Does it burn you up every night knowing your brother’s dick has been inside your wife? Does it—what the fuck?”

  Blood runs down his cheek from the slash of the knife. Her body trembles as she stares down at him.

  “It was rape and you know it,” she seethes. “Admit it and I’ll let you keep your cock.”

  “My cock belongs to you, though, bitch,” he taunts. “You damn near begged for it the whole time I had you holed away from Kostas. If Selene weren’t there, you know we would’ve already made another baby.”

  She slashes again, this time ripping through his bottom lip. Blood runs thick down his chin. His eyes turn wild as he realizes he’s dying in this living room. Tonight. At the hand of the one he brutalized.

  Eye for a fucking eye.

  Even Howler learned that lesson.

  “Say it,” she orders. “Say it or I’ll cut you a thousand times. Don’t fucking test me, Aris. I will. I’ll cut you for every time I lied to your face and told you Zoe was your daughter.”

  His nostrils flare. “I raped you because I could,” he sneers. “I haven’t deflowered a virgin since I was a fucking teenager. I should have taken your ass instead.”

  She turns her head to look at me, tears gleaming in her blue eyes. Even had he no
t admitted, I knew the truth. But this was something she clearly needed to hear. To confirm. For me to know without a shadow of a doubt. This is her vengeance, not mine.

  Yes, he took and took from me, but he didn’t take that.

  He stole her virginity and her freedom. He stole her happiness.

  For that, she will make him pay.

  I give her a nod of support and a wink.

  “You thought you could bring down my husband, but you couldn’t,” she whispers, turning back to him. “You couldn’t because you were always the weak one. The unloved one. The least favorite. Poor little Aris. Only Mommy loved you, but even still, she loved you equal to your brother.”

  “Fuck you,” he roars. “Don’t ever talk about my mother.”

  “Your mother is rolling in her grave because the man she hated most is the man you turned out to be,” Talia continues, her body vibrating with power. “You turned into him. Ezio. You’re that spineless bastard, weak and afraid.”

  “I am not like that motherfucker!” he screams, his face turning purple with rage.

  Aww, someone still has daddy issues.

  “You always did look more like the gardener,” I muse aloud.

  Talia laughs. “How does it feel to be powerless? You only had the illusion of power for a short while there. Your brother always wielded it and it drove you fucking crazy. He got the empire, he got the girl, and he got the kid.” She slashes again, this time slicing a big gash on the side of his neck. “What do you have, Aris? A mediocre cock in your pants and a burning desire to be him?” She points her knife at me. “Well, you’re not him. Not even close.”

  “Go to hell,” Aris slurs, his skin quickly paling with the blood loss that’s pouring like rivers down the side of his neck.

  She straddles his thighs and presses the tip of the blade against his chest, right over his heart. “You soon will.” Her body trembles, but she doesn’t make the move.

  “Talia?” I ask, rising to my feet.

  A sob chokes her. “I want to, but…”

  Walking over to her, I stare down at my brother she’s singlehandedly ruined with her knife. I could end him right now. Hell, we could leave him and he’d bleed to death within minutes. That won’t bring her peace, though. She needs to do this.

  I lean forward and wrap my arms around her. My hand grips hers on the hilt of the knife. Nuzzling her hair with my nose, I inhale her sweet and sweaty scent. I kiss her hair and murmur my words against her head.

  “Ready, zoí mou?”

  “Yes,” she breathes.

  I use my other hand to cover the top of the hilt of the knife and drive it forward. Her hand flexes beneath mine, but she doesn’t squirm away. Together, we push the blade past his flesh and into his chest. Together, we pierce his heart. Together, we breathe raggedly as we watch the life quietly drain from the monster in our lives.

  Releasing the knife, I hook my arms around her middle and pull her away from him. I walk her outside so Adrian can deal with the body. She turns in my arms, sobbing against my chest. I stroke her hair and kiss her head. The waves crash down below.

  “It’s over now, moró mou. You can be happy.”

  She pulls away and places her blood-splattered hands on my cheeks. Her blue eyes are watery as she regards me. “I am happy, Kostas. With you, never doubt that.”

  “I love you,” I murmur. “My beautiful, brave, fiery wife.”

  “I love you more.”

  “Impossible,” I growl, nipping at her juicy lip.

  A smile tugs at her lips. “Then prove it.”

  “Anything.”

  “Give me a piggyback down to the beach.”

  All those stairs. All. Those. Fucking Stairs.

  “Aww, I’m only teasing,” she says, laughing. “You should have seen your face!”

  With a growl, I scoop her into my arms.

  I carry her down all those goddamn stairs. Every last one of them. And when I’ve fucked her in the warm sea and made her scream my name in pleasure, I’ll carry her back up all those motherfucking steps. Every grueling one.

  I’ll carry her anywhere.

  To the ends of the earth. Through heaven and hell. And into the next life.

  She’s fucking mine forever.

  Talia

  One Year Later

  “Mommy, what’s this?” Zoe asks, pointing at the exquisite fountain in the middle of the courtyard.

  With me almost two weeks overdue, we decided to drive over to the Pérasma Hotel with Kostas today to hang out, swim a little, and get some sun while being waited on.

  When Zoe asked if we could go for a walk, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to try to walk my overly-pregnant behind into labor. Big mistake. Because now I’ve plopped myself onto the wicker lounge chair to relax for a minute, and there’s a good possibility I may never get back up.

  Not wanting to tell her what she’s pointing to is Bernini’s Rape of Proserpina, I go with a more childproof answer. “It’s a statue of a man and a woman.”

  “Not just any man and woman,” a masculine voice says, catching my attention. I glance over and spot my sexy husband sauntering over. Unlike the first time I saw him in this very spot, dressed casual in khakis and a button-down shirt, today he’s sporting his power suit. I would take him either way, but truth be told, my favorite Kostas is the one without any clothes on in our bed.

  Kostas picks Zoe up and she squeals in excitement. “This statue is of Pluto and Proserpina,” he tells her as if she can understand. He always talks to her like she’s an adult. It’s oddly adorable.

  “Pluto?” she questions. “Like the doggy?”

  He gives me a confused look.

  “Pluto is the cute puppy on Disney,” I explain.

  He laughs and shakes his head. “No, this Pluto was a very powerful god.” He gives me a knowing look. “He stole Proserpina and brought her into the Underworld. And because he loved her so much, he tricked her into staying by tempting her with delicious food. She, of course, took the bait and was sentenced to remain with him for the rest of eternity.”

  I grin at his version of the story. It was my version. The safe version. The one that made Pluto out to be the bad guy and kept Proserpina innocent. But as I look at my handsome husband holding our daughter in his arms, I realize my view of the story has changed. That I’ve changed.

  “He didn’t trick her,” I say out loud.

  Kostas’s eyes gleam with excitement. “No?”

  “No, that would be giving him too much credit and her not enough,” I admit. “I think you were right before. If she didn’t want to stay, she wouldn’t have eaten the seeds. But she did so because she wanted to.”

  I attempt to stand, but my big belly weighs me down.

  “Moró mou,” Kostas says. “Let me help you.” He sets Zoe down, who runs over to the fountain to dip her hand in the water.

  As he helps pull me into a standing position, my stomach tightens, and I cringe slightly at the pain that shoots down my back. “I made Proserpina out to be the damsel in distress,” I tell him. “The victim, but maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she was just scared and he helped her come to the realization of what she already knew.”

  “And what’s that?” Kostas asks, gripping the curve of my hips and leaning over to kiss my lips.

  “That she was always meant to be loved by Pluto and to be the Queen of the Underworld.”

  I can imagine how she felt. When she met Pluto, there was no turning back. She fell for him the moment she laid eyes on him. He didn’t have to drag her there, because she belonged there. She just needed to come home.

  Another pain shoots down my back and then it feels as though I’ve peed myself. I glance down and liquid is dripping down my legs under my bathing suit.

  “Talia, are you okay?” Kostas asks, his eyes widening in fear. It’s not often I see my husband appear to be scared.

  “Yeah.” I nod with a smile. “But our baby is finally coming.”

  Kostas


  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  “Stop saying fuck,” Talia seethes, “or I will rip your tongue out of your mouth.”

  The doctor smirks at me from between her legs and I tense. Clearly I’ve been chanting the words that have been running inside my head from the moment she was put into this hospital bed. I wonder if she heard the other ones.

  She’s brave and resilient and strong.

  The best mother in the world.

  Beautiful beyond reason.

  “A real Casanova, that one,” the nurse says to Talia, winking.

  I look down to find Talia’s eyes watering. “I love you,” she whimpers.

  Leaning down, I kiss her plump lips. “I love you too. You’re doing great.”

  “Oh shit,” she whines. “I can’t do this.”

  “You’ve done it before,” I remind her.

  “And her head wasn’t as big as Nora’s either!”

  I can’t help but grin at her. The moment we found out we were having another little girl, Talia asked if we could name her after my mother. It broke my heart and healed it all at once. Of course I said yes. My mother would be so fucking proud of me. She would’ve loved those girls with everything she had. Thankfully, we have Melody and she does the job of two grandmas at once.

  “I see dark hair,” the doctor says, his eyes crinkling with delight. “The baby is coming. Want to watch?”

  I dart my eyes to Talia, who nods. I missed Zoe’s birth, so seeing Nora’s is a gift. Releasing Talia’s hand, I shuffle down to the end of the bed.

  “Holy shit,” I utter, completely transfixed to see the head of my daughter trying to come through the small hole. “Talia, she’s almost here.”

  “Another contraction,” the nurse says. “That’s it, honey, push and hold.”

  Talia bears down and the head begins to push out. When she can’t push anymore, the dark hair disappears some. Another contraction hits right after the other and my incredible wife pushes harder. I’m awestruck by how strong she is—scrunched face in determination, purple flesh as she uses every ounce of strength she can muster, sweaty hair stuck to her forehead.