Langston used to be a knight in the sea. He used to monitor every boat, every passenger in the ocean. But he won’t be looking for me here. The boat I rented isn’t under my name, and I didn’t use any money tied to me to pay for it. It will take a lot of digging on Langston’s part to find me.
Three days.
I have three days until Langston comes for me.
It will take two to make it to Miami, where I grew up. Where I met the boy who shone brighter than the sun. I’m tired of living in his shadow. In three days, we end this.
I drive the boat straight through day and night. I don’t sleep. Thank God I’ve learned to operate without that basic need.
I’d forgotten how thrilling it is to be driving a boat by myself with nothing but the lights of shore and the stars overhead. I’d forgotten how bumpy the waves feel when you’re alone in a boat. They feel ten times as intense as they really are. I’d forgotten how eery the calm quietness of the ocean seems with only the waves knocking against my boat, reminding me of how quickly the sea can turn dangerous.
But even being here, I’m still not called back to this life. I’d rather be anywhere but here. The ocean hasn’t been kind to me.
I get to Miami as the sun rises on the third day, the day that Langston says he’s coming for me. But if I succeeded, today will come and go without a word from Langston.
I dock the boat, and then I walk down the pier, the sun already heating me as I walk, making me want to strip out my clothes and into a bikini, but I won’t. Not today. Today is about hiding, not being seen.
I rent a car from the car rental down the street; then, I drive to the house I grew up in.
No, that’s not true. The house I grew up in was Enzo’s guest house, and that house burned to the ground.
No, I drive to the house my mother lived in when she wasn’t working. The house I lived in until I was ten but barely remember.
The house we fought in.
The house I begged her to take me away from, to move anywhere but here. She did as I asked. We moved, and my life turned upside down in one night. Forever changed, all because of where we moved to and who my mother worked for.
She couldn’t be a teacher or a hairstylist or a maid in a hotel. No, she had to be a maid for a man who took whatever he wanted with no regard for life. No regard for consequences.
I never thought I’d be back in Miami, let alone the tiny one-bedroom home that I once shared with my mother. That was when I wasn’t sleeping at Enzo’s or even Langston’s. I did anything I could to avoid coming here when I lived here. I never thought I’d visit now that I’m an adult with options.
Still, it’s the place I feel my mom the most. I should have visited before, but I just couldn’t.
“Hey, Mom. You’ve been taking care of the old place?” I ask to the sky as I walk inside. My mom died from an overdose the same night I learned that my jackass father was still alive on my eighteenth birthday.
The house is empty. There is no furniture. No sign any human has stepped foot in here since the time my mom lived here.
I sigh and look at Tiffany’s phone. It’s nine o’clock in the morning. I have a long time to wait.
Thankfully, I have my nightmares to keep me company.
I sit on the floor in the corner of the living room, and I wait, hoping my hiding spot is good enough to hide from the devil.
Two minutes left until midnight.
Two minutes left until I win.
That’s when I hear the car. The slamming of a door shut. The honk of the horn as he locks the car. The heavy footsteps as he approaches the house.
Langston’s here.
I know it without looking up as the front door opens.
He found me.
“You’ve gotten better at hide and seek, I see,” Langston frowns at me.
“And you’ve become more of a monster,” I shoot back.
12
Langston
I almost lost.
I almost didn’t find her in time.
Liesel almost won.
Almost…
It wouldn’t have really mattered if I didn’t find her the day I said I would. The game we play is invisible, with invisible rules, and invisible rewards. We are playing a game without all the pieces, without knowing how close the other is to winning, without even knowing if we are playing the same game or different games.
But we do know one thing—we both share lies. Lies that keep us from freedom, from living the life we want.
It’s time to end this.
Time to finally finish our game.
To have a winner.
Our game is nothing like Enzo and Kai’s game was with official rules and an empire to gain at the end.
Our game is nothing like Zeke and Siren’s game, spilling sinful truths that harm more than they help.
Our game is simple: lie until you can’t lie anymore. Try to get the upper hand. Try to get the other to fold first.
That’s what having control of this meeting was about. We were always going to eventually meet. But on whose terms—mine or hers?
I got here just in the nick of time. I won this round.
But Liesel has gotten more skilled than I give her credit for. She may live a cushy life now, yet that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been honing her skills on the side.
She put out fake leads, trying to throw me off her trail, so I had no choice but to consider every lead. There was no way for her to hide once she decided to board a plane, car, or boat. She couldn’t hide from me; she never could.
I thought I had found her when she boarded a plane to Paris. Of course, she would choose the most extravagant, beautiful place to try and hide. She wouldn’t take one of the dozens of flights she booked to the middle of nowhere.
I boarded my own flight and followed her to Paris. To my surprise, I found a woman who looks strikingly like Liesel and yet isn’t. They could be twins if I didn’t know that Liesel has no siblings, no family. She gave up her family.
Once I arrived and realized my mistake, I only had hours left to find Liesel before my time was up. I had followed all the leads she left for me. I searched all the surveillance at every airport, bridge out of the city, bus stop, harbor and found no sight of her.
I wasn’t going to find her via my usual routes. She slipped by undetected. My only choice was to choose one last place to search for her. She could have been anywhere, but that’s when I realized where she had chosen. The one place I knew she’d never go. My own backyard.
Miami.
Her mother’s house specifically.
Now, I’m standing in the small, broken-down room face to face with Liesel.
I say room, because this has never been a house, definitely never a home. It’s barely big enough for two people to breathe in comfortably. A strong wind would knock the whole building down.
Liesel hardly stepped a foot inside her mother’s home growing up, and it surprises me the strength it took her to come back here to Miami—the place that ruined both of our lives.
“You win, okay? You win,” Liesel finally says, the pain etched around the edges of her voice. She hates losing as much as I do.
I take a closer look at her. She looks like she’s been on the run for months instead of days. This is the first time in decades that I’ve seen her in anything less than designer clothes. She’s usually radiating confidence and beauty. Right now, the oversized rags that cling to her body scream homeless.