3 Lies Read Online Free Page A

she spoke again. She’d ticked him off and seemed to know it.
    “I understand your anger. I—”
    “There’s nothing new here, Paige. Why don’t you go?”
    “Because I want you. I want you back.”
    His face twisted. His fingers gripped the counter. “Want me back? What the hell for?”
    “We have a lot invested in each other. And I—”
    “Had. We
had
a lot invested.” He shoved his hands into his jeans. “We don’t anymore.”
    “We—”
    “There’s no
we
anymore. Don’t you get it? You gave me no damn good reason for leaving. Give me one damn good reason why I should want you back.”
    She stood before him and looked up into his eyes. “We’ve known each other since we were kids, Clint. We’ve been married nine years. And now—” She took his hand and laid it below her belly button. “We’ve got a baby.”

Chapter Five
    The pain in Beth’s hip throbbed her awake. She rubbed the tender spot, felt a knot within her flesh. Her eyes struggled to open under the assault of harsh light. With each flicker of vision, she calculated her surroundings. She wasn’t at home. Nor did she think she was anywhere she’d ever been before, not even a place she’d drifted to in the realm of her dreams.
    This place, wherever it was, was unfamiliar.
    She lay on a couch or cushion of some sort. She raised her head. An ache started in one temple, bridging to the other side of her skull. She fell back on the cushion. A kaleidoscopic pattern of electric black, yellow diamonds surged, merged in her brain. Each pulse brought another ripple of dizziness and nausea.
    She tried to remember. Anything. The last thing. Where she was when everything changed.
    A deep voice invaded. “Are you awake?”
    Her stomach galloped. She stifled an urge to vomit. No. She didn’t want to be awake. Not here. Not yet. The voice gave her no comfort. She lay still until the presence above her departed.
    Beth remembered something. The morning. Clint. He was at the door. Well, he was supposed to be. But, it wasn’t Clint. He was masked.
    Queasiness kept rein on her champing fear.
    Kidnapped. 
    The thought muddied her mind. That only happened to famous people. Or insanely wealthy people. She was neither. But Clint—
    Damn.
    He was insanely rich and quite famous in certain circles.
    Beth shook the idea from her thoughts. No. It’s only been two months. Few people even knew they dated. Maybe this was about Abe. Famous, definitely, but nowhere near Clint’s financial strata.
    She felt a pounding at the seam of her chest. Dear, God. Maybe it wasn’t about money. Maybe he intended something sinister—
    A din in the room finally pierced her perception. The cacophony separated into discrete sounds. She heard someone crying. So she wasn’t alone. She had company, of the misery kind. Or, perhaps, comrades.
    Her eyes opened to slits. The walls met at the end of the room in hallucinogenic curves. The ceiling loomed. She gaped her eyelids to clear the distorted screen like wipers over the windshield in a downpour.
    Even with cleared vision, the room still tapered at the end, distorted, bringing hazy childhood recollections of the carnival fun house. Endless mirrors—warped in form and reflection—flashing beacons, jarring horns, twisted walkways that swayed and pitched beneath, leading deeper and deeper into the snare.
    But she saw no mirrors. Wood paneled all the walls and floors of this misshapen room. She rubbed her eyes with open hands and smoothed the hair away from her face. When her eyes widened again, the disjointed images coalesced to present a completed picture of something familiar.
    It was a boat.
    Keeping the weight off her sore side, she rolled over and pushed herself into a sitting position. A body moved on the other side of the expansive cushion. Probably a woman by the size and the higher pitch of the sounds, but she didn’t yet trust her eyes. Then sobbing came steady and deep. Beth’s blood warmed.
    She leaned toward the