Ten Thousand Lies by Kelli Jean Read Free Book Online

to Rex and Xanthe. “I’m starving.”
    Xanthe flipped Deo the bird, and in return, he gave her a wolfish smile. Unable to help herself, she snorted a laugh. I had a feeling those two were going to end up good friends, if for nothing else than to have some spice in their lives.
    Releasing her hold on Rex, Xanthe made her way to Ronen and gave him a hug. Then, it was my turn again. I held on to her warmth and her cinnamon-roll scent, feeling the comfort she was giving me. By some sort of instinct, I knew she’d never betray her loved ones.
    And we were lucky enough to be added to her short list.

Ricki
    “Here,” said Deo, tossing a small box in my lap.
    We were waiting for David to show up with Rex and Xanthe to take my and Ronen’s new passport photos. After more than a week of being cooped up in Deo’s uncle’s place, we were itching to get this shit on the road.
    “Open it,” snapped Deo.
    Tearing at the cardboard, I opened the package to find…“Contacts?”
    “You need to change your eye color. People will know who you are with those fucking peepers. I just thought it might be smart.”
    I nodded. “Yeah.”
    Sluggishly moving off the couch, I headed into the bathroom. Fuck, you could tell three dudes had been camping in here. Deo was a bit of a clean freak, and Ronen liked to drop his shit anywhere he pleased. Quickly, I tossed the used towels over the shower rod and wiped the sink down with a bit of toilet paper.
    I scrubbed my hands and then opened the box, taking out a pair of the colored contacts.
    “How the fuck…” Reading the instructions on the back of the box, I got the gist of what I was supposed to do. However, doing it was proving to be a fucking mission. After the fourth or fifth time of fucking poking my right eye, I roared profanities at the box.
    Deo was laughing his arse off when I looked back up in the mirror.
    “Do you wear these fucking things?” I asked Deo.
    “I do,” piped a sweet voice from next to Deo. Xanthe’s head popped into view in the mirror. “Need help?”
    Making me take a seat on the toilet, she washed her hands and cleaned the contact I’d been abusing my eyeball with. Xanthe then turned to me, gently held open my eye with her left hand, and touched the contact lens to my iris.
    “Fucking hell. Will it always feel like a shard of glass in my eye?”
    “It takes some getting used to,” she said. “Just make sure you take them out every night.”
    She did the same for the left eye. Blinking rapidly, I’d never wanted to claw at my eyes more in my entire life.
    “Come on. Dad’s setting everything up to take the photos.”
    Looking up at her, I asked quietly, “Why are you guys helping us?”
    Xanthe shrugged. “It feels like the right thing to do.”
    “Your dad though…”
    Her face wiped clean of all emotion, and I was a little stunned by how quickly her mask fell into place.
    “He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t feel the same way.”
    “What does he do? Who is he working for?”
    “He’s an archaeologist and a professor at Oxford University.” Without another word, she turned on her heel and walked out.
    Deo arched an eyebrow and watched her go. “You’re telling me when you find out, you know that, right?”
    I nodded and stood. Looking in the mirror, my new brown eyes stared back at me. Deo was right. They completely changed my appearance. With my face sporting the short beard, I doubted my own mother could identify me.
    Out in the living room, Ronen and Rex had hung up a clean white canvas against one wall and placed a stool before it.
    David was setting up a camera on a tripod about five feet from the stool. “Let’s not waste any time here,” he said. Looking up at me from his bent position over the camera, he smiled. “Well, well, well, I hardly recognize you.”
    “That’s the point, right?” I asked.
    “Indeed.”
    Taking off his glasses, Ronen plopped his arse down on the stool. Since there was no one left alive who could