Page 32 of Claiming Liberty

With a hand still covering her mouth, she nods. She lowers her hand and takes in a shaky breath, tears spilling onto her cheeks. “He said you’re dangerous, and I should stay away from you. He said…” She chokes on a sob. “He said you killed both of your slaves and that you’d hurt me.”

My face heats, and my jaw tics. I look away, my attention already moving to Sawyer and what I’ll say to him. What I’ll do.

There’s a hell of a lot that needs explaining.

“He lied about that. I’m not going to hurt you,” I repeat. I wait for her to digest that before speaking again. “Did he drug you?”

She hesitates, then, “Yes.”

I force my jaw to unclench. “With what?”

Her shoulders lift in a shrug. “I don’t know. Something that made me tired.”

Something that made her tired…

She means she was sedated?

That’s a lot better than what I was thinking.

“You didn’t feel any euphoria from it, did you? You’re not having any withdrawal symptoms?”

She shakes her head.

Good.

“Please,” she says, her voice low. “I don’t want to get into any more trouble. Please don’t tell.”

“I’m not going to get you into any trouble,” I say, and it takes a second to register that I’m lying.

If I confront Sawyer … would he hurt her?

A week ago, I wouldn’t have questioned that. Now…

Now I don’t know what he’d do.

Which means I can’t confront him. Not yet. Not until I wrap my head around all of this.

“Prudence, did you ask to be brought here?” I hold my breath.

“No,” she snaps. “Why would anyone ask to be brought here?”

I close my eyes and let out the breath.

Fuck.

“You were kidnapped,” I say, voicing the revelation out loud. She doesn’t bother verifying it.

Lib was right.

Her voice flits into my mind, and I flashback to when we were in the hotel parking lot, back to her telling me the reality of the island and how oblivious to it all I was. I remember feeling the doubt creep in but ultimately shrugging it away. I thought she didn’t know what she was talking about. That she didn’t know Sawyer.

I’m the one who doesn’t know him, aren’t I?

This girl was kidnapped and brought onto the island to be sold to men like Eli Colley. Sawyer plucked her from her home, destroyed her life, all to feed the sadism he brought here.

She’s only eighteen. Fucking eighteen years old.

I can’t do this anymore.