Page 56 of Claiming Liberty
“It was Chaffer.” I square my shoulders and raise my chin. “He had some of the alcohol poisoned… I’m sorry, I just found out an hour ago.”
“How…” He looks around the room like he might find the answers somewhere before shaking his head. “How do you know? How did he…”
“Someone heard Eli Colley running his mouth about it… You remember seeing him last night?”
“He’s the one who did it?” Sawyer asks, his eyes darkening.
I nod. “At Chaffer’s request, yes.”
Sawyer’s jaw juts as it tenses, and his hands ball into fists at his sides.
“How do you want to take care of this?” I ask.
He doesn’t budge, doesn’t even blink, so for a moment, I’m not sure he heard me. “I don’t know yet.”
When I walk up to him, his glare turns my way.
“I’m staying,” I tell him, injecting the same sympathy into my tone that he had for me earlier. It isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Not now that my anger is gone, in its place is pure determination. “I don’t know that it’s such a good idea to let the girl go anyway. It could be dangerous for us.”
His eyes dart around my face as he openly searches for my lie.
I sigh like I’m coming to terms with something, seeing his side of things. “We’ll find her a kind master… She’ll be all right.”
“Seriously?” he asks, his head tilting as he eyes me with suspicion.
I nod and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’mwithyou. Always. I would never do anything to hurt either of us.”
I remove my hand and stand up straight, hardening my expression. “I say we leave Colley alone for now. Act as if we know nothing to avoid raising anyone’s guard.”
“As far as Chaffer goes,” I continue, “we’ll take care of that son of a bitch together. I have a few ideas.”
13
LIBERTY
“Kind of a dick, isn’t he?” Naomi asks, referring to Peter.
Sitting in a kitchen chair with one of my feet propped on the table and the other tucked beneath me, I pick at a croissant Kingsley kindly made me a half hour ago.
Peter’s voice booms from the living room as he shouts at Layan in a fight that’s been going on for… I look at the stove clock… twenty minutes.
“Yup.”
“You’re as bad as Liberty,” Peter spits.
Naomi looks at me, a brow reaching for her hairline. “Is it always like this?”
A muffled clang sounds like someone just threw something against a wall, and Naomi jumps, turning her head that way.
I sigh. “Yup.”
Peter isnothappy about last night, and no one can agree on what to do next. Peter thinks we should wait it out, let Sawyer figure things out on his own and retaliate. Layan thinks we should speed things along, capitalize while we have the chance. Kingsley… He’s pretty much always in the middle, running interference between the rest of us. Naomi is up for anything. She’d single handedly nuke the island if that was an option.
And me? For once, I’m siding with Peter. I’m too caught up in everything that happened last night to think straight enough to come up with a good plan, and I don’t feel now is the time to be rash. Our actions cost a lot of innocent people their lives, so I’m not sure how smart it is to keep pushing, knowing more could die.
It also helps to know that Elsie is okay. She’s with Angel, and he’s been looking out for her this whole time, even without knowing she’s my niece. Every time I remind myself of this, my heart strings pull, and all I want to do is go back to them.
I know I’m needed here. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t take part in freeing the women on this island, but it’s still hard. It feels damn near impossible after seeing my loved one’s faces, hearing their voices.