Page 73 of Claiming Liberty

I don’t owe Peter shit, but I owe her everything. I wonder what she would think if she could see her brother now, dedicating his life to killing her killer, spending his days on an island she hated.

She’d want him to live his life. She’d want him to have closure.

A sigh rushes from deep within my chest as I turn. “No, I didn’t push her off that cliff. She jumped. I didn’t dispute killing her because that’s essentially what I did.”

Chaffer lets out an unconvinced hum. “Three people claimed to see her get pushed.”

“Three people lied.”

I turn in time to see him shrug. “Maybe. But what if they didn’t? What if theydidsee Beth get murdered that night? Just not by you.”

I huff out a laugh and shake my head. I know what he’s suggesting, and it isn’t possible. Those women lied. Or they thought they saw something they didn’t.

Or they… They were wrong.

They had to have been.

“Do you want to know what made me start questioning this?”

My face starts to prick, tiny needles stabbing along my cheek bones.

I should leave. I should stop letting him speak, stop entertaining his ideas. Histheories.

But I don’t leave. I stay rooted, paralyzed.

“About a week ago, someone told me you killed your most recent slave. But I knew that wasn’t true because Jasper is the one who killed her. He told me before he left to follow you to Spain that Sawyer ordered him to do it. We had a good laugh at how pathetically under his thumb you are.”

Chaffer stands and steps to the side of his desk. “But you didn’t disputethatrumor either.” He takes a step my way. “So my theory is, you let that girl go, and you have no idea that your best friend, your ‘brother’, had her killed.”

He walks the rest of the way to me before leaning in so close, I get a whiff of his repulsive Cologne. “Thisis why you’re going to help me tomorrow night, Angel. Deep down inside, we both know I’m right.”

If my face wasn’t numb, I’d glare. Maybe I’d even yell. I’d tell him how wrong he is, how nothing he’s saying makes sense.

Except, it does. Some of it, at least.

Sawyer did send Jasper to follow us. Jasper did try to kill Lib.

And Sawyer must have ordered him to.

It makes sense, it just … doesn’t surprise me. Lib was a liability. A terrifying liability, and Sawyer wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing she was out there. In a way, I blame myself for Sawyer’s decision. I’ll betray him for his betrayal, but I won’t forget I was responsible for pushing him to make that call.

But Beth…

What possible motive could he have had for killing Beth? She wasn’t a threat. She was just a girl.

He wouldn’t have had a reason to kill her… So why is it making so much sense that he did? What if those girls really had seen him?

What if…

What if now I have to kill my best friend?

“You were right to frisk me,” I say, my voice low and serious. “If I had a gun, I’d shoot you in your fat fucking face, you piece of shit.”

I turn and storm from his office, ignoring him when he steps into the hall and calls out to me.

“Just think about it, Ramos. I know you’ll do the right thing.”

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