Page 31 of Amnesty

“That man out there,” I whispered. “He may know who I am, Eddie.”

“If that man out there knows who you are, I’ll kill him.”

I craned around, my eyes searching his face. The azure of his stare was deadly. It was the same look he’d had at the paintball field when that guy shot me.

“If that light out there is the man who kidnapped you all those years ago… held you captive and abused you, it won’t matter if he knows your name, Am. I’ll kill him, and no one will be able to stop me.”

There was no bravado in his voice. Not even passionate anger. This was a vow. A vow from a calm, collected man. The promise of someone who also had been held captive by questions with no answers, by guilt and by… love.

I laid my hand against his cheek. His eyes lowered to half-mast. “If you kill him, he’ll win. We’ll be separated. Something I honestly don’t think I could bear.”

Deadly calm, almost methodical, he replied, “Not if no one knows.”

“You won’t kill him,” I said.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’m asking you not to. I need answers, and I can’t get them from a corpse.”

His eyes shut briefly. I felt the rise of his chest with his inhale. Moonlight streamed in the window, hitting the expanse of his torso. I shifted around totally, putting my back to the window to focus fully on him. After smoothing my palms over his chest, I leaned down and kissed him there.

“I’ll never do anything to hurt you, sweetheart.” His hands splayed out over my hips.

I lifted my head, answering definitively, “I know.”

The warmth of his lips brushed my hairline, and I smiled.

“We talk like we know someone is out there. Truth is that light could be anything… or nothing at all.”

“Have you ever seen it out there before?” I asked.

He was silent a while. His body shifted, gathering me close. “No.”

“It’s something,” I whispered. “Someone.”

“We don’t know that, Am.”

“I need to know. I have to find out.”

“What are you saying?” he asked, pulling back to look down.

“I’m saying I want to go out there. I want to go to where the widow was trying to take me that night… I want to go to Rumor Island.”

“No,” I said, final.

She straightened away, pulling out of my hold. Her chin lifted defiantly. “I didn’t ask permission.”

“The last time I went to Rumor Island, someone disappeared and I spent the rest of my life feeling guilty.”

“You don’t have to come.”

I laughed. Then I laughed some more. “You can’t be serious.”

She stared at me with a straight face.

Well, wasn’t she a piece of work?

“Get one thing through that gorgeous head of yours right now,” I intoned, leaning down so we were eye to eye. “Under no circumstance would I ever,everlet the woman I love, the woman who is literally a piece of me, get in a boat and row herself over to an island where she might or might not have been held captive and abused. I would rather eat glass and shower with a rusty metal sponge. I will protect you this time. I will.”

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