Page 97 of Echos and Empires
Chris didn’t argue. Liam watched him, serious and calculating, like he always was. Like he didn’t feel anything even close to what Liam did.
A high-pitched whine cut through the silence, and Liam’s heart jumped. He and Chris both reached for the radio, stopped, looked at each other.
Then a voice crackled through the static.
“We’re not dead. Don’t come after us. We’re almost there. Stop worrying and let me do this on the public channel.”
It was Emma.
Liam had never heard anything so fucking beautiful in his life.
He sat back, relief crashing through him, just as a small smirk spread across Chris’s face.
And he waited to hear her again.
“That backup tower actually worked,” Liam said, shaking his head in disbelief. “And here we were thinking we’d won by taking the other?—”
“Doesn’t matter,” Chris interrupted. He didn’t sound angry, didn’t sound like the realization had hit him the way it hit Liam. “It worked because it drew Victor out. We knew it was a shot. They’re going to get the message out. Let that be enough. Take the win where we can and worry about the losses later.”
Enough? Liam wanted to laugh. It should have been. The tension in his gut, the worry, should have dissolved with the sound of her voice, with the relief that they’d gotten through and she was sending out the truth. But all he could think of was how he and Chris could have been with her instead of sitting on their asses in the dirt.
“Well, turn the frequency to the public one,” Liam hissed, unable to really lean forward and twist the knob himself.
The frustration that twisted through him was nothing compared to the thrill that took over as Emma came back on the radio.
He heard the bite in her voice, the edge he didn’t think was possible until now. Despite everything they’d been through, she never hardened, unless she had and they’d all just missed it.
“If you can hear this, you need to know the truth. Victor’s dead. His plan failed. It’s over, his control of this island is gone.”
She was bold and blunt, and it took Liam’s breath away.
He exchanged a glance with Chris, who gave a quick nod. She sounded sure of herself, confident. Like she could tell them all to go to hell, and they’d follow her just to find out what it was like.
The message kept coming, each word a spark that lit up the silence around them. “To those who would continue to support him or not believe the violence I speak of, come and pick up his body. Or join him. Those are your options.”
“She’s not holding back, is she?” Liam asked, the corner of his mouth pulling into a grin that he didn’t know he had in him.
“Nope,” Chris said, the hint of a smirk on his face. “She’s not.”
Liam let out a breath, the earlier tension still gnawing at him but dulled by the relief that flooded in. It was a crazy mix, a whirlwind of emotions that he couldn’t quite get a handle on. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. Hearing Emma like this, strong and ruthless, was its own kind of high.
It was the kind of high he didn’t know she had in her.
He listened intently as her tone shifted, softer, more familiar, the edge smoothing out but still so determined.
“To the men of the island, you need to know. Don’t take the vitamins. They don’t do what he told you.”
She was going to destroy everything in a single speech.
“They won’t help you have kids. Victor’s been lying to you. He doesn’t care about your families.They don’t improve the chances of fertility, and for all we know they allow you to be controlled through means we don’t yet know.”
She was giving them the truth, the thing they’d risked everything to get to the island to do. She was putting herself out there, and Liam wondered if anyone would even believe it, if anyone would listen.
“Think anyone’s buying it?” he asked, more to himself than Chris.
“Doesn’t matter. It’s out there. It’s something. It’s all we can do,” Chris replied, voice steady, confident, not a shred of doubt in him. “Victor is gone and everything is different from here on out because no one has the money he has.”
Liam wished he could feel that way, wished he could stop worrying long enough to let the thrill of hearing her alive and unbroken sink in. He knew Chris was right, knew that just getting the message out was huge, that everything else was out of their hands now. But the doubts, the what-ifs, still loomed over him, made it hard to breathe.
