Page 22 of Taming Liberty

She sighs like she still can’t believe I’m not getting it. “If he’s willing to save your ass when he barely knows you, he’ll be willing to do more when you give him what he wants.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. “Stop saying he saved me. It isn’t like that. He…” I fill my cheeks with as much air as I can before letting it out and opening my eyes. “Do you remember when we first got here, and I told you Sawyer had been different with me than he was when messaging you? Like, he refused to tell me his name and stuff?”

She nods.

“That’s because it wasn’t Sawyer messaging me. It was Angel. He knew my husband, and he says he messaged me out of curiosity.” I swallow the forming lump before it can shake my words. “I was a game to him, and he’s still playing that game.”

She stares at me for several moments, thinking, I guess. Slowly, she begins to nod. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m sure he’s nothing but a manipulative bastard.”

Exactly.

I relax into the cushions, just now realizing how tense I’ve been.

“Which is exactly why you should start playing his game.”

I squint and wait for her to continue.

“I’m sure he’s great at manipulating most people, Liberty, but he isn’t great at manipulating you. Obviously.” She gestures at me.

“According to everyone I’ve talked to, the guy is fucking ruthless, and very,verydangerous. But you know what? He’s also arrogant. So if you started falling at his feet, I guarantee he would lap it up. You’re right, there’s probably no way he’d give you information at the moment, but in a month, if you’ve pushed all the right buttons and stroked his ego in all the right ways … maybe.”

Would he?

No. Probably not…

But maybe…

“There’s no way off this island,” I say, unsure if I want her to argue or not.

Even if I get off, where will I go? How will I keep anyone from finding me? If Sawyer or Angel didn’t, Robert would.

Lie low.Survive. That’s what I need to do.

Right?

Yes. Yes, I’m sure of it.

“How do you know?”

I open my mouth to reply, but hesitate, unsure of myself. “Because there are a shit ton of people dedicated to preventing us from doing it. Phoning someone is useless, unless you have the FBI’s number memorized. It’s not like we can swim away.”

“Right, so we’d need a boat.”

“It would run out of gas way before we made it to land, and that’sifwe correctly guessed which direction to go.”

“The speedboats? Sure. But what about the one that transported us? It goes out and comes back regularly. All we’d need to do is get to it at the right time and kill the guards inside. Or we could get to one of the planes. One of the women might be a pilot or something. It’s something to look into.”

“Right, and no one would notice we were missing.”

“How could they?” she asks, her face serious. “They’d all be dead.”

“Naomi...”

“What?” Her voice raises. I move my eyes to her lap and see her dragging her nails over the skin of her thighs.

“We need to lay low, okay?” I say in a soothing tone, scared of angering her. “That’s what you said before, and you were right. What you’re talking about… It would take an army of women to pull off, and I would be shocked if even one was willing to entertain the idea.”

“We didn’t have Angel before.” I suppress a cringe at the sound of flesh being sanded down. “If you could make him fall in love with you, he could help us, even if it’s unknowingly. He could tell you when the boat is going to leave, and he could tell you where the guards are stationed. You already found his gun, right? We could take them all out, one by one, we could—”

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