This must be where the freight comes into. Like the freight elevator in a fancy condo building, this is where all the supplies for York come in.
I watch and wait as the plane gets unpacked.
Luckily, the pilot didn’t come in with much, just a few boxes, which he wheels away on dollies.
Daniel and the skinny guy help him load them and then return to their post and their sandwiches.
But then, the pilot has trouble managing the dolly.
The boxes are just a bit too big and unwieldy.
The skinny guy offers to help and they disappear down the path away from the strip.
I watch as Daniel returns to his post and his sandwich, unable to believe my luck.
Did this just really happen?
Do I really have him alone?
I still have no idea what I’m going to say to him, but I know that this is my chance. I walk up to the booth and knock on the side of it.
When he looks up at me, it’s clear that I’m the last person he’s expecting to see.
“Hi, I’m sorry to bother you…“ I start to say.
“You are…wait, aren’t you?” he asks, taking a particularly large bite and then choking on it a little.
I don’t know who he thinks I am but I wait for him to wash it down with the soda before continuing.
“Aren’t you Everly?”
“Yes, I am. You know who I am?”
“Everyone knows who you are.”
“Okay, great. Listen, I need your help.”
I decide against mincing words and to come straight out and ask him.
There’s no other way to ask him to help me without actually asking him to help me.
So, why make things complicated?
He stares at me and waits for me to continue.
“I need you to fly me off this island. Easton told me that you could do this for me. For him.”
“No, no, no…“ he starts to say.
“Daniel, please. They arrested him. He’s awaiting trial for something he didn’t do and they’re going to frame him. Then they’re going to make me marry Abbott.”
The expression on his face softens for a moment.
“I’m sorry about that, but if I help you escape, they will find out who did it. I have a family to think of.”
“But you owe Easton. He helped you and now you have to help me.”
“Easton did a great thing for me,” Daniel says after a moment. “I know that. But…I can’t do this. They will know. They will find out.”
I take his hands into mine. “You don’t have to come back here. Easton told me that your family lives off the island. If you fly me off this island, I will pay you. Enough for you and your family to start your life somewhere else, far away from here. Don’t you want that?”
“They’ll find us.”
“We will get you new identities,” I say. “He will pay you two-hundred thousand dollars. But only after you help me. Daniel, please.”
I look into his eyes.
I can see him considering this.
There’s a chance.
I continue to talk.
I continue to lay out the plans that Easton had proposed to me.
I continue because I have to convince him.
This is my only chance.
As I talk, I continue to hold his hands in mine and he doesn’t push me away.
The hardened, distant look on his face is turning into something else.
I don’t know anything about him, but I have a feeling that his job here isn’t exactly voluntary.
He isn’t a prisoner like I am, but he’s not far from it.
He works here because he doesn’t have another option…until now.
“This is your chance at a new life, Daniel. Yours and your family’s chance to begin anew. Please, you have to help me.”
Daniel takes a deep breath and gives me a small nod.
Chapter 32 - Everly
When there’s a complication…
Yes?
Is that a yes?
I stare at him in disbelief.
“Okay, let’s go,” I say quickly, not wanting to give him the chance to change his mind.
He gives me a wink.
A part of me can’t believe that it was this easy to convince him, but I don’t push my luck.
He said yes and that’s all that’s important.
That’s all that matters.
There is of course one complication.
For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me until this moment.
But suddenly, it is ridiculously obvious.
“How do we get off this island?” I ask.
“We have to take his plane,” Daniel says, walking away from me.
I look up and down the tarmac in search of another option.
Unfortunately, there are no other planes in sight.
“But then they’ll know right away,” I say.
The pilot will come back and see that his plane is missing along with the security guard.
He gives me a shrug.
“Do you have another idea?”
I don’t.
Not at all.
For some reason, I thought that he maybe had another plane to use.
Maybe it would be stashed away somewhere in the jungle, just for this kind of emergency.
But that would be ridiculous.
“The only way off this island is to take his plane. But if we do, then they’ll know what we did right away. They will send out a search party. We will not have much time to get away.”
The gravity of his voice sends shivers through my body.
He is sweating profusely and his speech is rushed, and I know that this decision to help me will impact him for the rest of his life.
“You cannot bullshit me, Everly. Please don’t lie to me. If I help you, you have to help me and my family start a new life with new identities. The king will never stop looking for me for doing this.”
I nod and promise that I will.
“I will do everything in my power to help you. I promise. And with the money that Easton told me about, you can start a new life far away from here.”
He takes a deep breath and then heads toward the plane.
“Are you coming?”
It takes me a moment to realize that we are actually leaving right this minute.
I watch as Daniel labors and huffs climbing into the pilot seat and I climb into the seat next to him.
Technically, this is also the pilot’s seat since all I see in front of me are buttons and the control yoke for actually flying the plane.
“Don’t we need the key?” I ask.
I’ve never sat inside of a plane like this and I have no idea what anything is called, let alone what any of the buttons do.
“He left it inside,” Daniel says, pointing to the keys in the ignition.
I nod and let out a big sigh of relief.
Daniel starts to press on various buttons to get the plane moving and as he does this, I feel the tension in my shoulders start to relax.
It’s one of those things you don’t even notice is tense until one moment when it’s not anymore and suddenly an unfamiliar feeling of relaxation starts to sweep through your body.
This is it.
This is actually happening, I say to myself.
I’m going to get off this God forsaken island for good.
The engine catches and the plane starts to move.
I look out of the window at the horizon. I’m going home. I’m almost there. A big gulp starts to form in the back of my throat.
It’s going to be okay.
After everything I’ve been through, it’s actually going to be okay.
“Get the fuck out of the plane!” His voice is distant and far away, but he repeats himself again.
The plane starts to slow down and I shake my head.
The other guard is back and he’s standing on Daniel’s side of the plane, pointing a gun at him.
“No
, we have to keep going,” I say, pressing on the yoke in front of me.
I don’t know how to fly but I can’t let him stop us now.
We are too close.
“I’ve got a gun and I’m not afraid to use it!” the other guard yells, shooting a round in the air.
“Daniel, please,” I plead.
“He’s going to shoot us!” he screams.
“No, he won’t!” I say, even though I have no idea if that’s true or not.
But before he decides either way, suddenly the other guard is tossed onto the ground.
Daniel leans over to look through his window, blocking my view entirely.
I stand up in my seat and that’s when I finally see him.
It’s Easton.
And he is on top of the guard, punching him in his face. I open the door and jump out of the plane.
Easton knocked the gun out of the guard’s hand, but it hasn’t landed far away from him.
I pick it up and point it at him.
When he swings at Easton, I yell for him to stop.
Seeing me with it, he finally gives up the fight.
Easton gives me a smile.
“You got any rope back there?” he yells.
Daniel fishes around in the back and emerges with some rope.
He helps Easton tie up the guard to the nearest palm tree as I stand with my gun pointed at him.
When the guard is finally secure, Easton walks over and takes the gun out of my hand.
I let go and wrap my arms around him.
“What are you doing here? How the hell did you get away?” I feel his shoulders and arms just to make sure that I am not dreaming.
“It’s a long story,” he whispers. “Are you ready to get out of here?”
I nod.
“Okay, good, because we don’t have much time.” He presses his lips onto mine and gives me a big warm kiss with a bit of tongue.
“I missed you, Everly. Oh, how I’ve missed you.” He kisses me again.
“Okay, okay, let’s go. You two are the most wanted people here. You have to get as far away from here as possible. And fast.”
Her voice comes as a surprise.
Can it really be her?
“Mirabelle?” I ask.
Part Seven
Chapter 33 - Everly
When I see the blue…
Mirabelle and I cram into the back of the plane with Daniel and Easton in the front. This time, I do not feel my shoulders relax until we lift off the ground and clear the trees.
In fact, I don’t fully relax until we are over the water. The water below is the color of turquoise, the kind of water that dreams are made of.
Not so long ago, I, too, dreamed of escaping to a Caribbean island and leaving the real world behind.
And now, I can’t wait to get back to it.
“I never thought that I would ever leave York,” Mirabelle says as we fly into the horizon.
The water below us turns from turquoise to dark blue and becomes as flat as glass.
“I never knew you wanted to,” I say. “I thought that you were…the King’s loyal subject. Well, you know what I mean.”
The words ‘loyal subject’ come out strange and feel awkward in my mouth.
“I had to be what I had to be. But no, I don’t think you could say I was ever loyal.” She gives me a wink and a smile.
“Is that why you were helping me all of that time?” I ask.
“I wish I could say yes, but that would be a lie. I was helping you because I felt sorry for you. And over the years I have helped many girls with advice and guidance about how to make it here, if they were willing to accept it. But to be honest, I never thought you would ever get off this island. No one else ever has.”
There are of course other girls who have left this island before.
The ones who have been sold off to the highest bidder.
But both she and I know that their fates are nothing to be jealous of.
Mirabelle and I don’t speak for a few minutes.
I look out of the window and watch as pelicans gracefully fly below us and land on the water.
“So, how did you end up here?” I ask.
“It’s all ancient history,” she says after a moment.
I nod. Despite how much I want to know more about her, her real self, this is not the right time. We are flying away from York and away from the darkness that it stands for. So, why bring it with us? Whatever happened there is in the past and will hopefully remain there.
Despite my best intentions, however, my mind continues to wander.
My thoughts keep swirling back to all those unanswered questions that remain there.
What about those other girls?
What about Savannah and Teal and the others at the house?
And what about all those others in the dungeons?
What will become of them?
“The king will never stop looking for you,” I say. “You know that, right?”
Mirabelle doesn’t turn her eyes away from the window.
Suddenly, a little smile forms in the corner of her lips.
“The king is dead.”
Her words ring in my ears during the rest of the flight.
I ask her what happened and she glosses over the details.
He requested to see Easton in his private chambers.
He attacked him.
Easton killed him.
There is more to it than that, but that’s all she knows. But the details are almost inconsequential to me right now.
Dead.
The king is dead.
An unfamiliar giddy feeling forms in the pit of my stomach and it quickly makes its way up my body.
I’m actually physically happy to hear this news.
With the king dead and Abbott dead, that leaves…Easton to carry on the darkness of York.
But there’s no way he would do that.
I tell Mirabelle about Abbott and she gives me a smile.
“I was hoping that’s what happened. That man had it coming for a very long time.”
“So, what’s going to happen now?” I ask. “To York?”
Mirabelle inhales deeply and lets her shoulders straighten out into a long shrug. She looks away from me. This isn’t good.
“What? I thought that if the king and the prince are dead then…it would be over.”
Mirabelle shakes her head.
“You may be right, but…”
Her words trail off.
“What?”
“I’m not sure. I mean, yes, they are both gone so that’s something. Easton is here, and he is the next in line for the throne. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t others who want York to continue.”
I fly for a few more minutes in silence.
Whatever glee I felt only a short time ago is suddenly gone.
But perhaps I should just be happy that it’s all over.
For me, anyway. I am safe. Easton is safe.
That was never supposed to happen, and yet here we are, flying away from that awful dark place into the light.
But no matter how much I try to convince myself that this is enough, my thoughts keep swirling back to Savannah. And Catalina.
And all the other women who are left back there.
Waiting.
In danger of being hurt.
“Why are you two so quiet back there? What’s wrong?” Easton turns to us.
His voice is elevated, but I can hear him perfectly fine through the headphones.
“I was just thinking about the rest of the women. What’s going to happen to them now?”
Easton turns in his seat to face me. I look up at him. His eyes are twinkling. There’s a smile on his face.
“What?” I ask. “What is it?” I have to know. I can’t wait any longer.
“York is over.”
Chapter 34 - Easton
When it’s really over…
I wanted to wait to tell Everly everything when we
were in private.
Or rather when we weren’t on a plane with the wind howling outside. I wanted to tell her everything when I could wrap my arms around her and bury my hands in her hair.
But at the same time, I also wanted her to know this as soon as possible.
“York is over,” I say again and wait for her expression to change from confused to something resembling excitement.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t.
She furrows her eyebrows and looks even more lost.
“What do you mean?” she asks into her headset.
I dig through my bag for the external hard drive.
It’s a small solid box, about the size of my smartphone.
“What is that?”
“This is proof. Of everything that has been going on on that island. Proof of everything that everyone has done.”
She shakes her head in disbelief.
I go on to explain that everything there has been recorded.
Even things that were really not in the best interest of being recorded, like the abuse that happened in the dungeons, were recorded and kept just in case.
“My father made lots of promises to lots of powerful men that he will keep their secrets. But he made the recordings anyway, just in case he ever needed their help. As blackmail. Well, now, he’s dead. And I never made any such promises, and I would never keep those kinds of secrets.”
She stares at me, dumbfounded.
I know she can hear me.
I’m just not sure if she is fully processing everything I’m saying.
“So, what’s going to happen now?” she asks. “Are you going to blackmail them?”
“Who?”
“All of the men in the videos?”
“Hell no,” I say. The thought had never even crossed my mind. How is she still not getting this?
“After we pick up Daniel’s family, we are headed straight to Washington DC. I know of an attorney I can trust and he will put me in contact with the right people in government to handle this situation. This is top secret information and if we play our cards right, we will ruin many people’s lives.”
She gives me a wide smile. It goes from ear to ear and lights up her whole face.
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