“I know it will be hard. But you have to survive, Everly. No matter, what you do. You have to survive.”
“Why?” I mumble through my sobs. “What’s the fucking point?”
“Because as long as I’m alive, I will do everything in my power to come back for you. No matter how long it takes, Everly. No matter what they do to me. I will never forget you and I will be there for you.”
The words echo in my mind, but I don’t really process them.
Yet, Easton keeps trying to make them stick.
“You have to stay alive, Everly. No matter what happens, please promise me that.”
I look up at him.
His face looks crestfallen and tired, but his eyes are full of fire and rage.
“They’re going to marry you off to Abbott. He wants you and when I’m found guilty, he will get you. My father will see to it.”
I shake my head again, but he puts his hands around my ears and physically stops me.
“Please, do as he says, whatever he says,” Easton pleads.
“Why? What’s the point of this anyway?”
“Because then, at least, you will still be…alive.”
Of course, I know that the threat of my death is there, but I haven’t felt it be so close to me until this very moment.
I thought that getting out of the dungeon was enough. I thought that winning the competition was enough.
But it’s not.
Not even close.
Now, there are more games to play.
My only concern is that I don’t think I have the strength anymore.
Not after this.
Chapter 23 - Easton
When we’re alone…
As I hold her close to me, my thoughts meander around and focus on one thing.
The only thing that really scares me: the world without Everly in it.
What will happen to her if I’m found guilty?
No, not if, when.
Despite Tiger’s best intentions and efforts, I am pretty certain that the reason that she’s here now is to say goodbye.
I don’t know who arranged this meeting, but it probably means that whatever is about to come about from the trial is not going to be good.
And what then?
The trial will come and go.
They will present their witnesses.
They will have their testimony. Most will lie, I’m sure. I’ll tell the truth, and no one will believe me.
It will be a play put on to appease my father and brother. They will finally have a reason to put me away.
Lock me away in Hamilton or another labor prison, never to be heard from again.
I know that now.
I know that unless I can find some way to escape that will be my fate. But what about Everly?
What will become of her?
Abbott.
The thought of him makes my blood run cold.
He wants her and after I’m convicted, he will get her.
He will ask for her hand in marriage and my father will allow it.
And then she will be his to do with what he wants.
How long will Everly last like that?
I can see it in her eyes, and that her fire is flickering.
She believes that everything’s going to be okay, and I want her to believe that for as long as possible.
Hope is sometimes all we can hold on to, because it’s the only fuel we have.
“If you are convicted and they marry me off to him, I won’t last long,” she says quietly.
My hands are buried in her hair.
She says the words in a despondent manner.
She’s resigned.
It’s almost as if she’s at peace with it.
I know what she means without her having to say it, but I need to know that what I know is right.
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t,” I lie.
“I’m going to kill myself, Easton.”
The words hang in the air between us.
It’s my worst nightmare.
I shake my head and this time tears start to well up in my eyes.
She looks at me, but does not flinch.
“You can’t.”
“You won’t be there to stop me.”
“Please don’t.”
She shakes her head. “What would be the point? To live my life in captivity? To be raped? To be demeaned? To never see you again?”
“I’ll come back for you, as long as I have breath in me, I will.”
She shakes her head.
“You don’t believe me?”
“I do believe you. At least, I know you’ll try.”
“Isn’t that enough?” I ask.
She shakes her head.
“I’ve been through so much here, Easton. And it has been hell. The only thing that has made it even a little good is you. And now…if they take you away from me, what would be the fucking point? What would be the point of living?”
“Because maybe things will change in the future. My father might die and things might get better for you. Abbott might become interested in someone else. Life is long, Everly. Lots of things can happen. Taking your own life is so…final. There’s no coming back from that.”
She listens to me, but I don’t know if she can hear me.
I also don’t know if I’m asking something impossible from her.
I don’t know the depths of the pain that she has felt.
I don’t know the horror that she has been through.
All I know is that she does not want to go through that again.
“I know how unfair I’m being asking you this, but I can’t imagine my life without you.”
“You are going to live your life without me,” she says.
“I can’t imagine living in a world without you.”
She nods and looks away.
“Do you think that’s why they arranged this meeting?” Everly asks after a moment. I don’t want to answer her. She searches my face and I give her a nod.
Neither of us speak for a few moments.
The gravity of the situation is finally setting in.
What is going to happen after she leaves here?
What is going to happen to her?
What is going to happen to me?
We can’t possibly know.
All we have is this moment right now.
“There’s a small fleet of airplanes located on the south side of the island.”
She looks up at me, with a confused look on her face.
“You walk past what looks to be the beginning of a jungle and keep going. Just keep walking and walking and then you’ll see a small air strip. The ground has been cleared of trees and the grass is mowed, or is mowed occasionally. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s enough for all of those planes to take off.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you have to know. It’s the only way off the island.
“There’s a guard there, or two, but that’s it. It’s not as closely watched as the rest of the place because it’s pretty well hidden.”
“I don’t know how to fly.”
“I do.”
She stares at me, dumbfounded.
“I finished pilot school and I’m about halfway through my hours to get the license. It was just a hobby of mine. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is the guard, whose name is Daniel, is a friend of mine. A close friend. He owes me a favor. And he knows how to fly.”
Everly shakes her head in disbelief.
“You have to make your way down there,” I continue. “You have to ask him to fly you out. He knows about my arrest. And his family lives off the island. I will give you the number to a private bank account I have. It has almost two million dollars in it. From it, you will pay him two-hundred thousand dollars for helping you. But only after you are safe, with a new identity.”
She nods, taking it all in.
And then she looks up at me and asks, “So, if you had this way off the island, why didn’t you leave before?”
Chapter 24 - Easton
When we’re alone…
Her question echoes in my mind.
If I knew how to get off the island, why didn’t I?
Why didn’t I just take her and go?
Why didn’t I just leave everything behind?
That question is something I’ve toyed with ever since I got here.
I should have.
I know that now.
But to do so was to cut ties with everyone. For good. It’s not that I didn’t want to. I did. Of course, I did.
Perhaps, the answer is that I thought that I had more time.
I needed time to exact my revenge. I needed time to plan for my father’s downfall for killing Alicia.
But the real answer is that I was greedy.
“I’m sorry,” I say after a long pause. “I thought everything was going well. My father was even going to let us get married. I thought that I had more time to avenge her death and avenge everything else that my father and brother have done. And now…it’s too late.”
Everly nods and looks away.
“What if it’s not?”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“What if it’s not too late for us to get away? What if we could somehow escape from here?”
“Then…things would be different.”
“I’m going to try,” she says. Her eyes light up with excitement. There’s that glimmer of hope. It took her from the brink of suicide to the beginning of a new life. I don’t want to squash it, but I don’t want her to risk her life in trying to fix something unfixable.
“This place is a jail. An actual jail,” I say. “There’s no way out.”
“But we have to try. We have to do something.”
“We are going to do something. You are. You are going to leave me and head to the air strip and you’re going to escape. Now, listen to me.”
I lean over and whisper the number of my bank account into her ear.
I also give her the pin, the routing number and the secret password, which will allow her to withdraw money without my presence.
The money’s in a Caribbean bank which goes out of its way to protect the privacy of its users, but is also well aware of the fact that its users may require a stranger to withdraw the funds at a moment’s notice.
The fact that my father’s companies have no reach there was one of the main reasons I’d decided to go with it over its competitors.
“Repeat the numbers back to me,” I say, and she does.
She does and stumbles.
Then she stumbles again.
We keep going until they are crystal clear in her mind and then I ask her to repeat them three more times.
After she has them memorized, Everly again tries to convince me that there’s some way to escape from here and that she’s going to find it.
“No,” I say categorically. “You will do no such thing. It’s too dangerous. The only advantage you have now is that they don’t suspect that you might be a flight risk. Not yet. Not before my trial starts. So, this is the only time you have to go.”
“I can’t just leave you here,” she pleads.
But my mind is made up.
“Once you are free, out there, with all that money to get yourself a new identity, then and only then can you look into helping me. But you will have to be very careful and you will need to hire professional help.”
I whisper another few names into her ear.
They belong to people I’ve heard of, who have experience in these matters.
Well, not these matters exactly, but in extracting people from war zones and other difficult situations.
Everly is shaking her head, but I can see that I’m finally getting to her.
“I’ve given this a lot of thought. It’s the only way we can both get out of here. It’s the only way you can actually help me, Everly. Please do this.”
After a few moments, she gives me a little nod and wraps her arms tightly around me.
I hear footsteps somewhere outside the door.
We don’t have much time.
I need her to promise me this now.
“Will you do this?” I ask, my voice cracking with desperation.
She can lie, of course.
Just tell me what I want to hear, but something tells me she won’t.
This is her chance to get off the island.
To escape and to actually have resources with which to help me.
“I don’t know if I can,” she says, shaking her head. “I’m scared.”
Of all the things I’ve thought about, of all the reasons, it never occurred to me that this is one.
Fear.
It’s a basic emotion we all have.
“You have been through so much, Everly. I know. It’s hard. But if you don’t do this, things will get worse. You know that.”
“But what if Tiger comes through? What if everything turns out okay and they let us get married?”
I nod.
“That’s possible, right? What if we just…wait?”
I’m not getting through to her and I don’t have anymore time.
I hear voices coming from somewhere far away.
They are going to be here any moment.
“Everly, you can’t wait. This is your chance. You have to find that air strip. You have to find Daniel. He’s a big guy with dark hair who sweats profusely. You have to get him to fly you off the island.”
Grabbing her by the shoulders, I try to shake her out of her trance.
“You can NOT tell him how much money you have, but you have to convince him that you have enough for him to risk his job. You have to pay him two-hundred thousand because it is what he will need to disappear and keep his family safe.”
“I don’t want to hear this,” she moans and tries to kiss me. But I pull away.
“No, you will listen to me. You will do this, Everly, otherwise you are a goner. You will be Abbott’s and you will lose yourself here.”
She shakes her head. The door starts to open.
“Do this for me. Please,” I plead. “I need you to do this. It’s the only way I’ll ever get out of here.”
The door swings open and I pull her close to me. The time to talk is over.
Chapter 25 - Easton
When they take her away…
When they came for her, I didn’t fight them on it.
It was a gift that I got to see her at all, let alone do anything else with her.
And now, the moment is over.
Now, it is time for her go.
The guards come in.
I give Everly a brief kiss on the lips. She kisses me back and that is it.
Will I ever see her again? I do not know.
All I know is that I want to, and that she has to make her way off this God forsaken island.
After she leaves, I expect them to take me back to my cell.
But they don’t.
Instead, they lead me into the main house and toward my father’s private chambers. I am shackled and tired, but I am here to see the king at his behest.
I wonder what he has to say to me.
The guards knock on the door and a servant answers.
They lead me inside.
My father is again sitting at his desk, reading a book. He does not look up.
“Leave us,” he says. “Take off those handcuffs.”
“But your Majesty…“ the shorter one starts to protest, but my father simply raises his finger and he closes his mouth.
Using his key, he unlocks the cuffs around my wrists and then around my ankles.
“I’ll call you when we’re done,” my father says and waves for them to leave.
I rub my wrists to get the blood flowing again.
“Thank you for that,” I add.
I don’t know what I’m doing here, so I wait patiently for my father to finish.
When I was young, this room used to elicit so much mystery and wonder from me.
It was full of thick books in which you could get lost for days.
I liked coming in here and curling up on the couch by the wall.
I liked picking a book from the shelf and listening as my father conducted his businesses.
What happened to this place? I wonder.
But the truth is that nothing happened. This place is exactly as it always was.
My father is exactly as he always was.
The only difference is that I have grown up.
The magic is gone.
And reality has set in.
The truth about who he is and what he’s capable of is something that I am keenly aware of now.
“Thank you for coming to see me, Easton,” my father says, as if I’m doing him a favor. I give him a brief nod.
“I hope that you are being treated well.”
“I’m fine.”
“Are the accommodations comfortable?”
“Decent. But given that I didn’t do anything, I don’t really know why I’m there.”
My father looks up.
I had promised myself to keep my temper under control, but somehow the words escaped me.
I am not a very angry person, but my father brings out the worst in me.
“I did not kill him,” I add. “I didn’t kill, Dagger. You know that, right?”
“If I knew that, then you would not be on trial, son.”
“You really think I killed him?”
“Dagger is dead.”
“Yes, I know, but I didn’t do it.”
He glares at me. I glare back.
“You had every reason to.”
I shake my head. “I might have wanted to, but I did not do it.”
Now, it’s my father’s turn to shake his head. Does he really not believe me?
“What can I do to convince you?” I plead.
“There’s going to be a trial, son, and a jury of your peers is going to decide.”
All this time, I thought that this was a sham.
A show trial.
I thought that he had already convicted me.
Framed me.
But what if he really isn’t sure?
“You’re going to let them decide about my guilt or innocence?” I ask. “People you don’t know. What’s the point? You’re the king.”
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