Sawyer stands, arms outstretched, but my focus is on the girl sitting on the couch. Her head is down, and she’s turned away, hunched forward with her arms wrapped around her stomach. Pink fingernails dig into her sides.
“Prudence, sweetheart, would you please see if Amari needs help stocking the bar?” Sawyer says, drawing my attention to him. His arms are at his sides now as he stares disapprovingly at the girl. Prudence, apparently.
She’s still clutching her stomach as she stands, her eyes downcast as she scurries to the door. Purple around her eye catches my attention, and I reach out to gently take her arm before she can pass. Wide, fearful eyes dart to me, and she rears back like she’s afraid I’m going to hit her. Up close, I can see for sure that she’s young. No older than twenty, probably even in her teens.
I frown at the bruise coloring her left eye, the lack of swelling telling me it isn’t recent. It isn’t the cause for her tears.
“Are you all right?” I ask, scanning her face.
She swallows, her body starting to tremble beneath my touch.
As soon as my hand falls away from her arm, she hurries to the door like she’s afraid I’ll come after her.
My frown remains, but I don’t know what to make of this. A woman being hesitant of me is not in the slightest bit unusual, so that isn’t what’s bothering me. Black eyes occasionally happen, as unfortunate as they may be. Crying is certainly common, especially with someone new.
It’s her age. I’ve never seen someone so young on the island.
Lib’s voice sounds in my head, chiding me for my naivety. I haven’t been able to get it out.
“Hey,” Sawyer says, coming over to me with a warm smile tugging his lips. He pats my shoulder before bringing me toward him for a quick half hug. “How are you?” He pulls back, creases forming around his eyes as he rocks back on his heels and crooks his thumbs into his pockets. “How’s your mother?”
“She’s…” I take a quick peek over my shoulder at the door Prudence went through. “She’s hanging on, but it won’t be much longer. I’ll need to leave again in no later than a few weeks.”
His head bobs. “Of course, of course.” He backpedals a few steps. “Thanks for coming back for now. I can hold down the fort, but I have to be honest with you, I’m drowning. With all the island shit and the Massachusetts deal… It’s a little much, you know? I just got in last night, but someone is going to have to make another trip soon. The contractors have no idea what they’re doing.”
I scratch at my temple. “Sure, I’ll take care of it.” I glance over my shoulder. “Who was that girl?”
“Prudence? Runaway I started talking to a few months ago. It’s a really sad story there. She ran away from home at fourteen and was whored out by some pimp named ‘Big Daddy D.’” Sawyer chuckles at the name and shakes his head. “Anyway, she’s been a prostitute ever since, addicted to all sorts of nasty shit. Which is, you know, what caused the black eye.” He raises his chin and points to his face. “Detoxing is hard. Sometimes those girls get feral.”
“How old is she?”
Sawyer blows out a long breath and raises his brows. “Eighteen.” His hands shoot up as he retreats toward the drink cart. “I know, I know, fucking young, right? Barely an adult. But, she begged to come here, and her situation sucked, so...” He shrugs.
The stomachache I started developing on the way here subsides, and I’m able to breathe again.
Why am I letting Lib get into my head? She doesn’t know Sawyer or his intentions. She doesn’t know anything.
Sawyer turns to the cart and flips over two glasses, tossing me a grin over his shoulder. “Thirsty?”
I run my hands through already tousled hair and sigh, reluctantly nodding. He pours the glasses while I walk to the miniature globe he has perched on a bookshelf that doubles as a door to a hidden safe room. It spins with a flick of my finger.
“Hey, how’s Liberty?” Sawyer asks, bringing a drink to me. I turn toward him and take the glass, clinking his when he tilts it toward me. “Everything go smoothly?”
His eyes sear into me over the rim of his glass as he takes a drink. I bring the amber liquid to my lips and take a small sip before turning back to the bookshelf.
I feel so foolish that a laugh nearly bubbles up my throat. My nerves have felt shredded for days, thinking it was possible my best friend could be capable of betraying me. In reality, I’m the one who’s betrayed him.
Liberty’s safe. Sawyer isn’t acting the slightest bit strange, so I’m positive he doesn’t know anything. That makes the lie I’m about to tell feel as easy as if it were the truth.
“No, it didn’t.”
It feels like the air is sucked from the room. I allow several seconds to go by while Sawyer watches me, studying me carefully, searching for meaning behind my words.
“What happened?” he eventually asks, sounding more concerned than angry which is a little surprising. I wouldn’t blame him for being furious.
I sigh and drink the rest of the whiskey in one gulp, cringing as I lower the glass and turn toward Sawyer. He takes it from me but doesn’t move to the drink cart.
“You were right.” I look away and shake my head like I’m the one who should be angry. “It was a mistake to take her with me. I shouldn’t have trusted her.”
“She tried to run,” Sawyer says, more a statement of fact than a question.
I nod.
“What did you do?” He leans toward me, and I finally meet his eyes.
The concern in his blue irises sends guilt shooting through me. It’s far too easy to lie to him. It should be harder. It should tear me the fuck up to lie to the person left in my life who deserves my honesty most. So why? Why is this so easy for me? Why was it so easy with Lib?
“She isn’t a problem anymore.”
His face sobers, and he takes a step back. “You killed her?”
I turn to the globe, staring at the outline of Iceland with my lips pressed in a thin line, letting my silence be my answer.
Sawyer blows out a loud breath, and when he does it’s like he’s filling the room back up with air. “Shit, man, I’m sorry… I know she meant a lot to you.”
I lift a shoulder. “She was an unhealthy obsession anyway.”
“Yeah … lil’ bit,” he agrees, backing up even farther. He pours me another drink, and I meet him halfway to take it. “What did you do with the body?”
I curl my fingers around the cool glass, then bring it to me. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
His eyes dart down as he swallows, nodding sharply. “Right. Well...” He raises his lips into a tight smile before he extends his glass toward me. “To you, my brother. I’m glad to have you back.”
His words sound like they have more than one meaning, and I try not to resent him for it. I know he didn’t like Lib. I understand why he didn’t like Lib. But his relief that Lib is supposedly dead still gets to me. I clink his glass and down the liquid in another gulp.
“Jesus, slow down.” He chuckles. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be lectured for day drinking.”
I give him a small, slow smile and hand him my glass. “I’m finished. I flew overnight, so I’m fucking exhausted.” I motion for the door. “I’m headed home and going to bed.”
He claps me on the shoulder. “All right, man. Well, it’s good to see you. I’ll come check on you this evening, make sure you haven’t drank yourself to death.” He gives me a playful wink. “We’ll catch up more then. I want to hear what your old man had to say about you being back.”
When he laughs, I return it. “I’m sure you could guess.”
I raise a hand in a wave and turn toward the door.
“See ya later,” Sawyer calls to my back.
I lift two fingers then tuck my hands into my pockets while strolling through the manor, the back door my destination. My relief is so strong, I’d whistle if I was the laid-back type of person who did that sort of thing. I’m not sure I’d even know how.
Liberty’s safe.
She’s fine.
Peter was right.
I laugh to myself and allow my lips to relax into a small smile. Everything’s going to work out fine. Lib will get the life she wants and deserves, and I’ll find a life for myself as well.
I’m going to move back to Spain. The decision has been gnawing at my insides, but I know now it’s the right one. I’ll give myself another year here, long enough to help Sawyer slowly adjust to doing things without needing me by his side, but then I’m gone. No more black eyes, no more tears, no more women cringing at the sight of me.
I’ll just be me. Angel. Uncle, brother, and someday maybe even son. I can do that. I can be that guy. I want to be that guy.
I’m still smiling when I approach the playroom, but my lips fall and my steps slow when I pass by the open doors. I turn around and stare inside, my brows bunching.
That girl looked so fucking terrified… If Sawyer did something to reassure her, it didn’t work.
Does she know she’s safe here? Is she still detoxing, still in pain?
I want to believe that if she needed something, someone would have gotten it for her, but Lib is in my head again. Lib was a special case, I know that, but she was almost brutally raped by one of the guards. She asked for my help, needed my help, and if she hadn’t, I would’ve continued to be oblivious to what Sawyer was allowing to happen.
He said he wouldn’t turn a blind eye again. The girl should be fine… Right?
I face forward and take a few more steps toward my destination but stop again. Annoyance at myself flares, and I groan while turning around and heading for the playroom.
Amari stands at a bar across the room with cases of glasses stacked in front of her. When she hears me shut the doors, she looks over at me, tumbler in hand. No sign of Prudence.
Amari sets the tumbler on the counter and gives me a timid wave. I stride through the playroom, the sound of my steps bouncing off the walls.
“Hey,” I say when I get close. Amari eyes me warily. She’s almost unrecognizable without the heavy coat of makeup and gaudy jewelry she wears while she bartends, but the wariness in her features is even more out of place. She’s one of few women who isn’t nervous around me. I’d even call us friends.
I flatten my palms against the bartop. “Have you seen Prudence?”
Amari’s head lowers, and glass clinks at her feet. I lean forward and look down at Prudence who is kneeling on the floor behind the bar. There’s a wooden crate with liquor bottles in it that I’m guessing she was moving onto the shelf before I came in.
“Hey there,” I say, trying to make my voice sound as warm as possible.
She glances up at me for only a moment before putting her attention on the bottle in her hand. She stands and carefully places it on the shelf behind Amari.
“Prudence, Mr. A is talking to you,” Amari says, a warning in her tone.
I give Amari a disapproving look, and she goes back to the tumblers on the bartop, unloading each and setting them behind the bar.
Prudence slowly turns, her head down as she takes two steps toward me. A foot and a half of marble separates us.
“Hi,” I try again. “I’m Sawyer’s friend. I noticed you were crying earlier and just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” she squeaks, fidgeting with her hands.
I squint at her, trying to picture her as a prostitute. A well broken in prostitute at that. I can’t see it, and the more I look, the more unlikely it seems. She’s far too shy and scared to have been in that type of profession for long.
What does that mean? Did she lie, did Sawyer lie, or am I just wrong?
“Are you feeling sick?” I ask, noticing the pale color of her face.
She shakes her head.
I stare at her another few moments, trying to sort through this, her. Who she is and how she got here. “What kind of drugs are in your system?”
She looks up at me, a squint in her eyes that makes me think she doesn’t know what I’m talking about, then she looks down.
“I don’t know,” she whispers.
What do you mean, you don’t know?
Amari clears her throat, and I turn her way. She eyes me for a second before addressing Prudence. “I can take it from here. Go back to your room.”
Without a word, Prudence darts from the bar. She hurries out of the playroom, unable to get away from me fast enough, yet again.
“Has she heard about me?” I ask Amari once Prudence is gone.
Amari continues with the glasses. “Doubt it. The new ones are scared in general. It probably has nothing to do with you.”
I lean onto the bar, bracing myself on my forearms. “She was a whore before. Why would she be so frightened? This has to be better than where she came from.” My words don’t sound convincing, even to my ears.
Amari’s lips pinch, but she says nothing.
“What kind of drugs is she detoxing from?” I look toward the door. “She looks sick.”
“That’s a question for Sawyer.”
My head slowly returns to her, confusion washing over me. “What does that mean?”
Again, she says nothing.
“Amari…”
She puts one last glass down before gripping the edge of the bar, her eyes downcast. When she looks at me, I see something in her expression I haven’t seen in a very long time… Fear.
“I like you,” she says, her voice low. “I’ve always liked you. You make a point to be kind to me, and I appreciate that. But please, whatever interest you have in Prudence, leave me out of it. I don’t want any trouble.”
I rear back. “What are you talking about?”
She goes back to the tumblers.
“I would never get you into trouble.”
She huffs.
“Hey.”
She flinches at my harsh tone, and I instantly regret using it.
I pull my arms in and relax my shoulders. “I’m not going to say anything, I just… Something doesn’t feel right about her. Sawyer told me she’s a prostitute looking to get clean. Just tell me … is that true?”
She looks up at me. Her face is serious with a hint of fear in her eyes. Seconds pass before she brushes her hands together, then imaginary dust from her shirt. She walks from behind the bar then heads for the exit.
I sigh, thinking that’s as far as I’m going to get with her, but she pauses and looks back at me.
“Do you want to hear the advice my dad gave me when I was younger?”
My eyebrows pinch as I nod.
“If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.”
With that, she turns, leaving me with a hell of a lot more questions than I came with.