“I’m ready to tell you one truth from the letter in the envelope.”
Langston’s eyebrows shoot up, and his blue eyes widen.
“Yea?”
I nod and pat the sand next to me, trying to act like I’ve forgotten all about that kiss. I could fight him, but that wouldn’t help. I’d lose. This is the only way to win—with vicious words.
Langston sits down, resting his wrists against the top of his bent knees.
“I want a month for telling you a truth.”
“A month seems fair,” his words seem pained, hesitant.
“The letter said the first requirement for going after the treasure is to be married. I have to be married. Only that person and I will have the keys to be able to open the treasure. Whoever I choose, I have to choose wisely, because I can only be married once. One love to go after the treasure with.”
He looks out at the ocean, his thumbs circling each other, fidgeting. He knows I’m not done.
“Liesel, will—”
“And you can’t ask me to marry you to get the treasure. You can’t even force me to marry you in exchange for giving me back my life.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m already married to Waylon.”
His eyes flash to my hand to see if he somehow missed a wedding ring. He didn’t.
“Liesel Dunn wouldn’t get married without a gaudy engagement ring.”
“Oh, I have a ring. I have everything. We were going to announce it at the next fundraiser event when he announced his candidacy, make a big splash.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
Langston studies me, but he has no clue. The only way to know for sure is to go look it up in the wedding registry back in New York.
“Yes,” he hisses, his pain oozing off of him.
“You can get me to spill all of the information on my half of that letter, but it won’t matter. You can’t go after the treasure for yourself. This whole exercise in kidnapping me and threatening my life was all for nothing.”
Boom.
An explosion rings through my ears.
Langston tackles me to the ground, shielding me with his body.
“What was that?”
“We’re under attack,” Langston says, but he’s not worried. His voice is calm. Fighting a battle is his happy place.
“You have to do exactly what I say if you want to survive, you hear me?”
I nod, my body trembling from his weight pressed against mine.
“I wasn’t going to ask you to marry me, that was never the plan.”
“Wasn’t it?” I breathe, not sure why we are still talking about this when bombs are going off in the distance, growing closer with each moment.