He nods slowly.
“You would have to lie, Enzo. For me,” I tack on.
The way he stares at me has my stomach fluttering, unleashing winged beasts inside. He looks as if he’s a tortured man who has been presented with freedom, and the only way to obtain it is by taking it from me.
“I would lie for you as easily as I would kill for you. If you getting the best of me requires the world getting the worst of me, you will want for nothing in life,bella ladra.”
I swallow, but the moisture in my mouth has dissipated. For the first time, I feel like Enzo is exactly who I deserve, and I’m determined to reciprocate that.
“I will do whatever I can to make sure you never have to lie for me again,” I vow, my voice hoarse with emotion.
“I know, baby,” he says. He glances back at the bodies, then refocuses on me. “Were you ever fingerprinted?”
“No,” I confirm, shaking my head. “I was never brought in.”
“Good, then they won’t be able to identify you. With two dead bodies, they’re going to investigate, and we need a story. Rather than telling them who you actually are, tell them you were born and raised on Raven Isle and were trapped here against your will alongside your sister, Kacey. No one knows you were with me that day, so I will say that I shipwrecked and swam here on my own. I found out what Sylvester was doing to you two, and it resulted in a confrontation where he tried to kill me and accidentally shot Kacey instead—that part is true, at least. So, I defended myself and killed him.”
“You don’t think burning through his throat with a gun won’t be a little suspicious? That’s not how normal people kill.”
He cocks a brow. “First off, there is no such thing as anormalkiller. And do I need to remind you of Kacey’s face? They will see that, too. I’ll tell them the barrel of the gun was laying in the fire and had no bullets, so I was forced to improvise. I think they’ll let it go.”
“What about me? The real me—not the Trinity me.”
“Sylvester has a gravesite in the cellar below. One of them is you.”
I rear back in shock. It feels like he reached into my chest and fisted my heart until it’s mush. Sylvester’s been killing people for God knows how long. They must’ve been from the freight ships or maybe from those seeking shelter from a storm. And he just… murdered them.
“What if none of the skeletal remains match? What if they’re all men or something? Or can be identified by their teeth?”
“Then we hope they assume that Sylvester disposed of the body elsewhere. But you’re the real Sawyer, and we can make sure there’s evidence that you were here.”
Twisting my lips, I contemplate that. My freedom isn’t riding on if I can convince them that I was here—only if I can convince them thatIam not her.
My eyes slide over to Kacey lying on the floor, lifeless and leeching of warmth by the second. It feels grimy to take advantage of her death. To pretend to have suffered alongside her and claim a story that isn’t mine.
But it’s my only way out if I want to live freely and not have to restart in another country. Away from Enzo.
Maybe it’ll be the last shitty thing I’ll ever have to do.
Focusing back on Enzo, I slump my shoulders and nod.
“Okay,” I agree. “I’ll be Trinity. And Sawyer will die with the rest of them.”
The freezing ocean water licks at my calves, sending a wave of goosebumps across my skin. The sand is drug out from beneath me as the sea’s chilly fingers retreat. The sun will rise within the hour, and it’s still cold, but I see it. Gleaming beneath the bright beacon light.
Enzo stands behind me, arms crossed and a frown marring his face as he stares out at the approaching coast guard boat. Twenty-four days on this island, yet it feels like it’s been years.
Sadness punches me right in the chest. Kacey should be out here, too. Sitting beside me and waiting for her rescue.
Enzo’s already spent the last five minutes arguing with me to get out of the water before I catch a cold. His eye started twitching when I told him I’m very good at dodgeball and promised to duck if I saw a cold coming my way.
I thought it was funny.
I flip the letter in my hand, the sole evidence that Sawyer Bennett lived and died on Raven Isle.
It feels like forever ago when I was sitting on a beach, smoking a cigarette and wishing for death with a man I never learned the name of.
Now here I am, once more sitting on a beach, but no longer wanting anything to do with cigarettes, and behind me is a man I’ll never forget.