“Oh. Right.” Coby reached out with fast hands and twisted my nipple. “Owwww!” I slapped her hand away.
“Well.”
I laughed, suddenly feeling a million times lighter. “Seriously, though. How did you get in?”
“Ocean had some kind of emergency in the city. Whatever it was, it must have been bad enough to pull most of your guards. There’s only a couple out front now, so I snuck around the back and found the open window.” Coby shrugged like it was no big deal.
I’d be so proud of her if it weren’t another of Ocean’s obvious traps.
I gulped. “Oh.”
“I’ve got to say I was not expecting to find you. Abel mentioned someone escaping. I should have known—” She shook her head in that self-deprecating way that told me she was beating herself up. “It all makes sense now.”
I didn’t respond this time.
Coby didn’t seem to notice my trepidation as she turned and rushed back over to the window she’d snuck through. The same narrow window I’d used to escape, though she probably fit through a lot easier than I did.
“Okay, so let’s go.” She waved me over while checking to see if the coast was clear. I stayed put. “If we’re quiet, we can run for the trees, find the road, and hitch a ride back to the city.”
“Coby,” I finally spoke. “You’re only wearing a T-shirt, and I’d have to go barefoot. Even if we got away, we’ll die from hypothermia before we get far.”
“I know, I know,” she said as she turned to face me. “But we gotta try.”
“I agree, but this is not our moment.”
“What are you talking about?” she whisper-shouted. “We have to get you out now! Ocean is going to come back soon, and then he’ll know I’m gone.”
“He already knows you’re here, Coby.”
Ocean probably never even really left. He was probably standing in the trees right now, patting himself on the back for manipulating us again like rats in a maze or pieces on a chessboard.
Coby gave me a perplexed look. “What?”
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “I already tried to escape, but I was caught before I got more than a few steps. Ocean has men hiding in the trees. If you got this far, it’s because they let you. It’s becausehelet you.”
Even if Ocean was away, his men probably called him the moment they spotted her.
Coby’s shoulders. “That…that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Doesn’t it? Ocean’s been one step ahead this entire time, Coby. Do you really think he just happened to mention his plans right in front of you?”
And even if Ocean had let his guard down, the fact that Coby made it this far said he’d already adapted, gaining one on us before we even realized the trap he’d laid.
After all, he promised to let me be with Coby.
Maybe he wanted us here together, locked in this cabin with no way out until helet us out.
I began to pace with one hand on my hip and the other palming my forehead.
“I’m so stupid,” Coby said, sinking onto the edge of the bed and staring at the floor. I could tell her mind was racing and reliving every interaction—probably from when he first appeared in our lives. “How could I not see what he was doing? It was all right there.”
Walking over to the bed, I sat next to her. “You’re not stupid,” I told her gently. “You’re…in love.” I immediately wanted to take one of my kunai and stab my own heart. My guess… it would hurt a lot less. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t have them anymore. I kept reaching for it under my pillow and my thigh at night, only to remember that they were taken from me right along with my freedom. “You want to believe everything he tells you because he makes you feel safe and seen. And even when you know he’s hiding the truth from you, you can’t help but trust that he’s doing it for your own good. You trust him, even though he doesn’t always deserve it.”
Coby groaned and then flopped onto her back and covered her eyes. Feeling exhausted from being caught in Ocean’s vortex, I lay down next to her. At least, I wasn’t trapped alone.
Coby turned onto her side to face me, and I turned my head toward her. “You’ve been here the whole time, haven’t you?”
“Yup.”
