"Now there’s no chance I can escape!" I wail in pain. "This piece of shit is the worst thing that could have happened!" I kick out, slamming the monitor against the bed frame.
"Bram said he wouldn’t report your escape under one condition. You wear the ankle monitor. There was no other option."
I repeatedly hit my temples with my hands, like a madman.
"Do you even understand what you did, idiot? You might have completely taken away my only chance at revenge. Why? You know damn well that was my only goal!"
He stands up slowly as well. We are facing each other now. His face is pale, tight with tension.
"There was no chance of it working anyway. It would have ended in disaster."
"Bullshit," I snap, feeling everything inside me stretch and strain as anger and frustration surge even higher. I keep tangling my fingers in my hair, frantic and maddened.
"I already did it before, I shot them, remember?! And now I had another real chance. I could ambush him, the element of surprise!"
"What surprise, Salt?" Eliano says slowly, calmly. "Four hours had passed, and you still hadn’t made it out of that damn forest. I wonder why. How long were you there? At least three hours, sitting in that tree, doing what?"
Fuck. I squeeze my eyes shut. Yeah, no denying it. I was there, unable to move, as if something had me tethered, some invisible leash that would not let me get away from that bastard.
Oh, how I hated my own weakness. But he can’t know.
"You don’t understand anything," I growl. "I was just thinking it through." My voice cracks, and I wonder if he sees through my bullshit and knows exactly why I was stuck in that tree, and it makes my anger flare even more.
"And the more practical reason," I grumble, "was that I saw an alligator just a few dozen feet away from me."
Alligator aside, my body felt paralyzed. Something inside me refused to let go, even though I was sure I would eventually get myself out of that situation. Because I would. Right?
"You’re not thinking rationally, Salt. That plan was never good. Let me come up with something that actually has a chance.I have options and connections you don’t. I never said I didn’t want to help you. Does that get through to you at all?"
Nope, it does not.
My anger and humiliation have already gone too far. Emotions take over. My brain, my fucked-up prefrontal cortex, strips away what little self-control I have left.
"I don’t give a fuck about your damn plans," I raise my voice, stepping back two paces. I do not want to be within reach of his arms or his presence, because I am afraid he might still convince me, and I do not want to be convinced.
I just want to be angry!
So angry!
And I go all in!
"How could you, Eliano? I trusted you. I told you everything, the whole plan, and you…"
"This has nothing to do with whether you told me or not," he says firmly. "I would have known you escaped anyway, and I would have done exactly the same thing, because this is madness, Salt. You would have destroyed our future."
Another wave of fury crashes over me, this time cold, almost icy.
"Our future? Destroyed it? You just did that yourself! I can’t trust you anymore! You’re not on my side. I want nothing to do with you!"
A heavy silence falls between us. Eliano’s face drains of color, his lips pressing into a hard line.
"I fought for us to be together, Salt. I negotiated with those idiots not to tell anyone. I told them you panicked because of everything with Drax. They believed me, and that’s the only reason they agreed to help me bring you back here. Under normal circumstances, you would have been placed under police supervision and then sent directly to state prison. Do you get that? They don’t play around here. Nobody escapes and justcomes back. The only miracle is that there’s no warden right now. But in a few hours, Gomez will be here. The ferry already went to get him."
"Do you even hear what I’m saying?" My voice twists with something painful and sharp inside me. "I don’t care. I had one goal coming to this island. One! Find a window to escape and finish my revenge on Tanner. One goal, Eliano." I raise my hand high and tap my ‘Justice for Senu’ tattoo on my forearm, like the final, decisive proof.
"Nothing else mattered. They could have shot me, killed me. I wanted revenge! Does that sink into that pretty, law-abiding head of yours?"
Eliano says nothing. He just stares at my face.
