“For the last ten years, I’ve pledged twenty million dollars. I don’t intend to stop.”
I watch him more closely than I need to. I can tell by the hitch in his voice that he’s telling the truth.
When his lips sink as he finishes, I watch him squirm.
That’s what he meant when he said it was bigger than him and me. That twenty million dollars was enough to change people’s lives.
I wonder if he believes his mother would still be alive if only he’d had the money then. As if it could ever be that simple… I wish it could. If it could, maybe I’d do the same.
“It isn’t that it’s worth more than your life. Not to me,” he clarifies, though of course it’s a lie. If it wasn’t worth more to him than my life, we wouldn’t be here talking about this. He would’ve already shown me the way out. He never would’ve chosen to hurt me.
Maybe he never would’ve chosen to hurt all those women on his island…That, I doubt.
Sawyer doesn’t go on with his lie. He leaves it at that, pushes off the sink, and locks me in place with one of his forced smiles. Even forced, it’s gorgeous.
“You’re gonna find a way out… I just know it.” He squeezes my shoulders. I’m amazed that he can look me in the eyes so easily.
A breath rushes from him as he pulls away and turns for the door. I almost let him leave, I want to let him leave, but I give him last words I hope he’ll listen to.
“Sawyer.”
He looks over his shoulder at me.
I roll my unnaturally glossed lips and straighten my spine. “I hope someday you’ll become the man you want to be… I know you’re capable of doing the right thing.”
His face doesn’t scrunch with confusion because he knows exactly what I’m saying, and he doesn’t seem to be in the mood for hiding that fact. He gives me a single nod before leaving the room.
I listen until I can no longer hear his footsteps, then I open the pouch. I’m not one for mirrors, but I noticed one inside thecircular case. I open it up and take a look at my glittery, blushed face—not subtle, but not gaudy.
No one besides Sawyer would call mebeautiful.
But I’ll agree with him on one thing… I like the color.
CHAPTER 24
SAWYER
“What are you thinking about?” Zephyr asks, her hand resting over mine, voice echoing off the concrete walls.
We’re tucked away in the basement of the Grove, some god awful orange mush in front of us being lit by a long-stem candle—agoodbyemeal as she put it. It’s become too dangerous to keep helping me. She has no idea how much.
The corners of our chairs kiss as her leg rubs up against mine. Flirtatious. Seductive. Very Zephyr.
What was she saying?
She was just going on about something—some piece of gossip within the compound. Somebody fucked somebody’s boyfriend.
“You don’t even want to know,” I say with a wink, smoothing my hand up her thigh.
Her brows arch, two thin strips of blonde hair curving as if to saybullshit. She’s good at detecting it, most of the time. Unlike Luna, she never calls me out. “Is that so?”
I nod slowly and twist my body to face her. She’s always pretty, but for our goodbye dinner, she’s outdone herself. Long, sparkly earrings dangle all the way to her chin, visible with her hair pulled into a curly updo, like she’s on her way to prom. Her red dress says likewise, and her face—normally bare—is covered in a heavy coat of the same makeup. The same that I applied to Luna not even an hour ago.
With the thought comes an unwelcome flash. A glitch. Images flipping through my mind.
Luna with Aurelius.
His hands touching her skin.
