the other side of the bed with another handcuff.
I look up at Liesel’s big eyes as she stands naked before me.
“Liesel, what are you doing?” I ask, realizing that no one else is in the room with us. It’s just Liesel and me. She’s the one who restrained me.
“I’m sorry,” she says with tears in her eyes.
“What. Are. You. Doing?”
She doesn’t answer me. Instead, she looks to the door.
It opens.
“Took you long enough,” Corbin says as he enters.
“How did you…?” I say.
Corbin smirks at me. “Maxwell and I have been brothers for a long time. I know his weaknesses.”
“You killed him?”
“No, I just made him see reason.”
I frown and then yank on my cuffs, put on me by the woman I love.
“Excuse me,” Liesel says suddenly and runs to the bathroom.
I hear her vomit.
Corbin looks as distressed as I am as we listen. For a moment, we both seem concerned about the girl in the bathroom. Me because I can’t live without her. Corbin because he can’t succeed on his mission if something happens to her.
A few minutes later, Liesel reemerges with a robe wrapped around her.
“Liesel? What’s wrong?”
She shakes her head. “I’ve been a nervous wreck about doing this to you all day. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
“What way? Liesel, uncuff me. We have to fight your father together.”
“No. Don’t lie to me. Don’t tell me you didn’t have the same plan to drug me and send me back to the island where your friends would hold me captive.”
“Huntress, you can’t kill; you need my help.”
“I’m sorry.”
Then she nods at Corbin, who I realize is here to do the thing she can’t.
I don’t look away as Corbin approaches and places the needle into my neck.
A single tear rolls down her cheek as the drugs take hold of me, knocking me slowly unconscious.
I fight the drugs as long as I can.
“I’m sorry, killer, but I have to protect you. I love you too much to risk losing you.”
And then I succumb to the darkness once again.
8
Liesel
Langston drifts off, and then Corbin checks his pulse, but I can tell from here that he’s still breathing. The sedative Corbin gave him shouldn’t hurt him.
“You okay?” Corbin asks.
I nod. “Just a little queasy.”
“I wasn’t talking about that.” He hesitates, running his hand through his hair. “This is for the best. If Langston steps one foot inside your father’s club, then he’s a dead man. If you want Langston to live, this is the only way.”
“I know.” I grip the edges of the robe, tightening it around my body. My eyes peer up at Corbin in a shy way.
“Get dressed. I’ll be right outside when you’re ready.” Corbin walks out of the hotel room, leaving me alone with a sleeping Langston.
The tears start falling freely now. I’m not sure if this will be the last time I ever see him. I’m going to face my father to do whatever it takes to get Declan back, so it very well could be.
I wipe my tears and then quickly shower and get dressed. I pull my hair up in a high ponytail after quickly blow-drying it. I know I’m just stalling, taking as much time as I possibly can to prolong the goodbye.
Langston is already unconscious, so the goodbye should be easy. But for some reason, I linger in the bedroom, feeling so deep in my bones that I have to make this goodbye count. I have to pull every bit of joy I can from this moment because this goodbye is going to be our last.
No, don’t think that way. I’m going to go kill my father, get Declan back, and I’ll be back with Langston on the island in a couple of days. This isn’t goodbye.
I lean over a motionless Langston and kiss his lips. “This isn’t goodbye.”
I can feel the tears welling again. I have to leave before I change my mind and stay.
“I love you.”
And then I walk out the door.
Corbin is leaning against the wall. He looks up when I exit.
“Ready?” he asks.
I nod. “He’s going to be okay, right?”
Corbin walks toward me. He puts my head in the palms of his hands, cupping my face gently. “You’re doing the right thing. The drugs will wear off in twenty-four hours. Maxwell’s will wear off a couple of hours earlier, and I’ve given him strict instructions to get Langston out of here. With any luck, we will have already killed your father by then.”
“Where is Maxwell?”
“In the hotel