Page 67 of Liar
William opened his mouth to say something else, but his phone rang. He reached into his pocket, pulled it out, saw the name on the caller-ID, and started to grin. “It’s Ash. Looks like I have to go. Damn. And here I thought I’d get to watch you die.” Saying nothing else, he stepped around me, to the back of the chair, and then he yanked it out from under me, answering his phone at the same time. “Hey.”
My feet had nothing to step on, no ledge to hold onto to keep the noose snug but not overly restricting. When he yanked the chair, my feet slid off, and the rope pulled taut on my neck. The hand holding onto it was able to keep the circular noose around my neck a little loose, but I wouldn’t be able to hold onto it forever. Soon enough the pressure would get to me, my lungs unable to fill normally, and I’d lose my strength. I’d lose my hold on it.
And then I’d lose my life.
“Yeah, I’m heading back. Sawyer doesn’t want me here,” Will went on, moving to the cabin’s front door. He tossed me a look and a smile before he left, still talking to Ash.
Fuck. She got rid of one psychopath only to sleep with another. Will…that motherfucker had passed the point of no return, and I had to get out of this somehow, had to survive where my sister couldn’t.
My eyelids closed, and for the first time in my life, I prayed. I prayed for an answer, for a solution to come crashing through the window and miraculously save me. Even if I didn’t make it out of this place alive, I had to make sure Ash was okay—and if that fucker was around her, she wasn’t okay. Not really. She had to know the truth.
Dean Briggs didn’t kill Sabrina. Will did.
The noose tightened around my fingers and my throat, and I fought to breathe. Sabrina died like this, frightened, forced to hang. My feet dangled in the air, and I…
I was not like Sabrina.
I didn’t know why I didn’t realize it before. Sabrina was thin, weak, and I was the opposite. I could do what she couldn’t…I could get myself out of this.
New determination budding in my head, my other arm shot up, grabbing the rope above me and pulling. I had to go against my instincts at first, pull my fingers from the noose around my neck, and bring that hand to the rope above me, too. With both hands, I pulled myself up, my daily workouts actually good for something. The muscles in my arms tensed, my lungs finally able to breathe in a deep breath the higher I got.
And the higher I got, the looser the noose became.
My knuckles were white by the time I reached the beam in the ceiling, and I pulled myself over it, untying the rope from the rafter. I dropped to the floor once it was done, my body heaving and my fingers working furiously to undo the knot behind my head, to at least loosen it so I could get the noose off me.
Never had breathing felt so laborious, so difficult. Never had I wanted to sleep away a whole month more. My entire body felt like shit. I didn’t know if Will slipped me something earlier when I wasn’t looking or what, but I was fairly sure I’d passed out before I made it back into the cabin.
Will had planned this whole fucking thing out, like some kind of sicko. He’d brought this rope and whatever he’d used to knock me out to this trip, planning it all along. Me being with Ash was probably was tipped him over the edge, and I had one thing to say to that: fuck him. Fuck him so hard.
My neck burned once I got the rope off, and I struggled to get to my feet, lurching toward the door outside. Will was already gone, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try to stop him. To intercept him. To tackle his sorry ass to the ground and make him regret laying a finger on me. On my sister. On Ash. He was the king of all liars, and I’d make sure he got what he deserved.
Sweet, vicious retribution.
Chapter Twenty-Five – Will
Pride was a dangerous thing, but so was anything, if you had too much of it. I didn’t often let myself get haughty or prideful, but it was hard not to as I left the cabin, and downright impossible as I took the same way I’d come in. To the lake, to the same trail I’d left them at. Ash wasn’t going to check in on Sawyer, and I’d told her he didn’t want me there, so she suggested I come back. They could stop and wait for me.
So that’s what we’d do. We would all go on this little hike, eventually return to the cabin and find Sawyer strung up, his body cold and his skin pale.
Oh, yes. Pride was a dangerous thing, but today I had it in spades. It was like all of my planning had finally come together. My scheming, my daydreaming. Everything fit together like a puzzle, and Ash was my only missing piece. Ash and Declan.
I picked up my pace, smiling to myself as I went.
The look on Sawyer’s face as he woke up, as he realized what predicament he was in. It was priceless. If I could’ve taped it and saved it for future me to watch and revel in, I would have. That was a little over the top though, plus it would only be evidence, so I supposed it was a good thing I didn’t.
God, I wished I could rewind time and watch it all happen again. I also wished I could’ve been there to see it, but just like before, the situation called for me to be spontaneous. It was so hard to kill people these days. Hah. Not a thought a normal person would have, but I think we all knew by now that I wasn’t normal.
Sawyer had called me a fucking psycho. I didn’t think I was fucking anything, but now—now it was hard for me to argue against an accusation like that. It had grown remarkably easy for me to kill. So easy, in fact, that I was starting to wonder if, maybe, I’d crossed the line somewhere. If I’d gone from overprotective brother and boyfriend to someone you’d hear about on the news. Someone who, in the end, was always caught and given the electric chair. Or sent to prison his whole life.
I didn’t think I’d last very long in prison. Didn’t think I’d like it at all, really.
But that was okay, because my family had a good lawyer. Oliver Fitzpatrick would help me if I ever needed him.
I walked pretty far on the path, not finding them. I hurried through the two miles the trail was, to its end point at a parking lot where the building to pay for the ziplining was, but they weren’t there. They weren’t anywhere, which I found odd.
Damn it. Did something happen? What if I’d turned my back and handled Sawyer only to let Travis do something to them? Shit. One problem down, one more to go.
I called Ash, but her phone only rang. It rang and rang until it reached her voicemail. I hung up, not leaving one. Instead, I dialed Declan. His was the same, and my stomach grew queasy with the worry something had happened. This couldn’t be good. I had to find them, had to make sure everything was alright.
