Chapter 158

Nydia's POV

The words had barely left my mouth before my stomach tightened with dread.

Tanner hadn't so much as flinched. He sat there watching me with that infuriatingly calm expression—like a man who already knew the ending to a story I thought I was still writing. Like every small thing I'd done over the past weeks had been catalogued and filed away somewhere behind those steady eyes.

What if he knows? The thought crept in before I could stop it. What if he's known this whole time?

If he had, things were about to get a lot worse. He'd lock me back in that room—the small one, the one designed to grind a person down—and he'd leave me there until I stopped fighting. Until I learned to call surrender by a softer name.

I curled my fingers into my palms and kept my expression neutral. Beneath my shirt, a cold sweat had broken across my back, the fabric clinging and clammy against my skin.

The silence stretched.

We watched each other across the table. Neither of us moved.

Then Tanner let out a short, quiet laugh—not cruel, just certain—and reached over to pinch my cheek like I was something amusing he'd found. "Go ahead and try," he said. "But if you fail, there will be consequences."

Of course. He'd given me nothing. Not a confirmation, not a denial, not even a real warning—just that same maddening composure that reminded me exactly why he'd lasted this long against men like Vincent.

But I wasn't planning to run. Not yet. Not while I still had pieces to put into place.

I smiled back at him, easy and unbothered, and turned my attention to the screen.

It was a comedy—genuinely funny, as it turned out. I laughed more than I expected to, and I caught Tanner watching me several times throughout, his gaze lingering in a way I chose not to acknowledge.

When the credits rolled, he invited me to stay for dinner.

"I'm leaving shortly," he said, pouring himself a glass of wine. "Anything you want to say to me before I go?"

I gave him my brightest smile. "I hope you don't come back."

"Now that hurts." He pressed a hand to his chest with theatrical injury. "I can't stay away. You know that. You've got a hold on me, Nydia—whether you want to or not." He tilted his head. "Anything else?"

"I hope something goes wrong on the way."

He burst out laughing—full and genuine, his shoulders shaking. "God, you're ruthless. I love it." The laughter faded into something quieter, more deliberate. "But just so you know—even if something did happen to me, you'd never leave this island. Not in this lifetime."

I rolled my eyes and went back to my food.

After dinner, he actually did it. Had someone bring his bags downstairs, walked out to the car, and left.

I stood at the window and watched the taillights disappear down the drive. Then I went upstairs, washed my face, and went to bed exactly as I always did.

I had no idea if this was a test. But I knew better than to give him anything to work with. Even if the halls looked empty, they weren't.

---

I woke the next morning and moved through my routine without deviation. Nothing unusual. Nothing to notice.

After my afternoon rest, I slipped into the study.

The computer password had taken me three days to crack during my first week of access—patience and careful observation. Now I moved quickly, routing a distress signal and my coordinates through to Lima's system, then scrubbing every trace of what I'd done. I checked my work twice before I closed out, then picked up the book I'd left on the side table and read until the housekeeper came to collect me for the garden.

We watered the flower beds together in the late afternoon light, just as we always did.

Two days passed. Tanner came back on the third.

I stood in the entryway with the housekeeper to meet him, and he came through the door with his arms already open, beaming like a man returning from war. "You're still here! Do you have any idea how happy that makes me?"

I stepped neatly out of reach. "Don't touch me."

"I honestly expected you to bolt," he said, unbothered by the rejection. "You had two whole days. And you were perfect. Not even a flicker." He studied me with open curiosity. "What's going on in that head of yours, Nydia? Did you actually forget about Vincent? Is that it? Are you falling for me?"

"It's possible," I said, keeping my voice light.

He laughed. "I don't believe you for a second."

He was right not to. We both knew where we stood. There was no point in pretending otherwise.

---

Life on the island resumed its rhythm after Tanner's return. He spent most of his time upstairs, working—he was, I'd noticed, nearly as consumed by business as Vincent had always been. I kept to my routines, kept my afternoons in the study brief and methodical, kept my exits clean.

About a week later, Lima replied.

He had my location confirmed. We agreed on a time: two nights out, eleven p.m. He would come for me personally and asked that I find a way past the compound's perimeter on my own.

I already knew how I was going to do it.

---

The night of the escape, I went to bed at my usual hour, waited until the guards rotated, then climbed out the window and crossed the grounds to the housekeeper's quarters.

I'd learned, over weeks of careful conversation, that she returned home to visit her family on the same few days every month—a small, private rhythm she'd never thought twice about sharing with me. And every time she left, a replacement came to cover her duties.

Tonight was that night.

She looked up when I slipped through her door, startled. "Miss Nydia—is everything alright? Can I help you with something?"

"Yes, actually." I smiled at her. "I'm sorry about this."

I crossed the room and hit her cleanly—she dropped, and I caught her before she hit the floor, lowering her gently. Then I moved fast: her uniform, her keycard, the small compact mirror from her nightstand to check the makeup I applied by the dim bedside light. Not a perfect likeness. But close enough, in the dark, for someone doing a quick scan.

The main gate was staffed by two guards. I walked up with her keycard extended, gave her name, and waited.

They barely looked at me. A glance at the card, a nod, and they waved me through.

I didn't let myself run—not yet. Quick, purposeful steps down the path, and then the water opened up ahead of me, dark and vast, and Lima's boat was there, a silhouette against the black.

Then, behind me—a voice. Faint, but unmistakable.

"Stop her! That's Miss Nydia!"

The housekeeper. She'd come around faster than I'd calculated.

I ran.

The guards were already moving—I could hear them—and Lima had seen the commotion from the water. He jumped down onto the dock to meet me, but two of Tanner's men reached him first.

"Go!" he shouted over the scuffle, taking a hit and giving one back. "Get to the boat—my guys are inbound, just go!"

I went. Every last bit of strength I had, straight down the dock and onto the boat.

Behind me: fists hitting flesh, boots on wood, voices rising. Ahead: open water, black and wide, and somewhere in the distance, the low thunder of Lima's backup boats closing in.

I got the engine running and pointed the bow toward open water.

The route was memorized—I'd worked it out weeks ago from the maps I'd found in the study, cross-referenced with what I'd observed from the window. Night didn't disorient me. I knew where I was going.

I pushed out a hundred yards, two hundred. Behind me, the island was chaos—lights swinging, engines revving, the sounds of Lima's team colliding with Tanner's. A dark mass of movement at the water's edge, indistinct and violent.

I didn't look back.

I drove through the night without stopping, too wired to sleep, watching the horizon slowly shift from black to grey. When my body finally hit its limit, I switched to autopilot and let myself close my eyes for just a moment—

The boat lurched.

My eyes flew open.

A wave—enormous, easily eight feet—was rising directly off the bow, curling at the crest, and before I could do anything at all, it came down on me.