Page 60 of Longing for Liberty

FORTY-NINE

I wanted—needed—to sleep, but all I could do was doze in small batches throughout the night, anticipation keeping me awake worse than caffeine. What was going to happen?

We’d be here for at least a few days. Would Jeremy be able to disarm his guard and get away? Would he somehow be able to make it here? If so, when? And if not, what was my plan? My mind turned, playing out different scenarios one after the other until I was nearly delirious.

It turned out to be a good thing I was still semi-awake in the middle of the night, because I might not have heard the crunch of tires coming down the road or seen the gentle beam of headlights through the drapes from afar.

Seeing as we were the only ones at the end of this small road, it meant someone was here for us.

My heart banged wildly as I slid from bed and padded from the bedroom through the open door to the front window.

Oh my God. It was still a small way off, but the light was on inside the car…was that Jeremy behind the wheel? Holy shit! I had to act fast. I was not expecting this already. What should I do?

I moved quickly but quietly back into the bedroom, straight to Amos’s nightstand. I lifted his phone in my left hand and his gun, heavier than expected, in my right. Amos’s hand shot out, missing me as I jumped back, out of his reach.

“Liberty?” He sounded half-asleep still. “What are you doing?”

“Good morning, Amos.” My voice shook. I stepped all the way into the doorway before tucking his phone under my arm and grasping the top of the gun, pulling back hard until it slid and went back into place with a click .

Amos sat completely up now, both of his palms up. The room lit up with headlights.

“Put that down before you hurt someone.” He jumped from bed and motioned the gun to himself in a ‘come here’ wave, a look of confusion on his face. “Give it to me. I’ll handle whoever is here.”

“Stop, Amos.” I stepped back, through the doorway, and pointed the gun at him. “Don’t come any closer.”

He looked so bewildered standing there that I nearly laughed with hysteria.

I moved into the sitting area by the front door, and Amos was now positioned in the bedroom doorway, both palms up, standing in his boxers.

His eyebrows were crammed together as he stared at me like I was wearing some sort of strange costume.

“What are you doing?” he asked again. So calm.

I was not calm, but I felt locked in and in control.

“Don’t talk,” I told him.

A look of understanding crossed his face. “This is about that night.”

I let out a dry huff. “You mean the night you rolled over and showed your cowardly belly to the tiny tyrant? No. This is about the past six years, and before that. But that night didn’t help your case.” He looked ill now, his face like hot wax in the eerie light.

Outside I heard a man yell but couldn’t make out what he said. My heart plummeted with fear as Jeremy’s voice yelled back. And then gunshots. Four of them. I felt my eyes go wide.

“Liberty, give me my gun!” Amos lunged, and I lowered my aim, pulling the trigger and shooting the floor by his feet.

My arm jolted and I jumped back, along with Amos, whose face changed from incredulous to pissed.

I held the gun tighter now, knowing what to expect.

The loud sound still rang inside my ears.

Someone was running up the steps. Oh, God.

If Jeremy was dead, and the guard was on his way in, I had to move so fast. Who would I shoot first?

The guard. Because he would have a gun, too.

Yes. I would shoot the guard. As the pounding of steps neared the door, I got ready to twist toward the door, while keeping my footing flat so I could twist back and kill Amos before he could grab me.

But when I turned my upper body, it was Jeremy who burst through the door. I didn’t let my arm droop as my whole body sagged for a moment of relief, and I made a mewling sound. I expected Jeremy to come to my side, but he didn’t.

His eyes were crazed as he went straight for Amos.

“Jeremy, stop!” I yelled, but it was useless. In a flash of movement, my husband landed two meaty-sounding punches to Amos’s face before the Secretary had time to start fighting back. But Amos wasn’t a boxer. He grunted and threw his weight at Jeremy, taking him to the ground.

“Stop!” I yelled again, not daring to point the gun at them as they wrestled on the floor, both of them making animalistic sounds as they ripped at each other, punching, tearing, biting.

Somehow, Jeremy, in all of his scrappiness, ended up behind Amos and got him in a headlock.

He looked like a pit-bull locking its jaws around an abusive owner after finally escaping its chains.

Jeremy’s face was fearsome and focused. Amos was turning beet red.

He was smacking at Jeremy’s arm hard, kicking the air, and then patting him softer, until his arms fell to his side and his eyes rolled back.

When he looked heavy, Jeremy dropped him and sprang to his feet.

“Libby.” He came to me, and we hugged hard, both of us keeping our heads turned toward Amos. I kept my gun arm outward.

“The guard,” I started, but Jeremy shook his head.

“He’s…gone.” Dead. My stomach turned. “I can take this,” he said gently, wrapping his hand around the gun. I let him have it. “I called Italian authorities,” he told me. “And Aidan.”

“What do you think the authorities will do?” I asked. “What if they let him go?”

“He’s a war criminal. It’s all over the news here. My guard had it on BBC last night before he finally fell asleep. But Lib…I’ll kill him right now if that’s what we agree on.” His eyes were serious and calm. “If you don’t want to take the chance?—”

Amos began to stir, sucking in a loud breath as he grasped his forehead.

“No,” I said. I had no idea what was happening back in the State. But if the world leaders could use Amos to get information, I should allow that to happen. Though, when I thought about his trillionaire friend, it was impossible not to fear that his connections could somehow get him out of this.

“What…” Amos pushed himself upright against a chair, his eyes puffy from being beaten. He held one wrist in his other arm and hissed. “What do you think you’re doing? My people will be…coming.”

“Your people aren’t coming,” Jeremy assured him. “Your guard here is dead, and the other one is knocked out and tied up. But the Italian police and international police? They’re on their way.”

For the first time, an actual look of fear was clear on his swelling features, even misshapen as they were. That fear told me we’d made the right decision.

“Why are you doing this?” Amos asked. “Ruining your country for what? Jealousy?”

Jeremy and I made eye contact. I was the first to let out a snort, and then his whole face scrunched as he laughed too. Amos looked at us like we were asylum fugitives until we finally calmed down.

“Our country,” I said, losing all humor, “was ruined years ago. By you.” My voice got louder with each word.

“By Roan. By Wright and Walinger, and your whole. Entire. Fucking cult!” And then, unexpectedly, I lost it.

My hands balled into fists, and I let out the scream I’d been holding in for years, a scream so fierce, from so deep in my soul, I had to bend forward and stomp my foot until it was all out.

I was breathing hard, pointing into Amos’s shocked face. “You ruined everything!”

“No,” he whispered. “I was trying to do…good.”

“Shut up!” I screamed. “Shut the fuck up!” I wanted to hit him. To slap him with all my might. To be violent and rain down my nails on his face. But I held my hands in fists, trying to get control over myself.

“Liberty.” Amos’s chest heaved, and he let out a sob. “I love you. You said you loved me?—”

“I lied,” I said, standing tall again. “I’m a storyteller, just like you.

Remember when you lied about other countries bombing us?

” He shut his eyes as I went on. “And like you lied about not believing in germs and not being able to provide medication for the people? And you lied about us being able to go back home? And then you forced families apart? You forced people with skin different from yours to live far away from everyone else. You made everyone into servants. You killed people for who they love. You-you…” I covered my mouth with the back of my hand as tears streamed down my face. “You killed America.”

Amos shook his head and finally opened his eyes again. “I can’t believe I couldn’t see it.” He looked at me like he’d never seen me before. Like I was the monster. “You’re one of those radical lunatics .”

I reared back.

Beside me, Jeremy let out a quiet scoff and muttered, “You fucked up now.”

“If I’m radical,” I said with utter clarity, “It’s because you radicalized me.

And if I’m a lunatic, it’s because you made me lose my mind.

Or, at least, you tried .” His mouth pursed.

“Oh, and by the way? Our children are alive.” His eyes popped open.

I stepped back beside Jeremy and held out my hand, which he took with his free one.

“They escaped with our parents right before we were stuck. Because of you. And guess where they are?” He pressed his swollen lips together.

“Yeah…right here in Italy, where I got you to bring me after you let them hurt me.”

His breathing was rapid as I crouched to look him straight in the eye.

“I would say we’re even, because there’s nothing bad enough I can do to you to ever make it even.

But know this…right now, the resistance is working to take down your State Force network.

Community Five just so happens to be filled with computer programmers, former military, scientists, engineers, doctors…

should I go on?” Ooh, that earned me a little snarl.

I smiled. “That’s right. You locked away many of America’s best and brightest, and for some strange reason, you thought they were powerless. ”

I stood and looked down my nose at him. “We have the names of all OM members. And when the resistance and Community Five come into power, your people will be eradicated. Ironic, right? The Order of so-called Mercy was so worried about other races having more people than them that they caused their own downfall.”

Amos shook his head slowly. “They can’t get rid of us all.”

“Maybe not. Your kind always comes back like a boil on the Earth’s ass,” I said, causing him to flinch.

“There will always be hate.” And greed and fear and all of the evil qualities.

“But you’ll never get rid of us either. Good people will always rise up to fight.

It might take a lot, because we’re too trusting at first, and we don’t like violence.

You take advantage of that, but in the end, your kind will always lose. ”

He breathed hard, staring up at me with absolute venom. I felt…nothing.

“I had you, Liberty,” he said. “Remember that. I’ll always be part of you.”

Jeremy took a step forward, but I spoke out, loudly and clearly.

“You never had me,” I clarified. “You touched my skin, and that is all—my shell—the thing you put so much value into, when it’s actually the thing about humans that matters least in this world. That’s what you don’t get.”

“Liberty, listen to me?—”

“Shut up, Amos,” I whispered. “I won’t be listening to you anymore.” His face was pained, and he finally had the decency to be quiet. I turned to Jeremy. “You got him?”

He was gazing at me with the love of a man who saw far beyond my shell. “I got him, sweetheart.”

I nodded and stepped out front. I leaned against the railing and stared out at the tranquility of the rows of grapevines. Beside the house was the body of the guard, face down in dirt and blood. I felt numb to it as I stared down the road until the sirens finally began to wail.

I didn’t feel free yet—didn’t trust any of it.

Even as the police swarmed, I stood aside.

Even as they pulled a beat-up Amos Fitzhugh from the cottage in handcuffs with someone’s hand on the back of his head to keep him facing down as they shoved him into the back of a car.

Even as Aidan ran up the stairs and enveloped me in a brotherly hug, and then Jeremy, who’d handed over the gun to authorities.

I looked out, my eyes searching, but Aidan shook his head. “I came alone. I was worried it’d be dangerous.”

I nodded, thankful.

Everything was surreal as we were taken to a police station in Florence, and I spent hours answering questions.

It felt like a dream when I was let into the hall and my mom stood there.

I immediately looked around her, my heart flip-flopping, but she scooped me into her arms and told me, “They’re at home. I didn’t want to scare them.”

Oh my God.

My children.

That was when I broke down, both of us falling to our knees together as we clung tightly and cried until I was so exhausted I literally passed out against her shoulder and had to be revived with smelling salts, scaring my poor mother half to death.

It didn’t feel real when we were walking out of the station, rushed through a massive throng of shouting reporters and flashing cameras into a car with tinted windows.

“Are you ready to see them?” Mom asked us in the backseat of the small car where I was crammed between her and Jeremy.

I looked at him and we both nodded, our eyes filled, too overcome to talk.

Then I crumpled against my mom’s soft body and let her hold me like I was still a child myself, while my fingers twined tightly with Jeremy’s.