Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(82)

“There’s a chance Ryan would be able to stop us.” James ran his hands through his hair. “But if he were distracted too, it might work. Except for the hundreds of Coalition and Soma agents at Sterling Tower who would question why I was removing property from the building.”

“But you can come and go however you like,” Santi said. “You should be able to sneak her out.”

“That’s easier said than done,” James muttered.

“We will come up with a plan, James,” Santi said. “We’re not leaving you or Lennox behind. We’ll get Livia and her team occupied, and you’ll get Len out of the building. Then you come meet us.”

“Sure, no problem.” James laughed.

“This is happening, James.” Santi gave him a hard look. “We give you the chance to get her out and you take it. You hear me? You fail and you’ll have to deal with me.”

James nodded. “All right, I promise. If you two can pull this off, I’ll get Lennox out of here.”

“And what is our part in this?” Quinn asked, eager to hear what Santi had up her sleeve.

“Can you give me your absolute trust, Quinnton?”

“You have that in spades, Mina.”

“Say that again when you hear the rest of my plan.”

“I’m listening.”

“You have to let her push you over the edge. Give in to your addiction and she’ll break you.”

“No.” Quinn shook his head.

“Think about it before you say no. You succumb to the addiction and she’ll think she’s won. She’ll have no reason to think you aren’t completely hers.”

“And she’ll be right. That’s ridiculous, Santi. If I lose control of my power … I won’t be me anymore. I won’t have a reason not to tell her whatever she wants to know. She’ll go after my family.”

“Exactly. She will break you and you will tell her everything she wants to know. All you have to do is trust me to take care of the rest. Can you do that?”

“I trust you. But I don’t think you understand what you’re asking me to do.”

“When you tell her everything she’s been dying to know about Allie, she’s going to go after her and that’s exactly what we want. The point is for us to escape. To do that we need help. We take the fight to your family and we get the help we need.”

“You think if I let her attack my family that they’ll win, take her captive and free us.”

“I’ve never seen a family more well-connected and prepared than yours. She won’t expect it. You all have resources I couldn’t even fathom. You’ve turned Kelleys Island into an impenetrable fortress.”

“There’s one giant hole in your plan, Santi.”

“What’s that?”

“How do we know what I’ll do once she breaks me? How do we know I won’t tell her what we’re planning?”

“When she breaks you, your gift is going to take over, right?”

“Yes, and that version of myself is a lunatic.”

“A lunatic that will want to be a Soma slave?” she asked, her brow raised to make her point.

“No. He won’t want to be under Livia’s thumb any more than I do.”

“You guys are talking like there’s more than one Quinn in there.” James rapped his knuckles against Quinn’s head. “That’s worrisome.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Quinn said. “That guy has been trying to take control since I was sixteen years old.”

“Multiple personalities?”

“It’s my power. It manifests as an alter ego. He wants the freedom to use my power his way and not mine. I keep him in check. What Santi is suggesting would mean letting him come out to play. And there is just no predicting what that asshole will do.”

“So the question of the hour is, would crazy-Q play along with our plan?” James asked.

“You know him best, Quinn. But it doesn’t sound like he’d blow the whistle on us if what he wants is freedom. He’s been a prisoner inside you all his life. He’s not going to want to trade one prison for another.”

“Do you think you can reason with him?” James asked.

“If Livia pushes me into my addiction, I’ll resist it. It’s just in my blood. I’ll hear the voice. He’ll tempt me, like always. I would have time to reason with him, but there’s no guarantee he’ll go along with the plan.”

“That’s where you’re going to have to trust me to do my part too,” Santi said. “I’ll make sure this goes our way.”

“I trust you, Santi. I do. But I don’t think I could come back to myself after that.”

“We don’t have time for your stubborn self-doubt, Quinnton. You really can’t see it, can you?” She shoved him hard, pushing him down on the log beside James. “You’re really that stupid?”

“Santi, I know what my limits are.”

“No. You know what scares you,” she accused. “Like a coward, you set your limits too low and you refuse to budge. But you are not a coward.” She cut right through him with her glare. “You can do this, Quinn. You have strength unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” Her voice softened as she knelt beside him. “You are one of the kindest men I’ve ever known—and you’re hardly more than a boy. You have grace and humility. But you do not trust yourself. You let Livia break you and we’ll beat her at her own game. And then you’ll come back to me.”