Reaching for the cold coffee, I acknowledged that the worst of it all was that I couldn’t argue with the police’s actions.I couldn’t defend Harper.What he’d done was indefensible, and if I hadn’t been in love with the guy, I’d have been baying to see his tight ass in prison.
It was only justice, after all.Justice for Fern, for Jean, and for all the others.Justice for every woman who’d been held hostage by the state and treated badly.Harper’s wasn’t the scalp most of those women really wanted—that was Jackson—but I knew, given the opportunity, they would have taken Adam’s.It might have helped ease their suffering to know he’d finally got what he deserved.
Sipping at the unappealing liquid, I realized if those women were to have fairness under international law, then that meant Harper had to go to jail, and I had to suffer on without him.Or, alternatively, if I was to have personal joy, then those women had to forfeit their justice.
Whichever way I looked at the conundrum, there seemed to be no end to the woe.
“Miss Craness?”
I turned to find the officer who’d arrested Harper standing in the doorway.God knew how long she’d been there waiting for me to notice her.
“Yes.”My voice was hoarse.
“I’m Officer Ilsa Kaspar.”She closed the door behind her.“We met earlier.”
“I remember.”
“Has someone offered you something to eat?”She tilted her head at me in what I assumed was feigned sympathy.I was sure she didn’t really have any compassion for a woman who’d fallen for an international war criminal, but she was doing her best to pretend she cared.
“No.”I coughed to try and clear my throat.“But I’m not hungry.”
“I apologize for how this has been for you.”She gestured around the ashen room.“We know you are a victim and not a perpetrator.”
Staring at her through swollen eyes, I considered how to respond.“It doesn’t make much difference now.Adam was my ticket to a future I wanted, and now, he’s gone.”
“You are safe here.”She stepped closer.“You’re eligible to claim asylum in Switzerland, and you will be given somewhere to stay.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, turning back to the window.
I didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but life as a single refugee in a country where I couldn’t even speak their languages hadn’t been top of my wish list.
I missed Harper, missed the warmth of his body and the way he always seemed able to deal with crazy situations with an enticing air of authority.Rightly or wrongly, I trusted him, and even though I could intellectually rationalize his loss, I couldn’t wrap my head around the vacuum emotionally, couldn’t envision an actual existence without him.
I was in love with him.I’d made promises to him, and he to me.How could that have evaporated with the issuing of an arrest warrant?
“He wants to see you.”Her brow furrowed as though she wasn’t sure it was a good idea to tell me so.
“Adam?”My attention slid back to her in an instant.“Is that possible?”
“Not really.”Her hesitant tone belied her decision.
“But...”My pulse picked up its pace.“It is, technically.”
Her lips tugged into a smile.“Technically, yes.For what it’s worth, I do think he might actually love you.”
“You’ve seen him?”There was unexpected consolation in that.If I couldn’t be with him, then at least I could be close to someone who had.
“I’ve been interviewing him since we brought him back here.”She sighed wearily.
“Is he okay?”
Despite everything he’d done at home, all the blood that was on his hands thanks to his compliance and the way he’d overseen the nightmare at Fortorus, I didn’t feel anything but affection for him.He might have been a war criminal, but he’d also been the man who saved me, and there was no getting past that.
The whole situation was totally fucked up.
She laughed dryly.“That’s what he asked about you.”
My lips curled at that.It was good to know that, even as he faced a life sentence, he still gave a damn about me.
