“I missed you.”Tugging me toward a nearby couch, he steered me onto the seat at his side.“I didn’t think she was going to let us see each other.”
“I might have worked on that.”I smiled, taking in the tiny lines around his gorgeous blue eyes.I’d seen his face so many times before, yet I’d never realized how important it would be to memorize every detail until I was faced with the possibility of never seeing him again.“She said if you answered their questions, she’d consider it, but I think buttering her up a little helped.”
“Clever girl.”Drawing me onto his lap, he hugged me tighter as I straddled his thighs.
“What’s going to happen, Sir?”I almost didn’t want to ask.The pleasure of that moment—of merely having him in my arms again—was so great that I didn’t want anything to pollute it.Yet I had to know, had to prepare myself for whatever came next.Somehow, I had to survive his absence.“When will you travel to The Hague?”
“I’m hoping I won’t have to.”His voice was uncharacteristically quiet.
“What?”That answer didn’t make sense.“I thought the ICC wanted to question you and the Swiss were only holding you until you traveled to the Netherlands?”
“I’ve spent all day answering the ICC’s questions here.”He stroked the stray strands of hair from my face.“And if they accept what I’ve offered, then I can get impunity from prosecution and not need to travel there at all.”
His face lit up into a smile.“We can be together!”
“Really?”After hours of wrestling with the idea of a future without him, the outcome seemed near impossible.
“Yes, really.”His hand shifted into my hair and drew my head closer.“And then you’ll be mine again.”
Our lips collided, his kiss punishing, as though I was somehow responsible for our separation.I gasped when he allowed me up for air, trailing my fingertips over his stubble.Whatever dizziness I’d experienced had disappeared as soon as I was back with him.Harper, it seemed, was the security I needed to feel whole.
“I’ve been yours all along,” I reminded him.“In Fortorus, at the house, and all the time we’ve been apart, Sir.”
“Good answer, little girl,” he purred.“God, I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you, too.”
Kissing the edge of his jaw, I couldn’t believe we were back together, and even less likely was the possibility that he might have been able to give the powers-that-be enough information to get him off the hook.One facet of me knew that result wouldn’t be justice for those women who’d died on his watch, yet another, greedier and more selfish part of me didn’t care.The new version of Caroline only wanted the man she loved back in her life and back in her bed.She wanted justice for herself.
He sighed, the sound contented, yet as I rose over him, I saw the flicker of what looked like pain in his blue eyes.
“What’s wrong?”I knew in an instant that something wasn’t right, his paling expression and the way his hand rose to rub at his temples only reinforcing the dread mushrooming in my chest.“Sir, what is it?”
“I’ve had this damn headache for hours.”His fingers stroked the side of his head.“It went for a while, but now it’s back, and I just can’t seem to get rid of it.
“Headache?”My stomach contracted with guilt.He hadn’t mentioned a headache for days, but the last time he’d suffered with them had been in the aftermath of my attack on him.“Because I hit you?”
It seemed I was destined to never be able to move past my remorse about walloping him that day.Assaulting him to free myself had seemed like a good idea at the time, a necessary evil required to get me out of his clutches, but I’d had no idea of the potential repercussions.
“No,” he assured me, but the way his eyes fluttered closed and his brows knitted conveyed the extent of his pain.“This feels different, like...”
His voice trailed away, and I watched, horror-stricken, as his face fell to one side, as though he’d abruptly lost consciousness.
“Sir?”I tapped the side of his face lightly to try and rouse him.“Sir?Are you okay?Wake up!”
Acting on autopilot, I reached for his wrist and was relieved to find he still had a steady pulse, although it seemed his heart was racing faster than I might have expected.
“Something’s wrong.”
I climbed from his lap and headed for the door, the panic streaming through my system pulling the levers of time in reverse so that everything sped up around me.Yanking the door open, I found Kaspar chatting to a man I didn’t recognize in the hall.
“Something’s wrong!”I cried, pointing to the sofa he was slumped on.“Please help him!”
“What happened?”Kaspar pushed past me and ran to Harper’s side.
“We were just talking.”Alarm was washing over me in cold waves and making it difficult to think.He’ll be all right, won’t he?Hehasto be all right!“And the next thing I knew, he’d passed out.”
“Did he complain of any pain?”she demanded as she gave an order to the man behind me in German.
