“Yeah, well. Perhaps you’d have been able to be more open with me if I hadn’t messed you around so much in the first place.”
There was blame on both sides, but the truth was, neither of us had created the way of life that had damaged us both so much. Without sabbing, who would we be? Would this be easier? Or would we value it less?
Wisdom had never been my forte. And I didn’t care anymore. Cash was safe, and I’d do anything and everything to keep him that way. More than that. I fucking loved him, and it was about time I told him so.
I leaned down to kiss him, but he was already asleep again.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cash
Recovering from hypothermia was a bitch, made worse by the rotten chest infection the doctor had predicted. Two weeks passed in a blur of coughing and Dom’s icky sports drinks. Headaches and exhaustion. The only positive I enjoyed was Rae. He stayed with me the whole time, taking unobtrusive care of me when I was awake, and typing furiously on a borrowed laptop when I wasn’t.
He didn’t say much, but neither did I. I didn’t dare. Having him by my side was incredible, as though he’d always been there, but as I became more present, a nagging sensation consumed me. I couldn’t hide from the fact that sooner or later, the hunt would call him home.
I didn’t want him to go. I wanted him to stay in London, with me, until we could figure out what to do next.
Three weeks after the worst weekend in the world, two Bedfordshire coppers came to see us. Rae seemed to recognise one of them, but I’d never seen them before.
Fortuitously, they turned up on a day when Dom was home, too. Or maybe it wasn’t a coincidence. I’d lost track of him and Isha’s involvement, and I was past caring. I just wanted the whole thing over with.
“Okay.” The first officer—PC Harding—opened his notebook. “There’s a lot to get through, so I’m going to sum it up for you first, so you’re not left wondering about any of the big stuff while we go into the details.”
Dom’s expression was fierce, but Rae looked as apprehensive as I felt. Despite being on my knees the last few weeks, the bubble we’d built around ourselves had made it easy—too easy—to shut the world out. There were a lot of things I hadn’t thought about, and I wasn’t ready for that to change.
But I didn’t have much choice. The world kept turning, whether I wanted it to or not.
“It’s Cash, right?” PC Harding fixed his gaze on me. “I have your name down as Ciaran, but I haven’t heard anyone call you that except your uncle when he called to give me a bollocking last week.”
I winced. My family didn’t know much about my life these days, but my uncle was the kind of bloke who’d, rightly or wrongly, been raised to believe all coppers needed a good thrashing. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. He didn’t seem to know much about the circumstances we were dealing with, so I don’t blame him for being frustrated. Anyway, with that in mind, we’ll start with where we’re at with what happened to you, so perhaps you can update him.”
“Okay.” I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.
Rae draped a blanket over my shoulders and sat next to me. He didn’t touch me, but the policeman’s gaze flickered between us, gauging us the way only coppers could.
Fuck that. I grabbed Rae’s hand and lifted my chin.Come at me, I dare you.
Of course, he didn’t. Why would he? What Rae and I were to each other was irrelevant to anyone but us, and I sure as shit didn’t even know.
“Cash?”
“Hmm?”
Rae nudged me and jerked his head. Fuck. I’d missed something. “Sorry. What?”
PC Harding shifted in his seat. “I was saying that I’ll need to take a full statement from you, but based on the CCTV evidence we have, and the witness statements we’ve already gathered, we’re going for a charge of grievous bodily harm against you. The CPS might drop it down to wounding with intent, but we’re going to try for the higher charge.”
Dom grunted. “It should be attempted murder.”
“I agree,” PC Harding said. “But given that Cash’s injuries were relatively minor, we’d have a hard time proving an intent to kill, and if we overreach, there’s a chance he’ll walk.”
“So? I thought you lot were in his pocket?”
I snapped my head at Dom too fast, but I ignored the dizziness. “The fuck are you talking about?”
Dom shot the policemen a meaningful glare. “We’ll get to that, right?”
