The hotel Akari had put us up in was far more spacious than our hospital accommodation, but when push came to shove, we were still prisoners and had been trapped inside those four walls whenever there hadn’t been a prearranged meeting.After hours of bubbling trepidation, when we’d been drip-fed information, the suite seemed to be getting smaller and smaller.Captivity was starting to take its toll.Of the two of us, I should have fucking known.
“Please.”My voice had taken on that imploring tone he usually enjoyed, but the exasperation glinting in his blue eyes suggested otherwise.“I need you to be honest, Sir.Tell me what you think Jackson might have planned.”
“You’re right.”He raked his fingers through his dark hair, highlighting more of the gray gathering around his temples.“I’m just saying, he might not be as dumb as you think.I’m not saying that he’s worked out our double bluff with the ICC.I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t imagine anything as daring as that, and remember, he doesn’t recognize any authority higher than himself.”
Rubbing my eyes, my thoughts returned to Jackson’s insufferable arrogance.Once upon a time, I’d thought Harper had a serious superiority complex, but it was nothing compared to the man he’d once called boss.
“What do you think he’ll have planned?”
I was loath to hear the answer, but at the same time, impotency demanded I know.We’d been wasting away there in that hotel room for too long.Too many hours to think, to contemplate every worst-case scenario.Hell, all the waiting had even managed to dampen our usually incandescent libidos.I hadn’t even thought about Harper taking me in hand since we’d arrived at the place, and I knew things were bad when he didn’t try to take me back to bed.
“Like I said, I think there’s a reasonable chance I’ll suffer some sort of retribution before Laurent’s navy guys can intercept.”Harper frowned, as if he suspected he’d already said too much, and my hammering heart rate rushed to confirm his concerns.
“Oh, God.”I rose from the bed and inched toward his chair.He had intimated the outcome before, saying the ‘consequences’ would be justice for me, but with only hours before his departure, there was no solace in his thinking.“Do you think Jackson will really hurt you?”
“Not Jackson.”Harper snorted.“Ian’s always been useless in fistfights.But likely, he’ll have employed someone else to do his dirty work.”
“But, Sir.”I shook my head.“I can’t bear the thought of anyone hurting you.”
“I can take it.”His gaze met mine, and the determination I saw there was steely.I’d seen that facet of Harper many times before, and it rarely worked out well for me.
“I can’t risk losing you.”The words got stuck in my throat, tumbling from me in one rapid exhale.
“You won’t, little girl.”His reply was like a sigh as he rose to his feet.“I’m doing this for us, remember?So that we can have a future together.”
“I know.”Tears burned in my eyes again.They’d been a frequent visitor over the course of the last week.“But none of it is worth it if you’re gone.”
“I’m right here.”He reached for me, tugging me close, and unthinkingly, I wrapped my arms around his body.
“This is too much.”
Mumbling the words against his chest, my head throbbed with urgency.We couldn’t have come so far as a couple only to see the man I loved ended on some shitty boat in the Channel.I had no idea how our story would end, but I refused to accept that version of the twisted tale.
“I will be fine,” he soothed, rubbing his hand between my shoulder blades.I melted against his body, absurdly thankful for his hard lines.“And so will we.I shouldn’t have said anything about my suspicions.I’m sorry.”
“No.”I pulled in a deep breath, inadvertently taking in the scent of the shower gel he’d washed with.My mind flitted back to the way he’d looked under the hot, cascading water, trying to decide how on Earth the view couldn’t have aroused me.“I’m glad you told me what was on your mind, Sir.I need your honesty, but Adam...”
The pain in my head exacerbated then, shooting across my temples as though an unseen force was focused on stabbing me between the eyes.I gasped at the hurt, my eyelids squeezing shut to block out the room, which was starting to sway around me.I couldn’t have said I’d felt under the weather until that moment.Anxious, yes, but not ill.But gripping onto his body, I was suddenly engulfed by the enormity of what awaited him, heat rising to my throat as though the intense temperature was determined to suffocate me.
“We should call the whole thing off.”I forced the words out, burying my face against his shirt so he couldn’t see the discomfort on my face.“I can’t let anything happen to you.”
“I’ve made an agreement with the ICC, Caroline.”The terseness of his tone confirmed he hadn’t yet seen my expression.“I’m not going to renege, especially when so much is on the line.”
Of course not.
The reply rebounded in my head, but the intensity of the headache had all but silenced me.I considered mustering the strength to reply, although I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Wait.”He tensed, taking a tiny step back while his huge hands held me upright at the shoulders.“Are you okay, little girl?”
“Yes,” I lied, compelling my eyes to open just in time to acknowledge the soft furnishings blanching in all directions.I hadn’t felt that way since the day I’d passed out in Harper’s Fortorus office, and Armitage, his doctor at the time, had put that down to my understandable dehydration and malnutrition.“I’m just stressed out.”
I contemplated lifting my gaze to meet his eyes but instinctively recognized the feat would only heighten my dizziness.
“You are not okay,” he concluded, swooping to sweep me from my feet.I yelped when my toes left the carpet, clinging to him harder as he carried me back to the bed.“I’m going to need you to lie down.”
“But, Adam...”I was vaguely cognizant of the soft duvet under my head when he laid me there.“What about you?”
“I.Will.Be.Fine.”He pressed the back of his hand to my forehead.“I’ve survived worse than a beating before.You, on the other hand, are definitely overdoing it, little girl.You’re pale, yet you’re burning up.”
