The guys from the Legion are hovering around Camilla, doting on her every need, and it’s just a cruel reminder of what I want with Chloe but will never have. Because not only is she not mine, but now I’ve let her down. I let her be taken, and she’s never going to forgive me for that.
The door behind me opens, but I don’t bother to turn and see who has joined me. At least until they lower to the step beside me and I find big gray eyes staring up at me.
“What are you doing out here? And how did you slip away from your four nurses?”
Camilla smirks, looking over her shoulder at the door. “I told them I was going to the bathroom and that if they followed me that I would stab them.”
“Surprised Kovu didn’t take the opportunity you gave him.”
The quiet night fills with her soft laughter, followed promptly by a hiss of pain.
“You should go back inside.”
“So should you,” she challenges.
I sigh, dropping my head into my hands.
“I didn’t take you for a quitter,” she muses. “In fact, everything I know of you and your past indicates you don’t give up until the job is done.”
My brows shoot up as I glance over at her. I had no idea she knew what I did before I came here, that the boss would tellanyoneabout that side of my life.
The fewer people who know you kill people for a living, the better.
“I need to ask you a question, and I need you to answer me truthfully. I won’t tell the guys or anyone else, but I need to know before we go any further.”
I nod slowly. If she already knows I’m the person who hunts the scum of the earth, there’s no sense lying to her about anything else.
“Are Kingston Beaumont and Hawk the same person?”
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
CHLOE
NOW
Ronan finally helped me back to the mattress with the promise of coming back with everything I need before disappearing from the cellar. But that was a while ago, and if I don’t have painkillers soon, they won’t help at all.
It’s been a long time since I’ve got to the stage where I can’t manage the pain, but the memories of agony that never seemed to quit are so fresh it may as well have been yesterday.
Burying my head in the pillow, I sob through another sharp cramp that shoots down my thigh. It hurts so badly I can almost forget where I am and that there’s blood seeping through my sweats.
This is as close to rock bottom as I’ve been in a long time, and yet I’m still mortified.
I bled all over Ronan, and I didn’t even have the energy to climb out of his lap.
I don’t have the energy for anything.
For three days a month, I’m basically bedridden.
When Camilla was younger, she seemed to know when those days were coming around because she suddenly wanted to have a girls’ movie weekend and order in for every meal.
Even at nine years old, she was so wise. It makes sense that she was able to step into her role as the head of the family at eighteen without hesitation.
I’m pulled from my thoughts when the door opens slowly, not that it makes any less noise.
Ronan appears with two bags over his shoulders, a stack of pillows in his arms, and what appears to be an electric throw blanket.
There isn’t a power outlet in here, but I guess it’s the thought that counts.
