Page 19 of Keeping Eveline

“A little better. My head doesn’t hurt as much as it had a few hours ago.”

“Good news.” His phone beeped with an incoming email. One glance told him it was from Irish. Ox had long ago stopped asking Irish if he slept, so him responding quickly wasn’t a surprise. “With your head not aching, is it becoming clearer?”

Way to beat around the bush.

Why couldn’t he come out and just ask her if she remembered the attack?

Because you don’t want to cause her any more pain than what she’s already experienced over the last few hours.

His voice of reason validated his thought processes, but it was unlike him.

“Is what becoming clearer?” Eveline asked her brow furrowing. “Why don’t you ask what you really want to ask?”

Damn, her quick response showed him that her mind was a lot clearer than it’d been the first time she woke up.

“Can you remember anything about your attack?”

Eveline looked away, and Ox cursed himself for rushing in with the question instead of couching it in a way that wasn’t so blunt. Then again, she did ask for him to be straight with her.

“Bits and pieces are coming back,” she replied eventually.

“That’s good. Now that you’re more aware of it, it will be easier to answer the questions the police will ask.”

Her eyes widened at the mention of the police.

Interesting—did she not want to talk to them? Did she not want to file an assault report?

The last thing Ox wanted to suspect was that the attack was part of some elaborate plan to draw him into the trap Gerald Morkham was setting, but would Eveline really let herself be attacked that way in an attempt to bring him and Alliez down?

Why was he so suspicious of Eveline?

She wasn’t Viviana.

Ox shut the door quickly on the woman who’d betrayed him and his team. He couldn’t let that cloud his judgment, particularly in this case.

“Is that necessary? I didn’t get a look at him because he came up behind him and shoved me into the wall.”

He clenched his fists at hearing what happened to Eveline. “I think it’s very necessary. Unless you knew who attacked you.”

She shrunk back against the pillows as if he’d struck her. “Why would you say that?” she whispered.

Ox shrugged. “What else am I supposed to think when you won’t file a police report? Not to mention you conveniently came to my office and then collapsed at my feet.”

With every word out of his mouth, his unfairness hit, yet he couldn’t seem to stop them from flowing out of him.

“I think you should go,” Eveline said with quiet dignity. “Thank you for making sure that I got help, but your responsibility toward me is done.”

To punctuate her point, she turned her head away.

Ox scraped a hand down his face. His head was beginning to pound from lack of sleep. His side was hurting from sitting in a plastic chair for hours.

What he wanted to do was change the last fifteen minutes. Act without bias toward Eveline. Show her the compassion she deserved after a brutal attack.

A shudder went through Eveline, and he wanted nothing more than to climb on the bed and hold her tight. Give her the comfort she deserved.

“Eveline, I’m sorry. I’m being an ass. I have—” He paused not wanting to dig up the past, but how could he not when that was the reason he was acting this way? This wasn’t her fault. “There are things that’ve happened in the past that have…clouded the way I’ve treated you. It’s no excuse, but please, I’m sorry.”

She still wouldn’t look at him, so he couldn’t judge if she was willing to hear him out.

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