Page 37 of Conquer

Fourteen

Adrian

I triedto shut off my emotions, knew that doing so was the only way I could handle this, but for the first time in my life doing so was nearly impossible.

How had I lived so long, so detached, and yet in this period of time, one so short, had everything changed?

I knew it was because of Sam, but what I didn’t know was what I would do about it.

And in the end, it didn’t matter.

I doubted I would live to see tomorrow, but I had things to take care of first.

I couldn’t go to Maxim, though. Not yet. I didn’t know what he would do about Sam, and I wouldn’t do anything that put her at risk.

Anything else that put her at risk.

Instead, I worked efficiently, gathered the cash that I had on hand and made the bank transfer.

Then, I went to the meeting place.

How had I let this get so wildly out of hand?

That was the question I still didn’t have an answer to, but that also didn’t matter.

What mattered was that I had let it get out of hand and in the process had failed absolutely everyone.

But while I knew I would never be able to fix it, I would make it as right as I could.

And despite how all this had turned out, I couldn’t bring myself to regret it.

From the very first moment I had looked at her picture, I had loved Sam.

That I’d gotten to know her, spend time with her, was more than I’d ever hoped for and more than I deserved.

I was paying for that joy now—would eventually pay for it with my life.

And it was worth it.

I would see that Sam got out of this alive, and then I would go forward with no regrets.

I turned, parked, and turned off the car when I reached the place Gordon had set for us to meet, and I grabbed the bag from the trunk.

I walked toward the car parked about three hundred yards away. When I saw Sam, I tried my hardest not to react, but how could I not?

“Are you okay?” I asked before I even looked at Gordon.

Her nostrils flared with anger—anger that I expected and anger that was completely justified—but she nodded, and I was able to breathe.

“Touching. You mind if we get this over with?” Gordon said.

I reached out to hand him the bag, but he shook his head.

“No. Open it up.”

I dropped the bag and then kneeled down quickly to unzip it.

“Take everything out,” he said.

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