Page 28 of Heartless

His old man still lived inside his head. His tainted blood was in his veins. There was no way in hell he planned on repeating what Cooper Hawthorne had propagated. His bloodline would die with Hawke, and good riddance.

The bathroom door opened, and Olivia emerged. Dressed in a robe that was two sizes too large, with her hair in a messy knot and bruises on her face, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever known.

She raised that haughty chin of hers and snapped, “I thought I told you to leave.”

“And I told you this can’t wait.”

He knew she was close to collapse. Hell, it had been over thirty-six hours since he’d slept, and his entire body felt sluggish and worn. And he hadn’t been beaten and drugged. But this had to be done. He’d put it off too long already.

“I brought you a sandwich and a pot of tea.” He gestured toward the desk where he’d set a tray earlier. “There’s some ointment for your injuries and some pain meds, too.”

He told himself he wasn’t taking care of her like before. This was something he’d do for anyone who was hurt. Even an enemy.

“How thoughtful, Hawke. That makes up for everything.”

He ignored the sarcasm. “We need to talk.”

“All right. You want to talk, then tell me why you lied.”

“Now’s not the time for that. We have some new players in the game.”

“Dammit, you owe me an explanation. Why did you disappear? We had an agreement.”

“I had my reasons, Livvy.”

“No. I’m not Livvy to you anymore, and you’re not Nic. We are Olivia and Hawke from now on.”

“If that’s what you want.”

“What I want is so far out of reach, it doesn’t even exist on this plane.”

“Liv…Olivia, we will get to the reason I disappeared, I promise. But for right now, we have bigger fish to fry. I need to know what those men asked you, what they said. You were vague before, but you must remember something.”

“I told you what they asked about. All the questions were related to old cases I worked while I was still with MI6.”

“Nothing current? Nothing that you didn’t understand?”

Her brow furrowed with confusion. “No. Nothing like that.”

“Then it was for show.”

“What do you mean?”

Hawke pushed his fingers through his hair, cursing his stupidity. It was what he’d feared, and he was once again infuriated with himself for not seeing this coming. Of course they’d go after Olivia. They would think she was involved, that she likely had even instigated the whole thing.

Turning his gaze back to her, he swallowed what he’d been about to say. He could at least give her one night of rest before he pierced her already-dented armor.

“Nothing. We can talk about it tomorrow.”

Moving faster than he expected, considering her battered body, she ran to the door, blocking his exit. “No,” she ground out. “You will not do this to me, Hawke. Not again. Tell me why you let me believe you were dead. You’re not leaving until you do.”

“Our marriage was over. After what I did…what happened… I thought it would be best to—”

“That was not our agreement. Our marriage might have ended, but we were still partners. So don’t give me that. There was another reason, and I’m not moving until you tell me what it was.”

He could easily pick her up and move her out of his way. But damn if he didn’t deserve his own answers.

Before he could respond, she huffed out a sobbing breath. “Oh my sweet heavens. Did you think it was me? That I was the traitor?”

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