Page 139 of Lethal Game

She smiled at him, but it was wobbly. “I’m so glad you’ve decided to live. I was incredibly lucky to have you as a partner and battle buddy. You’re big and sexy and you make me laugh. I wish I could have had more time with you, but it’s not going to work out that way.” She sniffed. “I hope you continue to kick terrorist ass, and you find happiness, because you deserve it.”

Her words gutted him. She was leaving him so she could die where he couldn’t be with her, comfort her, love her.

This wasn’t a casual brush-off.

She was saying goodbye forever.

No fucking way.

He’d fought for her, lived for her, and he wasn’t about to let her give up on herself.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Sophia hurt so much, like someone had taken her right arm and ripped it off. The last thing she wanted was to be away from Connor, but her cell counts weren’t going up on their own. It was looking like her bone marrow had given up the ghost and wasn’t producing much of anything.

Losing Con, never seeing him again, not being able to touch him, was a sort of emotional torture, but he had a life to live and now he might actually want to live it.

She hated the confused hurt she saw on his face. She’d done that, wounded him, but she couldn’t take it back. It was better than letting him watch her die.

He froze, absolutely motionless for a second, then his expression morphed into confusion and uncertainty.

So much pain on his face, and she’d put it there.

She wanted to take it all back, apologize for hurting him and promise whatever he needed to give her back her confident soldier again, but her death would hurt him so much more.

This was the lesser of the two evils.

The pain receded from his face, replaced by anger, irritation, and resolve.

Uh oh.The soldier was back.

“You shut that shit up,” he growled at her.

Great, he was going to get stubborn. “Con, this isn’t something you can bulldoze your way through. You can’t stare it into submission or order it to stop. I’m deathly ill.”

“Exactly,” he said, bending down.

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