Page 98 of Coup De Grâce
I knew that. God, did I know that. My heart ached every day he was gone, knowing he was fighting a battle he very well might not win. And all the time, feeling like he couldn’t talk to me. I played my part, doing my best to be the grieving woman who had been left behind.
It wasn’t difficult. I was grieving. Just not for the reasons others suspected. Now…how could I ever let him leave me again? After all we’d been through, I just couldn’t allow him to sacrifice anything more.
“This has to end, Knight. We’re done.”
“I know.”
“Was it worth it?” I finally tore my eyes from my husband and looked at Knight. “Was abandoning his family to take down the Shadow Government really worth it? Look at where he is now.”
Knight’s eyes flashed with anger as a cold chill took over the room and his temper flared. “You ask if it was worth it? If he hadn’t left, they would have come after anyone close to Rafe. He bought us time. Yes, it was fucking worth it. By joining them, he got to the inner circle. He figured out major players, which allowed us to gain access to information we didn’t have before. Fox was able to get account numbers, which Rae is currently using to drain their funds and make it impossible to function.
“Without that information, the Shadow Government would still be running free, making decisions for the rest of the world without us knowing a damn thing. Yeah, I’d say his sacrifice was worth it.”
“But Michael had access all along,” I whispered, knowing this was a point of contention. “If you and Cash plotted this out with Michael, why didn’t he just hand over that information to you? Why make you go through all this?”
His jaw clenched in anger. “That’s something you’ll have to ask Michael.”
The last thing I wanted was to talk to Michael. He was Cash’s father, and I knew it was a twisted relationship, one that Knight didn’t come close to sharing anymore. But Cash had sacrificed so much. It didn’t make sense that a father would allow his son to go through all this when he so easily could have ended it all.
“Get some sleep,” Knight said, turning his back as he walked out of the room.
Sighing, I rested my head on the pillow next to Cash, but sleep wouldn’t come. Not when I was finally back by myhusband’s side again. Not when he was so close I could touch him.
My only concern was which man would wake up beside me. The protector or the villain?
Featherlight touches slidover my cheek, rousing me from sleep. “Cash,” I murmured, my eyes still heavy as I struggled to wake up.
“Sleep.”
The soft words lulled me back to sleep momentarily, until I realized those words were spoken by none other than my husband. My eyes flew open and I stared in the pale moonlight at my husband, whose eyes were watching me intently.
“You’re awake!”
Still, he said nothing. The cold, hard mask of indifference had returned. My husband wasn’t here right now. No, he was pretending to be the man who had walked out on me, but why?
“How are you feeling?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped, his anger rising to the surface.
“I’m here because you need me.”
He scoffed, pushing upright in such a painfully slow manner that I nearly helped him.
Nearly.
I knew he wouldn’t appreciate the help right now. Not when he was trying so damn hard to lock away all his emotions.
“Eva, you shouldn’t have come over here. I don’t need you.”
I barked out a laugh at that. “Really? Because when we found you, there wasn’t much left of your life.”
He twisted just enough to look over his shoulder at me, but I could feel the heat from his gaze, the anger simmering under the surface. “Just another thing we need to discuss.”
“My tracking you?” I snapped. “What’s wrong? You don’t like it when the tables are turned? You don’t like knowing that I was watching you all along? That you never really escaped me? Or is it that you didn’t pick up on it after all these years that rankles?”
“I left for a reason,” he snapped, pushing to his feet.
But that ended up being the wrong move. I sprang into action as he swayed, barely staying upright for more than a few seconds. Lowering him back to the bed, he did his level best to appear to be the grouch asshole he wanted me to believe he was.
