Page 96 of Coup De Grâce
“Shut up,” I muttered, barely getting the words beyond my lips.
We jerked to a halt and the doors opened, bringing the morning light in with them. My body ached with the movement as I was lifted out of the back and carried around like a sack of potatoes. I was about to tell him to just drop me anywhere when I smelled it again.
“Jasmine,” I muttered, my eyes fighting the urge to drop dead, they flew open and searched for the woman from my dreams.
When she came into view, I could have sworn I was hallucinating. She couldn’t be here. There was no fucking way.
“Eva,” I gasped, biting back the pain as I was shifted and something dug into me.
“Shh,” she whispered as she came closer. “It’s okay.”
“Why?” I croaked, barely able to talk over the tears welling in my chest. She couldn’t be here. I ran from her so she would never be wrapped up in my mess, yet here she was. This couldn’t be happening.
“You have to go.”
If I thought I was hallucinating, I knew I wasn’t now as she shot me a look, telling me to shut the fuck up. “You know, I’ve been letting you tell me what to do for just a little too long, and look at where that’s gotten you. Beaten, barely alive, and on the world’s most wanted list. I think you’d be better off just letting me take things from here.”
My lips quirked up in a grin at her words. Somehow, even when I was broken and barely alive, she managed to make me smile. Her hand snaked around mine, holding me tight and relieving the ache inside me. The pain of leaving her had nearly killed me, but I did it to save her.
And now she was here.
I choked on the words I’d so desperately wanted to tell her for months. The pain was overwhelming, reminding me of what had just happened. Someone was after me, and as long as she was by my side, she was in danger.
“You have to go,” I gritted out. “It’s not safe.”
“Nothing’s ever safe in life, Cash.”
She didn’t understand. Why was she even here? What was she thinking, traveling halfway around the world to be with me?
“Eva, they’ll kill you. They’re here?—”
“Shh,” she soothed, brushing a hand along my cheek. “Do you really think I’d let anyone close enough to hurt me?”
I tried to sit up, desperate to get her away from me. If they knew she was here, they wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet in her head. No, that wasn’t right. They would torture her before they killed her as a message to me.
Hell, anyone who was connected with me would be in danger. I couldn’t let any of them stay. They all had to go.
“FNG, give him something to knock him out.”
I struggled to argue, but FNG was already heading toward me with a needle. If he stuck that in my skin, I wouldn’t be able to fight; I wouldn’t be able to get her to leave. They would come for her, and I would be helpless to stop them.
I gripped FNG’s wrist just as he came at me. My grip was weak, but I held him firm with all my might, forcing him to stop and listen.
“Please, make her leave,” I gritted out.
But his only response was a grin before he jerked his hand out of my grasp and jabbed the needle into my arm. “You know as well as I do that there’s no telling Eva what to do when she’s made up her mind.”
Desperation clawed at my throat as I tried and failed to stay lucid long enough to get any of them to listen to me. I heard them distantly making plans, all the while I was fading, unable to do a damn thing to prevent what I knew was about to happen.
They would all die.
And it would all be my fault.
29
EVA
Sleep crustedmy eyes as I peeled them open and rested a hand on my husband’s still-expanding chest. He was alive.
