30. Cash #2
Though I tried to get some shut-eye, I barely got more than a few hours, just as I had since this whole thing began.
My brain wouldn’t turn off, and the worry I constantly felt for Eva just wouldn’t go away.
No matter how hard I tried to relax, even with her in my arms, the nightmares continued and the thoughts that constantly plagued me ran on repeat in my mind.
Even with her in my arms, I felt like there was a clock ticking down, taunting me with the few hours I might have left with her until my world came crashing down around me.
A soft knock at the door drew my attention, and when it opened, Knight was quirking his eyebrow at me, asking if I was ever going to get out of bed. I gave a tight nod just before he closed the door.
Gently extricating myself from Eva, I slid from the bed, all too aware of just how wobbly I was on my feet. The pounding in my head was something I pushed away as long as I could, but now that I was standing, it reminded me of the severe knock I took to the head.
Hobbling over to the table, I unzipped the bag and rifled through it until I pulled out a pair of boxers, trying desperately to lift my leg high enough to slip my foot in.
“Now, there’s a sight I love to see in the morning,” Eva murmured behind me.
Turning, I shot her what I hoped was a sexy grin instead of the wince I was trying to hold back. Clearly, I failed when she chuckled and got out of bed, striding over to me in all her beautiful, naked glory.
“You should sit down before you fall down.”
“Gotta get up,” I said, my voice gruff.
“Yeah, but obviously, bending in that way is not going to work.”
“Clearly,” I smirked, drawing a twitch to her lips.
She pushed me onto the chair and got down on her knees, slipping the boxers over my feet. “If I had a little more time…” she said, her eyes meeting mine.
I was hard in seconds, thinking about her mouth on my cock, but we didn’t have time for that. We both knew it. She batted those beautiful eyelashes at me before drawing my underwear up my legs.
“Up,” she murmured.
I lifted my hips and allowed her to tug them the rest of the way up. I refused to admit that just that movement was a little too much work for me. I needed to swallow down the pain and get on the move before someone else in the Shadow Government caught up with me.
“Pants, mister.” She snatched the jeans from the bag, sighing as she slipped them around my feet. “It’s a shame to cover up this body, but I guess no one else shares the same appreciation for it that I do.”
“Probably not,” I chuckled. As soon as she had them up my legs, I stood to do the rest of the work.
Snatching a shirt, I tugged it over my head, ignoring the pull in my side as best I could, but the dizziness that washed over me had me stumbling just a step, giving away the fact that I was not anywhere near one hundred percent.
“You should have FNG look at that wound in your thigh again.”
“It’s fine,” I mumbled, not wanting to talk about how broken my body was at the moment.
“If it was fine, you wouldn’t be stumbling around.”
“It’s not because of that,” I said before I could think better of it.
But she caught on, and she knew there was another issue. Fuck, I should have kept my mouth shut.
She shrugged on a shirt and was striding out the door before I could call her back, shouting down the house for FNG to get his ass in my room. Sighing, I sat down, knowing there was no way I was walking out of this room until she had him examine me.
Moments later, FNG was there, grinning at me as he walked over with a medical bag. I had no idea where he got it from, but I was grateful when he pulled out some pain meds for me.
“Is the knock to the head causing a little pain?”
I grunted in response, not wanting to say too much while Eva was in the room.
“I’m surprised you made it this long without needing more pain meds. Hiding it from Eva is not smart,” he muttered under his breath. “Did you really think she wouldn’t notice?”
My eyes flicked to Eva as she stood in the background, arms crossed as she tried not to intervene, probably to yell at me.
“It’s fine,” I grumbled, knowing it really wasn’t. My body was trying its best to hold together. I should probably be in a hospital instead of walking around, not that I would ever admit that. The pounding in my head was the smallest of my problems.
But I ignored all the other signs of trauma and pushed through it. I had to. There was no room for falling apart when I had the Shadow Government on my ass.
“Let me see that wound in your side,” FNG said. When I didn’t immediately move, he sighed and got down on his knees, tugging at my shirt. The moment he moved the gauze, I knew there was an issue.
The low curse under his breath and the warmth radiating through my body told me all I needed to know.
“You know, antibiotics are good for a reason, you stubborn ass.”
“What’s wrong?” Eva asked, instantly on alert.
“Nothing,” FNG snapped. “Just your husband being a stubborn asshole.” FNG shook the bottle in my face. “See these? These are called lifesavers. You take them so you don’t die.”
“You’re the medic,” I shot back.
“Yes, and I came in here last night to check on you, but you told me you would shoot me if I stepped one foot closer to the bed.”
My scowl deepened as I remembered him walking in while Eva was naked in my arms. “You should have fucking known better.”
“Like I said,” he shook his head. “Stubborn ass.”
He dropped two pills into my hand, along with what looked like four horse pills, and grabbed a bottle of water off the table, opening it for me like I was a child.
“Take them.”
“This won’t knock me out?” I questioned.
The brutal look on his face said I didn’t have a choice in the matter. “Do you want to die?”
“Take them,” Eva snapped, leaving no room for arguments.
I tossed them back with the help of water, then got to my feet. Eva was there in a flash, guiding me toward the bed.
“I need to talk to Knight.”
“You need to sleep,” Eva argued.
“And I have no doubt I will when the meds kick in. Eva?—”
“Fine,” she relented, “but if you collapse out there, I’m leaving your ass wherever you fall.”
I knew she wouldn’t, but I appreciated her attitude all the same. Knight quirked an eyebrow at me as he spotted Eva fussing over me from the moment I walked out of the room until she sat me down in the kitchen at the table.
“Shut up,” I muttered.
“I didn’t say a damn thing.”
Easing down in the chair, I tried to sort my thoughts, to figure out the next step, but I was lost as to what had happened over the last few days. I didn’t know how long I had been out even though it felt like only hours.
“Where do we stand?”
“Your guys have been leading Shadow agents all over the fucking place for days. So far, we’ve taken out fourteen of them. However, your good friend from the other night has vanished. No idea where he is. We haven’t been able to track him since he nearly killed you.”
“And you’re not likely to.” Iron was as slippery as they came. “What about Michael?”
“He hasn’t shown his face anywhere.”
Sighing, I scrubbed a hand over my face, remembering my last conversation with him. “We can’t trust him.”
“We never could,” Knight mused.
“He’s not just part of the Shadow Government,” I told Knight. “Right before I left for the job, I found out he’s the one in charge. He’s fucking running the Shadow Government.”
The shock on Knight’s face was nothing more than a flicker in his eyes. “No, that would mean?—”
“Exactly.”
“That would mean what?” IRIS asked as he walked into the room, picking up the tail end of our conversation.
Kavanaugh and Thumper followed, all of them watching curiously.
“Michael is running the Shadow Government,” Knight explained. “Which means he knew all along what Rafe was planning, and he never fucking tried to stop him.”
“Wait, if he controls them, why the hell didn’t he go in and get Izzy back?” Kavanaugh asked.
“Because it would fuck up their plans,” I surmised. “Everything the Shadow Government does is for some supposed bigger reason. If they felt Izzy needed to stay with Zavala, they wouldn’t have lifted a finger to do a damn thing.”
“But that’s his fucking daughter!” Thumper exclaimed. “She was being raped and beaten, and he just allowed that?”
I didn’t have any answers for him. The anger was dull in my head as the meds started to kick in, and I was barely able to focus on more than making my eyes stay open. Exhaustion swept over me swiftly, making everything around me slow down to an annoying crawl.
“We can’t trust him,” I said, the words sounding slow and drawn out even to my own ears.
“In order to take down the Shadow Government, we have to take down Michael,” Kavanaugh said. “Are you okay with that?”
It was odd that he was asking me. After all, his old man had been shot right in front of him as he was being told about the very group that was running the world. Now, he was asking permission to go after my old man and take him out.
I chuckled at the humor of the situation, but no one else seemed to find it that funny. “Bet this is fun for you,” I murmured.
“What’s that?”
“Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it?” My eyes drooped as I tried and failed to keep them open.
“This isn’t about payback, Cash. I don’t take any pleasure in knowing what has to happen if we want to end this.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t sure I believed it. After all the shit I’d done, I wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to shove a knife between my ribs.
“Sorry, man,” I slurred, wishing I could keep it together long enough to tell him how fucking horrible I felt about the whole thing.
“Let’s get you to bed before you pass out at the table,” FNG said, shoving his shoulder under my arm. “Kavanaugh, grab the other side.”
I stumbled with them to the bedroom, barely aware of Eva undressing me after I was gently plopped in bed.
“You’re burning up,” Eva whispered.
“No less…than I deserve,” I forced through cracked lips.
I drifted in and out until I felt a cool cloth on my forehead, and Eva’s soothing words as she laid down beside me and held my hand in hers.
“No one blames you, Cash. We’re all here for you.”
“I blame me,” I muttered right before I passed out.