38. Cash
CASH
Sunlight streamed in through the window as I rolled over, sighing contentedly at the comfort of my own bed. I didn’t think I would ever get here, that I would ever feel Eva’s arms wrapped around me or smell her scent on my sheets again.
In fact, I was pretty fucking sure that if I ever made it home, she would slap me across the face and tell me to get the hell out.
But I was here, and this was very real. The only thing missing was her in bed with me, waking up in my arms.
Glancing at the clock, I was sure I had the time wrong, and even checked my phone to be sure when I saw the time. Twelve hours. I’d slept for a whole fucking twelve hours.
How the hell had that happened? Sleep hadn’t come since that day in New York. I’d been dealing with so much shit, least of all, my own injuries. Everything in me was sore, and the blood loss took a hell of a lot longer to come back from than I expected.
But I was home.
The door opened and Eva popped her head in, grinning when she saw I was awake. “Hey, sleepyhead.”
I shoved into a sitting position, hiding the wince as the wound in my thigh pulled. “Morning.”
“Still favoring that leg, I see.”
“It’s fine. I barely feel a thing.”
She shot me a knowing look as she sauntered over to me, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Why did you let me sleep so long?”
“Because you needed it.” Her eyes dropped as she took my hand in hers, squeezing tight. “It’s a big day.”
I nodded, unable to say much of anything. Since the day I found out that Rafe had gone to the island, I knew things would be bad. Every fucking day since then had been a nightmare, and as I suspected, the price was way too fucking high.
An entire year away from my wife and kids, my business falling onto the shoulders of others to keep it running, Isabelle, my father, Claire…
Fox.
“How’s Anna?” I asked, trying to hold it together. The weight of losing him was worse than I ever imagined. He would never be here to sing show tunes to me or make shawarma for us. There was a fucking stash of Funyuns that I wasn’t sure anyone would ever eat.
“She’s…” Eva shrugged. “Fine? I don’t know. It’s like it hasn’t hit her. She’s still smiling.”
“Well, she was married to Fox,” I said, my smile strained. “Maybe he left her a musical video.”
“Maybe.”
“I suppose I should get up and shower. The funeral is in a few hours.”
She nodded, leaning forward to press a kiss to my lips. “I love you, Cash Owens.”
“I love you, too.”
“Make me a promise right now.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t ever do that to me again.”
I quirked an eyebrow at her, hoping to lighten the tension. “Which part?”
“Leaving me for a year. Just…say you’re done with all that stuff.”
Sliding my arm around her waist, I pulled her onto my lap, settling her right against me.
“Kitten, it’s all over. We’re going to live out our lives in our bunker, with a training program for our kids, and the mechanic spying on all our visitors.
We’re never going to have to worry about a damn thing again because it’s over. No one else is coming for us.”
She let out a deep sigh and sank against me, burying her face in the crook of my neck. “It’s really over.”
“It’s really over,” I murmured, needing to remind myself as well.
Pulling back, tears shimmered in her eyes as she tried to keep it together. “I’m really going to miss him.”
“Me too.”
“He was my first friend,” she sniffled. “That crazy, show-tune singing psychopath was the only one to believe in me when I first came here. And now he’s gone.”
I brushed a tear from her face, wishing I could change it all. But I couldn’t. Nothing could fix what had been broken.
So, I held her tight and let her cry, hiding my own tears as I buried my face against her shoulder, crying for the friend I’d lost and my own family who had suffered the same fate.
Too much had been lost, but Fox wouldn’t want us focusing on the fact that he was gone. He would want us to eat shawarma and Funyuns, and celebrate his life. So, that’s what we were going to do.
“God, I’m crying all over you,” she mumbled, brushing away the tears. “Go, get cleaned up, and I’ll be downstairs waiting for you.”
I kissed her again and waited until she left to swing my legs over the edge of the bed. But the moment I did, the weight of it all came crashing down on me.
He was gone, and I was going to have to find a way to push through the day and remember everything he had done for me. Blood or not, he would always be my brother.