Chapter Seventeen
Caroline
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THE HOURS BLURRED INTO days, those days becoming difficult to decipher once the video had been published.
Somewhere along the line, Harper’s doctor had wanted to discharge him, but he’d managed to persuade her and Elsa to allow him to stay at the expensive hospital until, he assumed, he needed to leave for the English Channel.
Discharge would have meant the two of us being separated back into Swiss custody again, and both he and I were resolved to do everything possible to avoid that. Whatever was going to happen would only be manageable if the two of us stayed together for as long as we could.
Between meetings with hospital staff, the police, and the ICC’s pretrial judges, I marveled at how easily Harper was able to influence the people around us.
When he’d first suggested us remaining there in the small room he’d come to occupy, I’d been certain there was no chance the authorities would agree.
Why would they? Why allow an alleged war criminal to spend time with his asylum-seeking girlfriend in a medical facility when the services the institution provided were no longer required for his health?
Why do anything more to help us?
Yet, as surely as the morning followed the night, Harper maneuvered past each perceived obstacle and convinced everybody involved that, until there had either been a response from Jackson, or alternatively, his radio silence, staying in the hospital with a police guard was really the best place for us.
Even Kaspar and her bosses abandoned their defenses in the end, conceding his hospital room could be easily secured with relatively little additional expense.
He had offered to pay, after all. They would know where we were until a decision needed to be made about what came next.
His talent for engineering almost any outcome he wanted appeared to know no bounds.
Naturally, I’d been vaguely aware of his proficiency in Fortorus, but I’d always assumed it had been his rank and the threat of possible repercussions for denying him that had enabled his conceited sway.
Life in Switzerland, though, was proving otherwise.
Harper got his way because he was so bloody good at charming people.
Despite his history, people couldn’t help but like him.
“You’re quiet, little girl.”
I glanced back from the window of his room to find him staring at me from the bed.
It was strange how the relatively small space had become so much like a home since his health had stabilized.
Somehow, he’d even persuaded Elsa and the other nurses to bring us two meals three times a day, reminding them that he had the ability to pay for all our additional expenses.
I had no idea if he actually was reimbursing the facility for the room and food, but I wouldn’t have been surprised either way.
“I was just thinking, Sir.” Crossing the floor toward the bed, I sat down on the covers next to his left hand.
“Of course you were.” He smiled. “My little girl has always been an over-thinker.”
“It helps sometimes.” I shrugged.
“And often, it makes you feel worse.” He folded the newspaper Elsa had brought him and offered me his full attention.
“Maybe.” I didn’t want to argue with him. “It’s just while we’re stuck in this limbo, there’s not much more to do.”
“I can think of a few things.” He cocked one delectable eyebrow at me.
“We can’t keep doing those things here.” My gaze flitted to the closed door, half expecting to see Elsa or Kaspar bursting through to interrupt us.
I loved the passion we shared and was absurdly thankful that events of the last few weeks hadn’t diminished its power, but we had to be reasonable.
How long would the medics put up with our constant fucking before they expelled us? “This is a hospital, not a hotel.”
“It’s the best we have until the ICC makes a decision.” Sighing, he leaned back against the stack of pillows behind him. “But it’s still better than being without you.”
“Of course it is.” Inching closer, I grabbed his nearest hand. “We’re lucky they agreed to such unconventional living arrangements. I know that, Sir.”
“But the cramped conditions and not knowing what comes next is starting to grate, right?” His tone had shifted to that same wry timbre he employed with such regularity since we’d left Britain.
“I think it’s more the not knowing than anything else.” My gaze flitted around the room. “I’ve actually started to like this place.”
He chuckled at my assessment. “Well, as the patient, I can confirm that regular doses of your medicine have certainly helped me feel a lot more like myself.”
“Sir.” My tone was chiding, and shaking my head, I looked back at the window.
“Don’t ‘sir’ me.” A playful grin lit up his face as I spun back to see him. “We both know how we feel.”
“Yes,” I ceded. “But I can’t get used to being together in a place where there’s no real privacy. We need somewhere of our own again. I loved being at the house with you, and...” I hesitated, recalling the first place we’d called home in Switzerland.
“What?” He leaned closer. “What is it?”
“I just remembered Fabian.” I rubbed my thumb over his knuckles. “I had to tell Kaspar about him to get her to take me back to the house for ‘our clothes’.”
I used my fingers as inverted commas to describe the final two words. I had packed what limited attire we had that day, but I’d also picked up Harper’s gun and wads of cash, all of which were still stowed under his hospital bed.
“And?” He reached for my hand again as it lowered to the bed covers.
“And he’s probably going to be in trouble for leasing the house to us.” I sighed, still uncomfortable with the sense of having betrayed Fabian.
“Fabian’s choices are not our responsibility, little girl.”
“No, but without him, we’d have been screwed that first morning in the city,” I reminded him. “I just didn’t mean to drop him in the shit.”
“I’m sure he can look after himself.” Harper squeezed my fingers. “I’m not an expert on Swiss law, but he’ll probably suffer no worse than a fine.”
“I still feel bad.” Frustrated that he couldn’t see my point of view, I peered back out of the small window. “He was nothing but helpful to us.”
“I know, but we have bigger fish to fry right now.”
He certainly wasn’t wrong about that. I’d lost track of how many days had slipped past since Akari had approved the video of Harper’s apology for publishing, and so far, there had been no reaction from the British.
Naturally, I was thrilled that odious prick who’d been intent on killing me, and thousands of other women like me, hadn’t instructed Harper back to the place we’d fled, but at the same time, that low-lying anxiety lingered in the absence of Jackson’s reply.
The silence begged questions that only gnawed further at my nerves.
Had Jackson seen the video message? And if so, why hadn’t he responded?
After so many months of incarceration and torment, I’d assumed that the breadth of my anxiety had been stretched past its breaking point, but the ambiguity inspired by all the waiting was proving that point wrong.
Apparently, I still had a capacity for apprehension, and ostensibly, those feelings could still hold me hostage.
“You’re worrying again.” The weight of his glare burned into me. “Hospital staff or not, I’m going to have to tan that pretty backside again if you can’t stop torturing yourself.”
“If we weren’t here, I’d take you up on that offer in a heartbeat, Sir.”
Pulling in a breath, I could scarcely remember the last time I’d been sprawled over him to receive the brunt of his palm. Between his ill health, the ICC, and being stuck in the hospital, there had sadly been little chance for him to bring me to heel.
“Then we should make time for what you need.” His tone was suddenly serious. “I mean it, little girl. If Fortorus taught us anything, it was that we have to make the most of every opportunity.”
“Yes, Sir.” It had taught me a whole lot more.
“Let’s see if I can’t arrange some private time.” His lips elongated into a smirk. “Then we can both have what we want, and—”
His sensual threat was interrupted by Kaspar, who shoved the door open and rushed into the room.
“What’s happened?” I straightened, knowing immediately that something had to have caused her to hurry. In all the time I’d spent with Kaspar, I’d barely seen her break into a sprint.
“Jackson.” She pushed out his name between gasped breaths, seemingly as unfit as I was.
“What about him?” Harper’s stare drilled into her. “Has he replied?”
Kaspar nodded. “Another video.” Clearly, she’d been running so fast she could hardly get the words out. “But this one was sent directly to the portal we uploaded the last one from.”
“So, it hasn’t been posted publicly?” Harper swung his legs from the bed and rose to join Kaspar by the doorway.
“It doesn’t seem so.” Her gaze traveled from him to me. “The ICC want to meet with you right away to discuss the video’s contents.”
The knot of trepidation in my tummy tightened at the foreboding thought. I couldn’t decide if a private video from Jackson was a good sign or not, and sitting there, I realized there had been advantages to the state of ‘not knowing’, benefits I’d completely overlooked in my haste for action.
“Have you watched the video?” I asked Kaspar as I climbed to my feet.
“No,” she replied. “I came straight here to tell Mr. Harper.”
Harper’s focus darted to me, and he held out his hand as I approached. “Let’s see what the asshole wants.”