Chapter Nineteen
Caroline
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“WE’RE READY TO GO TOMORROW.” Shoving his hands into his pockets, Harper advanced toward the bed. “I leave for The Libération early. The ship departs at eight o’clock in the morning.”
Eight o’clock?
I stared at the electronic clock on the bedside counter, mentally working out the limited number of hours we had left before he headed out on the mission of madness.
A part of me still couldn’t believe he’d agreed to go, although I understood his reasons.
A larger facet of me couldn’t believe I was letting him go, and I repressed the smirk that rose at the thought.
My allowing him to do something was laughable. Adam Harper would do whatever he liked, just as he always had.
“Okay.”
My reply revealed some of the tension I was trying to hide, although I didn’t know why I’d bothered. He always got the truth from me in the end.
We’d been holed up in the Dutch hotel we were currently in for three whole days since arriving on the outskirts of The Hague, what little clothing we had and Harper’s bag of goodies thrown into the nearby wardrobe.
I considered how fortunate we’d been that no one had checked the duffle, but in our extraordinary circumstances and haste to leave, matters like basic security appeared to have been overlooked.
For once, our unconventional situation had played in our favor.
The three days at the hotel had largely been spent stuck inside a swanky suite, the officer outside our door ensuring we couldn’t pop out for a stroll around the grounds.
There had been three days of waiting, while alternating between the large bedroom and the so-called living space.
Three days of watching the clock crawl by.
If I’d thought the time at the hospital had been the limit of my patience, then I’d been very wrong.
Hours at the hotel stretched into long and anxious vacuums, when Harper was dragged from one meeting to the next, and transmissions were sent and received between what Jackson believed were Swiss officials and the grimy little prick himself.
If I’d been in a better mood about proceedings, I might have marveled at the irony that whenever I went to the Netherlands, I never got to see or enjoy any of the country.
By all accounts, it was beautiful, not that I could confirm or deny the point.
As it was, I was far too worked up to notice the paradox.
“Laurent is going to accompany me to The Libération before joining the French military vessel,” Harper explained.
“Jackson will approach on his Traditional Values ship, accompanied by a flotilla of God knows how many camera crews.” Harper rolled his eyes.
“His messages say he doesn’t want to miss a single angle of my return. ”
“I bet.”
I blew out a breath, trying to envision the absolute nightmare all of the scheming would create on the Channel, and not for the first time, strain twisted inside of me at the thought of what Harper was undertaking.
I couldn’t decide if I was going to be more nervous being forced to stay on land and watch him leave without me than if I’d had the chance to witness the scene for myself. Both ideas made me equally nauseous.
“I still can’t believe Jackson fell for this plan.” I shook my head. “I mean, a reunion at sea? He must be even more stupid than I thought.”
“Either that, or he has planned such a good welcoming committee for me that he’s not overly concerned.” Harper’s brow furrowed as though he hadn’t intended to say that last part out loud.
“Wait, what do you mean?” I seized on his words at once, my pulse increasing at the new anxiety.
“Nothing.” He sighed, slumping into the seat by the side of the bed. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
The hotel Akari had put us up in was far more spacious than our hospital accommodation, but when push came to shove, we were still prisoners and had been trapped inside those four walls whenever there hadn’t been a prearranged meeting.
After hours of bubbling trepidation, when we’d been drip-fed information, the suite seemed to be getting smaller and smaller.
Captivity was starting to take its toll.
Of the two of us, I should have fucking known.
“Please.” My voice had taken on that imploring tone he usually enjoyed, but the exasperation glinting in his blue eyes suggested otherwise. “I need you to be honest, Sir. Tell me what you think Jackson might have planned.”
“You’re right.” He raked his fingers through his dark hair, highlighting more of the gray gathering around his temples.
“I’m just saying, he might not be as dumb as you think.
I’m not saying that he’s worked out our double bluff with the ICC.
I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t imagine anything as daring as that, and remember, he doesn’t recognize any authority higher than himself. ”
Rubbing my eyes, my thoughts returned to Jackson’s insufferable arrogance. Once upon a time, I’d thought Harper had a serious superiority complex, but it was nothing compared to the man he’d once called boss.
“What do you think he’ll have planned?”
I was loath to hear the answer, but at the same time, impotency demanded I know.
We’d been wasting away there in that hotel room for too long.
Too many hours to think, to contemplate every worst-case scenario.
Hell, all the waiting had even managed to dampen our usually incandescent libidos.
I hadn’t even thought about Harper taking me in hand since we’d arrived at the place, and I knew things were bad when he didn’t try to take me back to bed.
“Like I said, I think there’s a reasonable chance I’ll suffer some sort of retribution before Laurent’s navy guys can intercept.” Harper frowned, as if he suspected he’d already said too much, and my hammering heart rate rushed to confirm his concerns.
“Oh, God.” I rose from the bed and inched toward his chair. He had intimated the outcome before, saying the ‘consequences’ would be justice for me, but with only hours before his departure, there was no solace in his thinking. “Do you think Jackson will really hurt you?”
“Not Jackson.” Harper snorted. “Ian’s always been useless in fistfights. But likely, he’ll have employed someone else to do his dirty work.”
“But, Sir.” I shook my head. “I can’t bear the thought of anyone hurting you.”
“I can take it.” His gaze met mine, and the determination I saw there was steely. I’d seen that facet of Harper many times before, and it rarely worked out well for me.
“I can’t risk losing you.” The words got stuck in my throat, tumbling from me in one rapid exhale.
“You won’t, little girl.” His reply was like a sigh as he rose to his feet. “I’m doing this for us, remember? So that we can have a future together.”
“I know.” Tears burned in my eyes again. They’d been a frequent visitor over the course of the last week. “But none of it is worth it if you’re gone.”
“I’m right here.” He reached for me, tugging me close, and unthinkingly, I wrapped my arms around his body.
“This is too much.”
Mumbling the words against his chest, my head throbbed with urgency. We couldn’t have come so far as a couple only to see the man I loved ended on some shitty boat in the Channel. I had no idea how our story would end, but I refused to accept that version of the twisted tale.
“I will be fine,” he soothed, rubbing his hand between my shoulder blades. I melted against his body, absurdly thankful for his hard lines. “And so will we. I shouldn’t have said anything about my suspicions. I’m sorry.”
“No.” I pulled in a deep breath, inadvertently taking in the scent of the shower gel he’d washed with.
My mind flitted back to the way he’d looked under the hot, cascading water, trying to decide how on Earth the view couldn’t have aroused me.
“I’m glad you told me what was on your mind, Sir. I need your honesty, but Adam...”
The pain in my head exacerbated then, shooting across my temples as though an unseen force was focused on stabbing me between the eyes.
I gasped at the hurt, my eyelids squeezing shut to block out the room, which was starting to sway around me.
I couldn’t have said I’d felt under the weather until that moment.
Anxious, yes, but not ill. But gripping onto his body, I was suddenly engulfed by the enormity of what awaited him, heat rising to my throat as though the intense temperature was determined to suffocate me.
“We should call the whole thing off.” I forced the words out, burying my face against his shirt so he couldn’t see the discomfort on my face. “I can’t let anything happen to you.”
“I’ve made an agreement with the ICC, Caroline.” The terseness of his tone confirmed he hadn’t yet seen my expression. “I’m not going to renege, especially when so much is on the line.”
Of course not.
The reply rebounded in my head, but the intensity of the headache had all but silenced me. I considered mustering the strength to reply, although I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Wait.” He tensed, taking a tiny step back while his huge hands held me upright at the shoulders. “Are you okay, little girl?”
“Yes,” I lied, compelling my eyes to open just in time to acknowledge the soft furnishings blanching in all directions.
I hadn’t felt that way since the day I’d passed out in Harper’s Fortorus office, and Armitage, his doctor at the time, had put that down to my understandable dehydration and malnutrition. “I’m just stressed out.”
I contemplated lifting my gaze to meet his eyes but instinctively recognized the feat would only heighten my dizziness.
“You are not okay,” he concluded, swooping to sweep me from my feet. I yelped when my toes left the carpet, clinging to him harder as he carried me back to the bed. “I’m going to need you to lie down.”
“But, Adam...” I was vaguely cognizant of the soft duvet under my head when he laid me there. “What about you?”
“I. Will. Be. Fine.” He pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. “I’ve survived worse than a beating before. You, on the other hand, are definitely overdoing it, little girl. You’re pale, yet you’re burning up.”
Overdoing it? My brows knitted at the confusing thought.
The most I’d done since landing in the Netherlands had been to cross the floor of the suite, heading from the bed to the bathroom, or the bathroom to the sofa. I hadn’t stepped foot outside the door since Harper and Akari had bundled me inside on arrival.
How could I be overexerted?
“Akari can send a doctor.” He glanced at his wristwatch. “We still have hours before I need to leave.”
“Sir, I’m fine.”
Attempting to rise to my elbows, I intended to reassure him, but my efforts were dissuaded by the continued swirl in my head. Slumping back to the covers, my hand rose shakily to my head as I tried to decide just how untrue my statement had been.
“It’s okay.” His voice was distant, as though he was in the next room, even though I could just about make out his silhouette sitting beside me. “I’ll call her now.”
I heard him punching numbers into the hotel phone, and by the time I’d persuaded my head to turn in its direction, he was already speaking into the receiver, his words coming in and out in melodic waves, as if he was an untuned radio broadcast.
“Yes, she’s pale...”
I just made out the concern in his gaze, the sight sending disconcerting tremors through me.
“... and she’s hot to the touch....”
Did I have a fever?
“...definitely needs a doctor.”
Exhausted by the effort of thinking, my eyes fell closed again, and for the first time, I truly started to worry about what was wrong with me. I had been fine an hour ago, yet sprawled out on the bed, every movement felt like a Herculean endeavor.
“Yes, before I leave!” I tensed at Harper’s sharp tone, one eye flitting open to find him on his feet by the phone. “Well, make sure you do!”
My lips curled at the authority in his voice, the tone reminding me of the man I had fallen in love with. That was a comforting thought to cling to as the circling waves of sleep finally came to claim me.