CHAPTER 74
CHAPTER
IT WAS FROM JUDITH. MORRIS must have given her his new contact information on the secure portal.
The note was long but was summed up best by her telling him that she was sorry for having doubted him.
And that she wished things could be different.
She was in a safe place under an assumed name and life, and while not ideal, Judith was doing okay.
She ended by telling him to stay safe and that she respected what he was doing and that she loved him. Very much.
He read it over three more times and was surprised that he didn’t feel more emotion from her words. It was like an email from a friend, not a lover or a spouse.
Too much has happened in the interim for us to ever. . . be what we were before.
He set his phone aside and looked out the window.
Dawn was not that far off, and Nash wondered what it would hold.
People were after them. As the anonymous man on the phone taken from Thura had suggested, he could turn Steers over to Lord and company, if that was indeed who their pursuer was, with the result that Nash perhaps could survive this.
But I can’t do that to her. I’m not sure what I can do for her, but I can’t do that. She’s had enough betrayals.
He fell asleep for a few hours, then rose, dressed, slapped his gun in its holster, went downstairs, and made coffee and had breakfast. An hour later, when Steers had not appeared, he boiled a cup of tea and took it to her room. He knocked and she told him to enter.
She was sitting up in bed. She looked freshened and her hair was damp, probably from a shower. She had changed into a nightdress that covered her arms.
“Tea,” he said.
“Thank you,” she replied, averting her gaze. Every fiber of the woman seemed to quiver with suppressed emotion.
He set the cup next to the bed and looked down at her. “It’s actually nice outside. We might want to go for a walk, with sunglasses and hats on of course.”
“Yes,” she said. “That would be. . .fine.”
He had turned to leave when she called out to him. “About last night, Walter.”
He turned to look at her.
“I apologize for allowing you to see me in such a confused state.”
He drew back to the bed. “You mean in a human state?”
She glanced at him, her look suddenly close to anger, he perceived. For being usually so calm and in control Steers sometimes could be. . .mercurial, he thought.
“I think you know exactly what I mean.”
He sat down in a chair and studied her. “In my mind at least admitting or showing weakness is not actually a weakness.”
“Perhaps in your world that may be true,” she retorted.
“It could be in your world, too, Victoria.”
“How is that remotely possible?” she snapped.
“Well, that might be up to you.”
She rubbed at her temples. “You speak in platitudes that sound quite nice and perhaps convincing on the surface, but have no meaningful connection to reality, at least my reality.”
“Again, much of that depends on you.”
She hiked her eyebrows and said, “You actually believe I have any control over this?” She fanned her hands in front of her.
“I don’t know, do you?”
She swept away the covers, swung her long legs to the edge of the bed, and her bare feet touched the floor. When she rose Nash rose, too.
Her features were fixed for battle. They faced off right there.