Page 93 of His Forbidden Alliance

“Xavier is working with them, and I am facilitating it today.”

“Wait, what’s going on? I—I thought what we did was real. I thought we were⁠—”

“Everything is real,” Remington said. “We’re not the good guys, but sometimes when you have a common enemy, you do whatever is necessary to bring him down.”

I shook my head. “Does everyone but me know this?”

“I sure as fuck didn’t,” Dante said.

“No. Everyone does not know, and you’re not going to mention it to anyone.”

“Okay. I won’t. I just never expected…”

“Yeah, and neither would my father. If he finds out, things will go south real fast.”

“He’s never going to find out from me,” I promised.

“Me either,” Dante added.

When I stepped outside, a woman with dark, curly hair, wearing a black pantsuit, hurried across the lawn as we exited Ivanov’s house. There were several black SUVs and a few New Orleans PD cars. Fuck. This wasn’t good.

“I’m Maria.” The woman held out a hand to me. I accepted the handshake.

“I’m Rafe. Zach’s, umm… He’s not here anymore.”

She nodded. “I hope he’s on his way to the hospital. I understand he was badly hurt.”

“Yes, but he’s going to be okay. His injuries aren’t… Ivanov didn’t…”

“Thank God.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “I won’t be able to speak freely tonight with my colleagues around, but thank you for what you did.”

“I… I’m just glad he’s alive.” She took a step back and said in a loud voice, “I’m going to need to take your official statement. As a witness.”

“Of course. Where should we go?”

“Let’s walk over to my car.”

I gave a fake testimony the way Remington had instructed, and then Maria shook my hand once more, passing me her card. “Maybe after everything’s resolved, I’ll see you again at some point.”

I nodded. I’d like that. She was friendly, and she seemed very capable. When I heard her talking to her colleagues, she was almost as scary as Remington. I could see how they respected her, and I understood why Zach did too.

The only way I’d see her again was if Zach could forgive me for everything. I’d refused to listen to him, refused to believe that what he said might’ve been a cover. If I’d listened to him, he wouldn’t have been on his own, and he wouldn’t have been brought here.

I was surprised he even wanted to look at me today. It had nearly killed me to watch Lorenzo carry him away. Would he even want to see me?

37

ZACH

Hospitals always took away my sense of time, but it was even worse this time. I’d come from a location I didn’t know, having already been there an undisclosed amount of time. I didn’t have a phone. I wasn’t even where I could see a clock most of the time in the ER, but after what felt like forever, my broken ribs were taped, and my leg was set, which hurt as much, if not more, than when Ivanov had broken it. Now I was in a cast and not able to put any weight on it. Every part of my body hurt. If I tried to look at anything for more than a few minutes, my vision went blurry. I knew the concussion would heal, but I also knew it would take way too fucking long. They were saying I’d be in the cast for six weeks. Six fucking weeks.

Once I was admitted and in a room, I knew I should try to sleep, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to see Rafe, but I didn’t have a way to contact him. Lorenzo left me after I was settled, but he hadn’t known when Rafe would be there.

Somebody knocked on my door, and I called out, “Rafe?”

“No, it’s me,” Maria said. “Can I come in?”

“Sure. I didn’t expect you here.”