Page 69 of Consume Me

“You’re quiet,” he noted, coming to stand beside me at the window. “Of course, this must be difficult for you.”

It took me a few more minutes to speak. We watched the operation in mute companionship, each comforted and overwhelmed by each other’s presence.

“I thought you were dead,” I finally said in a voice that sounded too distant to be my own. I had thought it, but I hadn’t allowed myself to feel it. Now those reactions collided, fusing into a strangely frustrated feeling.

“I probably should be,” he admitted. “It was MI-18.”

I nodded. “We figured that out.”

I wanted to tell him everything I knew, but something held me back. I had questions for Norris. There wasn’t a bone in my body that suspected him of anything, but I needed to see this more clearly and I could only do that through his eyes.

“I don’t know what Clara’s told you,” he began.

“I kept making her stop. She needs to rest.” I stood by that decision. We couldn’t pretend this hadn’t happened, but there were more important things at the moment. The monitor measuring my son’s heartbeat, for instance. My eyes were glued to it as we spoke.

“It was an ambush,” he explained, walking me through the night’s events. His story matched up with what we’d assumed. “I never saw them. I let my guard down. Alexander, I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive.” My words were thick. I never thought I’d speak to my old friend again. Now he felt like he had to apologise. “I knew you would protect her with your life.”

“I wasn’t paying enough attention.” He shook his head, obviously unable to forgive himself so easily. “I tried to warn her. When I woke up, they tried to convince me that I’d been hospitalised and was in custody for her disappearance. They claimed you had ordered it.”

My eyebrow shot up. “They must not know me very well.”

“Or me,” he agreed. “I knew it was a lie. But I also knew that meant they had Clara. It was all a ruse anyway. They were after something else.”

I stared at the prize they’d tried to claim through the glass: an innocent life. Why? For what purpose? To hurt me? To bring me to my knees? How could I live with myself knowing I’d placed my family in this danger? How would I ever move forward?

“The baby,” I murmured. “Clara said they wanted the baby. I don’t understand why.”

“I think I do,” he said slowly, “but it’s only a hunch.”

“Why?” His hunches were almost always fact. It’s why they had kept him from me during this. The manhunt would have lasted hours rather than days if he’d been by my side.

“I started to suspect when I stumbled on something, but I knew when I saw David. I assume you know about your sister.”

I nodded. We’d figured out that Sarah had been under their control for years while we thought she was in a coma. I didn’t understand that either, but I had a better idea. “She says they aren’t in contact. We’re still investigating whether she can be trusted or if she’s acting as a mole.”

“She’s not,” he said grimly. “I think they kept her in the dark. Possibly, they thought they could turn her to their cause, unseat your place in line, and put her on the throne.”

That made a sort of horrific sense. “But why take Clara? Why not just kill me?”

“They tried, and you survived. We’ve known for a long time there was more to Daniel’s assassination attempt. I’m afraid that was only the beginning.”

“Was this the end?” I asked knowing he couldn’t offer me a comforting answer.

Norris didn’t try to placate me. “I doubt it, but know we know what we’re up against. Who we’re up against.”

“So they gave up on Sarah because Clara had Elizabeth,” I said. None of this led to why they’d taken her now and why they wanted my son.

“I think they found she was too old to manipulate. That’s why they put David into play,” he said, his eyes darting over to me. “I must confess something. I killed him. He was trying to hurt Clara.”

My eyes flickered from the operating table to the look of anguish on his face. At least, this was one sin I could absolve him from. “No, you didn’t. I did.”

“How?” Norris asked in shock.

“He was alive. I found him and when I realized…” I shook my head. I’d acted rashly but I still wasn’t certain I’d made the wrong choice.

“No one could blame you,” Norris said firmly.