Page 67 of Sinful Empire (Mount Trilogy 3)
Her tears fall faster. “Nothing makes sense anymore. I don’t understand what happened. You have to tell me something. Who was she? And Mags—she tried to kill her too. All those women—”
I cut her off with the press of my fingers to her lips. As much as I want to tell her everything right now, I can??t.
“Not here. Not now, Keira. Not yet.”
“When? I need to know.”
I cup her face, trying once more to catch her tears on my thumbs. “No more tears, hellion. The only thing you need to focus on is getting well. Letting them take care of you.”
“No! I need answers, and I need my freaking husband.”
“Keira. I can’t—”
“Don’t tell me there’s anything you can’t do, Lachlan. Because I won’t believe you.”
Her conviction rings true, and I wish I deserved it. I don’t deserve that kind of faith from anyone. Especially not now.
“That’s where you’re wrong. If I could do anything, I’d rewind the clock and undo all of this.”
Keira
His words slam into me harder than the bullet in my shoulder, and my stomach twists. “All of it? You . . .” I blink, barely able to see through my tears.
His face creases with pain that mirrors my own as the door opens and the nurse returns.
“Do you want me to leave?” she asks, picking up on the tense silence in the room.
“No. Take her back,” Lachlan says. “I’m sure her family is worrying every second she’s out of their sight.”
I open my mouth to say something. Anything. But he’s not Lachlan anymore. He’s Mount.
My lips slam shut, but then I decide fuck it. If this is the last time I ever get to see him, I’m going to tell him exactly what I think and feel.
“I’m not done here. We’re not done here.”
He meets my gaze. “I decide when we’re done.”
My mouth drops open as words so similar to those he spoke that night in his dining room—the first night I left claw marks on his back—fall from his lips.
I turn my head and look over my shoulder at the nurse. My body twinges, pain fighting through the drugs. “Get out.”
“Ms. Kilgore—”
“Get. The. Fuck. Out.”
The nurse shuffles back and the door closes once more.
I turn and look at my husband. “We are not over. Do you understand me? I took vows, and I meant every single word of them.”
His face shifts from the hard mask to twisted confusion. “Are you trying to say I didn’t?”
“You want to undo all of this? End it?”
He jams a hand into his hair as he stares down at me, looking completely destroyed.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Keira. That’s not what I meant but, fuck, it should be. If I had a single shred of decency in my soul, I would take everything back, all the way to the first time I touched you.” He sounds like he’s forcing the words from his throat. “But even if I had that power, I wouldn’t take any of it back. Not a single goddamned second. If that makes me the most selfish motherfucker on this planet, then so be it.”
“Then what the hell did you mean?” My tears fall harder now. Partly because nothing makes sense right now, but most of all, because I can’t stand to see that tortured expression on his face.
