Tessa had fallen asleep in my arms, and though the nurses had rolled a bed in for her, I refused to put her down.
With the day’s drama finally slowing, my mind began to churn with questions. Most importantly, who exactly was Heath Light/Luke Cosgrove? It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he was some sort of law enforcement officer. Rarely did normal guys walk around with two different identities. Not that I was an expert on normal anymore.
I was dying to know how much of this man sitting at the foot of my bed was Heath—the cop.
And how much of him was Luke—my only friend.
As the clock ticked past midnight and into a new day, I found the courage to finally open my mouth.
“So, you’re a cop?” I accused, Tessa’s head rising and falling with every heave of my chest.
“I’m a DEA Agent,” he answered, leaning forward and propping his elbows on his knees, his gaze never shifting from mine.
I cut my gaze to the wall as they filled with tears of betrayal. I knew it, but hearing him confirm it burned in ways I never could have anticipated.
He was just my personal trainer. It wasn’t like we’d forged an everlasting bond over squats and crunches in the gym. But, when you’re completely alone in life, surrounded by darkness on all sides, it doesn’t take much more than a warm smile and simple conversation to convince yourself that maybe there was more.
But it had all been a lie.
He was a DEA agent trying to make his case, and I was left to mourn a good man who had never even existed.
It was too much.
“Get out,” I ordered, keeping my eyes anchored to the pale-yellow hospital room wall.
“Let me explain,” he replied, but I couldn’t stomach being fed any more bullshit.
God knows Walt had filled me with enough over the years. I sure as hell wasn’t volunteering to take it from someone else.
“I’m not interested in any explanation, Heath.” I seethed his name as though it said everything. And, in some ways, it did.
“Clare,” he called, his voice so kind and familiar that it shattered me even further.
Luke was gone even as he stood directly in front of me.
As a silent sob ricocheted in my chest, I wrapped my arms around Tessa and squeezed her tight. “Are…are you here to arrest me?” I stuttered.
He pushed to his feet and took a step toward me, but when I scooted away from him, he froze. His baby-blue eyes turned angry, and his hands fisted so hard at his sides that the veins on his tan forearms bulged.
“No,” he stated firmly.
“Then leave.”
I didn’t believe him. I’d confessed to Luke every one of my deepest, darkest secrets the day the cops had shown up at the gym. He knew all about the blood on my hands and the sludge Walt had all but smothered me in. There was no way Heath could turn a blind eye to that. He was going to arrest me, and I was going to lose Tessa once and for all.
“Oh my God,” I choked.
Days earlier, I’d been ready to let her go if it meant getting her someplace safe. I’d ripped my heart out with goodbyes to her every night since I’d mailed our DNA to Roman. But the moment Heath had lifted me into his arms, I’d dared to hope that I could keep her.
He had come for me.
And, now, he was going to take her away.
“I thought I could trust you,” I accused, dropping my chin to my hollow chest to kiss the top of her head. “Will you at least tell me how much longer I have with her?”
“Clare, look at me,” he ordered.
My vision swam as I lifted my gaze to his.
His shoulders were square, and his tall body pulsed with anger, but his voice remained gentle. “You can trust me. It’s still me, Clare. You know who I am.”
I adamantly shook my head. “No. I know Luke Cosgrove.”
“Different name. Same person,” he growled.
“No!” I seethed on a whisper. “You’re a cop who manipulated me to get shit on Walt. And I’d personally like to express my thanks in that matter. Honestly, if you’d told me the truth, I would have spent my days spilling every detail about him rather than staring at your abs. But, just so we’re clear, you are not the same person as Luke.”
His face lit. “No. I’m better than Luke.” He grinned.
Grinned.
Like a huge, gleaming-white, butterfly-inducing grin.
I was about to lose my daughter and spend the rest of my life in a jail cell, and he was grinning.
“You’re an asshole,” I snapped.
“Nope. I’m not that, either.” He bent over, propping himself on two fists at the foot of the bed.
I curled my legs to avoid touching him. Though a part of me still ached to climb from the bed, with Tessa in my arms, and cling to his neck—to Luke’s neck.