Eva’s jaw tightened. “I’m not telling you where or how. Don’t ask, don’t tell, remember? All you need to know is that I recognize him. He’s hired muscle. And the last time I saw him was around seven years ago.”
Alex’s frown deepened. “Well, what the fuck does that mean? We need context, Eva.”
Beside him, Katya gave Eva a narrow look that Eva returned unflinching. She respected the hell out of the Russian woman, but no one was going to make her say anything she didn’t want to, ex-military or otherwise.
“No you don’t.” Her fingers curled tighter in her back pockets. “All that matters is that he’s hired muscle and if we can track him down, we might be able to find out who he was working for back then.”
“We don’t need to track him down for that. He was working for fucking Conrad, obviously.”
“But do you know that for certain? Everything we’ve discovered so far points to involvement that goes deeper than Conrad South, Alex. Perhaps this guy wasn’t working for him at all.”
Alex’s gaze was sharp as a sword. “Yeah, which is why we need context.”
A silence fell in the room, the fire at her back crackling in the hearth the only sound.
“He’s right, Eva,” Gabriel said at last. “Context would be extremely fucking valuable here.”
She shifted her attention to the other man in the armchair, Honor St. James sitting in his lap like a queen on a throne. His arm was around her waist, his hand resting loosely on her stomach, and there was something proprietary about the hold that Eva found deeply unsettling.
She ignored the feeling. Honor clearly welcomed the attention and seemed to enjoy having such an obvious claim stamped on her. It made Eva shudder, but if the other woman was happy, then that was her business. “I’m afraid you’re not getting any context, so if you’re expecting more you’re shit out of luck.”
Gabriel’s dark eyes glinted. “Tremain is still in the hospital and Honor’s life is possibly still under threat. Daniel St. James was murdered. Whoever is behind this is in all likelihood involved in drugs and human trafficking, and yet all you’re worried about is your fucking privacy?”
If she’d had any nails left that hadn’t been bitten to the quick, they would have been digging into her palms by now. But she didn’t, so they weren’t. Instead she fought down the thick, hot rage that welled up inside her.
All of those things were true, yet it wasn’t just about her privacy. None of them knew what she’d been through, none of them. Alex might have understood if she’d ever talked to him about it, but she hadn’t and she wouldn’t. The only person who knew the truth was Zac, and not even he knew all of it.
Gabriel’s kind of right though, isn’t he? This is bigger than just you.
Her jaw was so tight it felt like it would crack. Like she herself would crack.
Ever since she’d seen that tape, seen the strangely familiar man standing outside the bathroom and realized who he was, she’d felt as thin and fragile as a pane of glass. As if the slightest vibration would shatter her.
A vibration such as telling them all about what had happened to her seven years ago.
Christ, she would break, and she didn’t want to break. She couldn’t afford to. Because if she did, she wasn’t at all sure she’d be able to fix herself again.
Don’t ask, don’t tell. One of the club’s most important rules. That was all that was holding her together.
“You don’t need to know,” she repeated, as if by saying it enough times she could make it so. “And it has sweet fuck all to do with privacy.” More like survival. “The only thing that matters is tracking him down and getting information from him.”
“Eva—”
“No,” Honor cut Gabriel off unexpectedly, her cool voice calm. “If Eva doesn’t want to tell then she doesn’t want to tell. If we can get a name, then that’s all that matters.”
The room fell silent again, everyone’s attention shifting to the one person who hadn’t said anything at all since Eva’s confession.
The person standing behind the couch, still staring at her, the expression on his dark, compelling face unreadable.
Eva put her shoulders back, met his gaze.
He wouldn’t ask for explanations. He never did. He always took her at face value and that was part of the reason she valued his friendship. Zac Rutherford was her safe haven and she would do anything, anything at all, to make sure that didn’t change.
“Everyone out,” Zac said softly, not taking his eyes from Eva’s.