Page 70 of The Gilded Cuff
“You had me worried.” Emery finally spoke.
“I always worry you.” Cody winced and flattened a hand over his chest. “Emery, could you get me a cup of coffee? Nurse Ratchet won’t let me have anything besides water, but I need caffeine.”
“I’ll go.” Sophie started to rise, but Cody’s left hand, the unbroken one, caught her arm, the grip surprisingly tight for someone so wounded.
“Stay, Sophie. Looking at you makes me feel better.” Cody shot a more energetic grin at his employer and friend.
“Why?” she asked.
“You’re hot, babe.” Cody shot a wicked smirk at his boss.
“Cody, find your own hot woman to drool over.” A war of looks began between the two men, half sneers and mockingly threatening scowls.
“Can’t. Stuck in this damn bed. So I’ll borrow yours.”
Sophie found herself wanting to laugh as she watched them engage each other. It was like watching two brothers feinting back and forth in a play fight.
Emery’s face softened. “I’ll get your coffee. Don’t think you can seduce my woman from me while I’m gone.”
Emery left the room, much less stiff than when he’d entered.
The second the door shut behind him, Cody was even more alert, more like his old self. He fished through his blankets, cursing when his right hand, so heavily bandaged that it looked more like a giant white bear paw, kept getting in the way. Finally, near his hip he found what he was looking for and pulled out a Swiss Army pocketknife.
“Here, take this. Show it to no one. Especially not Emery.”
Her heart dipped low, the beat erratic as she stared at the small pocket knife.
“What is it?” She opened her palm as he set the knife in it, closing her fingers protectively around it.
“There’s a USB flash drive on there. Antonio had a laptop in the room where he held me. After he left me to die, I got on the computer and copied the hard drive. Whatever was on there, we have it now. The computer was destroyed when the place blew to hell.”
Sophie’s lips parted as she drew in a quick breath. Blood pumped wildly in her ears.
This was huge. Beyond huge! They had a chance to anticipate Antonio’s next move. Maybe even figure out where he was getting his intel on Emery, assuming they could get anything from the flash drive.
“Why can’t we tell Emery?” Surely he should be the first to know…
Cody’s face drained of color. His gaze floated to the ceiling, then slowly drifted back down, reluctantly, to her.
“Fenn may be alive. Antonio said he’d been looking for Fenn for years. Why would you look for a dead child, unless that child wasn’t dead?”
Her throat stopped working and she forced an uncomfortable swallow as more shock rocketed through her. Fenn alive?
“Oh god!” Her hands flew to her mouth, stifling her cry of shock. “If we tell him and it turns out Fenn is dead or if Antonio gets to Fenn before we do and kills him, then it will be the last straw for Emery. I know he wouldn’t be able to survive losing Fenn a second time.”
Cody was right. They couldn’t tell Emery. There was only so much devastation and tragedy a heart could withstand. If Rachel were suddenly alive and taken yet again before Sophie’s very eyes, Sophie would never be able to get past that.Never. Hope could bring the most horrific trauma to a soul, more so than any other torture someone could endure. It reminded her of the story Granny Bells used to tell about Pandora’s box. The box had unleashed all of the world’s worst nightmares, but it always also released hope into the world.
Emery needed hope, but Sophie wouldn’t dare give it to him, if there was even one chance he’d have it ripped from him.
“If we can find Fenn and get him to safety, then we could tell Emery, right?” she asked. “I could go, since you need to rest and Hans needs to watch Emery’s back.”
“Great plan in theory. But you’re forgetting Emery won’t let you out of his sight,” Cody pointed out with a knowing grin.
The momentary rush of optimism at her plan faded. “True. He’s a little overprotective.” She tucked the pocketknife into her purse, mulling over the dilemma. Then it hit her.
“Royce or Wes could go. I bet one of them would jump at the chance to help out.”
Cody brightened. “That could work.”
