Page 120 of The Fallen Man

“I didn’t want you to be alone in the hospital. But I can leave if you want.”

She thought about that. She didn’t want to be alone at the hospital either. “No.”

He nodded. After a moment, he rolled back onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Caitlin stared at his profile in the twilight of the room. She had thought she’d never look at it again. Did her father’s obsession count for anything? Did it matter? What if he was right? Did any of it matter compared to late-night whispered conversations with Jackson’s arms wrapped around her and his laugh and the way he closed his eyes when he really liked one of her drinks or the way he touched her or the way he made her feel?

“Jackson?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Yes?”

“Did you really like me at all?”

“Nosérdenko,”he said. “I love you.”

A tear leaked out of her eye without asking permission. “Jackson?”

“Yes?”

“Can you come over to this bed?”

“I don’t think the nurses will approve in cohabitation,” said Jackson getting up.

“I don’t care about nurses,” said Caitlin.

He settled gingerly against her, and she attempted to scootover enough to give him room, but her muscles weren’t cooperating, so they ended up wedged together in a lump. She didn’t mind. Caitlin turned her face into his shoulder and inhaled, breathing in the reassuring scent of him. Then she fell asleep again.

19

Jackson

Deveraux House

Jackson peered into the library. He had arrived at Deveraux House with Caitlin in the afternoon, but it had taken longer to get everything sorted out than he had thought, and he kept having to run off and talk to someone. Not that Caitlin had noticed. She kept falling asleep. Eleanor had been home and seemed to have taken charge of keeping an eye on her, which surprised him, but he was grateful for it. Eleanor was at a desk signing thank you cards while Caitlin was asleep on the couch. Eleanor beckoned to him. He came in, and she handed him her teacup. He held the tea cup while she picked up her pile of thank you notes. Then she led the way through the house to her office.

“This is my fault,” she said, thumping the cards down on her desk. Jackson raised an eyebrow but didn’t speak.

“It never even occurred to me that Granger would be able to do something like this. Where the hell are her relatives? Why aren’t they taking care of Caitlin?”

“I believe that when she asked Granger’s sister for help, she said she did not wish to be involved,” said Jackson. “Her mother’s family is apparently, not around. I don’t know.”

Eleanor threw her pen down violently on the desk.

“I cannot believe…” She took a deep breath. “She is a child and they just abandoned her. You don’t do that.”

“No,youdon’t do that. Apparently, other people have noproblems doing that.”

“I told her I would have our attorneys review the frozen assets. It was all I could get her to agree to.”

“That’s better than I did,” said Jackson. “She doesn’t like charity.”

“It’s not charity when we’re the ones that did it to her!”

“Yes, but I couldn’t exactly state that without implicating Evan or the rest of us in a massive insider trading conspiracy. Also, I didn’t want to tell her that her dad used her college fund to hire mercenaries to go after Evan.”

Eleanor grimaced. “I went ahead and told her that.”

“How did she take it?”

“She was upset. Understandably. It was how I got her to agree to the lawyers. It made her feel like she should make it up to me and that was what I wanted in exchange.”