Chapter Thirty-One
Eva’s fingers clenched over her purse as Lily’s hospital door swung inward. West stormed out from his momma’s hospital room.
Did that mean that Lily… was she? Had she passed away?
It wasn’t Eva’s place to ask, or to interfere in his sorrow. West certainly wouldn’t welcome it. He didn’t before and, for sure, he wouldn’t now.
His eyes locked with hers. She noticed his cheeks were wet. He quickly wiped any evidence of his grief away and turned his back on her, walking down the hallway while he grappled with his phone.
She took a deep breath, not sure if she wanted to overhear what he had to say, but she wasn’t deaf, no matter how he willed her to be.
West’s chin jutted out as soon as someone answered on the other end. “Liv,” he barked out. His voice had a harder edge than usual as he addressed his ex-wife. He moved further away from Eva. She could still hear his words clearly down the hall. “Can you bring the boys down? I’m not sure how long we have.”
He fell into silence as he listened to Liv’s reply. West’s head lowered. No doubt Liv was giving her condolences.
Liv should save her breath. West wouldn’t want to hear it.
He wiped at his eyes again, extinguishing any evidence of his emotion that he could, like tears were shameful reminders of being human that he’d rather not have. “Yeah.” His voice broke and he manfully worked on steadying it. “Well, people die, Liv.” Instead of sounding strong, it came out a sob.
Eva jumped.
Impossibly, West was breaking. And no way would Eva try to help him just to have him lash out at her. To make sure that she wouldn’t, Eva wrapped her ankles around the feet of her chair to stop herself from going to him with her hugs. She’d save that for Cole. He needed her, too. They’d cry together. She’d do everything to ease his pain because he let her in.
Liv must be trying to comfort West because he pressed his fist into the wall. His shoulders stiffened. “Just bring them, Liv,” he cut in harshly. West took a deep breath. He was trying to calm himself down. “Get Funches to take over the ranch for us until we get back, and uh… thank you.” He lowered his phone and stared bleakly at the wall.
There was nothing that Eva could to do to make this better. Her words were meaningless to him. She believed in another life, even more so now that she’d had some experience with prayer, but West? Well… he didn’t.
Her “thoughts and prayers” meant nothing to him.
West put the phone back up to his ear and moved further down the hall to make another call. He shouldn’t have bothered to put space between them. The echoing corridors revealed every detail of his conversation. “Hi, yeah.” He cleared his throat and put his voice back to order again. “Sorry, I called you as soon as I could. We had a little family emergency over here.”
A little family emergency? His momma was dying. What kind of loser was he talking to anyway?
West leaned against the wall, crossing one arm across his chest while he talked. “Yeah, she’s safe. Eva’s with me. I’m bringing her home.”
Eva tilted her head to look over at West. He was talking to her daddy; she was sure of it. And if so, why couldn’t West say what was really happening, instead of pretending that everything was okay?
“Uh huh.” West was silent for a minute. “You heard about that? Just a minor scuffle. Nothing to worry about. Ha, if you think my face is bad, you should see the other guy.” He let out a light laugh. “You don’t have to worry. The information is safe. I made sure of that. No one will find out about… that.”
Uneasiness prickled from the back of her spine down her shoulders. Why did West sound like he was talking to a mob boss? She knew her daddy was a hardnosed businessman, who took the unconventional route sometimes—he admitted as much in those debates when he decided to run for office—but what information could West possibly be hiding about her daddy that had gotten him roughed up like that?
Her daddy hid nothing… right? He wasn’t corrupt like thoseotherguys.
Unless he was.
The shock made her clasp her purse even tighter.
West ended the call and came back up the hallway. The source of those bruises was far more sinister than what she’d imagined. Was this why West had refused to let her in? He had too much to hide from her about her own father?
She glared up at him. “What happened to your face! You’d better tell me this time. Quit hiding it from me. You’re trying to cover up something for my daddy, aren’t you?”
He tried to move past her. “Just another job,” he said briskly. “You ready to go?”
Oh no, she wasn’t playing West’s game anymore. As soon as he left here, he’d leave his heart behind with his momma’s failing one, so that no one could ever get through to him again. “What are you doing for my daddy? Huh?” she pressed him. “You think your family wants you doing this? Your momma would never want this for you.”
“What does it matter what she thinks?” he exploded. “She’s dying. I’d sell my soul again to give her a fighting chance… and she doesn’t even want it. It was all worthless. There’s nothing that I can do anymore.”
Her gaze sharpened on him. “How’d you sell your soul, West?”