The Last Night in London by Karen White (reading list .TXT) 📕

unforgivable. Eva stumbled to the corner of the room and collapsed in a chair. The sense of urgency still thrummed in her veins, but she couldn’t move. She thought her heart had stopped beating, yet somehow she continued to breathe, continued to hear the soft sounds of the newborn baby. Continued to hear Precious’s confession.

She looked up, saw the baby’s head. A new thought made her chest tighten. “Does Graham know?”

Precious shook her head. “No. I told no one. But I think Sophia suspects. I’m so sorry, Eva.”

Precious began to cry quietly, her energy too depleted to make much noise. The baby stopped suckling and closed his eyes to rest. The fear returned, overriding the hurt and anger. Eva jumped up and began throwing things in the valise.

“We need to leave now, whether or not David is waiting for us.” She reached for the baby, then froze as she heard the distinctive sound of a key in the front door. She tucked the baby inside the valise, then pulled up a blanket from the floor and flung it over Precious to cover her naked body before turning her gaze down the hallway to the foyer.

The approaching figure’s hair was mussed, his dinner jacket rumpled, but he smiled as he neared them. “The night porter was kind enough to loan me a key.” He held up a large brass ring. “I looked everywhere for you at the Savoy, Eva. I was worried.”

Alex stopped next to the bed and leaned down to kiss Precious on the cheek, his face showing distaste as he spotted the top of the baby’s head in the valise. “Congratulations. If I’d known, I would have brought a gift.”

“Get out,” Eva said. “Leave. You’re not welcome here.”

He smiled. “You know you don’t mean that. I heard that you were to invite me to your bedroom tonight.” He spread his arms. “Well, here I am.”

She nearly choked on her own breath.

“My darling Eva. Walls have ears, remember? You and Mr. Danek should have been more careful.”

Eva remembered the woman and her little girl at the table behind them at Horvath’s. Just a woman and her daughter. But walls had ears.

“Where’s Mr. Danek?”

“Dead. Feeding the fish in the Thames by now, I’d wager. It’s why I’m a little late. My apologies.”

Precious let out a moan behind them, but neither Eva nor Alex looked at her.

Eva kept herself from flinching as she forced herself to ask the next question. “And David and Graham?”

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, Eva. You made it too easy for us. I suppose I should thank you. Although I’m most upset that you’d planned to run away to Bournemouth without telling me.”

“Where are Graham and David?” she asked again.

“Your friend David is safe—we can’t have too many dead bodies in one evening, can we? He’s most likely still searching for Mr. Danek with the mistaken belief that he can be saved.” Alex looked at his wristwatch. “As for St. John, at this moment he’s on his way to the boating lake in Regent’s Park, looking for you. We understand that the two of you have a particular fondness for that place.” He smiled, as if they were sitting in a café, chatting about the weather. “He’s been led to believe you’re in danger. He thinks he has a chance to save you, but instead he’ll be meeting Mr. Zeman and another one of my associates. We are everywhere, Eva. Everywhere. You should have realized that from the start.”

She shook her head, trying to understand his words, but her brain refused to accept them. “Why would Graham believe such a thing?”

He looked at her as if she were a small, ignorant child. “My dear Eva, he was trying to get rid of me. I’ve simply turned the tables. Instead of me being dispatched this evening, it will be your St. John.”

Adrenaline shot through her. She moved to walk past him, but he grabbed her arm. “You would save a man who deceived you with another woman?”

She didn’t need to ask how he knew. He knew everything, his planted ears listening and reporting back. Eva kept her gaze focused on the hallway in front of her, but it was Graham she saw, his voice she heard. We can only hope that when this is all over, we will find our way back to each other and learn how to forgive the unforgivable.

She turned to Alex. “Yes.”

Because Graham had once promised that he’d never let anything happen to her. Because he loved her. And because she loved him, and if she wasn’t a forgiving person, she would become one. She was a master at reinvention, after all.

Eva looked past Alex to the bed, where Precious lay whimpering, the baby—Graham’s baby—asleep in the valise. But she couldn’t think about that now. She could think only about saving Graham. And praying she wasn’t too late.

She grabbed her purse and managed to get past Alex just as the air raid sirens began wailing in the night sky.

She’d made it only a few steps when she heard a pistol cocking. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to have to shoot you.”

“Alex, no!” Precious’s protest was barely strong enough to be heard over the sirens.

Eva put her hand in her purse, the blood rushing in her ears, and slowly turned. Alex lowered his gun and smiled at her. “I thought this would help you see reason.”

I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Graham’s words gave her the courage to put her hand around the small pistol as she moved forward to stand in front of Alex, so close that they could have kissed. “It does,” she said. Her thumb flipped the safety as she lifted the pistol and pulled the trigger.

When he looked down at the growing spot of red in the middle of his white evening shirt, Alex seemed as surprised as she was. Precious screamed hoarsely as Alex slipped to the floor like a marionette with cut strings.

Eva backed up, toward