Page 10 of Forged in Secrets

Ben ignored him and moved to leave the cafeteria.

When it came to women, Asher was hardly one to be giving out advice. Most of his past relationships–if he could even call them that–had lasted mere weeks, if not days. Which wasn’t surprising, considering how many of them got their start when the bars closed for the night.

To his twin’s credit, however, for the past several years he’d largely stayed away from partying and women. He’d even started attending church from time to time, and kepta Bible on the dining room table of the house he and Ben shared.

Ben muttered goodbye under his breath and began winding his way through the endless halls that led back to his car.

Asher may not have been a moral paragon, but neither was he.

Not by a long shot.

If he was going to be stuck bringing Grace along on this job, he had to be careful. He couldn’t risk her getting the wrong idea about where the two of them stood.

She deserved someone better. Someone who would pray over her every night and take her to church every Sunday. Someone who didn’t let his doubts tear at the weak threads of his faith.

Someone who was nothing like him.

CHAPTER

FIVE

GRACE

“We seriously couldn’t have waited to leave until morning?” Ben grumbled beside her as he adjusted the flimsy neck pillow the stewardess had handed him a few minutes earlier.

Grace looked out the window, watching as the various airport workers skittered around on the pavement like oversized ants dressed in high visibility vests.

“It is morning,” she said cheerfully as she turned to face the aisle seat again. “Technically.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Three AM does not count as ‘morning’ to anyone remotely sane.”

“Gabe gets up at four-thirty every day,” Grace pointed out, pretending to shudder in horror.

“Yes. My point stands,” Ben said. He glanced down at his lap and adjusted the thin fleece blanket, but she could see the hint of a smile.

“I know it’s early,” Grace conceded. “But my friend ismissing. Every hour counts, and there wasn’t another flight until seven.”

Ben sighed. “Not to mention that it’s already Wednesday–technically–and we really do need to have some time to question possible witnesses before they leave at the end of spring break.”

“Exactly,” Grace said, taking her tote bag from her lap and shoving it under the seat in front of her. Once they were airborne, she hoped to get some reading time in. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep. Far too many competing worries swirled in her mind.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Ben stuck earplugs into his ears and closed his eyes. He remained like that for the next several minutes, looking up only to listen intently to the safety speech.

At last, the engines began to rumble more loudly, and she felt the plane beginning to taxi down the runway. She was about to make a light-hearted complaint to Ben about wanting the window seat if he was just going to sleep the entire time, but the expression on his face stopped her.

His eyes were clamped shut, his mouth was a firm line, and she could see beads of sweat beginning to dot his forehead.

“Are you okay?” she asked as they began to pick up even more speed. Ben’s hands were gripping his armrests as though he feared he might be sucked out of the plane the moment he dared to let go.

When he said nothing, she asked again, leaning in closer so that he could hear her despite the earplugs.

“I’m fine,” he replied, the words pinched.

Grace felt the floaty feeling in her stomach as the plane took off, the nose of the craft pointing into the sky in what always felt like an impossibly steep angle.

She wasn’t afraid of flying.

Not any more. Not since Indonesia. Those dark memories had a way of pushing aside a lot of the anxieties that used to plague her.

---