Page 101 of Forged in Deception

And finally, Karlin knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was time to speak.

CHAPTER

FORTY-TWO

ASHER

Asher sat down next to Karlin, keeping a couple of feet between them.

He didn’t want to say anything, didn’t want to disrupt her thoughts.

Finally, she was talking to him.

Her fury toward him–as well-deserved as it was–seemed to have slipped away.

“John’s trauma from the war didn’t just affect him,” she was saying, her voice soft. “It rippled out into everything around him. His job, his friends, everything else in his life was damaged, too. I was damaged. Iamdamaged.”

Her words broke his heart.

All he wanted to do was hold her, maybe even remind her that God wanted to take all of that hurt and redeem it, but he knew that it wasn’t the time. It was his turn to be silent now.

She was right.

He was good at waiting for the storms to pass, running away from things that hurt, trying to make jokes instead taking real responsibility for his mistakes.

But he wasn’t going to do it anymore.

God had forgiven him, but he had to forgive himself.

But before he could do that, he had to face every ugly piece of what he had done.

He had to hear whatever Karlin had to say, even though he was sure it would break his heart all over again.

“After Nico was killed, John stopped writing me letters. We used to write back and forth all the time. I’d send him care packages like our mom should have, and he’d tell me what he was thinking. A lot of those early letters had been happy, despite the hardships.”

Asher could believe it. War was hell, but the brotherhood that was forged within it was second only to the bond he shared with his brothers through blood.

“I assume he mentioned you, actually, but it was probably by some dumb nickname I never picked up on,” she continued.

He had to cut in. “They called me Mosquito back then. And I tell you this within the Cone of Silence, by the way.”

For the first time in way too long, Karlin actually smiled, and it was even more beautiful than he remembered.

“Why? Because you’re annoying?” she teased.

“Shockingly, no. It’s part of a lyric from the songSmells Like Teen Spirit. I don’t even like Nirvana, but I guess Ilooklike a guy who would like Nirvana, so it stuck. Mosquito. But please go on.”

Karlin cleared her throat and wrapped her arms more tightly around her chest.

He felt shivery and freezing himself and considered offering to go back down to the cabin to finish this conversation, but he couldn’t risk interrupting her any more than he already had.

Whatever she was trying to tell him, he could tell it had been burdening her for a very long time.

He didn’t want her to carry her pain alone anymore.

Not if he could help it. If she could handle the cold a little longer, he would happily do the same.

“Anyway, after the bombing, I was lucky if I got a quick note every six months,” she continued. “I was worried about him so much. When he finally was able to come home–by then, I was in Amarillo, and he decided to start a construction job with another ex-military friend over in Lubbock–I was actually relieved. I thought things would get better.”

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