Page 114 of Forged in Deception

Ever since that day, she’d avoided hospitals entirely. Even when her brother had suffered other, more minor overdoses over the years, she’d never made it past the waiting room, where she could keep the exit firmly in sight.

Asher gave her hand a squeeze, and she looked up at him, offering a quick smile of thanks before she continued walking beside him.

She wasn’t over what had happened to her brother.

Not even telling Asher–she was getting used to calling him by his real name now–was enough to take away that trauma completely.

But it helped, and that was enough.

She was here now, refusing to let the memories of her past control her present, and that was something.

Or maybe it just helped that she’d endured enough new traumas to drive most of the old ones deep into the back of her mind.

“To the right, I think,” Asher muttered to himself, reading a sign on the wall at the end of the hallway. “This place is a total maze.”

“Too manly to ask for directions?” she teased, glad for the opportunity to think of something other than the person they were going to see.

“Obviously,” he said, giving her a wink. She couldn’t help but to flinch and glance around the hall as he leaned over and kissed her cheek. Though he was no longer undercover, and they had no reason to worry about who saw them together, it was a difficult habit to shake.

They continued on. Now that they were closer to the ICU, it became more obvious that they were, in fact, headed in the right direction.

But with every step, she felt her heart beginning to race a little faster.

“Sweetheart, your hands are sweating,” Asher said, pausing for a moment but not letting go. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. It’s just the smell, I guess,” she said, swallowing hard. “It brings back a lot of bad memories. I mean, on top of the current ones.”

It was true–it was the smell–but it was also the images that flashed in her mind every time she thought of the woman who lay in bed in the ICU.

The blood that had spread out across the floor of the compound.

The panicked yells of the police officers and paramedics.

The victorious cries of Dana Corbett, who was certain that Mother was about to bring them both to the place she called the empire of light.

Asher pulled her against his chest, stroking her hair.

“I just need to stop thinking about it,” she said, her voice muffled against his t-shirt.

Apparently, even when he wasn’t undercover, he still dressed like a slightly less grungy garage band drummer. She was surprisingly okay with it, even if she’d never be one of those girls who emulated her man’s style.

Not that he was her man.

Not officially, anyway.

That was a conversation that she’d successfully been putting off for weeks now.

“Avoiding your fears won’t solve anything,” he said gently, pulling back until he was looking down at her, his lips moving dangerously close to her own.

“But a kiss would?” she breathed.

“It’s possible. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to try anything.”

Before they could get any closer, however, someone called Asher’s name.

Karlin was sure her cheeks were flaming red, but Asher seemed unperturbed as he shook hands with a woman in a white lab coat. She did the same, feeling a twinge of sadness as she took in the doctor’s attire.

Would she ever get to dress that way again?

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