Page 98 of Forged in Deception

Little details he could have probably put together had he been looking for them, but of course, he hadn’t been.

Not until now.

“What? Axel, chill. It’s just a picture of my brother, not some guy I’m in love with. I like having him with me, that’s all.”

She was clearly trying to joke, but her voice was wavering. He had already scared her. The least he could do was to spit the truth out as quickly as possible.

“I wish it was,” he said, shaking his head as tears began to prick at the corners of his eyes.

“What?”

“This is a photo of Rome, isn’t it? Rome Collins…not McKenna.”

Karlin’s brow knit in confusion.

“Yeah, we have different dads,” she said slowly. “His is even more messed-up than mine, if you can believe that. Ran off while our mom was pregnant. But how did you know his nickname? I haven’t heard anyone call him that in years. Probably because he isn’t so ‘built’ anymore.”

Asher smiled through the tears that were now impossible to hold back.

Rome, the gym junkie, who didn’t get built in a day.

“I knew him,” he admitted, struggling to say the words.

He had to get this out.

There was no running from it. Even if she hated him for it, this beautiful, wonderful woman deserved to know the truth now that he did.

“I–I was with him in Afghanistan. He was part of my platoon.”

His voice broke as the memories came flooding back, choking him, drowning him, threatening to pull him under right then and there.

It had been years since he’d cried about that day, but here he was, sobbing as Karlin tried to console him. The tender touch of her fingers against his shoulders felt like he was being burned.

“Please don’t touch me,” he snapped. “I don’t deserve it.”

“Axel–”

The sorrow within him was beginning to simmer into rage.

Rage at the war, rage at the Taliban, rage at the United States government, rage at everything and everyone that led him to an isolated outpost in the middle of that desert hell.

“I was the one who fell asleep on watch that night!” he nearly shouted at her. “I was supposed to be paying attention. I was supposed to be stopping people at the gate.”

Karlin shrank back like she’d been slapped, but he continued on, unable to stop the angry words that were pouring from him freely now.

It wasn’t everyone else he was angry at.

It was himself.

He had no one else to blame but himself and his own incredible capacity for messing up.

“I knew better. I’d been out on exercise, sleeping on the ground for a couple of days beforehand. I was way too exhausted by the time we got back to base to take a shift on watch. but I was too proud to ask for help when my partner didn’t show up. I thought the Red Bull my mom had sent would be enough to keep me awake, but it wasn’t.”

He kept waiting for Karlin to yell at him, or slap him, or do anything at all.

Anything would have been better than the way she was staring at him now, her eyes filled with hurt.

But still, she said nothing.

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