Page 99 of Forged in Deception

Her silence was too much to bear.

“It’s my fault that IUD made it into camp,” he snapped. “It’s my fault that Nico Delgado was blown to pieces. It’s my fault that Rome ended up with PTSD. It’s my fault that I was never there for him, or for anyone else in our platoon, because I was too much of a coward to face them. It’s all my fault.”

Karlin got to her feet and walked over to the woodstove, picked up a piece of firewood, and tossed it inside.

“I finished out the rest of my contract with a different unit, and left as soon as I could,” he continued, desperate to fill the silence. She wasn’t even looking at him now. If it wasn’t for the small amount of space between them, he could believe she hadn’t heard him at all.

“By that point, Gabe had already started Forge Brothers Security, so I had a job to come home to. I ran away and never looked back. I never checked up on any of my old platoon mates…I just wanted to forget my past. I never thought–Karlin, I had no idea that Rome was your brother until I saw that picture. I am so sorry. Please.”

But no matter how much he tried to stammer out an apology, she stayed where she was, staring into the flames without a word.

KARLIN

Karlin’s body seemed to be moving of its own volition. She felt like someone else was putting on her wet shoes and opening the door of the cabin.

She was a thousand miles away, too angry and too hurt to think very much about what she was doing.

But she knew one thing.

If she didn’t keep moving, she was going to break.

Axel was saying something, getting up and trying to bar her from leaving, but she ignored him and shoved her way past.

It was windy and raining, and there was still no hint of the coming sun, but she observed these details with indifference.

Her nerves were already burning with anxiety, waiting for something terrible to happen.

She didn’t feel the cold, the damp, or anything else.

She was too caught up with remembering.

Remembering that day and the other cabin.

John’s cabin.

Lightning flashed, and she made her way across the valley, her feet carrying her over crevices in the rock, her body on autopilot.

Axel was still talking, still pleading, but she was getting ahead of him now. She knew this area better than he did.

She smiled to herself as more thunder crashed.

The first time she’d discovered this cabin, several years after starting this job with Senera, she’d hated it.

It reminded her too much of that day.

But after a while, her feelings had changed.

She’d never spent any time in it or attempted to tidy it up, but in the back of her mind, she liked that it was there. If the time came to run, she liked knowing there was somewhere nearby that she could go.

She’d never told John that she understood now why he’d chosen a cabin of his own, off the grid, away from everyone and everything. Away from the life that was just too painful for him to live. The perfect place for running, and just as broken and damaged as the person who sought refuge within its crumbling log walls.

She’d never told him she understood.

But she did.

“Karlin, please, wait,” Axel was calling from somewhere behind her. She looked up at the steep rock path ahead and started to climb, not bothering to look back. Even in the dark, she knew this would lead to the main retreat site. She didn’t know what she’d do when she got there, but some detached part of her logical mind figured it was the logical next step.

The rain was worse now, she realized.

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