Page 26 of Delta Mission
He removed his hand, and it was like tearing a small part of me away. “Well, that was a cock-up I could have done without.”
I huffed. “I told you that bridge was broken.”
He rolled away, stood, and glared down at me. “And I told you to wait until I was across.”
“If I had, you and I would now be separated by a giant gorge.”
“Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.” He tossed his helmet on the gravel.
I rolled to my feet and stood. “Really?”
He placed his rifle against the cave wall. “Yeah. Really.”
“We nearly died because you don’t listen. You never listen.”
Glaring at me, he removed his tactical vest and threw it to the gravel floor. “What are we talking about now?”
“You. You only hear what you want to hear.”
“Oh, like how you fucked my brother. I heard that.”
I yanked the Velcro on my Kevlar so hard it was a wonder it didn’t rip off. “Exactly, that’s all you heard. You didn’t hear how it happened. Or why?”
Channing kicked a rock, and it skidded across the cave and slammed into a circle of rocks in the middle. “And I don’t want to fucking know, Makenna. It doesn’t change a thing.”
He turned on his flashlight, stormed to the back of the cave, and disappeared behind a massive rock that jutted from the cave wall like an elbow.
His zipper sounded, and figuring he was taking a piss, I walked to the circle of rocks. The cave was as large as a bus and the remains of an old campfire in the middle of the rocksconfirmed we weren’t the first people to use it. Four cushions were stacked on the other side of the fire pit. I shook one and bashed the weathered fabric with my good hand.
Waving away the dust cloud I’d created, I tossed the pillow to the gravel and strolled to the opposite wall where a pile of sticks, a few logs, and a blackened pot were positioned.
“What is this place?” I picked a spoon out of the pot.
He ambled toward me. “Don’t know, but let’s hope whoever knows about it, doesn’t come back tonight.”
He grabbed a handful of sticks and tossed them onto the ash pile.
Squatting down, he fiddled with the sticks, then lit them with a lighter.
The fire quickly took hold, and he added more sticks.
We stood on opposite sides of the fire; him staring into the flames, and me staring at him. He was as rigid as a statue. And I knew why.
It was time to have the conversation that he’d refused to have all those years ago.
A sadness so deep and crippling sagged in my chest. I pulled my shirt from my pants and the cool air swirled around my torso. But it didn’t stop the guilt inferno blazing through me. Even though it would be the hardest conversation of my life, I wanted to tell him. Had to tell him.
“Channing, it does change things, you know?”
“What does?”
Careful not to use my injured finger, I peeled out of my Kevlar and tossed it to the floor. “Understanding how and why I slept with Talon.”
His stunning blue eyes ripped me apart. “I don’t need to know how or why. You fucked my brother. That’s all I need to know.”
Forcing calm into my voice, I said, “I thought I was going to die, and I thought it was you who saved me. You! Not Talon. You never told me your brother was your identical twin. I thought he was you.”
“Doesn’t explain why you wanted to keep it a secret. That’s what hurt, Makenna.”
