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We stare at each other for a long aze drops to my phone “Cute kid”CHAPTER 3MalikOf course she’s a cute kid She’s a product of Ji couple I’d only et-together for drinks the night before we flew out I’d been working and training with Jimmy for alht
I know all about the little girl facing me on the screen of Anna’s phone From the moment I’d been rescued byquestions about everything Ihe knew about Jimmy and Sal’s deaths so I could compare it to my own recollection How they died and how their bodies were recovered Sal bled out from a bullet wound to his femoral artery while Jimmy died from a shot to the neck
The guilt for those two deaths is crushing to e it Perhaps that’s why I’m overly curious about Anna and her baby, Avery How does a wo his baby all within aan easygoing, welcoht be somewhat of an act
It makes it a bit aard for me
Over the last teeks, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking At first, I wasto nourishtime at home with my parents in Montreal was exactly what I needed as I come from an incredibly close-knit fa or overcorief h, but they didn’t fuss over me as they kneould have hated it
My siblings came in at separate times to check in on me Max and Lucas both play professional hockey, so they snuck in for a visit when they played Ottawa My sister Simone and her husband Van—a retired hockey player for the Cold Fury—came in for an entire week, but, likethe fact I’d been a prisoner in the Middle East for five ether, and Simone cooked all of my favorite foods My parents stared at me a lot, but I couldn’t really bla as hard a ti I was actually rescued
But then, it was tih
To my job
It was the only ti their concerns While they hedged it in terms of “maybe you should stay and rest soo back out on a dangerous mission and die
I totally get it, but they also know one thing about me I never run fros head-on, and the only way I kno to put Syria behind ht in front of me
Ito New York to visit Sal’s family He wasn’t married and didn’t have kids, so it was a so parents ere incredibly stoic about his death They were quite surprised to see me on their doorstep, but they welco about Sal I didn’t know hiiven ht he died and I was taken prisoner, which is a good thing I haven’t been debriefed yet, and I wouldn’t have been able to give thelad I didn’t have to tell the with Jimmy
And as I stare at the picture of Jihter, Avery, I wonder if there will come a time in her life where she’ll know my role in her father’s death Anna may or may not choose to tell her the details, and I have no clue exactly what Anna knows yet She’s a little bit different seeing as how she works here and would presumably be privy to some details
Regardless, until I get my official debrief with Kynan, I can’t tell her what I did or didn’t do out there in the desert I can only hold ht for now
My gaze lifts from the photo of Avery to Anna She’s an incredibly lovely woray eyes that seeht we all had drinks, I thought they were a dark cornflower color, but under the fluorescent kitchen lights, they seem almost silvery with a hint of sky blue