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Finally, the clock read 12:30 and after I finished upwith one of my staff, I took my car to Colm’s restaurant As I stepped into the cool interior of the building, I wondered what questions she’d ask and how she’d respond

Miranda sat alone at a round booth at the side of the restaurant I went over and bent down to kiss her cheek I sat beside her, close, and wrappedher deeply She kissed me back and at that moment, I felt so incredibly relieved

“Ask ”

“Tell me why”

I inhaled and folded my hands on the table “We lost our GPS and strayed into ene back to the day “We’d been out testing the comms tech Brimstone developed with a DARPA contract and—”

“No,” she said and held her hand up “Tell ht away”

I closed my eyes That as harder to explain It was easy to explain why Dan came to rescue us It was far harder – practically iht away

“I was afraid that if I had told you the truth, you would’ve hated me I didn’t want you to hate me”

“Why would I hate you?

“He died because of me,” I said, my throat constricted “His team was dispatched to rescue us He came with me in the chopper I was his patient,” I said

She took ave th

“When we crashed, he wasn’t strapped in yet, and e hit, he was caught beneath the airframe…”

I heard Miranda’s intake of breath “Did he die quickly at least?”

I said nothing I’d lied to her tooto tell her how he screamed in pain while the other members of the team tried to rescue him, and how they finally freed hi off his clothes to apply bandages and tourniquets to stop the bleeding because of amputations caused when the rotor blades cut him

She covered her eyes with a hand and I heard her sob My eyes blurred, rehastly scene I pulled her into my arms and remembered the scene that replayed over and over in my mind every day since then