A Life Rebuilt by Jean Brashear

Author:Jean Brashear
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

ROMAN TRIED THE SCHOOL grounds first, but they were abandoned. He didn’t waste a lot of time there, searching for signs of the attack in order to track Freddie, though that would be his next step if the kid wasn’t in the abandoned house nearby.

Though it was only a couple of streets away, he drove, even if it risked Freddie hearing his approach and escaping out the back into the dense vegetation when he heard a vehicle pull up. Maybe the boy would recognize Roman’s truck, but he might not even look.

On the other hand, he might be hurt too badly to run, and if so, Roman would want his truck nearby to take Freddie for medical help. Not that he couldn’t carry the boy for miles, if need be—the kid weighed maybe a hundred pounds, and Roman had shouldered wounded comrades weighing twice that, carrying them over rough terrain in brutal heat. Like the day of the crash—

Blood…the dead weight of the chopper pilot’s body as Roman tried to rise on legs that wouldn’t hold—

No. He blinked hard. Shoved the image down deep.

Fists clenched, he emerged from the truck, scanning the shadows both for threats and for any sense that Freddie was nearby. When he reached the house, he walked around the entire structure before entering at the back.

Once inside he stood very still, listening both with his ears and the extra sense he’d honed over years of living in a hostile environment where you couldn’t be sure which direction threats would come from, only that they would.

He’d hoped to leave that world behind, but what was the old saying? Life is what happens while you’re busy making plans?

Too many night patrols, too many adrenaline spikes. And never, ever, a deep and restful sleep. Because at any moment the sky could suddenly flare into day, the world going utterly still in that heavy pause like the world holding its breath, then…

Shattering explosions. Shouts from the terrified. Screams of the injured.

Groans of the dying…in his arms.

No! No, God, no—Sayidah…Ahmed…blood, so much blood…

Roman bent double. Sank to his knees, hands clapped to his ears, feeling himself being pulled into a flashback, into that dark, airless tunnel.

Chest heaving, he shook like a fever victim, uncontrollable shivers that—

Stop. For chrissake, stop. Roman rocked, hands gripping his hair, head moving side to side as he gasped for air. No more. No…more.

Then he heard it. The sound that was real, that was here.

Slowly he began to crawl out of the tunnel, the Roman that was left of him, the one he’d hidden from Abuela, from everyone.

He dragged long, slow pulls of air from the depths of him…slowly.

Another sound, this time a sob.

Like an old man, Roman painstakingly rose to his feet, stumbling back into this place, this time. “Freddie?” He moved toward the sound, and every step brought him more into the present, helped him find solid ground, enabled him to push away the wraiths who haunted his dreams.

He halted, listened hard.

Nothing.

After

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