Out of Touch by Kate Bold

Author:Kate Bold [Bold, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kate Bold
Published: 2023-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Dylan’s anxiety mounted as she and Mike just stared silently at each other.

Of course becoming an FBI agent must change you, she thought.

But is that always a bad thing?

Finally Mike said, “Dylan, when we went into that prison guard’s house back in Atterfield, and he greeted us with a gun … well, I got the feeling you were a bit surprised at how I reacted to him.”

She nodded. Mike was right, she had been surprised.

“You took it awfully calmly,” she said.

And now it occurred to her—he hadn’t even seemed frightened for her safety.

Not like in the woods just now.

“Do you know why I reacted that way?” he asked.

Dylan shook her head, and Mike began to explain.

“I read that guy, Kirk Duncan, in a second. I could see him for what he was—a sadist and a bully who used his authority to mistreat the prisoners under his watch. I could also see that he was a coward. He wouldn’t fight anyone who might fight back. And I could also see …”

Mike leaned across the table and finished his thought with a note of emphasis.

“… that he’d never killed anyone in his life, and that he never ever would. He might have had an arsenal of weapons, but we were in no danger from him at all. Do you know how I knew that?”

Dylan nodded again. Mike’s message to her was starting to become clear.

“You knew that because …”

She let her voice fade, but she didn’t need to finish her sentence. Both she and Mike knew what she was leaving unsaid.

“You knew that because you’ve killed people yourself.”

Dylan felt an eerie chill settle in.

She wasn’t surprised at this, actually. Of course she knew that, as a federal law enforcement agent, Mike had sometimes had to use lethal force in the course of carrying out his job. But she’d never let the truth of it sink in before.

I might have to make terrible decisions myself.

I might have to do terrible things.

Mike was gazing at her with genuine concern now.

“Dylan, you’ve got to think about this. If you go into this line of work, you’re going to have to do things you’ve never thought about doing before. Some of those things might be hard to live with. Are you sure that’s what you want for the rest of your life? Are you sure … you aren’t doing yourself and the world a lot more good … doing what you do right now as a therapist? You’re a healer, Dylan. That’s a great thing to be. Doing what I do … well, it’s not like that at all.”

Another silence fell. Dylan’s brain was so full of thoughts and questions, she didn’t know what to say.

He’d said she was a healer, and that was sometimes true enough. But she also had problem-solving skills that weren’t being used at all in her work as a therapist. It had felt good to be thinking her way through a different kind of problem. It had felt good to contribute to solutions that could immediately save lives.

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