Page 24 of The Infinite Light of Dust

My phone buzzed next to me. I gently picked it up with the hand that wasn’t brushing Karina’s cheek. I lifted it behind her head and read the message.

The MPs are here, banging on the door.

What?

What do you mean the MPs are there? At my house?

The texting bubbles popped up and I held my breath. They disappeared before a message came through.Fuck.

“Everything okay?” Karina tilted her chin to looked into my eyes.

I considered lying, but what good would that do? She could read me like a damn book, and by now I’d learned my lesson when it came to keeping the truth from such an aware woman as Karina.

“Not sure. Fischer said the MPs are at my place.”

She sat up and reached for my phone.

Her eyes scanned the screen, reading the texts between her brother and me. She wasted no time calling him. Her eyes closed when his voicemail came on.

“We should go.” She climbed off the bed, flung open her dresser drawers, and began tossing clothes onto the floor.

The level of panic she felt was contagious. I tried Fischer again while picking up the clothes she was flinging around and putting them on her bed. After pulling a sweatshirt over her head, she hobbled on one leg, then the other, and slid socks onto each of her feet. I got dressed as fast as I could, and Karina called for Elodie.

“Babe, she’s at my place.”

Her key chain shook in her hand. “Oh god. Yeah, I forgot.”

“I’m driving.” I gently cupped her hands and removed the keys. No way in hell was I going to let her drive.

It seemed to take a fucking lifetime to get to my place even though it was only a few miles. When we pulled up, the place looked vacated. Elodie’s car was gone and the front door was closed but not locked. We searched the duplex, calling Fischer’s and Elodie’s names, but no one replied. The kitchen and bathroom lights were on and there was a fresh glass of ice water on the coffee table. It seemed as if they had left unexpectedly, and given the MPs coming, it made sense. Fischer needed to stay off their radar or his enlistment would be totally fucked. As it was, he’d already gotten in trouble too many times.

Karina called Elodie over and over, but she didn’t pick up on her cell either.

“I shouldn’t have gotten so drunk last night,” Karina groaned as we got back into my truck.

“There’s nothing you could have done, and we don’t know why they came. Maybe they were looking for Phillips?” I tried to comfort her but my gut told me something was wrong, beyond the obvious of the shitshow that last night had been.

“Hopefully. But I need to see my brother.” Her lips quivered as she spoke.

I put the truck in Drive and headed to the closest MP station. My busted knuckles gripped the steering wheel until they turned white.

After two stops, we finally found Elodie’s car parked outside the third station. Karina got out of the truck before I turned the ignition off. When we got inside, soldiers in ACUs were sitting behind their desks and two of them were standing, arms crossed in front of a hysterical Elodie.

“You’re not listening!” she cried, covering her face with her hands.

Karina moved next to her and flung her arms around her as I approached the soldiers.

“What’s going on, Private?” I asked the one with a clipboard in his hands.

He eyed me up and down before responding.

“What’s your name, soldier?” the young private asked me. The other one tapped his shoulder and said something in his ear. Having been in combat had given me the ability to easily read lips. As he whispered my name, they both looked at me.

“Sergeant Martin, right?” the private with the clipboard asked me.

I nodded, my skin prickling.

“You need to come with us.”

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