Page 92 of Trapped

Sophia nodded. “You already heard Cash’s account of our adventures.”

“Right. Your adventures. The guy version. Very fact filled. But I didn’t hear anything about your emotions. Or his.”

Sophia grimaced. “He’s pretty uptight.”

“And you’re being pretty guarded.” Kathryn spread her hand. “We don’t have a lot of time for extended therapy here. If you tell me what’s going on with you—I’ll give you my considered opinion.”

Sophia stared down at her hands. “I guess the bottom line is that I told him I was in love with him, and he didn’t bother to respond.”

“I guess that was hard for him to deal with—under the stress of running for your lives.”

She made a small sound. Then, because she had nothing to lose, she said. “I had a crush on him in high school. And I know he liked me, too. But he always acted like he thought he wasn’t good enough for me. In the past few days, we’ve talked about his life back then. I didn’t realize how hard it was.”

“How does that make you feel?”

“Like I was too self-centered to notice.”

“Or he hid it from you. Probably not just from you—from a lot of people.”

She huffed out a breath. “Yes. I think that’s right. But it doesn’t make me feel good about my high-school self.”

“But you did reach out to him?”

“Yes. Just before he left for Fort Benning, I brought him to my house—when my parents and my little sister were away in Europe. I mean, it wasn’t a kid sneaking around,” she added quickly. “I was nineteen. And he was a year older. I never forgot that night. And I think he didn’t either. Later, when I got married, it didn’t work out, partly because I kept comparing my husband to Cash. And partly because George married me for my money, I think.”

“That’s a lot to walk around with.”

“Yes. But back to Cash. He and I are both a lot more mature. I think we could build something together now. But he won’t let me close.” She heaved a sigh. “Well, he let me get physically close. But he’s guarding his emotions.”

“You might have gathered from his behavior that he feels like he’s damaged by what happened to him in the bunker. And what happened to him in Afghanistan.”

“Yes,” she answered in a small voice, still unwilling to meet the other woman’s eyes.

“So perhaps he’s putting your relationship on hold until he feels like he has more to offer you.”

She gave Kathryn a fierce look. “He doesn’t have to do that!”

“But he’s a proud man, and he obviously feels he has to.”

Sophia had thought of his pride too. Now she felt like a giant hand was squeezing her lungs. Nervously, she looked toward the door. “I can’t stand not knowing what’s happening down there.”

“Don’t you think interrupting would be a bad idea?”

Sophia’s throat was so constricted that she could barely speak.

“Yes, I know it would be. But I can’t stop thinking about what Jonah is doing to him. Maybe it will be too much for him. You can’t know how that feels.”

“I do.”

“How?”

“Because I went through a similar experience when horrible things were done to Hunter.”

Sophia looked at the other woman. “What?”

Now Kathryn was the one who looked uncomfortable. She swallowed hard, then said, “Hunter doesn’t come from any kind of normal background. He was a clone—raised for a suicide mission.”

“A clone?” Sophia gasped.

“He’s come a long way since then. He didn’t even have a name. I met him because I was hired to . . . socialize him, but they lied to me about his background, and I had no idea what I was getting into.”

Sophia gasped. “You’re . . . kidding.”

“No.” Kathryn held her gaze steady. “A lot of the people who work for Decorah Security have been through some pretty harrowing experiences and survived. We’re a very resilient group.”

Sophia struggled to take that in.

“As you can imagine, Hunter and I had a lot to deal with after we escaped from the secure facility where they were training him to be an assassin. So, I’m pretty in tune with what you’re going through.”

Sophia nodded, hearing the strong emotion in Kathryn’s voice. Still, that was in her past. Kathryn and Hunter had gotten through the worst. But Jonah was doing God knows what to Cash right now.

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