Page 18 of Perilous Healing

Elijah clicks away on his keyboard, then turns to me. “Props to whoever did the wipe and identity setup. It’s solid.”

“Of course you’re giving her a compliment right now.” Michael rolls his eyes.

“I’m merely mentioning that the check is solid. I didn’t catch anything when I looked into her before we hired her.”

“The military didn’t catch anything either when she joined,” Michael reminds him.

Elijah shrugs. Everyone in this room knows he’s more thorough than even the United States military when it comes to background checks. Elijah can find a speck of dust in a digital haystack.

Lance remains silent. I meet his gaze. Will he fire me? Throw me out of here without another look? He’s a man of God. Honest to his soul. What will he do with someone like me, who’s been lying about who she is for years?

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I’m so sorry I kept it a secret. I just—I didn’t think it would be an issue.”

“What do you mean, you killed him?” Michael asks. “Can we get back to that?”

I close my eyes momentarily, memories of my abduction and the botched surgery rushing back. “I was grabbed from a military base in Afghanistan,” I tell them. “Taken by someone my father paid. They knocked me out and flew me to his secret camp in Cambodia because he was dying and needed surgery to remove a blockage in his gut. There were complications, and I didn’t save him. I could have. And I chose not to.”

Beside me, Silas remains silent. He’s heard this before. Then, we’d both been staring down the barrel of weapons as we knelt on the soft, jungle dirt. But one glance at him and I see it’s not any easier to digest this time around.

Michael studies me. “So you didn’t actively murder someone, you just refused medical care.”

“I could have saved him,” I insist, not wanting Michael to soften what I did. “I was good at what I did. But I saw an opportunity to rid the world of a monster, and I took it.” The room is silent, no one wanting to say what’s on their mind. I can feel the disappointment. The anger. The repulsion. It’s the same way it felt when Silas found out the truth. That the man who’d killed his friends and tortured him was the same man I used to call my dad. The same one who used to tuck me in at night. Who cradled me when I’d been an infant.

Tears burn in my eyes, but I struggle to keep them hidden. “Look, I’ll leave. They’ll follow.” I start toward the door.

“No.” A single word spoken by a man shouldn’t hold such power. But when spoken by Silas Williamson, and directed at me, it does.

I stop moving and turn to face the room.

“You’ve been running your entire life. They’re here now. And they’ll come after all of us simply because we associated with you. It would be foolish to think that leaving will draw them away from here. They’ll just assume we know where you are and use us to find you.”

“But you won’t know where I’m going.”

“You and I both know that won’t stop them from trying to figure it out.”

Torture. He’s talking about torture. Bile burns my throat.

I think about everyone here that I’ve come to care for. Lance and his wife, Eliza, Michael and his wife, Reyna, Elijah and his wife, Andie, Lilly, Alex, Pastor Redding, Kyra…Silas and Eloise. The list goes on and on. Would running really put them in more danger?

And if leaving will cause pain, then what does staying risk? Either way, it seems I’m risking nothing short of everything.

“If your fa—Culvers is dead,” Michael starts, “then who’s coming after you now?”

“My uncle, River, would have taken over the organization after the death of Lucian,” I reply. “He’s not quite as bloodthirsty, though just as dangerous. Even more so, maybe, because he’s less predictable.”

“Why would they be coming after you now?”

“They want me dead. My father’s group has their own brand of justice they like to dole out. I’ve been running ever since I was pulled out of that jungle.”

“Why didn’t you change your name after the rescue?” Elijah asks. “You clearly had someone who could do it for you, why not do it and disappear?”

Because Silas wouldn’t be able to find me.It’s not like I can speak that truth out loud, though. Silas made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me, but I always hoped that maybe if he changed his mind— “I was attached to the name,” I reply. “And I thought they would be so busy with the organization falling apart around them that they wouldn’t be focused on me.”

“Well, you were wrong,” Michael says. “And now they’ve come to Hope Springs.”

“I know. Sorry doesn’t cut it, I know that, but I never would have come here if I thought the danger was still relevant.”

His gaze darkens. “You’re the daughter of one of the most dangerous men the United States has ever seen, and—to top it off—you let him die on an operating table. Why would you think the danger would ever disappear?”

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