Page 5 of Fallout

Caleb grinned. “Let’s carve our initials into the tree. Then we’ll always remember being up here.”

Jasper ran his thumb over the slits in the bark. The discolored spot where Jasper had pricked his finger. He cried a little, and Caleb told him not to be a baby. Needles were worse.

“Excuse me!”

He ducked out of the tree house and nearly stumbled down the ladder. Jasper pulled his badge out, and Samantha did the same. “Sorry to disturb you, ma’am.”

The woman just stood there, staring at them. They used the side gate to get out and went back to where they’d parked their cars.

“You used to live there, or what?” Samantha asked.

Jasper clicked the locks on his car. “It was a long time ago.”

THREE

After five weeks of working for Vanguard Private Security and Investigations, it was finally starting to feel familiar for Destiny to wake up on the top floor of the building. For her to get ready in the marble bathroom. Stand in a closet bigger than her childhood bedroom and get dressed in fancy office clothes.

She drank a smoothie while she waited for the toaster to brown her bagel, which she ate at the breakfast bar with the international news on the TV. She liked the anchor’s British accent.

It was at least starting to feel comforting to pour coffee into a small thermal mug and take the elevator down to the office.

Weeks. It had been weeks.

This was normal, right? The nightmares were fewer. She didn’t jump quite so much when someone came up behind her. She couldn’t see the abrasions on her wrists anymore. The scar on her abdomen had healed to a red line that would always be visible against the brown of her skin.

Three… Two… One.

Destiny pasted on a smile, and the elevator doors slid open.

She strode out and caught Simon’s glance. He was here more often than her, and she lived in the building. “Morning.”

He didn’t quite focus, his mind always working through something. “Hey, hi.” He turned back to his monitor.

Since he was not much younger than her, the two of them made up a significant portion of Vanguard employees who were in their twenties. Simon and his twin brother, Peter, were tech prodigies. Where Peter had gone and trained to be a Vanguard operative, Simon had stuck here in the office with the computer network. He’d upgraded the whole thing with stronger firewalls and all kinds of jargon computer things she didn’t understand.

Her desk was in front of Clare’s office. After Lena had been fired for a few different things, including romantic indiscretion and other compromising sins that meant she could no longer be trusted, Clare had needed a new executive assistant.

Destiny hung her blazer on the hook on the wall behind the desk, set her purse in the bottom drawer, and didn’t bother getting out her phone. She only used it for watching movies at night when she didn’t want to reach for the remote.

Never mind the unread thread with her sisters and her brother.

She would only be looking for a message or a missed call from Jasper. He was the only person she wanted to hear from. Or see. But what was the point in wishing for something she couldn’t have? She’d screamed at him when he tried to visit her in the hospital.

But that was weeks ago, and she had no idea how to break this stalemate.

Simon approached. She spotted the moment he slowed his stride so that he didn’t surprise her. “Destiny.” Voice soft so she didn’t flinch. “How are you this morning?”

Whatever he’d been doing a moment ago, he’d finished. Or hit a natural stopping point. She smiled at him, wondering how anyone wouldn’t be able to tell the twins apart. They were so different.

“Hey, Sie. I’m good. How are you?” Clare had told her that withholding the truth might be part of this job. Telling everyone she was “good” rather than admitting the truth probably wasn’t what Clare had meant.

“She in?” He motioned to Clare’s closed office door.

“She has a doctor’s appointment this morning.”

Simon said, “Is everything okay?”

Someone else came over. Then, two people from the Cold Case Department.

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