Page 44 of Sloth
“Hey,” she mumbled as she came up next to him.
“Hey.”
After a stretched silence, she sat down next to him. He still wouldn’t look at her. She didn’t blame him. If their breaking up was a misunderstanding, then she had a lot to make up for. And she wanted to. Not because he was her mate, but because they were so much more.
“So… nice view,” she started, then winced at her awkwardness.
He grunted in reply.
“You used to go camping a lot, right?” Camping and surfing. There was plenty of outback and wilderness where he’d lived in Australia. He used to tell her he would go every time he came off tour. Just him and his close buddy, Gale. Max had talked about his friend all the time. They’d grown up together. Joined the army together and always came home together. The camping was their way to acclimatize back to the real world after the ruin of war. Nothing but them and the bush and sky. “You should tell your friend Gale about this spot. He’d probably love it, right? Maybe he can come and visit one day.”
Max’s sharp intake of breath made her glance over. The moonlight cast his handsome face into soft relief. A devastating frown drew his brows together, echoed by a sadness she felt in her gut. It came from him.
“That would be difficult,” he said, shuffling his feet.
“Why’s that?”
“He’s dead.”
The insects stopped chirping. The wind stopped blowing. Everything stopped for a heartbeat. And then a rushing sound filled her ears, beating in time with her rapidly increasing pulse. Gale. Dead.
“I’m sorry.” She breathed on a gasp. “How?” But the instant the word came out of her mouth, she knew. This was it. The missing link—it explained so much. Gale was the one who’d gone missing. “Oh, Max.” Her heart squeezed. “He was the one you went to rescue?”
He nodded, making a small choking sound.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“I needed you, Sloan. I needed you, and you weren’t there.” Eyes full of hurt and accusation and longing locked with hers.
“I didn’t know.”
“You should have known, Sloan. You know everything.”
“I—” she cut herself off. Normally, he was right. She made it her business to know everything about everyone. So why had she given up on him? Could she really blame it on her sin?
“Why didn’t you look me up?” Accusation. Anger. Hurt.
“I stopped checking on you. I’m sorry. I should have tried harder.”
He wiped his nose. “Yeah, you should have.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That what they were saying was true. That we are evil.”
“You’re the furthest thing from evil. I’ve stared real evil in the face, and it’s human.”
Another silence stretched, and when he didn’t speak again, she shuffled closer to him on the log. “Tell me what happened. I know I can’t make up for it, but I’m listening. I’m here now.”
A long shuddering breath racked his body, and she realized he was crying. This big, strong man who’d once been the high point of her day, the laughter of her life, was sad. It pulsed out of him, drawing her down. He’d been sad for years and she hadn’t been there for him. She reached out, but he didn’t reciprocate. Her hand wavered in the air, then dropped back down to fist at her side.
The lump in her throat grew. “Max…”
“I quit. Like I said I would. Gale didn’t want me to go, but I had you. I wanted more than the military. I wanted my own family, not to be the tag-along to his. The instant my plane had touched down here, I got the message. He’d been taken hostage by the enemy during a ceasefire. They claimed to have no knowledge of it, but we knew he was with them, so the army called me back. They wanted me to hunt him down. I’d done a few tours already in the area and knew the terrain better than anyone.” He stopped, scrubbed his face and took a deep breath. “I dropped my package at your place, but most of you were out on a mission. She was the only one left in the building.”
“Package?” Sloan prompted. He’d left something for her?
