Page 91 of Silent Threat
You should complete your treatment.
Yeah. No.Cole typed:Checking out.
If you’re sure. Anything you need?
Cole sent a single question:Any news about the guys?
Matt is being released from Walter Reed.
Matthew Halpern had been the pilot of the chopper that crashed, the youngest person on the team. Cole had been worried about the kid. His injuries had been hard on him. So Cole’s next question was:Did they fix his legs?
He waited several seconds, but the CO didn’t text back.
Matt’s legs had been crushed when the chopper had been shot down. Nobody had thought Matt would make it through the night, let alone the six months of brutal captivity that had followed.
Cole was pretty sure he knew what had kept the kid alive. Matt had had this photo, hidden in the sole of his shoe, the engagement photo of his older brother and his fiancée. Matt would take it out when their captors weren’t looking and stare at it, run his thumb over the image.
They’d all assumed he was close to his brother, that thinking about his family kept him going. But Cole had seen the photo up close once. The glaze had been worn off the woman’s face.
When they’d finally escaped, they’d carried Matt out of the country, over three hundred miles of rough terrain. He’d cursed at them the whole time to leave him behind. They wouldn’t.
Cole thought of him, in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, hopelessly in love with his brother’s wife.Hell of a way to live.
Cole swore under his breath. Then he refocused on the mission at hand.
He sent one last text to his CO:Let me know when you find out about Trevor.
The response popped up within seconds.Will do. Take care.
Cole was still thinking about Trev when he went to find the program coordinator. Had Trev’s lost-lamb act been a trap? He’d befriended Cole with it. Maybe he’d befriended others the same way. He’d acted so messed up, people lowered their guard around him. Maybe he’d been able to get sensitive information out of the others—previous missions, troop movements.
Cole tried to remember every word they’d exchanged. Had he told Trev anything he shouldn’t have? He didn’t think so. But that he might have, given more time, bothered him.
He’d meant to, planned to, hang out with Trevor.
He walked to Murphy Dolan’s office. The door stood open, Dolan behind the desk.
He spotted Cole. “How is it going?”
“I’m checking out.” Cole didn’t take a seat.
The last time he’d been in this office had been his first day at Hope Hill. Dolan’s space was pretty bare-bones: desk, chair, and file cabinets. About half the size of Dr.Ambrose’s, which said something about Dolan. He wasn’t an egomaniac. Searching Dolan’s office had been dead easy. The most interesting thing he’d found was a chocolate stash.
He was an OK guy, had been a local cop at one point, according to Annie. Cole could see it, something in the way the man watched him. According to Annie, Dolan had been in the Army Reserve. Cole could see that too. A man could leave the military, but the military never left a man.
“Can we do something for you that we haven’t been doing?” Dolan asked. “I know Trev’s passing has been hard on everyone.”
Cole shook his head. “Time for me to move on.”
Dolan hesitated, as if he was thinking about trying to talk Cole out of leaving, but after a few seconds, he said, “All right. I’ll schedule exit sessions with your treatment team.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Cole left the man and walked through the facility. He pulled his phone from his pocket and texted Annie.Where are you?
He wanted to tell her about his decision in person.
She didn’t text back. Maybe she was in a session with one of her patients.
