Page 21 of Protective Assignment
“I don’t have any other sessions planned this afternoon,” she remarked.“Are you free right now?We could cover the basics, lay down the groundwork for our future time together.”
“Uh, well, I just left the gym and was going to change.”He nodded in the direction of the cabins.
“Oh, I don’t mind.People come to sessions from the gym all the time.But I can give you directions to my office and you can come down after, if you’d rather.”
Cade really didn’t want to do this, but if it would get Carter off his back, then so be it.
He nodded.“That sounds great.I’d really like to change, then I can come over,” he replied.
Sarah quickly gave him directions to her office and he headed to his cabin with the promise he’d be there soon.He hurried to change and walked back to the lodge before he could second-guess himself, trying to give himself a pep talk on the way.
“Thanks for waiting,” he said after knocking on the counselor’s open door a short time later.
She smiled, pushing her glasses up her nose, and rose to meet him.She then gestured for him to take a seat while she closed the door.“Let’s get started.”
As she sat back at her desk, she offered him another warm smile.Cade couldn’t relax, though.He didn’t like talking about what had happened to him, what had led to his discharge from the military.He hated remembering and he did everything he could not to ponder on it any longer than he needed to.
“So,” she began, clasping her hands together on top of her desk.“Let’s start from the beginning.Can you tell me about your time in the service?”
He launched into his story—this part, he had no problem discussing with her, the part where everything had been going right.He had been sent to Afghanistan with hisunit, and they had worked to free a city from the control of an oppressive terrorist group.It had taken months of hard work, but when they had finally managed to pull it off, he felt like he had found the career he needed.It was exciting and stimulating; he got to help people, and it kept his mind and body busy.It might not have been completely safe all of the time, but when was anything worth doing ever safe?
He had stayed out there for another couple of years, taking brief breaks to come back to America to see his brother.But he had been so focused on helping the people they had liberated, he didn’t need anything else.
“And I think it would have stayed that way too,” he remarked, with a sigh.“Until…until the ambush.”
“The ambush?”she asked, scribbling on the page in front of her.
He nodded, and began to recount the story to her.He could still remember the day as clearly as if it were happening right in front of him.The heat from the midday sun beating down, the chatter in the truck as they transferred from one side of the city to the other.They had to take this little back road, nothing out of the ordinary—a lot of the streets had been damaged in the conflict, and it didn’t give them room to move their trucks around with particular ease.
Then, he had heard it.The whistle of a projectile, swiftly followed by the sound of an explosion.One of their trucks had been taken out.Seconds later, chaos erupted.
He had thrown himself from the truck to try and help his comrades, but before he could, gunfire exploded around them, throwing up dust clouds in the sand.He had tried to use the truck for cover, but they were surrounded.A grenade was thrown close by, sending shrapnel flying intohim.As he dove away from the blast, he’d caught a bullet in the shoulder.
“And that’s the last thing I remember,” he finished, shaking his head.“Next thing I knew, I was waking up in a field hospital, and they were telling me they were going to have to fly me back to the US.”
She nodded, her face sympathetic.“That must have been so difficult for you, having to step away from the job that had become your identity at that point.”
He grimaced.He hated thinking about it.Thinking about who he was before his injury and who he was now.He had purpose then, now he had no idea what his future looked like.He felt like he was floundering most days.
Cade sighed.“Yeah,” he replied.“It’s been hard.”
And that was the most he would admit to.Even if it was the understatement of the century.
Chapter Twelve
Glancing around to make sure her bedroom door was firmly shut, River knelt beside her bed and pulled out the shoebox she’d found in the supply closet.Inside, she had been stashing any small supplies she’d managed to take from the main lodge.It wasn’t much, but it was something—something she could focus on, something she could use to plan for the time when she had to move on, even if it made her feel guilty just thinking about it.
She tucked another spool of thread into the box, doing her best to push the guilt aside.She knew she couldn’t stay forever; this was a temporary stop to rest and regroup before she moved on to find her family.She was really starting to settle in and enjoying her new day-to-day.It was going to be hard for her to leave when the time came.
Slipping the box back into place, she sighed and sat on the edge of her bed.It was strange to even think about leaving, after everything she had been through to bring her here.Living on the road had come so naturally to her before, but now that she had found this little corner of safety and security, leaving again seemed downright impossible.How was she supposed to just walk away from this place, especially when everyone had been so kind to her?At firstshe didn’t give it much thought, assuming the others had ulterior motives for letting her stay.But the longer she’d been here, she realized differently.They were friendly and helpful to everyone; after all, that was what this place was about, helping and healing.
That was what she had to keep reminding herself.Not everything or everyone was out to harm her or cause her trouble.Just because she had been so used to it in her old life and always had to stay on guard didn’t mean anyone here was looking to do the same thing.No matter how easy it would have been to believe it, she had to give them the benefit of the doubt until they gave her reason to think otherwise.
Hannah had been so sweet to her, and Xavier had given her a job.And Cade…well, Cade had been going around and around her head in a way she didn’t know if she could deny any longer.Being near him, which she was a lot these days with them living together, made it feel like everything was going to be okay.Instead of the usual chaos in her mind, she felt like she could take a step back and relax.
She knew it was dangerous to let her guard down in any way, especially around him.There seemed to be some invisible force that pulled them together when they were around each other, especially alone.It would be a bad thing for her to get any more involved with him than she was already.He hardly knew anything about her but he seemed to care about her, even without all the specifics about her past and where she’d come from.
Maybe that would all change when he found out the truth, if she ever told him everything.All the more reason to keep it from him, she decided.
