Page 3 of Fade (Fighting Fate)

“Do you?” he barked. “Well, let me tell you, then. It fucking hurts a lot. And you don’t even care. You won’t do anything to help me. All you care about is yourself and what you fucking want—or what you don’t want.”

“Ryan—” I choked, not exactly sure what I wanted to say. What could I say to that?

Ryan shook his head and reached for the doorknob. “I’m done, Amy. Get your stuff and go home. I’m going out.”

With that, he threw the door open and stormed out.

The first of my tears fell as I sat, frozen, listening to the sound of his retreating footsteps on the stairs.

Chapter 2

Daniel

The sun was just breaking over the horizon when the bus finally reached the outskirts of Sacramento. The ride from San Diego had been long and painful, but it was going to be worth it. I was damned well going to make sure of it.

Thanks to the United States government, with its political dramas and sudden cutbacks in the defense department, I now had close to twelve weeks’ leave up my sleeve, and I planned on making the most of it.

Unlike my other platoon buddies, who’d volunteered to take the unpaid leave, whose plans included getting wild and loose for the entire twelve weeks before we deployed to Australia, I was planning on spending the summer with my mom. The first one since my parents split when I was thirteen.

Yeah, I know. Six years was a long time, but I had my dad and his super fucked-up need to control everyone and everything to thank for that one.

I had him to thank for a lot of the shitty things that happened with the split, really. Like his awesome idea to separate me and my identical twin brother, Ryan. Because what else do you do when your ex-wife’s lawyer states she’s entitled to half of everything? That’s right, you choose to be an asshole and take it literally. Then you do whatever you can to make life as difficult for her as possible. Like deny her the right to take the son she left behind out of the state. Even back to her home across the other side of the country for a vacation. Ever. Pretty nice of the old man, huh?

As the bus rolled to a stop, I grabbed my duffle bag and stepped out into the north Californian sunshine. Having never been to Sacramento before, I was relying solely on Google’s help to get me where I needed to go. I didn’t know if that was wise or not, but I hoped she was going to be kind to me. If she was, it looked like I only had six more blocks to go.

Setting off at a brisk pace, I tried to shake off the nervous energy that was starting to seep into my veins. It had been almost two years since I’d seen Mom, and almost three since I’d seen Ryan, and the lapse in time only seemed to make the small path that acted as our memory lane even narrower, but to me, it was still a sweet path nonetheless. The small amount of time I got to spend with her each year had been like a salvation to me when I was growing up, and I’ll always cherish the memories we created. But this time was going to be different. We were coming together on our own terms. And it felt good.

Walking up the drive, I smiled when I saw the front door swing open and Mom step out still wearing her robe and slippers. She squealed and rushed forward, barely giving me time to put my duffle down before she was wrapping me in a bone-crunching hug.

I laughed. “Hi, Mom.”

She pulled back and cupped my face in her hands. “I can’t believe you’re finally here. I barely got a wink of sleep last night, I was so excited.”

I shook my head at her, but I was smiling just the same.

“Now come inside and let me make you some breakfast,” she said, pulling me by the arm.

Who was I to argue with that?

Scooping up my bag again, I followed her inside, taking in the surroundings as I went. I was a little surprised to see traces of me and my life quite literally everywhere I looked.

There were pictures of me from every year at school hanging in the hall, action shots of me in combat training on the mantle, a montage of me at Jiujitsu, covering every belt I’d earned, right up to the black belt I’d received in my senior year, and many more I never even knew existed.

“Dad send you all of these?” I asked with surprise, nodding my head in the direction of a bunch of photos from last year’s graduation.

She looked up from the pot she was filling in the sink and smiled. “It took some persuading, but yes.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled as I wandered around the dining room.

Sounds of footsteps had me looking up to see Ryan, my twin brother, coming down the stairs. He’d obviously only just woken up because he was rubbing his eyes like they weren’t quite working yet, and his hair was sticking up in a dozen different directions.

He smirked when he reached the bottom of the stairs and saw me. “Hey, Brother. You just get here?” he said, coming over to give me a hard hug and a thump on the back.

“Yeah. Five minutes ago,” I said, thumping him back.

I watched him pull back, his eyes drifting down to my chest. “Jesus, man. What the hell have you been doing? You’re huge.”

Glancing down at my twin, I did a quick comparison. Ryan obviously worked out. He was by no means puny, but all the hard training and twenty-mile runs I did every day had made me more defined and probably slightly bigger than him.

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