Page 11 of Fade (Fighting Fate)

I knew Mom could tell there was some tension on my side, but Ryan was as cool as ever, so either he didn’t get the fact that I wasn’t happy with his treatment toward Amy, or he just didn’t fucking care. Both scenarios annoyed me to no end.

I glanced down the road, where the messenger’s car had disappeared around the corner. “Just a Marine Messenger.” I held up the envelope. “Reminding us about deployment.”

The smirk disappeared. His gaze snapped up to meet mine. For the first time since I’d been back, I actually saw a genuine emotion in his eyes. “Shit,” he said quietly. “You’re being deployed?”

I narrowed my eyes a little, contemplating the worry in his gaze. This was the Ryan I remembered from years ago. The one who used to be my best friend. “Yeah.” I frowned, ready to tell him I was only heading to Australia, but I was still trying to understand his reaction. “You know that’s kind of expected when you join the Marines, right?”

He shifted on his feet and sighed, looking defeated. “You know, I didn’t actually think you’d do it,” he mumbled.

I frowned. “Enlist in the Marines? I’ve been telling you for years this is what I wanted to do.”

“I know,” he said sorrowfully. “I just figured you’d find something else before you did.”

I studied him for a while. He was confusing the hell out of me. “Is there a problem?”

He shook his head. “This is full-on, man. What if you get sent to Iraq or some shit like that?”

Trying not to sigh, I gave him a curious glance. “That’s kind of the point, Ryan. I want to be able to protect our country.”

Ryan scowled and stared down at the ground, just as his phone beeped. He swore and pulled it out of his pocket to check the message. “Look, I gotta go. Congratulations, I guess.”

With that, he hopped into his car and cranked the engine, not even giving me another look as he sped off.

I stood there for a while, watching the back of his car disappear down the street, wondering what the hell just happened. Seeing the Ryan I knew from long ago was a bit of a shock to me, but there’d been no mistaking it. That was definitely him. The real him. It made me pause. Was this arrogant, egotistical dick I’d been seeing for the last week merely some sort of cover-up?

I shook my head. No. I remembered the way he’d treated Amy. As far as I was concerned, it didn’t matter. I didn’t care how emotionally fucked up you were from a broken family. It didn’t give you the right to emotionally abuse a nice girl like her.

Tension tightened my muscles. I needed to run.

Tossing the letter inside the front door, I set my stopwatch and took off toward the local park. I’d measured the distance in Mom’s car the first day I’d arrived. It was just over three miles.

Even though I didn’t exactly need to run it in any certain time anymore, I still wanted to keep my fitness up and my time as close to my PB as possible. Twelve minutes was the goal.

I welcomed the burn in my lungs with pride when I finally reached the park. Pressing the button to stop the timer on my watch, I smiled at my new PB. Eleven minutes, fourteen seconds. Ooh-Rah!

Settling in to walk the perimeter, I worked to slow down my heart rate. The PT trainer at recruitment had taught me a technique that helped considerably, and I knew it was something that was definitely going to help me while deployed. People tended to either panic a little or not be able to rely on decision-making skills when they were out of breath. This technique not only allowed me to slow it down faster than most people, but to also pull my focus into line.

A third of the way around the park, I checked my watch, smiling when I saw my heart rate almost at normal level. I’d just passed by the fountain, when the sound of an angry voice had me looking up.

“I have a very sharp and dangerous bone to pick with you!”

I paused when I saw the voice belonged to a tall,

slim blonde. And she was marching directly toward me, her face set in a very pissed-off snarl.

“Your behavior has been absolutely appalling. I thought you were a friend. Friends don’t treat other friends like that. I seriously have lost all fucking respect for you. What you did was a complete ass’s act.”

I stood there blinking at this very attractive, yet very angry female, wondering what the hell was going on.

Movement behind her caught my attention, and I looked over her shoulder to see Amy slowly coming our way. She had her head cocked to the side slightly, like she was evaluating me, while Blondie continued on her rant.

When she was almost directly beside the pissed-off blonde, who was in the process of taking a breath, she gave me a shy smile. Fuck me, she was even more gorgeous in the light of day. What the fuck was wrong with my brother?

“Hi, Daniel,” she said.

The blonde girl’s mouth snapped shut, and she looked from Amy back to me in confusion before her eyes grew wide. “Oh, shit. You’re Daniel?”

I gave her a slight grin. “Last time I checked.”

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