Page 141 of One Secret

I wriggle closer.

'Is it the kind of confession I'm going to like?' I tease. But I feel him shudder against me.

'I doubt it...'

Oh boy...

'I ran a background check on you.'

I freeze.

'Oh.'

That's it. Oh.

I'm not really sure what else to say to that, unsure whether this is a helpful shortcut to necessary conversations... or a grievous breach of my privacy.

'You were in the military,' he says, pulling back enough to look me in the eye.

'I was...' Again, I speak with no tone to my voice. Just bald fact.

'In the Fallskärmsjägarna,' he says, getting the pronunciation surprisingly spot-on. 'Isn't that like the Swedish marines?'

'Something like that.' I'm not sure where this is going but I suspect the destination will decide how mad I am.

'You had an active parole out for arrest,' he says.

'Yeah I know, I—Wait... Had?' As in... past tense?

'I got rid of it.'

'You what?' I blink at him, feeling decidedly untethered in this conversation.

'I had Nat expunge the records.'

'They're going to notice that!'

'But they'll have nothing official to replace them with. We got everything.'

Cyrus's expression is just as careful, just as controlled, as mine. As stony as he ever was. But I can read him better now. I can see the flicker in his eyes, the way he swallows...

He fears my reaction.

'I...' I literally have no words. I can only blink, staring at the front of Cyrus's shirt. It's not the same one from the boat—a garment that I hope has been relegated to a trash bin somewhere. This one is a t-shirt that looks pulled from the hospice's Lost and Found. It has a slogan on the front about trout fishing.

'It wasn't your fault,' Cyrus says.

I go to argue but he cuts me off. His hands are hard on my shoulders and are setting off waves of pain through my chest. But again, what's happening here feels more important than my injuries...

'I read the reports, Darcy,' Cyrus reminds me. 'You did what you thought was right.'

I shake my head.

'I disobeyed orders.'

We'd been assigned to one of the southern, more violent provinces of Afghanistan. On a covert mission in cooperation with the US Army. We'd been given a target. A terror unit masquerading as a simple family household.

Except... they hadn't been masquerading.

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