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Rain dripping from the brim of his visored cap, Halo ran the scenarios.
“I’m going after him,” Mary insisted, twisting toward Max and taking a wobbly step.
“Mary, I’m in charge of your safety.”
“Halo, listen to me,” she turned on him. “I may have fallen for you. I may even love you.” She paused and seemed startled by her words.
Halo gathered them into his heart and would consider them later.
She pushed his arm away to stand on her own two feet. “But there’s no way in this world I will ever allow any man to tell me what to do.” A drunken finger was up, stabbing at him. “I can go, or I can sit. If I sit, you can go faster.”
“I’m not leaving you. Not even for one second.” She had seemed cogent throughout, except for the hallucinations in the pool.
Maybe the ledol was affecting her muscular responses and repressed her system.
Maybe she was thinking clearly enough.
He had no idea. This scenario was rife with conflicting interests.
She was an Iniquus client.
In this situation, Halo was, first and foremost, acting as security with all the responsibilities that entailed.
It was a balancing act.
If a child was in danger, he wanted to be there to help. Needed to be there to help. But as he told Mary when she’d asked this very question earlier, he was a trained Commando. A mission was a mission with a singular focus and a singular outcome.
Lightning cracked, outlining the leaf-covered branches in a flash of white.
The thunder that followed vibrated his bones.
As the sound rolled off into the distance, Mary stepped toward Max. “I’m going.” As Mary reached out to brace herself on a tree, the tree shifted, making her trip forward.
“Mary, you can’t touch the trees.” Halo wrapped an arm around her.
Okay, the decision was made. He’d go where she went.
“Max,” Halo called, “show me.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
When Max turned and plopped beside the tree, Halo realized the mistake he’d made. He hadn’t asked Max about his find. Undoubtedly, the shoe belonged to a child in the woods, or Max would not have been this anxious. What Halo didn’t know was if the child was alive or dead.
Yes, Mary was a nurse, but he felt that her mental state was fragile. And after the trauma of yesterday’s fire, finding a deceased child in the woods, under these circumstances…
Normally, he wouldn’t try to shield her. She was a strong woman. But these were strange times. And Halo just wanted a look before she did.
“Mary, can you hold my pack for me?” he asked, shrugging it off. She reached from under the red poncho., taking hold, then slipping down to sit on a root. He signaled for Max to stay with Mary and slid into place next to her.
Braced for the worst, Halo rounded the thick trunk.
There, in a hollow at the base of a tree, a child hid from the rain, shivering.
“Hey, there,” he said in a singsong voice. “Hey, you look cold.”
She shrank from him.
He turned his head. “Mary?”