Why?
Too personal? Too “real” but in some context she wasn’t familiar with?
She’d never backed away from anything in her life.
Until Jupiter died.
Now she backed away from everything.
She’d left Delta, the finest place a soldier could ever hope to serve. She’d left behind the dogs. She’d left Patrick on the porch last night because she couldn’t face whatever “more” might be.
It was like there was a black-ops, eyes-only mission briefing folder that was her life and she hadn’t dared open the cover. What lay inside? Her hopes—if she even had any left. Fears—of which she had too many.
Herself?
She’d lost her way in there. Died along with her dog due to some asshole’s order that—
“No!” It heaved out of her like the sickness that had wracked her entire body this morning.
“No what?” Pat
