Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) by Straight, Nancy (novels in english .TXT) 📗

as he was the day I first met him. I think he would have given me a day-by-day review of everything I had missed in his life the last few years, but I told him I needed to go find my uniforms and make sure I was ready for tonight.

I got back to the house and quickly found my old box of uniforms. They didn’t smell too musty, but I looked at the clock and decided I had time to do a quick load of laundry. I dug through other boxes I hadn’t looked through since I taped them up three years ago. I would probably need to find an apartment downtown again: nothing fancy but something close to the hospital. I could commute for a while, but it’s nearly an hour one-way from my house in Ridgeville without any traffic or accidents.

It was 5:45 when I was showered, dressed and ready to go to work. It hit me that I hadn’t thought of Lauren much all afternoon. I hadn’t heard Samael’s voice since this morning when we made our little agreement. I had felt like the old me for the first time in longer than I could remember.

Since my return from Afghanistan, I had been so consumed with Lauren and all the events going on that it never occurred to me that I wasn’t myself. I spent every waking moment beating myself up about either not being by her side when she woke up or my inability to protect her when Samael came after her. After what I said to Lauren last night, I don’t think I’ll see her anytime soon, and with me sharing my head with Samael, that’s definitely for the best.

I thought back to the year I was in Afghanistan; the only thing constantly on my mind was staying alive or treating other people who had been blown up, shot, mangled or had any number of other injuries. That had been a bit of a hiatus because Lauren was on my mind, but not at the forefront, more like a dull ache that I could ignore for hours at a time. At least until there was down time in my schedule, then the thoughts of Lauren occupied my every second, and my heart throbbed with pain.

The year before I left for war, I had spent every waking moment praying she would wake up from her coma and had slept nearly every night on a crappy couch in her room. I really hadn’t allowed myself to be me in so long, I was almost giddy tonight at the idea of doing something I loved for no other reason than it made me feel good about myself. I told myself I was going to be okay, I’d get back to the way I was before Lauren. I wouldn’t obsess about her anymore, I wouldn’t reminisce about our precious few nights together, I wouldn’t even let her enter my mind. At that thought I silently wondered if I was making this vow because I really wanted to be over her or if I didn’t want to share any part of her with Samael. It didn’t matter, my life was now my own, even if my thoughts were community property.

My first night back at work, my new partner Dale and I responded to four calls. One was a car accident without injuries, the second was an old man who had accidently overdosed at home, the third was a mother who had suffered burns from a grease fire, and the forth was an accidental shooting . Those four calls each commanded all my attention, and, before I realized it, I had finished the paperwork and our relief showed up. Somewhere in the mix I could feel Lauren watching me. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but I was busy enough that I didn’t feel the need to savor it either.

Dale and I hadn’t spoken much all night, only when it was necessary to communicate with the people we were called out to assist. As we were walking to our cars after our shift, he asked, “Are you hungry? You want to go get a bite to eat?”

I started to say no, when I realized there was no one waiting for me at the house and no reason to be in a hurry to get back. “Yeah, that sounds good. How about the Waffle House down the street?”

It didn’t take long to see why Dale and I hadn’t talked much all night. He had the personality of a postage stamp. Nice guy, but he wasn’t going to be someone I wanted to spend my off-duty time with. As I sat across from him at the table, I saw an advertisement for a gym. I decided I would much rather be working out right now than sucking in all these carbs, trying to make conversation with Dale.

Chapter 32

I pulled into my driveway and the exhaustion began to set in. I had been up for twenty-six hours, and I welcomed the sleep that I would soon find. I noticed an envelope jammed in the door. I recognized the writing as Lauren’s and felt my heart begin to speed up.

I opened the envelope and read.

Dear Max,

I’m not sure what happened. I realized I could either stay home and wonder or I could try to find out what I did and why you’re so mad. I see that you’ve got your old job back. Same hours as before? Call me when you get home. I really need to talk to you.

I miss you,

Lauren

I crumpled up the letter and threw it in the trash. Talking to Lauren would be useless. I couldn’t share with her why I had to make her leave. I couldn’t trust myself to be near her, or rather I couldn’t trust Samael to be near her.

I grabbed a pair of shorts and poured myself into bed. My hand reached over to the nightstand and picked up