Payback

104

The Art Room told Dean he didn’t have to report back until Wednesday, and he took them at their word, going straight home Monday night and planning to sleep in Tuesday. But he woke up around two in the morning, restless. He kept thinking about Lia and leaving Karr.

Leaving Karr was the wrong thing to do. It had been a mistake — he should have let the Art Room handle it. It had been a dumb kid mistake, something he should have grown out of years ago, around the time he was hunting Fu Manchu with Turk.

Worse than that was the fact that it had felt like the right thing to do. It still did.

Could he trust his judgment anymore?

Dean got up and turned on the TV. The news channels had nothing about Peru.

Around five he decided to go for a run. He pulled on his baggy sweats, laced his sneakers up, stretched out front, and began jogging lazily through the still-slumbering neighborhood.

Maybe it was Lia he couldn’t trust. Not her — his feelings for her.

If it was a struggle between doing his job and protecting her — not even protecting, simply loving — she won.

She won.

How did that jibe with his duty to his country? When you were a member of Deep Black, a Marine, a soldier, you had a responsibility to your country first. Or you should.

You had to. And you had to feel it in your gut.

He did feel it in his gut. That was the problem. What he felt for her was stronger.

He pushed himself through the streets, hoping the sweat would help provide an answer.