“Yeah. He wasn’t going to ask her, for fear she’d think it was just for the green card. But, good Catholic that he is, he was getting more and more conflicted about just shacking up. So she broke the logjam for him.”
“Sound like you’ve all talked a lot.”
“Yeah,” Berry said. “Just as friends, though. Not professionally.” He raised his sunglasses and looked directly at Keller. “But I’m not here to fill you in on Angela’s life. She can do that herself. I’m here to talk about you.”
Keller sighed. “I’m fine, Lucas.”
“Uh-huh. That’s why you got up out of a hospital bed, checked out against medical advice, and walked off without saying a word. And why you headed for, of all places, the desert.”
Keller closed his eyes. It hadn’t made any sense to him either. He had never had an easy life, but it was the Kuwaiti desert where things had really gone bad for him. He saw the burning Bradley fighting vehicle, heard his men screaming. Burning, they’re burning…he took a quick, deep intake of breath and opened his eyes. Lucas was looking at him.
“I—we—spent years getting you out of that desert in your head,” he said softly, “and yet you end up here. In the real one.”
“Well,” Keller said, “getting out of that desert meant starting to care about things again. About people. And that’s what put me here.” Lucas acknowledged the point with a nod of his head.
“And,” Keller went on, “to tell you the truth, it’s not bad here. I’m working. And I’m not wrecking myself doing it.”
“You don’t miss it?” Lucas said. “The hunt? The takedown? You used to say you lived for that. It was the only thing that got you up in the morning.”
“And you used to tell me how fucked up that was.”
Berry chuckled. “That I did.” He fished another beer out of the cooler. “So you won’t be coming back with us.”
Keller looked at the water, shimmering in the blazing sun. “I didn’t say that.” He stood up. “How long are you staying?”
Berry gestured toward the nearly empty motel. “Well, much as I hate to leave this fine resort and its luxurious amenities, probably in the morning.”
“I’ll let you know then,” Keller said. He walked off toward the bar.
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