She spun. “It’s miles away! It’ll take all day to walk there.”
“Yes, but it’s a large landmark we can’t miss. There’s food, water, and shelter at the end.” He held up his backpack. “We only have a small amount of water with us.”
Layne chewed on her lip, and for a second let herself worry about her dig, the artifacts, Aaron, Zerzura. Damn Ian Anders for all of this. And now because of this crazy asshole, she and Declan were lost in the desert.
“What about Zerzura?” she asked quietly. The thought of Anders desecrating the place made her sick.
Declan ran his fingers down her cheek. “Your safety comes first.”
Warmth trickled through her. “Okay. Dakhla it is.”
“Worst case, my brother’s coming. He can track me from this.” Declan shook his wrist.
But as they headed off, Layne knew that Callum Ward was days away from reaching them.
The ground was rocky and sandy, but at least the flatter ground was easier than traversing the large dunes. As they walked, the sun grew hotter, beating down on them. Layne wished for her hat, but made do with her scarf, wrapping it around her head.
Declan warned her to take tiny sips of her water and make it last. She did, but the small mouthfuls hardly quenched her rabid thirst.
Just keep walking, Rush.
Declan, damn him, looked like he was out for a stroll. He walked with a loose-limbed, easy stride she envied, while she felt like she was dragging each foot through the sand.
“I’ll buy you a cold beer when we get to Dakhla, Rush.”
“Make it a Diet Coke, and you’re on,” she said.
“You don’t drink?”
She shook her head. “Guy who killed my parents was high as a kite, unaware that he destroyed my entire life. I’ve never touched drugs or alcohol.”
Declan nodded. “Diet Coke it is.” He paused for a moment. “Bet your parents would be proud as hell of the life you’ve made for yourself.”
She smiled. “Yeah. I think so. They were the ones who sent me down this path. Trips to the museum. Documentaries.”
“Meanwhile, my parents tried to get me interested…by dragging me around dusty old digs, and sitting me in the corner of dad’s office.” A faint smile. “It had the opposite effect.”
“Ah, I hate to break it to you, Ward, but you work on digs and in museums now.”
“Yeah. I guess I always liked it, but once I hit my teens I knew I wanted to join the military. I think protecting artifacts is important, but protecting people, fighting for my country, that just spoke to something in me.”
“Sounds like you did a good job of it.”
His face changed, turning hard as stone. “Sometimes.”
“You can’t blame yourself for the people Anders killed. That’s on him, not you.”
A muscle ticked in Declan’s jaw. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You can’t bury the past, Declan. It just pops up to haunt you, otherwise.”
“Not open for discussion.”
Here was a good man, haunted by his past. So much he couldn’t even acknowledge all the good he did. “If you ignore it, then it just terrorizes you in your sleep, dogs your steps in the daylight, and blindsides you when you least expect it.”
He stopped and spun, his face tight. “So, do you think of finding your murdered parents all the time?”
She absorbed the blow, and tucked her hair back under her scarf.
“Shit. Sorry.” He heaved out a breath and looked away. “That was out of line.”
She stared at his tense back. “I think about them. But I’ve learned to remember the good stuff first. I bet you have loads of good memories from your time as a SEAL. Do you ever think of those?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “The past is the past.”
“The past is a lesson to absorb and learn from. Whatever our personal experiences, we have to face them and learn to live with them. I had a lot of therapy and now, I’m focused on building my career.”
“Because of what happened?”
“Yes. It still affects me. I have no family. It’s easy to feel pretty darn alone in this world.” Dammit, she hadn’t meant to say that. “What happened with Anders, it’s eating you alive, Declan.”
Silence fell. It was just the two of them and the desert. She waited a few more beats. He wasn’t going to talk. She sighed.
“It was my fault.” Declan didn’t look at her. “I didn’t save those people, and because of my screw up, he got off.”
The words were hard as rock, and he spat them out as fast as bullets.
“You did what you thought was right,” she said quietly.