SEALs of Honor: Markus by Dale Mayer

she’d gotten sick and did her best to clean up her existence so her father would have an easier time handling the paperwork after she was gone. A simpler life had held her in good stead. Much easier to look after one backpack than suitcases full.
    But when you lost that single bag…
    And maybe it had more to do with losing her home…
    Her life had just hit the rocks again. She’d get through this. She wasn’t dying like Boomer or hurt like Jake, and she had nothing of value burning to hell right now. Just the bits of her life she’d been unable to avoid having.
    But it hurt…was she more affected by the loss of her home, her car, her life, than she’d let on?
    “What are you thinking?” Markus asked as he navigated through the streets.
    “Just about life. Motivations.” She sighed and realized she’d been twisted around to look out the back window again. “Wondering if I’ve been fooling myself all this time.”
    “About what?”
    “About losing everything and living a life – not collecting shit again – maybe because I didn’t want to lose more.”
    “And there’s nothing wrong with that. Let it just be what it was…what you needed at the time and forget about it. Don’t look for deeper meanings. You’d been to hell and back and somehow found yourself living a different life than you’d imagined.”
    He pulled up in front of the busy restaurant, one she’d never been to before. She looked down at his jacket around her shoulders and her very dirty clothes underneath. Not her usual style but today, well it was too damn bad but there was no way to change it. This was what she had to wear.
    “Do you want to wear my jacket inside?” he asked, opening the door for her.
    She jumped and slipped it off her shoulders and left it on the front seat. “I know you intend on feeding me, and I appreciate it, but shouldn’t you be off doing something about that fire? Or the shooter? Or the kidnappers?” She slipped off the truck seat and landed on the ground. Her knees buckled. Shit.
    But Markus being the guy he was, held her steady. “Easy.”
    “All I’ve done is take it easy,” she muttered. “I wish I had a fraction of your strength right now.”
    “Wish I could give it to you, too,” he admitted. “But I can’t so the best alternative is look after you until you can regain yours.”
    “There isn’t enough hours in the day or days for that to happen.”
    “I think you should go back to your father,” he said abruptly.
    She glanced back from the front door to see shadows in his eyes. He pulled the door open for her then nudged her forward. The noise hit them immediately – even at that early hour it was busy and half full. Markus led her to a booth in the back. Thankfully their arrival didn’t seem to cause any commotion. She eased down onto the bench seat and realized she shouldn’t have done that. She’d just have to get back up again to go to the washroom. Without any water overnight her bladder had been easier to deal with but knowing there were facilities here, well it was screaming again.
    She struggled back to her feet. “I need to go to the ladies’ room.”
    He motioned right behind them. “It’s there.”
    Relief surged through her. Thank God, she could manage that distance just fine. She gave him a small smile of thanks and made her way to the single bathroom. Inside she used the toilet then stood to wash her hands – and face. She was a dirty scruffy mess. Her shirt was filthy and her jeans dusty. Her shoes had holes in them and her arms were covered in scratches. She quickly reversed her shirt and sweater. That looked slightly more normal. Her face might have been in the same condition, but the huge eyes and black circles dominated, overshadowing everything else. She took a moment to wash up then tried to brush out her hair with her fingers. It wasn’t helping much. Sleep was about the only remedy for this and a shower would fix the rest. And food. Lord, she was