Page 60 of Scarred Crown

Julia sighs and climbs out of the bed, leaving our conversation unfinished. She heads for the bathroom while I stare at the ceiling wondering whether we really need to bring up the past. I’m content to keep it buried. Just the thought of discussing Alex and Julia, together, in any context, sours my mood.

“You can come in, Kafil.” I keep my gaze on the ceiling when the tent door unzips.

He sets up the table and two chairs along with our covered dishes for breakfast. Julia’s tea is there and my coffee.

She comes out of the bathroom dressed and gives Kafil a strained smile before slipping out the doorway for the communications tent.

“How are you feeling after your ordeal last night?” Kafil asks when I don’t bother with my usual chatter.

I sigh and sit up, my feet landing on the floor beside the bed. “Probably as most people do after a near-death experience. Lucky and inclined to make potentially foolish choices.”

“You mean you and Julia?”

“Not specifically, but yes.” I glower at him.

He finishes setting the table and then meets my gaze. “You’re well suited to each other. When you don’t have your,” he seems to search for the right word, “defenses up, you both appear happier.”

“Do we?” I rub my face. “It’s a complicated situation.”

“I gather there’s a lot of history between you.”

“Almost too much,” I say with a grimace. My happiness from earlier vanished at the mention of what happened all those years ago. Strangely, Kafil’s comments aren’t making me feel any better. Alex has wormed his way into my thoughts, and I can’t seem to cut him out.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Kafil ducks out the tent and zips it up.

With a sigh, I rise from the bed. Julia’s phone lights up on her nightstand. She has a different carrier than me, and if she puts her phone in just the right place, her texts eventually arrive. She discovered that last week. To say the signal is fickle and spotty is an understatement. The communications tent has been our only reliable way of keeping in touch with anyone. Not that I’ve bothered beyond the surgery details, but Julia has made a few calls to Posey.

Despite my better judgment, when her phone lights up a second time with the reminder of the message, I peer at the name.

Alex.

My lips twist in annoyance, and though I shouldn’t, I press the screen to read the message preview. If I’m falling into something with Julia, and she’s maintained a connection with Alex, I’m backing off.

Please tell me this is garbage gossip and you’re not shagging my brother.

At the end of the message is the start of a linked article.

Robbie didn’t wait long. Must have filed the story on the airplane.

I try to decipher Alex’s tone, but other than his usual pompousness, I’ve got nothing. Does he still carry a torch for Julia? Do they still sleep together when they’re both single? Does she still have feelings for him? That would be worse. Crushing, actually. An ache spiders across my chest.

Since I’ve avoided anything to do with Alex and Julia, I’ve got no idea how they began or ended. He name-dropped seeing her whenever he returned home during our final year of high school, and he visited her in America at our college.

After the visit during our freshman year, he never appeared again, and he started talking about other girls when he was home for his breaks.

So what happened?

If my father is truly stepping down, then Julia will be working for Alex by this time next year. They’ll be together all the time. My stomach churns. The thought reminds me I haven’t eaten this morning.

I plop into the breakfast chair, and I go through the motions of eating, but between Julia’s comment and Alex’s text message, my mood from first thing this morning has vanished.

When Julia comes back into the tent, she grabs the incident reports from the side table and passes me one. While we fill them out in silence, my curiosity over who phoned her gets the best of me.

“Was the call about Elena?” I ask.

“No,” Julia says. She scribbles more details on her page.

I throw my pen onto the table with my final sentence and take a bite of toast. “So, who was it, then?” Not at all my business, but it’s not like Julia to give an answer without ample explanation when the situation is straightforward.