Saint (Gateway Series Book 2) by Brian Dorsey Read Free Book Online

were now weakened and frail. With her head on his shoulder, she allowed a single tear to drop from her eye. After a few seconds reminiscing on the man he used to be, Martin forced a smile on her face and stepped back to look at her father.
    “It’s good to see you, Father,” she replied.
    The skin on his face, aged beyond his years by alcohol, regret, and betrayal, looked as if it would crack as a proud smile slowly formed.
    “I’ve bragged about you so much,” he said, “I think the staff are sick of talking to me.”
    “I haven’t done anyth—”
    “Don’t be shy,” her father interrupted. “The hero of Juliet 3, promotion to major, and now—” He paused for a deep, congested cough. “And now, elevated to the ancient title of Paladin.”
    Martin bowed her head slightly in a gesture of humility, but her heart felt renewed. Even in his sad state, the praise of her father meant everything. Almost everything.
    “Thank you, Father,” she replied. “And that’s why I’ve come to see you.”
    “You can always talk to me,” he replied as he slowly, gingerly returned to his seat. “What’s on your mind, Paladin Martin?” he asked proudly.
    Martin backed up slightly and sat on the edge of a long table by her father’s chair. After settling herself, she placed her hands between her knees and rubbed her palms together tightly.
    “Something’s bothering you.”
    “My next mission,” she began.
    “Mission,” replied her father energetically as he leaned forward.
    Looking into his eyes, she could still see the old fire that had made him a legend in the Praetorians—and to his daughter.
    “Yes, Father,” she continued. “I’m to track down the Traitor and his concubine.”
    “And you’re torn?”
    He still knew her better than she knew herself.
    “No,” she snapped back quickly. “He betrayed our people, the Guard, me—”
    “But you’re still unsure you’ll act when the time comes,” replied her father as he leaned in toward her, taking her hands in his.
    His grip was strong again, like when she was a child.
    She looked into his eyes, those fiery blue eyes. She could feel her own eyes start to fill with tears.
    “He was my mentor, he…I trusted him. It doesn’t make sense that he would turn on us. I thought he was the best of us. I just…other than you, I trusted him more than—”
    “Trust doesn’t mean anything,” he grumbled, squeezing her hands even tighter. “Trust is gained and lost. I trusted your mother and…”
    Martin knew that her mother’s abandonment of both her and her father to marry into a First Family broke her father and was the catalyst for the alcoholism that robbed him of his career and her of the father she once knew.
    “Duty,” he continued as he released his grip and gently placed a calloused hand on her cheek. “Duty matters. It makes us who we are.”
    “Yes, Father,” she replied as she wiped the tears from her face.
    “You’re a Paladin and a hero of our people. You didn’t become this because of him but because of who you are and the way you carried out your duty as a soldier of the Republic. Your feelings for him don’t matter, unless they help you carry out your mission.”
    “But I hate him,” she exhaled heavily. “And I love him.”
    “Then ignore the love and embrace the hate,” he replied coldly. “Love will make you weak. It will make you vulnerable. It makes you lose focus. Hatred focuses you and keeps you locked onto your target and your mission—your duty.”
    Martin thought about what she had lost. Her father’s love for her mother destroyed him when she left. She hated and loved Jackson and in the end his love for her cost him his life; she would not let Stone do it to her again. She wiped the tears from her eyes—the last she would ever cry for Stone. She took another deep breath and leaned in to give her father a kiss on the forehead.
    “I won’t let you down,” she said as she rose to her feet and walked toward the