SEALs of Honor: Markus by Dale Mayer Read Free Book Online

didn’t.” But he didn’t offer any more.
    “Sometimes I wonder if there is any point to this thing we call life. But I’m still here and don’t deserve to be. So I have to make the best of it.”
    Markus stopped to look at her.
    She smiled up at him.
    “Don’t deserve to be?” he asked cautiously.
    “I almost died a year ago. Surgery, aggressive medical treatment and a slow recovery, and lo and behold I find myself still standing.”
    He reached out and tucked the jacket tighter around her shoulders. “Then we don’t want to lose you out here.”
    “That would be a foolish way to die after all I’ve been through.” She gave him a perky smile.
    “I’m afraid there are way too many foolish deaths out there.”
    There was something in his voice that made her pause. She searched his face, the shadows of the night highlighting his cheekbones, the depths of that gaze obsidian. He was beautiful in a raw way. Not refined. But big, bad…and yeah…beautiful.
    Then she realized what it was in his tone that caught her. The haunting. The memory. He had lost someone dear.
    “I’m sorry,” she said softly, understanding his hurt.
    “For what?” he sounded surprised but that gaze was wary.
    “That you lost someone in a stupid way.”
    His gaze dropped to the ground. “There is no smart death for those left behind.”
    She reached up and stroked his steel cut jaw. “And some deaths are more stupid than others.”
    He turned to look at the night around them. “Are you still sick? Do you need medication?”
    “No, just food,” she admitted. “I have no energy these days. It was hard to get back to the business of life when still recovering, but I have no money so my choices are limited.”
    “No medical insurance.”
    “When I had a job, yes,” she said lightly. “Then when I lost that job, I lost my benefits.”
    “Did they know you were sick?” he asked, his voice harsh.
    “They did.” She shrugged lightly. “They also expected me to die sooner than later.”
    “They had no right to take–”
    She placed a finger on his lips. “No, but that’s one of the things you learn when you hit a rough patch. Many times people would rather ditch you than help you. They didn’t want to see what I was going through. It was costing them and that was something else they were trying to avoid. If I died early, all the better. If I was around them while dying, it made it harder on them. It made them see their own mortality.”
    “You could have fought back,” he said in a hard tone.
    “Sure, but I was involved in a much bigger fight at the time.” She waved her arm. “One that took precedence over anything else. The treatment was all consuming. Healing was a full-time job. There was no option to fight the petty people looking to cut ties before I caused them any damage. Sad to say but there it is.”
    “Yet they gave you treatment? Didn’t withhold it because you couldn’t pay?”
    “I sold my condo, drained my savings account, and eventually my old car to clear up the last of the bills. I found myself standing on a street corner after they drove away with my car and all I had were the clothes on my back. Sure I could have kept the furniture maybe as I didn’t get much for it, and I got rid of all my clothes…voluntarily.” She smiled and glanced down at her frame completely swallowed in his jacket. “They didn’t fit anymore and I’m months if not years away from filling them out properly and now that I no longer have a job like I did, I no longer have any reason to keep those kind of clothes.” She laughed and kicked out her foot, the old sneaker showing wear and tear. “I couldn’t even fit in my shoes. Who knew losing that amount of weight meant your shoes wouldn’t fit?”
    “It happens,” he said, his gaze more distant.
    Right. Back to that losing someone issue.
    “Well, I’m regaining my strength and relearning a new appreciation for my life. It’s like being reborn. And I’m grateful