The Secret (Book 1 of the Secret Series)

Chapter 11.

MAX

Katara grew quiet after a little while. She had cried herself to sleep.

Max sighed and closed his eyes as the door opened.

"Is she okay?" Jonathan asked.

"She's asleep now." Max answered. "John, we've got to figure something out. She is more scared of Kyle than she is of Jarrod, and that is bad, considering what he's done to her." Jonathan sighed. He agreed. It wasn't that hard to tell that he wanted to help her, even though she had killed his brother. This just wasn't a life for her. Her life's mission was to take care of people, not take their lives. She wasn't meant to be a killer and even though she hadn't gone on any missions to kill, it was taking a toll on her to just be associated with assassins.

"I can work on keeping Kyle away from her right now, but I don't know how long it will last, assuming it works at all." Jonathan said and Max opened his eyes. "I get why she is scared... but I don't understand why. I mean, yeah, he's been trying to hurt her, and all that, but she can't be that scared of him, not after what happened-"

"That just made everything worse for her." Max sighed. "Before, she could handle it, but after, she was just so scared, that she hasn't really recovered." Max looked at Katara and then at Jonathan again. "I think she's starting to think more and more about Corrie now that she has killed someone else."

"She was protecting herself." Jonathan sighed and Max just watched him a second. "I don't see why she can't just get that-"

"It's probably because she would have to really accept the fact that she has you."

"What?" Jonathan scowled.

"She has you, because Corrie is dead." Max started slowly, not sure how to finish what he had started. "She was protecting her nephew and brother and that cost yours, the man that she loved. You were so angry with her, that you would have gone against all orders to kill her-"

"But I didn't."

"Right, so..." Max sighed. This was harder than he thought it would be. Now he wished that he hadn't said anything. "Caleb was supposed to be dead to her." Max said. "I think that she would have to accept the fact that he was really dead and not missing."

"So you think that she is having all this trouble coping, because she thinks Corrie is still alive, and she wants me to help her find him?" Max groaned.

"Just forget I said anything, I confused myself." he said and looked at Katara again. "I just don't know anymore. She is so complicated to read, and I am not anywhere near as good as my mom at this sort of thing." he sighed at the thought of his mom. "She would have been able to tell what was going on with Katara."

She'd once told them that she hadn't meant to kill Corrie, it had just happened. Things had happened so fast that some of it was a blur. She didn't talk about it much and Jonathan only talked about it when she was around. The only time that they ever talked about Corrie was when they were together. Max had never heard them say anything when it was just him and Katara or just Max and Jonathan. It was only when they were together.

Katara moaned and curled in on herself. She mumbled the word "no" a few times, and then settled down again, relaxing and breathing almost evenly. Suddenly, she sat up gasping and crying.

"Katara?" Max whispered. She looked around, trying to find out where she was. "Katara." he grabbed her shoulders and she started too settled down almost instantly as she looked at him. "You're okay." she was breathing hard and there were tears in her eyes, but they never fell. "It was just a bad dream." she leaned into him and he sighed.