The worst was past.
John Worthy thought he had faced down his demons. He believed he’d gotten past his guilt over the death of his lover, Roni Keller. Although he can’t quite shake his memories of the boy he once was, he doesn’t allow himself to dwell on that frightened kid: one who was forced to make an impossible choice. Yes, he was doing just fine until Hank Patterson showed up.
And now the worst is to come.
Dispatched on a covert mission from Tajikistan into Afghanistan’s remote Wakhan Corridor, John and his Brotherhood Protectors partner, Taz Davila, are tasked with retrieving Roni Keller’s remains. Plagued by delays, rockslides, and the weather, however, they fall further behind schedule for their rendezvous with a contact in Afghanistan. They are in danger of their mission coming to nothing. There is also a more clear and present danger which John knows, and Taz doesn’t: a detail John hugs close because a man created out of legends and secrets knows how to keep one.
Because the past is not even past.
As they drive further into the mountains, John digs deeper into memory and his own tortured past: from the trauma of 9/11 to the disastrous explosion at Abbey Gate—and to the reasons behind the doomed, off-the-books rescue mission which cost Roni her life.
But then Taz is gravely wounded and John is left with yet another impossible choice: abandon his partner or lose his one shot at redemption.