Page 5 of A Veteran's Protection
I give him a friendly nod, but he just stares at me. Finally, he gives a slight nod of the head before sinking deeper into the shadows.
At least he’s here, where people understand, and he can lurk and keep to himself, and no one will pressure him to talk if he doesn’t want to. Every veteran I’ve ever met carries scars; some wear them openly, and others hide them inside.
I’m lucky I got out with my sanity and my body mostly intact.
I grab a low-alcohol beer from the cooler, and when I stand up, I notice an orange glow from across the field.
Jake’s Retreat borders the Reilly property. There’s an old homestead there that’s been vacant since before I arrived in Hope. The property is overgrown and, as far as I know, abandoned.
I leave my beer and jog to the fence line to take a closer look. Smoke rises from a part of the yard above what must be a fire, and there’s the dark shadow of a car parked in the driveway.
Joel comes up beside me. “What do you think?”
Someone’s having their own bonfire. Probably local kids.
“I’ll go check it out.”
3
AIDEN
As I approach the Reilly property, the lick of flames can be seen above the tall grass. I put my foot on the pedal, hoping the entire place isn’t going up. But when I pull into the courtyard, I find the fire contained to a fire pit, and the surrounding grass trimmed back to stubble.
A woman stands in front of the fire with her back to me, her curves silhouetted by the flames. My gaze travels up her body from her white urban sneakers to her snug-fitting jeans that cling to her wide hips. She wears a coat that’s too light for the chilly spring nights, and she wraps her arms around herself to ward off the cold.
She doesn’t hear my car pull up over the fire, but she hears the car door slam as I get out.
Spinning around, startled, she looks at me, and, fuck me, it’s as if a spark from the fire lands in my chest.
This woman is gorgeous.
She’s got the biggest brown eyes I’ve ever seen, and they’re wide with surprise.
Her hair is a deep brown and tied in a topknot, but some strands have gotten loose to dance around her neck. One loosestrand is caught on her lower lip. Her plump lips look perfect for kissing, and doing other things with, too.
Which is an inappropriate thought to be having and not one I usually have about a woman I’ve just met. But I can’t stop staring, and my heart is thumping a new rhythm that tells me this woman, whoever she is, is mine.
She’s staring at me with a mixture of curiosity and wariness, and I must be staring right back like a speechless creep because, without taking her eyes off me, she bends down and picks up a long, thin piece of wood. It looks like it’s a table leg.
I’m scaring her, which is not my intention, but I can see how a big guy turning up out of nowhere and staring at her would do that. I want to tell her she has nothing to fear. That all I want to do is take her home, find her some clothing more appropriate to living in the mountains, and protect her from whatever demons she’s trying to ward off with this fire.
She clasps the table leg with both hands, and her body goes rigid and ready for fight or flight.
I hold my hands up to show her I mean no harm, even as I’m imagining what her lips feel like and thinking of all the things I want to do with that plump mouth, with kissing being the first.
But I’m not an asshole, and I don’t want to scare her away or get hit by a table leg, because she looks like she’s not afraid to use it.
“I’m Aiden Whitley. I do security at Jake’s Retreat.” I indicate the glow of our own bonfire across the field. “I saw the fire and came to check if everything is okay.”
When I take a step toward her, she rises onto the balls of her feet with the table leg in her hands. My gaze flickers to the pile of wood by the bonfire. It’s pieces of furniture cut up as if she’s been at it with an axe, which seems like something a desperate person might do.
“Are you okay?”
Finally, something gets through to the woman that I’m not going to hurt her, because she lowers the table leg.
“I’m fine. Just burning old furniture.”
“I can see that.”
