Page 72 of Jagger

Poppy had noticed, I could tell, but for once she kept her mouth shut.

I’d struck the kind of nerve I wasn’t certain could be fixed.

Even when we’d gone back to the cabin to grab the groceries and pack up her things, she’d acted as if I wasn’t in the room.

At least she hadn’t driven in the opposite direction, returning to my house at the same time. Little did she know if she’d chosen to do that, I would have hunted her down.

We were safely tucked away in my cabin, Bella standing out on the deck in the snow with only a single outside light on with a glass of wine in her hand. She’d been there for almost a half hour. For all the quiet times I preferred, I’d grown used to our conversations and her lilting voice. I couldn’t stand not hearing her laughter.

With Cally safely in bed with Xena, logs just added to the fire, and the kitchen cleaned up after dinner, I could either go to bed and leave things this way, or act like a goddamn man for a change. Apologizing wasn’t in my nature, but I knew no other way of trying to get her to open up once again.

If that was even possible.

I grabbed my jacket and glass of bourbon, heading outside. She’d turned on the outdoor heater that had come with the house, even brushing the snow off one of the chairs so she could sit down. I moved to the other end of the expansive deck where the hot tub was located. It was the one thing I’d enjoyed about being forced to move here.

A goddamn hot tub to soothe my aching muscles.

It also was therapeutic enough to yank the anger from me for a limited time.

My parents had spared no expense when purchasing the various cabins, adding to the resort’s footprint. I couldn’t say I’d spent much time here, but I knew other people would love being backed up to the mountains, a lake only fifty yards away.

Tonight, I had a different feeling about being here than I had the entire time since moving to Danger Falls. It felt almost right. How strange was that?

“Why did you move here? I know you mentioned your parents and what’s going on with your dad, but your two brothers seem quite capable of handling the resort between the two of them.” she asked. She’d returned to having no emotion in her voice whatsoever.

“Because it was the right thing to do for my family.”

“But you’re not close, especially with your brothers.”

“Not really. We all went our separate ways.”

“Each into the military.”

“Yes,” I told her. “We’d been preparing for it our entire lives, our father basically insisting. We weren’t given a choice like normal kids. He was an ex-Marine and told us at an early age college could wait until we’d done our time.”

“A hard man.”

“You really have no idea. But he taught us to respect our country. I’ll give him that. Just too bad it didn’t last.”

“Because of everything you were forced to do and what you witnessed.”

“Yep.” I took a gulp of my drink.

She shifted in her seat, but said nothing for a couple of minutes. “That’s very sad. Let me guess. You couldn’t leave the job in the Army you had, at least not in your mind. You found one similar to follow that one, but the tasks became more dangerous, more volatile until you couldn’t take it any longer. Now the nightmares are tearing you apart.”

Why lie to her? “You’re psychoanalyzing me again. Yeah, something like that.” In order for her to trust me enough to tell me the truth about herself, she needed something from me. I wanted to tell her to be careful what she was asking for, but what was the point? “I was hired by another military organization to handle covert operations throughout the world. They made it appear seamless. Instead, the missions were complicated as fuck.”

“Top secret?”

She was asking the questions in a matter-of-fact way, acting as if my choices were normal. “Yes.”

“Cleaning up their messes no doubt.”

I hadn’t really looked at it that way, but she was right. “In a manner of speaking.”

“How bad are the nightmares?”

“How did you know?”

---