Page 10 of Erik's Salvation
“Money and brawn.” Henry smiled. “You are one lucky woman, Hannah Jacobs.”
She filled the sink with water and put all the pieces of the machine in to wash.
“Hey, is this your résumé?”
Hannah turned at Brigid’s question and cringed. “Yeah.”
She frowned and looked up. “Because you’re leaving Reuben’s, or…”
“I’m applying for a second job.”
Her friends knew she wasn’t exactly thriving at the moment. Heck, neither was Brigid’s boyfriend. “When I sunk all my savings into this house, things were going well at Reuben’s. Now, with this competing agency…it’s tough. I’ve held out for as long as I can.”
Sympathy darkened Brigid’s eyes. “I didn’t know it wasthattough. I’d offer you hours at the shop, but business has been slow lately.”
She shook her head. “No. I wouldn’t ask you to do that anyway. I’ll find something around town.”
She had to.
Hannah turned off the tap, but the thing kept leaking, reminding her she needed a damn plumber.Good timing, God.
She deserted the juicer and crossed the room to take the résumé out of her friend’s hand. Maybe she’d drop a few off before they ate. “Breakfast?”
CHAPTER4
Twenty-nine, thirty.
Erik felt the eyes on him as he did his pull-ups, all coming from one window in the house next door. And it hadn’t just been today. He’d felt them all week, but usually from just one person. Today, it was more than just Hannah. He’d seen her friends arrive an hour ago. Hell, he’d heard them.
He didn’t care that they were watching. If he did, he’d work out inside. But he preferred the bite of the cold on his skin, the air on his face, and the whistle of wind in the trees.
He’d spent the last week organizing the house. Getting security and cameras installed. Making sure all of his shit was where he wanted it and fixing and updating the parts of the house that needed work. He still had plenty to do. Fixing the rotting deck out back. Some plumbing and internal issues.
Forty-nine. Fifty.
He dropped to his feet. He hadn’t ventured out of his house much since returning to Redwood. Hell, he hadn’t even seen his family. Because he was a fucking coward.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. He needed to just do it. Problem was, he knew what they’d see. The same thing he saw in the damn mirror. The new darkness inside him. The ripped, frayed edges of the man he’d become.
He let the cool air soothe his lungs as memories of his last mission as a special operations Marine pinged in his mind. It should have been a simple raid to rescue some US citizens who’d been taken from a university. But it had ended in death and devastation.
And then that phone call…the one he’d made when he’d switched his phone on just before boarding the military aircraft to return home…the one that had changed his very existence.
His heart rattled against his ribs, sweat beading his forehead.
He forced the memories away, fucking running from the torture of his past. Something he’d become good at.
He stepped into the house that still didn’t feel like his. In the office to the left, a small sheaf of papers sat on the desk. Information Chandler had pulled on his new neighbor.
He headed up the stairs and into his bedroom, then the connecting bathroom, still thinking about his neighbor.
Foster care from the age of two after both parents had died in a car crash. No siblings.
Some may have been surprised that there was such darkness in her past, especially when she looked so happy. He wasn’t. Nothing surprised Erik anymore. People didn’t always wear their pasts on their sleeves for the world to see. He knew that better than anyone.
He stripped off and stepped into the shower, making the water as cold as possible in an attempt to rid his damn mind of his neighbor. Yesterday, he’d seen her on the side of her house, planting flowers. Every so often, she’d turn to look at his grandfather’s flower bed, and her expression would turn sad.
It was clearly killing her that he’d told her not to water them. If he wasn’t who he was, he’d let her do whatever the hell she wanted.
