Chapter Two #2
She ignored his question and swore. “Even the big one I gave you for Christmas. The one you promised not to kill.”
Fuck. His lame-ass brother was going to get a phone call. Harry was supposed to be on plant duty.
Tight-lipped, he glanced up as Hal delivered the burger and fries. “Why are you in DC?” He asked again, then got to his feet and moved a few feet so he could have a bit of privacy.
“I broke up with Matt.”
“Sorry to hear that.” He rolled his eyes.
“No, you’re not. You hated him.” She sniffled. “Everyone hated him.”
“I didn’t hate him.” He didn’t like him, but she didn’t need to hear it. “He wasn’t right for you is all.”
“When are you coming back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, where are you?”
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be out of town.”
“Are you on a secret mission or something?”
He smiled at that. “I’m not a SEAL anymore, remember?” Though he supposed he was on a secret mission. Just not the kind he was used to.
“But your company is so secretive. You’re always saying you can’t give details. It’s annoying.”
“We provide security to high profile businesses and individuals. We need to be.”
“Whatever.” Iris cleared her throat. “Since you’re not home do you mind if I stay here? I don’t want to give her the satisfaction.”
By her, he knew his sister meant their mother. She was a hard-ass, but then she’d needed to be, raising four kids on her own. Still, she seemed to be harder on his little sister than she’d been with the boys.
“You can stay as long as Mom knows where you are.”
“But then I’d have to tell her that you’re not here.”
Fuck. She was good.
“Do you want me to do that? Have a chat with our mother?”
“Just water the plants,” he said gruffly. “We’ll talk soon.”
“Everything okay?” Hal asked when he sat down.
“All good.”
Gus tucked into his plate and did his best to ignore the couple beside him.
The young woman and her sugar daddy were doing shots, and her loud, high-pitched voice was something else.
He was about to tell them to tone it down, but thankfully, the woman teetered by on heels that were at least two inches too high for her state of mind and headed inside.
He finished his plate in relative peace and was about to ask for his bill when Rolex man leaned over.
“That’s some tattoo you got.”
Gus gave a nod but said nothing. He glanced up at Hal, who was already reaching for the bill pad.
“What is it? Like a frog or something?”
He ignored Rolex man and grabbed the bill from Hal before withdrawing cash from his wallet.
Gus handed it over to Hal, but with half a mug of draft to finish, he kept to his seat, well aware that the dickhead two stools down was still looking his way.
He wasn’t in the mood and grit his teeth when Rolex man leaned forward once more.
“You military? On leave or something?” The question came out slurred, and God help him, but Gus wanted to smash the man’s nose into tomorrow. He knew the idiot was too drunk to know how close he was to having his ass handed to him, so he finally looked his way.
“Yeah, I served.”
He was saved from any more conversation when a woman slowly approached the bar and stopped a few feet from Rolex man.
It was the woman he’d given a ride to the day before.
The ball cap was gone, and her hair, the color of a fall sunset, fell over her shoulders in waves.
She wore a loose dress that went a long way in hiding her shape, and despite the heat, wore a sweater.
On her feet were a pair of flip-flops, which showed that she’d recently had a pedicure.
They weren’t painted neon pink or sparkly blue but were done in a classic nude.
Her eyes were hidden behind black sunglasses, and he noted a sheen of sweat across her forehead.
Her lips were pale, and her cheeks had no color. She didn’t look good, and he frowned.
She glanced his way, and he found himself wishing she’d take off her sunglasses. She gave a half wave before turning to Hal. “Excuse me, are you the owner?” Her voice was husky.
“The one and only. What can I get you?”
She cast a furtive look toward Gus and then cleared her throat. “Tully told me to swing by. She said she called ahead and talked to someone named Samantha about a job.”
“You’re looking for work?” Hal asked.
“I need a job, yes.”
“Do you have any experience serving?”
She hesitated, and that told Gus she was either going to lie or exaggerate.
“In a bar when I was in college.” She fingered the edge of her sweater. “It’s been a few years but I’m a hard worker and a quick learner and I really need a job so I’m willing to do pretty much anything you need.”
Hal seemed to be considering her words. He rested his palms on the edge of the bar and offered a smile.
“This place is busy in the summer.” He nodded to the crowd behind her.
“And that’s what we call slow. Our numbers more than double over the next few weeks and they don’t let up until after Labor Day. ”
“I’m not afraid of hard work.”
Gus watched her closely. She was leaning a bit and held her left shoulder higher than the other, which suggested she was favoring that side.
“Good to know.” Hal scratched at his chin. “If Tully sent you then that’s good enough for me. What’s your name?”
“Faith.”
Gus hadn’t asked the night before. The name suited her.
She didn’t offer her last name, and Hal disappeared inside without asking. He was back a few moments later with some paperwork. “Come back tomorrow at noon with your particulars filled out and we’ll get you training with Cassidy.”
“Thank you. You won’t be sorry.”
Faith glanced at Gus but then dropped her gaze and stepped back. Rolex man wasn’t so easily swayed and reached for her, a sloppy grin on his face. “We need to celebrate. Let me buy you a drink.”
“No thank you.” She took another step back, but Rolex man mimicked her.
“Come on. One drink.”
“I don’t know you.”
“Let’s get to know each other.” The guy winked. “Then you can let me buy you a drink.”
“The lady said she didn’t want one.” Gus pushed aside his half-empty mug and got to his feet. At six-foot five, he had at least six inches on Rolex man and a whole lot of muscle to boot. The guy was soft. One punch, and he’d be on the ground.
Rolex man opened his mouth to say something, but Hal intervened. “I’d think twice about offending an ex-Navy SEAL.”
Bikini girl showed up just then and locked her arms around the man.
She giggled into his neck, and with a baleful look at Gus, the two of them turned around and claimed a table up by the stage.
Gus didn’t take his eyes off them until they were settled.
When he did, he realized Faith had used the distraction to melt into shadows. She was gone.
She was smart. Gus didn’t believe for one second she’d ever served a drink in her life, but she just might make it work. Didn’t matter, though, because she wasn’t his problem.
It had been a long-ass day, and he finished his beer, paid his bill, and decided it was time to head back to Lawson House.
Gus wasn’t exactly tired, but he wasn’t in the mood for company either.
Dusk was starting to creep up over the horizon, and lights began to pop around the lake as he made his way back to his truck.
The crickets sang, and the frogs croaked.
He started his vehicle. With the window down, he drove out of the parking lot, the radio on low, playing some country song about a man who drank too much whiskey and a woman he couldn’t have.
He’d just taken the first bend in the road when he spied a figure walking on the side of it with a dog on a leash. His headlights skittered across her, and she moved closer to the shoulder. It was Faith. The woman with no last name.
Gus drove past slowly and gave a wide berth, then continued on his way for a couple hundred feet before he swore and pulled over.
His brake lights lit her up from behind, and her limp was much more noticeable.
It was more than a hike back to the town proper, and with it getting dark, she shouldn’t be out here on her own.
With a sigh, he put his truck into park and waited until she was nearly even with him, then poked his head out.
“I’ll give you a ride to town.” He glanced back. Her sunglasses were off, and those eyes of hers were huge. Something about them made him wary because they were full of shadows. He looked away and focused on the animal at her side.
The dog’s ears were up, a soft rumble in his throat as he looked at Gus. He got the impression it would attack him if she asked.
“I don’t mind the walk.” Her words were stilted.
“We’re headed to the same place,” he continued. “And out here the dark is so big it can swallow you whole. It’s dangerous with cars coming up on you with no notice.”
She seemed to be considering his words, and just when he thought she was going to blow him off, she nodded slowly. “Okay. Thanks.”
She walked in front of the truck and around to the passenger door. Once the dog was settled in the back, she climbed inside, wincing a bit as she did up her seatbelt.
Like most folks, this woman had a story, and maybe if things were different, he’d be interested in it.
But he had no desire to get tangled up in some stranger’s problems — even one as attractive as Faith.
He slowly accelerated and cranked up the music to avoid small talk.
When they got back to the Lawson House, he parked his truck and waited for her to exit the vehicle before following her inside.
He nodded for her to take the stairs first, and then tried real hard not to take note of the delicate ankles and tanned, smooth calves as she climbed them slowly.
He wondered what she looked like under that dress.
Then, he told himself to forget it. She was clearly hiding something, and who would know it better than him?
He’d been hiding in plain sight ever since he’d arrived in Fire Lake.
Gus decided not to think or wonder about the mysterious Faith with no last name. She was a complication he had no time for. He had his own shit to deal with.
Porter Boone was home from the hospital.
How long would it be before he met the man face to face? A man he hadn’t seen since he’d been seven. Since his mother had taken him and his siblings out into the darkness and into a waiting car.
His employer.
His father.