Chapter 4 #2
“I know,” she said. “Too much, isn’t it? I don’t normally dress so formally when working with kids and young adults, but I’m new at this practice, and I’ve been trying to make a good impression.”
“You’ll make a good impression,” Teller said brusquely. “Are you ready?”
“I am,” she said.
She gave him the address of the counseling center and followed him out to his vehicle.
Teller entered the address into the map program on his cell phone and connected it to the navigation screen in his SUV. As he pulled out onto the street, he looked both ways. “I’d like to stop by my apartment for a change of clothing,” he said. “If you have time.”
“I always try to arrive twenty to thirty minutes early to review my case load to familiarize myself with the clients I will see that day,” she said. “We’re leaving early enough that we have the time to stop at your place.”
“Perfectly commendable,” Teller said. “I had a drill instructor who insisted that if you were on time, you were late.”
“In what branch of service did you serve?” Sachie asked.
“Army,” he replied.
“Special Operations?”
He nodded. “Delta Force.”
“Thank you for your service,” she said softly. “I understand Jace Hawkins hires former special operation types for the Brotherhood Protectors.”
“That’s right,” Teller focused on the road ahead. “He has built an excellent team of former spec ops guys.”
She glanced his way, her head tilted slightly, as she studied him. “Was it hard transitioning into civilian life?”
Teller shrugged. “Sometimes. It’s so surreal that you’re walking along a sidewalk and overhear someone complaining about having to work on a weekend or that the air conditioner in their car isn’t working at its best capacity.”
“We don’t know how good we have it, do we?” Sachie said. “While we’re worried about what to wear to the office, our men and women in uniform in a warzone are worried about missiles landing in the middle of their camp or being blown away by an improvised explosive device.” She shook her head.
“Exactly.” Teller’s lips twisted. “I still duck when I hear loud noises.”
“Or the sound of gunfire.” Sachie sighed. “Which was a good thing when I ran out into the backyard like an idiot and you took me down.”
He shot a crooked smile her way. “Sorry. I did what I had to do.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “I’m glad you did. Thank you.”
When they arrived at Teller’s apartment, he glanced across the console at her. “I’ll need you to come up to my apartment with me. I don’t trust leaving you alone in the SUV.”
Her brow furrowed as she glanced over her shoulder. “Were we followed?”
“Not that I could tell, but I don’t want to risk it.” He shifted into park and turned off the engine. “It won’t take me long to grab a shirt.”
“I’ll come.”
While Sachie unbuckled her seatbelt, Teller dropped down from the SUV and rounded the hood to the passenger side, scanning the cars, the hedges bordering the pavement and the road they’d just turned off. So far, so good.
Sachie had already pushed the door open when Teller arrived. He held out his hand.
When she laid her hand in Teller’s palm, a jolt of electricity shot up his arm. Not used to having such a visceral reaction to touching a woman’s hand, he quickly helped her to the ground and released his hold.
“I have to warn you, my place is a bachelor pad. It isn’t the cleanest.” He waved toward the walkway in front of him, indicating the way for her to go.
Once inside the apartment, he closed the door behind him and left Sachie standing in the entry. “I’ll only be a minute.”
He hurried into the single bedroom of the sparsely furnished unit and grabbed a T-shirt out of the chest of drawers.
“How long have you been in this apartment?” Sachie asked, her voice drifting through the open door.
“A couple of months.” He pulled off the hula girl T-shirt, tossed it on the unmade bed and dragged on a clean dark shirt, much like the one he’d worn earlier.
Before he left the room, he grabbed a gym bag and stuffed it with clean boxer briefs, a couple of shirts, jeans and socks.
He used to have a go-bag ready at all times, stashed in his vehicle when he’d been in the military, never knowing when he’d be deployed.
After last night, he figured it might be a good thing to start doing again, especially while working for the Brotherhood Protectors.
“Did you pick the furniture?” Sachie asked, the sound coming from his living room instead of the front entry.
He stepped out of the bedroom, tugging the hem of his shirt down over his torso. “The apartment came furnished. It was only supposed to be temporary until I decided where I wanted to live.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “And have you decided?”
He shook his head. “No. I’ve been all over this island and spent time on the Parkman Ranch, which is amazing, but I haven’t really looked for a more permanent place to live. I was thinking of visiting the other islands before I made up my mind.”
Sachie crossed to the window overlooking another apartment complex that had seen better days. “What are you looking for in a permanent home?”
He snorted. “I don’t know. I’ve never had a permanent home.”
She turned back, a frown denting her forehead. “What about when you were growing up?”
Teller usually didn’t talk about his distant past. There wasn’t much to talk about. “I didn’t have a permanent home.” He waved a hand toward the door. “We’d better get you to your office.”
Sachie opened her mouth as if to say something and then closed it. “Right. I need to get to work.” She walked past him to the door. She didn’t say anything as he carried the gym bag out to his SUV and tossed it in next to her suitcase. The silence continued as he drove through the streets of Hilo.
He’d consigned memories of his life before he’d joined the Army to the back of his mind.
Having been part of the foster care system since he was eleven, he hadn’t had a place he could call home.
Before foster care, his father had been enlisted in the Army.
They’d moved four times before his eleventh birthday.
When his father, mother and sister had died in an automobile crash, he’d lost any chance of a permanent home.
He would have died in that crash as well if he had been wearing his seat belt.
Many times throughout the rest of his childhood, he’d wished he had died.
The guilt he lived with made him act out with each of the many foster homes he’d been shuffled around to.
A siren sounded behind him, yanking him out of his past and into the present. Just ahead of them, a fire engine pulled out of a station house onto the road.
Teller slowed to let the huge truck make the turn, heading in the same direction as they were.
The engine picked up speed, the siren wailing now, lights flashing.
Teller gave the truck a decent amount of space before he continued along the road. A glance at the map indicated they were nearing Sachie’s office.
Over the top of the fire engine, a plume of sooty gray smoke rose into the air.
“Oh my God,” Sachie leaned forward in her seat. “That’s my office! It’s on fire!”
Teller pulled into the parking lot of an auto parts store a couple of blocks short of Sachie’s office.
“Why are you stopping here?” she demanded. “My office is up there. On fire.”
“And we need to stay clear and let the fire department do what they’re trained to do,” Teller said. “There might be more trucks and emergency vehicles on the way.”
As if to prove Teller’s point, a police car roared by on the street and stopped a block short of the fire. The officer then turned his vehicle sideways in the street, blocking the oncoming traffic.
The fire engine was parked in the middle of the street. Men in fire-resistant suits jumped down and unrolled hoses from the truck, hurrying to attach one end to a fire hydrant.
“I’m going to get closer,” Sachie pushed open her door and jumped down from the SUV.
Teller quickly followed suit, racing to catch up to her before she reached the burning building.
Before they could get close, the police officer blocking the street held up his hands. “You’ll need to stay back until they get that fire under control.”
“That’s my office,” Sachie cried.
The roof of the building chose that moment to crash in, sending a cloud of smoke and glowing cinders into the air.
The officer glanced over his shoulder and shook his head. “Not anymore.”
Sachie stood in the middle of the street, her shoulders drooping and her eyes welling with tears. “What’s happening?”
Teller slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. Teller didn’t have an answer for her, but he sure as hell would find out.