So Damaged (Faith Bold #28)

PROLOGUE

Iris frowned when she saw the man sitting on the bench. He was perhaps forty, the same age as her oldest son. He didn’t have a dog. That wasn’t a crime, per se, but this was a dog park, after all. He looked at her, and she instantly replaced her frown with a bright smile. “Good morning.”

He didn’t reply. He just stared at her with his hat pulled low over his face, hiding his eyes.

Iris kept her frown, but she was grateful when Luna growled warningly at him.

He didn’t react to the growl, but if he tried anything, he’d have to contend with one hundred ten pounds of American Staffordshire Terrier.

Luna wasn’t as aggressive as a male pit bull would be, but she would do anything necessary to protect Iris.

The pair continued down the wooded path that Iris preferred to take on mornings like these.

This dog park was more than a simple grass field, most parks were.

It was a full-sized park with winding pathways, hills, stands of trees, and even a small pond.

Iris liked that. It was nice to have a place to take Luna that showed proper consideration for a dog's stimulation needs.

Not to mention Iris’s stimulation needs. The sun was high in the sky, and winter’s chill was just starting to recede in favor of spring’s warmth. Iris liked these transition periods between cold and warmth. She liked watching the first flowers bloom and watching the first leaves fall.

More so the flowers than the leaves lately. The leaves reminded her of her own approaching autumn. She was in excellent shape at sixty-four years old, but she could no longer hide the passage of time in the mirror. She was not, sad to say, going to live forever.

She smiled again. But what a life she'd been privileged to lead!

She'd loved a wonderful man and raised three beautiful children with him.

She'd enjoyed an incredible career and been fortunate enough to retire from it with enough in the bank to ensure that she could spend her twilight years in her own comfortable home and, from time to time, even enjoy a visit to exotic locations.

And of course, she had her dog. Luna wasn’t the same as having a little one in the house, but she was a wonderful pet, and she loved nothing more than to keep Iris company on those long nights when Horace’s absence stung a little more than others.

If only he could have lived to see this morning. This was such a perfect day.

“And the lilies are blooming on the pond,” she said, speaking aloud as she often did when thinking of her late husband. “Their… Their… You know, I forget what you call them.”

As though he were standing right behind her, she heard the word, “Stamens.”

“Right, their stamens. They’re bright yellow. You told me once that means they’re healthy.”

Luna pulled on the leash suddenly, moving off the path and into a thick stand of trees. Iris cried out as she was pulled along with the willful dog. “Luna!” she cried, finally coming to a halt a few yards into the trees. “My word! What’s gotten into you?”

Luna whined and nosed at something buried in a bush growing in between two gnarled oak trees. Iris frowned curiously, but a noise behind her pulled her attention away.

She turned around and saw the man from the bench right behind her. Her eyes widened. She drew in a breath to scream.

She didn’t scream in time.