Chapter Ten
He looks at me, and when I don’t add any more, he coughs to clear his throat.
“Okay, don’t be mad, but I’m not just good with computers. I’m really good with them. When the chance for an interview came up, it sounded too good to be true. So I did some digging, and what I found made me dig deeper.”
“So you already know I did time and that most people hate me.”
“I’m also smart, Miss Hart. I know how to read between the lines.
” He leans forward, his eyes serious, everything youthful about him slipping away.
“If I had to choose between you and your late father to look after my little sisters, I’d choose you every single time.
And I love my sisters more than anything on this earth. ”
I swallow hard, feeling choked up. “So does that mean you’ll take the job?” I whisper.
He grins, and all that boyish charm comes back. “Heck yes.” He looks around, pausing when he sees a couple of men by one of the trucks, and lowers his voice. “I also have some slightly less than legal ideas for the land in particular, if you want them.”
Intriguing. “Such as?”
A wicked glint appears in his eyes. “Boobytraps.”
I throw my head back and laugh before offering him my hand. “I knew I liked you the second you got here.”
He blushes but looks eager when he takes my hand. “I’m excited. Thanks for taking a chance on me. I won’t let you down.”
“I know. I have a good feeling about this.”
“Could I come by next week to get things set up, or is that too late? It’s just that I’ll need to order what you’ll need—”
I wave him off. “Next week is fine. I’ll text Jenny to make sure you have a credit card for everything you need. I don’t want anything to come out of your pocket, okay?”
“Okay, and thanks again. I’ll call Jenny when I get home.”
“See you next week then. Make sure she gives you my mobile number too, in case you need it.” He gives me a thumbs up and heads to his car. I watch him leave before I head inside to grab another drink.
When I walk into the kitchen, I find Riggs with his back to me, his head bowed as he talks on his cell phone. “No, I understand. Thanks anyway. Call me if anything else becomes available—” He pulls the phone from his ear and looks at it before realizing they’ve hung up. “Fuck.”
“Everything okay?”
He whirls around before nodding. “Everything’s fine, ma’am.” He walks out, leaving me to wonder if he knows what a shit liar he is.
I grab coffee in a fresh mug because I forgot to bring the other one in and admire the new fridge, taking in the bags and boxes on the countertop.
I hear a voice coming my way, so I head back out to my spot on the porch, which is where I spend the rest of my morning.
I see eight people total, and with the exception of David, not one of them fits.
So much so, I’m getting a sneaky suspicion.
When Greg, the man I just turned away, blazes out of here, I pick up my cell and dial Jenny.
She answers on the second ring, but she sounds distracted. “I’m on my way to court. You have five minutes. Everything going okay there?”
“With the delivery folk you surprised me with, yes, though we’ll get back to that. What’s with the interviewees?”
“I don’t know what you mean?”
I sigh. “They’re awful, Jen.”
“Really? Dammit. I really thought some of them would work out.”
“I’ve hired David, but the rest I wouldn’t even pay to mow my lawn.”
“You don’t have a lawn,” she huffs. “Which one’s David?”
“The kid.”
“Ah. I thought you might like him.”
“And the rest? You thought I might like egotistical, condescending, patronizing—”
“Okay, okay, I get it. I messed up. I wanted you to see that there are some fucking idiots out there, and those are the ones who didn’t just get out of prison.
And no, this isn’t about you. I’m talking about dangerous men, ones that you’d be alone with.
I couldn’t in good faith set you up to be raped and murdered,” she snaps, making me groan.
“Fine. I get it.”
“So you’ll let me hire an actual bodyguard of my choosing for you?” she asks.
I watch Riggs haul a box from the back of the last van. “No, I’ll figure something out for myself. David’s going to call you. Make sure you give him a credit card for me. I want a system with all the bells and whistles.”
“Calliope—”
“Talk to you later, Jen.” I hang up feeling frustrated. She only has my best intentions at heart, but even so.
As Riggs reaches the top step, he looks my way and nods, and I do something really rash for me. “Hey, Riggs, you mind sitting for a minute?”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No. Not at all.”
He hesitates for a moment before taking the chair closest to the swing and places the box next to his feet.
“Clipboard guy said you’re filling in today because he was shorthanded. What do you usually do?”
“A little bit of everything. I can’t say I’m fussy.”
I rub my hands on my thighs, feeling nervous. This is beyond stupid, but something compelled me to give this guy a shot. And if he blows it, I can always take care of it later. “Do you have a permanent job right now?”
He clenches his teeth, looking away for a second before squaring his shoulders and turning back to me. “No ma’am. Turns out folks around these parts don’t much like hiring ex-cons.”
“Don’t take offense. Folks around here don’t like much of anyone. Me included.”
He blinks, clearly having not expected my answer.
“You live locally?”
“About two hours away. I’m crashing on a buddy’s couch right now, trying to figure out what’s next.”
“What about conditions on being out? Do you have to stay where you are or check in with a parole officer?”
“What? Oh no. I’ve been out for five years now. I don’t have to check in with my PO anymore, and I’m free to come and go as I please. The staying with my friend thing is new. I got laid off at my last job, and nothing else has come up.”
I cross my arms. “You hurt women?” I ask him softly.
His face clouds over, his voice coming out in a boom like thunder.
“Fuck no. I did time for running drugs and boosting cars, stupid shit. Look, I was a soldier. Uncle Sam gave a kid a gun and trained me to shoot people without blinking. And I was good at it, too. Then some bad intel got me, and my team was captured. We were all tortured.” He touches his eye patch, lost in his own world.
“Out of five of us, only two survived—Hamish and me. We’d been home two months when Hamish put a gun in his mouth and swallowed a bullet.
I was a mess, and I still am, to be fair.
It’s no excuse. I fell in with the wrong crowd, but I did my time.
And when I got out, I left the city for a fresh start. ”
“But it’s hard to find a fresh start when people won’t let you forget about the past.”
“Exactly.”
I lean back and study him. “Have you ever killed anyone, Riggs?”
He leans forward, his forearms on his thighs as he studies me. I can see him wrestling with whether he wants to tell me the truth or not. “Yes, I have.”
“Any from when you weren’t in the army?”
His jaw is clenched so tight it has to hurt, but he nods anyway.
“I’ve never killed anyone before,” I admit, checking to make sure nobody else is around. When he doesn’t react, I realize he doesn’t know who I am. “I’m planning to, though.”
His eyes snap to mine. Yeah, I thought that might get his attention.
“Who?”
I smile that he asked who and not why. “The man I just spent fifteen years in prison for murdering.”
His mouth drops open as his brain processes everything I said.
I give him a second. It’s not every day something like that gets dropped on you.
Initially, I hadn’t planned on telling anyone this because, let’s be honest, a secret is only a secret until someone else knows.
But there will always be things I won’t be able to explain away, things that a smart person will put together.
And the last thing I want is that person running to the cops.
Something a man like Ryan or Greg would do.
It’s why I wanted someone who wasn’t afraid to break the law.
It’s risky, having a man like this in my life and trusting him with knowledge that could easily see me spending the rest of my days behind bars, but right now it feels like a necessary risk to take.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I’m going to offer you a job and you should know what you’re getting into before you accept.”
“You want to hire me to kill him?”
“No. I want to hire you to stop him from killing me. And not just him, but anyone. I’m tired of being taken advantage of, Riggs. I just want peace. I’m not going hunting for anyone if that’s what you’re worried about. If he doesn’t come for me, he’ll be perfectly safe.”
“But you know he will.”
I nod. “He won’t be able to resist.”
“Who is this guy?”
I swallow, twisting my hands together. “My father.”
As the sun sets, I look out at the land and feel a sense of peace washing over me.
The place is so vast, it’s hard not to feel small and insignificant.
I lean back as the sun dips behind the hills and make a mental list of all the things I need to do tomorrow.
I feel exhausted before I’ve even begun.
I’m not going to lie, I hope Riggs says yes.
When he left, he said he’d let me know. That was it, but I suppose I had laid a lot on him.
My only hope is that he doesn’t tell anyone.
And if he does, I’m banking on them not believing him.
After all, as far as I’m aware, only me, Dale, and my dad know the truth.
I head inside before it gets dark and walk to the kitchen. When I opened the fridge earlier and found all the food, I quickly texted Jen to tell her everything was forgiven. It’s hard to be mad at the one person who cares about you.
Not in the mood to cook, I plate up grapes, cheese, crackers, and crusty bread with a thick layer of butter, and make my way to the living room. I curl up in front of the new TV.