Page 3 of Protected
I nod and linger on his gaze.
How do you tell if attraction is mutual?I’ve never really understood that part. It’s probably because I overthink everything. I mean, he’s looking at me, his mouth has dropped open, he’s swallowed hard twice, and then he looked away quickly.
Is that interest or is that desperation to get away? The line between the two seems thin. Either way, my clit throbs and as he walks out the door, I wonder if I’ll ever see him again.
Chapter Two
Hank
“You’re not leaving tonight?” My oldest brother, Gentry, says as he stares at me with a scowl. He doesn’t mean anything by it. This is just his face. It sits somewhere between pissed off and incredibly pissed off every day of the week. I swear the man was born with a scowl. At this point, I’m not sure the muscles of his face could even form a smile if they wanted to.
“I have some work I want to finish up.”
“No, you don’t. I know your workload.” He shuts the door and moves heavily through the shop back toward me. It’s only seven o’clock, but it’s pitch black out already.
I cross out of the screen I’m toggling and stand from my desk and stretch.
“What’s going on?” he grumbles. “You’re working late? You avoided the guys last night at the bar. You in some kinda trouble?”
“No. Why the fuck would I be in trouble?”
“Don’t know, man.” He holds up both his palms, showing me he doesn’t mean any harm, and I don’t think he does. He’s not the nosey type. Usually, he doesn’t give two fucks why people do anything. That said, all us guys look out for each other. We always have. “The boys and I were worried you were sinking back into the depression thing again. Consider this a wellness check.”
Last year around this time, things got pretty bad, and I pulled away from everyone. I was drinking all the time. I wasn’t leaving the cabin, and I was living off canned soup and whatever I managed to hunt that week. I think they call men like that hermits, but this wasn’t by choice. I didn’t want to leave the cabin because the world didn’t make sense to me.
I spent most of my life training to be a soldier, an elite, killing machine, but when it’s over, they shake your hand, and ask you to go back into society and turn off everything they spent a lifetime programming you to do. Now, when I’m in town, I struggle to not see possible hostile situations in everything, and I find that sitting at home by myself allows my brain to actually slow down.
“All good,” I say with a nod, holding my arms crossed over my chest. “I was tired last night after that Fall Fest security. I didn’t have time to update this software, so I’m doing it tonight.”
He nods slowly and I watch the lump in this throat bob as he swallows. I’m sure he’s thinking over whether my story is bullshit. Something tells me he already knows it is.
“You think maybe you should start trying to date again, man?”
I laugh. “What the fuck? Where did that come from?”
“You’re fuckin’ lonely. I don’t want you dipping back into the whole hermit thing.” His tone is gruff.
“I could say the same for you. Not like you’re fuckin’ well adjusted.”
He wrinkles his brows. “Quit turning shit back on me. You sound like Perry. I’m heading out. If you need somebody, I’ll be home all night.”
I nod and settle back into the swivel chair behind my desk, feeling vindicated for getting away with something. “Sounds good. Catch you in the morning.”
The second the front door to the shop closes, I pull up the security footage to Dot’s house. The cameras I installed today are top-notch. Her father wanted nothing less. They refresh quickly, they have a hundred- and forty-degree field of view, variable bitrate compression, and two-way audio. I couldn’t have picked a better machine myself. It’s like I’m in the room with her.
She’s currently on the phone with a friend. They’re talking about her father and how insane he must be to have hired me to install the security.
I shouldn’t be watching her like this. It’s a breach of privacy and it’s illegal. But as the moments pass with me staring into the screen, I can’t help but wonder why it is that I can’t look away.
Is it that I’m secretly into reality TV? Maybe I’m a voyeur who can only get off while he watches someone in private.
It’s neither.
It’sher,and no matter how my mind tries to deflect from it, she captivated me the second I saw her. Hell, I didn’t think I’d be able to drive away earlier. Part of me wanted to lift her round ass up on the bed and take care of the urges crawling their way through me right then and there.
You’re such a shining example there, soldier. You piece of shit.
She sits at the counter, biting into a cupcake as she rants about her father. It seems there was an ex in Seattle that wouldn’t take no for an answer. From what I gather, the man assaulted her somehow. That’s why Dad wanted the cameras. Can’t say I blame him. I don’t even know this dude, or the full story, and I want to put a fucking bullet in his head.