Page 31 of Eldritch

“Maybe.” She didn’t want to venture too deeply in that direction, but a keen appreciation for what he’d said filled her. “But thanks for the vote of confidence. What did you do in the marines?”

“Nice segue.” He threw her yet another smile. “Ever hear of Force Recon?”

She nodded. “I have a cousin that had something to do with that, too. He’s retired now, though. My mother’s side of the family.”

“Anyone else in your family with military experience?”

“No. My dad was a long-haul truck driver for a lot of years.” She continued with, “What do you think we’ve got here? A brilliant intruder? Someone who is in here trying to drive us nuts?”

“It’s possible, I suppose. But they’d have to be pretty damned good at it.”

She set her mug on the counter and crossed her arms, cold despite the coffee. “What does your cop sense tell you?”

“That there’s something really strange going on.”

“Tell me something I don’t know already.”

“I need to think about all of this while I’m putting together what the house needs for security.”

“Fair enough.”

She wondered, as she showed him the second and third floor and introduced him to the rest of the crew, if she’d told him way too much. He hadn’t looked at her as if she’d lost her mind, but how could she say for certain what he thought? Her spooky sense couldn’t tell her everything all the time.

She walked him out to his truck after he’d finished assessing the house. The mid-sized silver truck screamed regular ordinary man. No dice hanging from his rear bumper, no strange bobbleheads on the dashboard. No political stickers anywhere. She couldn’t help but welcome that.

“Do you have a business card?” she asked.

“No.” He grinned. “Clarice has tried to convince me I need to obtain a business license and do this work full time. But I haven’t decided yet if I want to even stay in this area much longer. I moved into my grandfather’s cabin after he left it to me in his will. Once I left the police department, I needed the time out here in the woods to decompress. I’m also considering a private investigator license. If I do that, I’d move to Denver.”

“That makes sense.” That nosiness made her ask, “Why did you leave the police department?”

He leaned back against the driver’s side door. For a moment she thought she might have pushed too far, but then he said, “After I decided I didn’t want to make my entire career in the military, I decided law enforcement sounded good. My dad was a cop in Denver for twenty years and my mother was a dispatcher. So I was familiar with that world from the time I was a kid. I enjoyed the job, but three years later...well, things took a dangerous turn. I was shot four times in an ambush, and unfortunately, another cop lost their life trying to save me. So, I was medically retired.” He pointed to his left shoulder. “Someone shot me once in the shoulder and once in the right biceps. A third one was in my vest and the other in my right knee. The knee still gives me trouble when it rains.” He looked up at the sky. “It’s aching right now. Those clouds over the mountains to the west will dump a lot of moisture soon.”

She glanced at the thunderheads building to the west. “Wow. That’s horrible. I mean…being shot.”

“It’s been about a year since all that happened, and I moved into the cabin trying to figure out what I’m doing for the rest of my life.”

He tilted his head somewhat to the side, his expression dissolving into heart-stopping handsome. No way she could ignore the way his broad shoulders filled out the red and black flannel shirt, or the affectionate way his jeans curved over his muscular legs. Even his hiking boots...something about those caught her attention as well. Her face heated.

She said, “I’m sure you’ll make the right choice for a new career.”

“I hope so.” He opened the driver’s side door. “I’ll call Clarice and make security recommendations.”

“Thank you for coming out so quickly.”

“My pleasure.”

They traded smiles. The man was hot, and she could pretend she didn’t notice, but it wouldn’t change the attraction that swamped her whenever she was around him.

“I’d better get to work on this security system, but I’ll talk to you soon,” he said.

“Thank you. See you.”

As he drove away, she stood in the circular drive and watched his truck fade into the distance and disappear around a corner. She lingered in that pleasure, enjoying the first genuine interest in a man she’d experienced in months.

Thunder rumbled from towering clouds to the west and sheet lightning flashed. Wind barely moved the stalwart trees around the property.

The breeze rustled the hedge near the front door, and she hurried inside. She locked the front door, then turned to find Letisha exiting the office.

---