Page 1 of Devil

Prologue

Devil

The big willow tree with the aid of the darkness kept my cover as I watched the young woman step out of the house from across the street. With the moonlight hitting the porch, it afforded me the opportunity to take in her appearance. She looked thinner than what I remembered, almost fragile, her skin even paler than it had been before. I was sure if I stood in front of her, that dark circles would show under her expressive brown eyes, the ones my dad had spoken of when I had asked if he had seen her lately. Her blond hair shined in the moonlight as I took in my fill of her.

One year and hundred eighty-twodayssince I saw her last and held her in my arms. That was when I still had the right to call her mine. I’d stayed away from town the whole two weeks I’d been at Black Hawk on leave, but with shipping out tomorrow, the need for one last look to make sure she was doing okay overcame me, andI'd jumped on my bike without a word to where I was going.

The words she’d said to me our last day together would more than likely haunt me for years, they already were. I would suffer through it because I deserved every second of the pain. After all, it was the result of my own doing.

“I can’t believe you’re going to be gone a year, Lance,” Bailey made circles on my chest with her finger.

We laid on a blanket by the lake at Black Hawk, something we’d done a hundred times. It was the place I’d first noticed she was more than just the little sister of a friend. She’d been a sixteen-year-old sophomore at the time and in the middle of, what I would learn, later, was the female body in its stages of turning a gangly teenage girl into a woman. I was seventeen and a junior, and if it weren't for my friendship with her brother, James, I would have gone after her then.

By the time the next year rolled around, her a junior and me a senior, nothing could’ve kept me away fromher,and it hadn’t. Not the ribbing from my brothers or even hers with the threats of what he would do to me if I hurt her.

“It will go by fast, baby, and then I’ll be home on leave.” I pulled her a little tighter into my side.

“School’s going to suck without you there, and even worse since I won’t even be able to see you after the day ends.”

"Yeah, gonna miss me that much, huh?" She pinched the nipple her fingers had been near, and I rubbed the spot.

“You know I am. You being at basic training and AIT (Advanced Individual Training) for three months is rough; a year is going to be brutal. I’ll get through it, though, I know that, but it doesn’t mean it won’t suck.”

“Going to suck for me too, baby.” I ran my hand over her hip and rested it on her butt.

“You won’t have time to think of me,Lance,because you need to spend that time making sure you come home at the end of the tour. I watch the news; I know how dangerous it is there.” She raised up and looked me in the eyes. “Between you and James being there, I’ll be lucky if I sleep the entire time you both are gone.”

As I looked back at her, I saw my future. At eighteen with my whole life in front of me, how was that even possible? But it was what I saw when I lookedintoher eyes.

“I can’t promisenotto think of you, but I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll only think of you when I’m laying down to sleep.”

“Fine, and I will think of you before I go tosleeptoo. Maybe we will be lucky, and one time we will fall asleep at the same time, and it will be our way to be together even if it is only in a dream." She smiled, and it lit up her whole face. I lifted my head and kissed her lips. Sometimes when she said shit like that, I’d forget how young we were.

“Did you get your application ready for college?” I asked as I broke the kiss.

"Yes. It's too early to mail out, but I have it ready to go. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go after a business degree or go into nursing. But I finally decided on nursing, so I got the application finished to keep me from going back and forth between the two.”

"You'll make an excellent nurse, baby." She moved to straddle me and laid her head back down on my chest.

"I love you, Lance," was said in a whisper and I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight.

Why I held off saying those three little words back to her that night, I don’t know, because everything in me then knew that I loved her.Movementbrought my focus back, and I watched Bailey as she sat on the swing and began to move back and forth staring straight ahead. I briefly wondered what she was thinking.

I should never have come here. The time when I should have been here comforting Bailey, I stayed away, letting her down because I was too busy dealing with my bullshit. Where did it leave me now? It left me cursing karma as I stood in the shadows staring at my past, instead of sitting on the porch swing next to what should have been my future.

Pushing off the tree and readying to leave, I froze when her head suddenly turned, and she looked in my direction as if she sensed me. I knew she couldn't see me with the branches of the tree touching the ground around me, but it didn’t keep my breathing from picking up or my heart from racing as she stood, walked to the railing of the porch, rested her hands flat down, andstaredin my direction.

Neither of us moved for several minutes. The thought of stepping out fromunder the cover ofthe tree to see what Bailey would do wasstrong, but the fear of her rejection or worse, the disappointment I would see on her face, kept me planted where I stood. With a shake of her head, I watched her turn toward the door. As she walked across the porch and reached for the handle, she glanced back over her shoulder one last time before opening the door and going into the house.

It was then that I vowed to stay away because I knew myself well enough to know that I would pursue her regardless. ‘Cause goddammit she was fucking mine, she always would be, and she deserved so much better.Rightthere was why I would stay away, I couldn’t even trust myself around her. I’d had my chance with her and blown it.

Leaving the cover of the tree, I walked through the yards that led to where I parked my bike two blocks away. I ignored the voice in the back of my mind calling me the biggest dumbass in history and that I should be at that door askingherforgiveness.

But I didn’t do it and I already knew I would regret it for years to come.

Chapter One

Devil

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