Page 11 of Wounded Fox
"That's fine. I just figured you would want to get a head start on it so you aren't having to close for too long."
Damn Aaron for being so considerate. It was making it really hard to stay mad at him when he did things like that.
"I appreciate it."
We went back to eating in silence. The lasagna tasted just as I remembered and was better than I could ever make myself.
I was halfway done with the piece I was eating when Aaron set down his fork and put his elbows on the table. It wasn't until he laced his fingers and cleared his throat that I knew I wasn't going to like what he had to say.
"Why is it that you're so mad at me?"
I should've known he wasn't going to pull any punches. That wasn't Aaron's style. He didn't bother to beat around the bush.
"Does it really matter at this point?" I set my own fork down, completely losing my appetite, and mimicked his pose.
"Yes, it matters very much," he said with exasperation like he couldn't believe I had the nerve to ask. "One day we're writing letters to each other, and the next thing I know, thirty years go by and I haven't heard a word from you and not a single response to any of my letters."
Was he being serious right now? I opened my mouth to tell him as much but a piercing screech coming from his phone cut me off.
"What the hell is that?" I covered my ears in an attempt to drown out the ear-shattering noise but it was no use.
"That's the alarm for my mother's house." Aaron was up and out of his seat before he even finished the sentence.
I scrambled out of my chair in an attempt to follow him but my foot got caught on the front leg and had me catapulting to the floor before I knew what was happening.
"Shit, are you okay?" Aaron was immediately back at my side, reaching his hand down to help me up.
I accepted the help and climbed back up on my feet. "Don't worry about me." I dropped my hand and practically shoved him toward the front door. "You need to go check on your mother."
Aaron proved just how stubborn he was when he took my hand back and held on tight. But it was his next words that hit me square in the chest. "I'm not leaving you behind. From now on we do things together."
Looking back, it was probably that moment that everything changed for me.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Aaron
"Ma!" I did the one thing my years of training in the Marines taught menotto do. I rushed into a situation yelling. "Ma? Panther? Where are you?" I hollered for the man Wes assigned to guard my mother.
"Back here!" a gruff voice yelled back from deeper inside the house. I followed until I found Wes' guy and my mother in the sunroom off the kitchen.
"What the hell happened?" I rushed over to where my mother sat on the outdoor sofa with a rag placed on her right temple.
"The som bitch got the drop on me, that's what happened." I gasped at my mother cussing. Normally she was way too polite for that sort of thing. "Oh, don't look at me like that. A man breaks into my house and knocks me upside the head, you better believe I'm going to cuss about it."
"And you have every right, Ms. Hill," Valerie—who I didn't realize followed me this far into the house—said with conviction.
I looked at Panther expectantly and waited for him to explain. "Your mother was in the kitchen baking zucchini bread. I stepped out for a minute to use the bathroom but obviously it was just enough time for someone to break in through the back here. He ran away when he realized I was here. I started to go after him until I saw your mother bleeding."
"I told him I was fine and he should've gone after the guy but he insisted on sitting with me and setting off the bat signal."
I shook my head. "By bat signal you mean the alarm that lets me know something is wrong with you?"
I had Nolen outfit my mother and her house with an alarm similar to a medical alarm, but instead of just calling nine one one, it also alerted me that she was in need. Speaking of . . .
"Willow Creek Police Department, we got a call for an alarm going off?"
One glance at Panther was enough silent communication for him to know what I was asking. "I'll go talk to them."
