Page 1 of Sicilian Savior

CHAPTER ONE

Knox

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I guided my Harley along the winding road and snorted when I passed the sign reading, “Mountain Springs.”

Sure, it was a little town with springs trickling down from the mountains, but it had the wrong name if you asked me.

B.F.E.—Bum. Fuck. Egypt.

This middle-of-nowhere town should have been called that. And for the last two months, it’d been my home while I fixed up my dead Uncle Hank’s property to sell. I didn’t even know I had an uncle until I’d gotten the letter saying I’d inherited his shit. I’d had to drag my retired ass off the beach in Costa Rica and travel back up to the States to sign some papers and figure out what to do with the dump.

My long-lost uncle? Serious squalor. Jesus. Thanks for all the garbage, man.

I turned my Harley onto the gravel road that led through the woods to his twenty-acre spread of land. The trees arched over the road and blocked out the hot summer sun that had baked me for the thirty-mile drive to the hardware store. I reveled in the cool air now blowing against my face.

When I turned the last corner and emerged from the woods, I slowed down to soak in the sight of the little piece of property I now called my own. It may be in the middle of nowhere, and the buildings were hanging on for dear life, but it sure was a pretty little slice of B.F.E. Vibrant flowers speckled the lush, green meadows that stretched out for acres and acres. A small stream cut across the property, coming down from the mountains that created a dark backdrop in the distance against the bright blue sky. The sun cast everything in a beautiful light, making this place look less like the dump it was.

I pulled up in front of the dilapidated cabin I now called home and killed the engine. If I was smart, I’d just bulldoze the old building and the ones scattered around the property and sell it as a vacant lot, but my dumb ass had started renovations inside, and now I was too damn stubborn to give up. I’d already put too much time into repairing stuff, and the thought of two months of hard work wasted wasn’t something I was willing to suffer. No. I didn’t give up. Not now. Not ever. That attitude had pushed me through the military and straight into the special forces... as well as the contract work I’d done after.

Never quit. No going back. Forward... always forward.

My cell phone rang, and I glanced down at it. Ned Koepsel.

Again.

With a grumble, I hit the button and held the phone to my ear. “Knox here.”

“Knox! I’m so glad you answered,” he said.

I wished I hadn’t.

“What do you need now?” I grumbled.

Since arriving here, Ned had been blowing up my phone to come help him with projects. Apparently, my uncle had been some sort of town handyman, and when he’d died, he’d left a void that needed filling. After I’d arrived, Ned stopped by to pay his respects and then asked if I was as handy as my uncle. I’d stupidly said I knew my way around tools, and he’d asked if I could finish up the plumbing project my Uncle Hank had been working on. My dumb ass had agreed, and now it seemed I’d stepped into my uncle’s shoes of fixing everything for everyone else when I should be here fixing this shithole.

“One of my stores in town has a broken pipe,” Ned said. “Water is leaking everywhere, and the new tenant says she can’t get the valve to turn and shut off the water. It’s stuck! Could you run over there and fix it?”

I let my inward sigh loose into a sound that could be construed as a growl.

“Please, Knox? I’m two hours away, and I can’t get there. You’re still the only decent handyman in town, and it’s an emergency!”

“I’m not a handyman,” I reminded him for the six millionth time. “I’m a guy who happens to be good at fixing shit. But trust me, I haven’t had, nor will I ever have, a career as a handyman.”

If only he knew what my “career” had been before this. Yeah, I’d fixed shit, but it had been fixing problems that usually ended up with someone wearing a toe tag. That was the kind of fixing I was really good at, but it suddenly seemed the skills that had made me one of the most highly trained operatives in the world were now relegated to patching woodwork and unclogging pipes.

“I’ll pay you well. Emergency fee. An extra hundred. Please, Knox? The water damage is going to be a nightmare if we don’t get this fixed.”

I didn’t need his money. In fact, I had more money than I knew what to do with after my team and I slipped off with a sizeable chunk of change from a cartel raid we’d come out of retirement for a little over a year ago. A chunk of change like five million a person. But even though I didn’t need his money or the headache, I reluctantly answered, “Fine. But this is the last project I’m doing for you. Understood? Find another handyman. A real handyman.”

“Oh, man! Thanks, Knox. I owe you big time. It’s my storefront on Main Street downtown. The one I had you fix the floors on last month. Really. I appreciate this.”

I grunted my response and hung up the phone. After casting a quick glance at the cabin that would have to wait, I fired up the engine again and skidded out along the gravel drive.

I made my way the twenty minutes to the little downtown that most people would call charming, but I just called boring. A little dog ran out, and I swerved to miss him, then parked my bike in front of Ned’s vacant store. He’d bought up several properties along the main drag and was planning on renting them out. He’d told me all about it when he’d hung around and watched me rip up the floorboards from this store.

I walked up to the glass door, noticing that it had a sign on it saying “Lucia’s Lozione Opening Soon!” in place of the “For Rent” sign that had hung there last month. Looked like Ned’s plan to fill them all by fall was working. I knocked several times, then knocked a few more. After no one came to the door, I twisted the knob, but it was locked. After a pang of annoyance, I flipped through my keychain to find the key to the door Ned had made me when I’d been doing work here. After clicking open the lock, I gave a push, and the little bell above my head announced my entrance.