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“Something I can help you with?” I demand, folding my arms over my chest.
“Nah, just looking at the goods,” he drawls, and I swear he thinks it’s sexy but it’s far from it.
“Eurgh,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Please, not even if you were the last guy on earth.”
“Order for Scott,” the server calls, and I turn my back to grab my coffee.
“Thanks,” I tell her, but as I turn to leave, I feel someone at my back.
“Stuck up bitch!” he whispers, then reaches around me to grab his own order before leaving.
My eyes track him as he exits the shop and turns left, thankfully the opposite direction I’ll be going.
“Guy’s been in here every day this week. Creeps me out,” says the young girl behind the counter.
“Does he live round here then?” I ask, looking back out the window, but he’s gone.
“Nah, he and a group of others are something to do with that new development going on at the old hospital site.” At my obvious confusion, she says, “You ain’t from round here either, huh?” She points to the notice board over by the door, and I walk that way.
It’s a poster about a new development of houses and a leisure facility, one that will be available to every resident in town. It’s not the development that has my breath hitching in my chest or my pulse racing, it’s the name of the company, Titan Industries.
I leave the coffee shop in a daze. I can hear the girl behind the counter calling to me, asking if I’m okay, but I don’t acknowledge her. I can’t. My mind is spinning. Titan Industries are the company my dad was working for before he died. It’s because of them that my dad and brother are dead.
* * *
I’veno idea how I made it through that interview without losing my mind, and I’ve even less idea how the hell I managed to get the job. But I did, and I start tomorrow night. Reaching my car, I open the back door, dumping the uniform they gave me inside before climbing in myself. I take a couple of minutes just to sit and breathe. I can’t even say I’m surprised because I’m not. I knew they were still operating, of course, but I wasn’t expecting them to be so close. Pulling away, I decide to take a detour and check out the rest of the town. Although I’ve been here plenty of times before, it was years ago, and it’s changed since the last time I was here.
It’s a nice little town, and it’s clear that it’s undergone some redevelopment recently. I don’t need to be a genius to work out who was involved in it.
As I reach the other end of the town, I see the old hospital site where Titan are planning the next phase of their takeover. It’s what they do. I’ve seen it first-hand in a couple of other towns I’ve visited since I left Silverbell. They swoop in with this great development opportunity, make it sound so damn attractive to the townspeople, drawn in a few investors too, and then once they have a foot in the door, a corrupt to the core foot, they strike.
My thoughts are halted as a car comes into sight. A very familiar car, and when he steps from it, my blood first turns to ice then boils like lava in my veins.
I slam on the brakes, pulling over behind a row of small trees. I get out and walk to the last tree and watch as Asher is greeted by one of the men working on site. They chat like old friends, and as the guy turns this way I realize it’s the prick from the coffee shop. He’s laughing at something Asher says. I don’t understand. How can Asher know this guy, and from where? I have to stop myself from going over there and demanding some answers. But I also don’t want to consider or admit what it could mean that Asher is here in the first place.
I watch them for the next ten minutes or so, then when Asher looks to be saying goodbye, I run back to my car and get in. I wait for him, hunkered down in my seat, and watch as he turns out of the street and heads back toward the freeway and Silverbell.
By the time I make it back home, I’m exhausted, and I’m grateful there isn’t anyone home. I don’t feel like talking to anyone. There is an envelope with my name on it on the console table by the front door, the same one I almost tripped over that first night.
Snatching it up, I walk through to the kitchen and grab a water and an apple, then go up to my room. I strip out of the trousers and blouse I’m wearing and throw on some comfy sweats and a slouch tee, then lie back on the bed and stare at the ceiling.
My mind wonders back to Asher chatting with that guy at the site. Having had some time to think on it during the drive home, I realize just because they know each other doesn’t automatically mean Asher is involved. The same goes for anyone that works for Titan.
I spent a long time after I left Silverbell being angry at anyone that was even remotely connected to Titan, but now I understand how you can work for someone and not know what really goes on behind the scenes. I also spent those first few months hating myself for being in love with a man that, I believed, had left my dad and brother behind to die while he saved himself. To this day there is a part of me that wants to blame him, but it’s drowned out by logic that says he’d never do that.
It's been six years and I thought I’d be safe being around him. That my mind and body would have forgotten the intense rush that soars through my me every time he’s close but given my reaction just from a distance makes me terrified of what would happen if I was in the same room as him. I’m hoping that I won’t find out. I know that I’m not ready for that.
ChapterSix
Iset out early this morning wanting to make sure I get back in plenty of time for dinner later at Maria’s. I don’t have a good feeling about showing up without Kennedy knowing, but equally I don’t want to let Maria down. I’ve been avoiding her lately, and I feel bad.
After a little walk around the town, I stopped by the coffee shop where the young girl behind the counter was only too happy to chat away to me. Her flushed cheeks and the constant biting of her lip were a dead giveaway of her interest in more than conversation. Of course, I used it to my advantage, and she was happy to tell me about a couple of the guys that were working over at the site.
Once she spilled everything she knew to me, I wished her a good day and headed off to the site. I parked up just outside the boundary and walked the perimeter before heading back to the site entrance and my car.
I’m leaning against my car watching a couple of the guys as they unload from a truck that’s just arrived when one of them breaks away and walks in my direction.
“Can I help you,” he hollers.
