Hero Book 3 - The Battle: Military Romance by M. S. Parker Page B

I could stop her.
    I didn't try to go after her. What good would it do? I couldn't tell her how I really felt. What I could do was leave her alone.
    Avoiding anyone else, I retrieved my food supplies and headed back to my place. I needed to stop thinking about Leighton and getting back to work seemed like a good way to do that. So, after eating, I studied the coffee shop receipt more carefully. The time stamp was for early morning, and while it was possible the person I wanted to speak to didn't have a set schedule, it made more sense to wait.
    The negative side to a couple hours off was that my brain kept wanting to veer back to Leighton. So I worked out. I caught up on emails. I flipped through the channels on the flat screen television, but time was moving too slowly, and I couldn't even come close to sleeping. By the time it was midnight, I was still wide awake and restless.
    Leighton and her team had ceased work before dinner. With nothing else to do, I wandered through the garden to see their progress. I stood by the pool house, letting myself see what Leighton saw. The night was quiet and, for the first time in a while, I felt hopeful of what the future might hold.
    And then the night was shattered by Leighton's screams.
     

Chapter 12
    Leighton
    I was wound too tight to sleep, and it wasn't just because things were going so well with the pool house. Haze's compliment kept repeating itself in my head. He thought I had talent. Now I had to show him that I was going to use that talent for more than decorating the homes of the rich and famous. It'd be easy to use my friends, and even my grandfather's colleagues, to start an interior design business, but I wanted my work to help people who needed it.
    I just needed to figure out how to do it. So I did what anyone in my generation would've done. I went to the internet to research.
    Since I was already thinking pools because of my current project, I started there. I'd been thinking about maybe a children's pool, but then I stumbled across an article that stopped me. A veterans' rehabilitation center connected to Cedar-Sinai was trying to raise funds for a physical therapy pool.
    My heart twisted at the thought of all those injured men and women who'd given so much for their country. Men like my brother who would fight tooth and nail to be able to continue. Men like Haze who had lost that part of their life forever.
    This was it. This was what I had to do. For Ian. For Haze. For all of those soldiers and officers who were someone else's brother, sister. Husband, wife. Father. Mother. These were the people I needed to do this for.
    I wrote down all the contact numbers I could find, and then got ready for bed even though I doubted I'd be able to sleep. My heart raced as I thought of all the possibilities, my mind going even faster. Finally, after a couple hours of just lying there, I decided to take one of the homeopathic sleeping pills Doc Bellamy had suggested after my ordeal.
    I snuggled deeper into my bed and, after a few minutes, felt the first floating effects of the sleeping pill. The deeper the sleeping pill pulled me under, the harder it was to hang on to my hopeful plans, but that was okay. I needed to rest. Sleep overtook me, and with it, a dream that swept me right back to the nightclub.
    The bartender watched me across the VIP Lounge. I was used to creepy stares and unwanted attention, but something about him made me shiver. The same feeling swept over me on the stairs. Paris was gone, so was my bodyguard, and all I wanted to do was get to the car where I knew I'd be safe. It'd been foolish of me to go out without Haze.
    The door opened, and everything went black.
    When I woke, the darkness was still there, coiled around me, and I couldn't breathe. There was no relief from the black void, and no way to escape the electronically altered voice that haunted me.
    “He'll never really want you. No one ever really wants you. They think you're a