Page 40 of Savior

“I’ll grab Rocky, and we’ll wait for you in the truck,” he says.

I nod and finish spraying down the rest of my garden. I take extra care because I can use the time to settle my nerves. To think I used to be so confident when it came to men. The old me would laugh at my skittishness now. She would have eaten men like Logan for breakfast.

With her in mind, I wind the hose back onto its wheel and lock up the back door, triple-checking the locks out of habit. Then I move to the windows and do the same there. By the time I finish, Logan’s already gotten Rocky into his truck and has moved it from his driveway to mine. Rocky has his head poked out of the door and I could swear he’s grinning.

He makes room for me as I swing myself up. “Where exactly are we going?”

“A little park. It has an old closed off baseball field they turned into a dog park.”

I scrub Rocky on the neck. “He’ll love it.”

Like any other place in Nassau, the park is only a short drive away. It’s located just off the main road, but it’s relatively deserted.

“You’d think there’d be more people here,” I comment as I jump out of the truck.

“There is a more upscale park built near the center of town a year or so ago. Skate park, basketball courts, the whole nine. This one kind of fell by the wayside.”

“Based on the peeling paint and brown grass, I’d describe it more as badly in need of attention.”

“Maybe that’s why I like it so much.”

I refrain from asking if that’s why he was so attracted to me at first.

Logan lets Rocky inside the double gates and Rocky takes off with a round of cheerful barks. I lean against the fence and watch as he sniffs every plant and pole in the park.

“So are we going to talk about this?” he asks as he comes to stand beside me.

I look away, pretending to study an incoming couple with an excited beagle. “Talk about what?”

He turns, leaning back against the fence and crossing his arms over his formidable chest. “You can pick a topic at this point. Why you keep pushing me away. Where you’re from. Why you carry a gun everywhere you go and never turn the lights off in your house.”

All the fight goes out of me, and my shoulders slump. “Logan, I—”

“You don’t have to tell me everything. Just give me one thing. One little thing about you that I don’t already know.”

Wind whips my hair around my face, and for the hundredth time since Paige died, I wish she was here to guide me. She was always better at this sort of stuff. “Why does it matter?”

“For one thing, did you just hear yourself? I’m trying to get to know you, and you’re asking why it matters? Of course it matters.Youmatter.”

“Why are you pushing this? Why can’t you just leave it alone?”

He turns so his shoulder nudges mine. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? I bet that’s how you’ve kept to yourself for so long. You show them that prickly side for long enough and they just don’t put forth the effort.” A long silence follows until he sighs. “Did I ever tell you what I did in the Marines?”

This man, I swear. I can’t keep up with him. I blow out a breath and then turn back so I can look at him. “No, you didn’t.”

“Since you’re being stingy about the personal details, I figure if I share some with you, you’ll be obligated to return the favor.” Before I can object, he continues, “I didn’t join the Marines to kill people, but that’s what I ended up doing.”

My eyes flash to his, but he’s not looking at me anymore. He’s watching Rocky greet the beagle, but his eyes have a faraway quality that tells me he’s not really seeing what he’s looking at.

“I was a sniper, Sienna. I spent a lot of time waiting, and if you think I’m going to back off because you keep pushing me away, you can think again. Patience really is a virtue and probably the only one I actually excel at.”

I scowl at the ground. I don’t want to know these things about him. I don’t want to think of him on top of a dusty building in the desert as he gets his target in his sights. I can picture his cool-eyed stare all too clearly. I don’t want to feel sympathy for the man who had to make such terrible choices. I don’t want to feelanythingfor him.

The voice inside my head is screaming at me to run away, but I ignore it and say, “I used to be a night owl. I was one of those people who slept until mid-day. Now I can’t stand it.” I give a half laugh.

When I look up, he’s got a smile playing around his lips. “Is that why you always have every light on in the house?”

“Guess you noticed that, huh?”