The little town had flourished after the earthquake. It still amazed her that the day after the natural disaster occurred, a wealth of help had arrived. When she’d asked about how it was possible to get so much assistance in a short space of time, all she’d gotten was a vague answer.
Somewhere there had been a guardian angel who’d somehow got a message out that they needed help, and people in authority had listened.
Thinking of the town that had come to mean a lot to her, reminded her of the man who’d been thereduring the toughest part of the whole event. The same one she’d pushed away after everything he’d done for her. Even now, months later, she didn’t understand her reaction. Didn’t understand why she’d given him the brush-off, when that hadn’t at all been what she’d wanted to do. All she could put it down to was her emotions were running high and hot. Most of all she put it down to embarrassment. Embarrassment that he’d seen her fall completely apart. Embarrassment that she hadn’t even known he’d taken her to his place. Embarrassment that she’d run away like a scared schoolgirl who was alone with her secret crush.
Marie sighed. She didn’t need to be thinking about this now. It was done and dusted, and there was nothing she could do about it. Nothing she could do to change what had happened.
It was time to move on. Yet it was hard to forget his quiet strength. The way he’d held her and comforted her when she’d needed it. The way his lips had felt warm beneath her and her body had come alive, buzzing with extra energy.
But Sam was still in San Carlion thousands of miles away. She hadn’t seen him after he’d walked her back to the hospital. She thought she might have, considering how everyone helped with the rebuilding efforts of the town. But he hadn’t been anywhere. And did she really expect him to be there when she hadn’teven thanked him for the help he’d given. Had never acknowledged that without him, she may never have been able to get back on her feet after her breakdown in the field. If anything, she deserved to be ignored by him. One day, the need to see him drove her to walk to his house. Hope that he was there, died when she found it dark and carrying an air of emptiness, as if it hadn’t been inhabited for a while.
He’d gone, and any plans to apologize to him were lost.
Marie pushed all thoughts of that time away. She was back in Los Angeles ready to take on a new position in the ER department of LA County hospital. Her contract with the organization that had placed her in San Carlion had finished and they’d chosen not to renew it. She didn’t know why, and her disappointment had been sharp. Instead of letting the powers that be know, she’d thanked them for the opportunity and hoped that sometime in the future she would be considered again for a position as she’d really enjoyed the experience—earthquake notwithstanding.
Part of her wondered if someone had reported her for something she’d done wrong, but she knew she hadn’t messed up in any way. That everything she’d done had been above board and by the book. A fleeting thought that Alfredo Vargas had some pull with the organization and caused her contract to not berenewed had entered her mind, but she’d disregarded it. She had no doubt, after some of the whispers she’d heard after their encounter, he had power and influence in San Carlion and the surrounding areas. A large organization based out of the United States, no way did he have that much influence.
“Stop it,” she muttered to herself. She’d gone over so many different scenarios of why things happened the way they had that she didn’t need to do it again.
Marie had been so lost in her thoughts that she almost walked past the building where she was supposed to enter to meet her mom for lunch. Backtracking, she walked through the glass doors and headed to the elevators.
Her mom worked for some security organization. She didn’t know all the details, but all she knew was that her mom loved it and said that the people she worked for were wonderful.
She got off the relevant floor, and in a few short steps was standing out the front of the Alliez Security office. She had no idea what sort of security they provided, and the logo of a shield with two swords gave nothing away. She should’ve asked her mom more questions, but her focus had been on her own career and not what her mom did to fill her time. She loved her parents, and had a good relationship with them, it’s just she was a grown woman and didn’t haveto tell her parents everything that went on with her life.
She pushed the door open, and her mother’s head popped up from behind the computer screen, a big smile on her face. “Marie! Oh darling, it’s so good to see you.” Her mom rushed around from behind her desk and pulled her into a tight hug. A hug Marie returned with the same amount of intensity. A hug she hadn’t known she’d needed until that moment.
“Hi Mom,” she returned when her mom released her. “It’s good to see you too. Sorry it’s taken me so long to come visit. It’s been a crazy busy month since I got back. You know, organizing my job and apartment.”
A flash of hurt appeared in her mom’s eyes, ones the same cornflower blue like her own, before she blinked it away. “Are you all settled? Do you need any help with anything?”
It wouldn’t have been hard for her to call her parents and ask them to help her unpack the boxes she’d had in storage, but she hadn’t. She’d done it all herself. Mainly to keep her mind busy and off the things she’d dealt with in the last couple of months of her contract.
No, I’m not thinking about that now.
The reminder was one she needed to heed. In the past, when she’d changed jobs, or after contracts likeher San Carlion one, she’d been able to move headfirst into her next position. Marie didn’t understand why this one was so hard to move on from. “I’m mostly unpacked. There’s only a few more boxes to do. The people who I sublet my apartment to looked after it really well.”
“That’s good. You can never be too sure when it comes to tenants. Your father and I have had a few terrible ones in our time.”
Her dad had inherited a property from his parents near Lake Tahoe. They’d turned it into a short stay rental, and it was always booked because of its location to the ski slopes and the lake, making it popular year-round for people to stay there. One day they’d either sell it or retire there. She didn’t know what they’d planned. Maybe it was time to find out what their plans were as her parents weren’t getting any younger.
“I know I was very lucky.” Looking around, Marie took in the stylish reception area. It looked cozy and welcoming. Again she wondered what sort of security Alliez supplied.
“Who do we have here, Yolanda?”
Marie turned in the direction of where the voice was coming from and saw a tall man with closely cropped hair that was gray at the sides. He had an edge about him, an edge that seemed familiar as if she’d seenit before, but as she’d never met this man before she had to have been mistaken.
“Kyle, this my daughter, Marie Hughes. She’s a doctor and has just returned from San Carlion, a small town in Guatemala. She’s got a new job at LA County in their emergency department.”
A flush of heat entered her face at her mom’s bragging. “San Carlion, there was an earthquake around that region a couple months ago wasn’t there?” Kyle asked. Nothing about the way he asked the question should’ve raised some red flags, but it did.
“Yes. Do you know something about it?” Had it made the national news here in the US? With the aid efforts that had been sent to the region, it must have. That had to be how he knew about it. Not because he’d been the one to arrange any help on behalf of her mom. The guy and this company didn’t have that sort of pull, did they?
“Saw it on the news, and Yolanda was worried about you.”
If mom knew about it and mentioned to him that she was there, why had he acted as if he didn’t know her? More to the point, why was she so suspicious about everything? Why did she think everyone had an ulterior motive?
Maybe she should’ve taken more of a break than one month after her return from San Carlion to getback into the swing of things. She’d never been suspicious about anything before, but after some of the events after the earthquake, it was as though her suspicious radar had been triggered.
