Going home with strangers was not a habit of hers. In fact, she generally played pretty hard to get with most men and had only given herself to the ones she was in committed relationships with. She had learned that the hard way, as she had been fooled by her share of creeps in the past.
But there was something different about Nate. He seemed kind and sweet and somewhat innocent. Last night at the bar he had been openand honest with her, telling her about his dissertation proposal that had been rejected, and that he hoped to someday teach archaeology at a university like Harvard. He was so different from the usual jerks that came into the bar, and he’d not once used a pickup line, uttered one crude comment, or made any advances. Paige had done all the advancing, and that made her like him more.
Tiptoeing across the room, she made her way to the kitchen to fetch a water glass from the cabinet and filled it from the sink. Looking around, she could tell the place was a bachelor pad. Only the bare necessities were present. There was a couch, a coffee table, and a TV in the living room. The kitchen bar had two stools. The bedroom she had just left contained a bed and a nightstand. It was all very utilitarian, and nothing hung on the walls, nor were there knickknacks of any sort.Surely he had some sentimental possessions.
She sipped her water then set it down on the counter before silently sneaking back into the bedroom. Her lover from last night was still fast asleep as Paige made her way into the room’s walk-in closet. Inside was just as unremarkable as the rest of the place. A few suits hung on hangers, along with dress pants and dress shirts. Shoes lined the bottom on the floor, ranging from dress and casual to hiking and running. Up top were several boxes stacked neatly along a shelf, unadorned and unlabeled. She pulled one down, quietly set it on the floor, and opened it.
What she found inside surprised her. On top was a green beret with some type of crest on it. She instantly knew it was from the military, having had some exposure to such things in the past. At Alabama she dated a guy who was in the National Guard. He was nice enough at first but quickly became different. Violent.
She looked again at the beret, and it reminded her of a picture shehad of her uncle, who had also served in the army. Even the black crest with the yellow and red stripes looked the same. But her uncle had been in the Special Forces, and she used to overhear him telling stories about his time behind enemy lines.Could the man she just slept with be the same thing?
Paige kept digging. Underneath was a large knife in a sheath that she carefully set aside. Next were several small boxes, the kind that necklaces came in from jewelry stores. She opened the first and saw what appeared to be some type of award. It was a large bronze star with a small silver star in the center, hanging from a blue, white, and red ribbon. She had no idea what it was and set it aside. She opened the next box and knew instantly what that was. Her uncle had a Purple Heart, the award given for injuries sustained in battle. Opening the next one she found a second Purple Heart and set it down beside the first.
It had been dark last night when they had undressed each other, and in truth she had been a little tipsy herself. She didn’t remember seeing any overt scars, but then again, she probably wouldn’t have. And Nate hadn’t said anything about having been in the military, much less injured in combat.But why?She heard Nate stir in the bedroom and froze. Paige didn’t know if he would be angry if he caught her snooping. After a few seconds of holding her breath, she heard him snore again and relaxed.
Returning to the box, there were several more small cases and she gently lifted them out. Underneath was a binder full of plastic sleeves. She opened it and instantly all her questions were answered. Certificates for Special Forces training, Military Freefall School, the Combat Diver Qualification Course, and several others were present. She thumbed through and found award certificates and looked around in surprise as she closed the binder.
Paige peered into the box to see if anything was left. There appeared to be a mess of pictures strewn about haphazardly on the bottom. She pulled them out and began to flip through them. After a few, she recognized one heavily bearded individual as Nate. He looked different with facial hair, and she wondered why he had grown it out considering how handsome he was clean shaven. Going through several more pictures she began to notice a pattern. There was a man with a big red beard in most of the pictures, and another tall man who looked as if he broke legs for a living. There was also a man with a shaggy brown beard who wore a different uniform with a British flag on his shoulder.
These must have been his friends in the service, she thought to herself. It was strange that the pictures were at the bottom. Come to think of it, it was strange that all these items were in a box and not displayed somewhere in the sparsely decorated apartment. There must have been a reason for it. She quickly returned all the items to the box and put it back where she had found it. Paige walked back into the bedroom and peered at Nate, who was still sound asleep.
Her mind raced as she thought back to her ex-boyfriend. She’d met him not long after he returned from Syria. At first he was cute, sweet, and even charming. They went on three dates before they slept together, and shortly after that, he changed. He became angry, aggressive, and violent, especially when he drank.
And he had only been in the National Guard and done one tour overseas that she was pretty sure consisted of a whole lot of nothing. And yet anytime he mistreated her, his deployment was always the excuse. The man sleeping in front of her had clearly endured much more and had experienced the horrors of war several times over. Sure, he had been nothing but sweet to her so far, but it could be that was just how it started.
Paige was loath to even chance reliving that. Nate had seemed like a nice guy, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about the military, which was clearly a large part of his past.Was he as disturbed as her ex? Would she bear the brunt of his demons?She had no plans to find out. They had shared a nice night, and that was how she wanted to remember him. If he had a dark side, she didn’t want to see it.
Very carefully, Paige quietly gathered up her belongings, cautious not to wake the slumbering warrior before her, and silently slipped out of the house into the early morning.
CHAPTER NINE
New Hampshire
The ride out to Nashua did much to improve Nate’s mood. There was something about being out in nature that always brought a sense of calm to him, and that still applied if he was on a road speeding past it at sixty miles per hour. The weather was perfect, and he revved the high-output twin cam 103 engine on his 2016 Harley Davidson Fat Bob as he sailed northwest along U.S. Route 3, the dense forest on either side whipping past in a blur of green.
Nate purchased the motorcycle after returning from a deployment to Afghanistan. He’d spent years riding intermittently in the turret of gun trucks behind a .50-caliber machine gun, the wind whipping his face and hair. He loved the feeling of the open air, and when they returned from that trip their team sergeant John Kendall had talked him into biting the bullet and purchasing a bike. The tough, gritty look of the Fat Bob with the flat black denim paint and a single red stripe along the fuel tank had spoken to him, and Nate bought the bike that day. He rode it out of the shop and Kendall took him for an eight-hour ride along the back roads of Kentucky. It was still one of his favoritememories. Of course, that was a different time, back when Kendall was still alive.
He pushed that out of his mind, along with the disaster of the previous day, and focused on his current mystery. After the bar last night, he and Paige headed back to his place. They had talked for a bit, mostly about Boston and how she had grown up there. She had displayed a sincere interest in his past, but he declined to mention anything about his military background. It was simply not something he wanted to get into, particularly after the dream that had resurfaced the night prior. He managed to deflect her questions and turn them around to ask more about her. It was a technique he had learned in the Special Forces when soliciting information, and one that had been extremely useful in life. Now it was part habit, and part that he didn’t feel like discussing his past with her.
Nate squeezed the clutch and lifted the toes of his left foot to shift the bike into fifth gear before releasing the clutch and revving the throttle with his right hand. The bike roared forward. There was something about Paige that he really liked. She was real and genuine. Pretty but smart. Sassy but playful. They had great conversations, and the sex had been amazing. He thought they had hit it off, but then the most peculiar thing happened. When he woke up, she was gone. Nate had never been abandoned on a one-night stand before, and he was surprised by how much it bothered him. He was also hungover, which was probably making him more sensitive.
Unable to figure out a reason for her mysterious disappearance, Nate focused on enjoying the ride to where he was headed. He tried to make the trip once a month, more if he was able. So when he woke up to find Paige gone, he had hopped on the bike and headed out. He would be arriving without forewarning, though he knew his hosts wouldn’t care. They never did. Nate eventually veered the bike off the state roadand headed west for several minutes through increasingly rural areas before pulling into his destination.
As Nate rode down the long dirt driveway, he could see a woman exit the house onto the front porch and smiled. Janet knew it was him. No one else would be coming unannounced on a Saturday morning, a fact he felt slightly guilty about. He pulled up to the house and parked. As he got off the bike and removed his helmet, Janet came down the driveway toward him.
“What a surprise,” she said, arms outstretched. “Frank hadn’t told me to expect you.”
Nate hugged the older woman. “That’s my fault. I didn’t let him know.” She waved her hand in front of her face as if to blow the statement away.
“Nonsense, honey, you know you’re always welcome. Are you hungry?”
“Famished.”
“Good. I’ve got some fresh bacon on the stove, and I’ll whip you up some eggs and toast. You need to eat; it looks like you’ve lost a little weight,” she said as they walked up the porch stairs and entered the house.
“He may not be eating, but he sure is drinking like a fish,” a voice came from across the room. “I can smell you from here.”
“Nice to see you too, Frank,” Nate said. Frank got up from toying with his collection of fishing lures, crossed the room, and shook Nate’s hand.
