Love Inspired Suspense June 2014 Bundle 1 of 2: Undercover Marriage\Collateral Damage\Forgotten Past (36 page)

Trust Me
. The words echoed through her thoughts. Trust was a hard thing for Faith to give freely, but she needed to try.

“Okay,” she said at last. “Thank you. I'd really like that.” She stepped aside and let JT pass through.

Faith flipped on the lights. She set the roses on the table by the door and waited with Ollie while JT searched through each room of her house.

“Here's your problem,” he called out from the kitchen. When she followed him to the room, he pointed to Ollie's pet door. “You forgot to lock it in place. The little guy probably figured out how to open it.”

An unbelievable sense of relief soaked into every fiber of her body. “Oh, I'm so relieved. For a second, I thought...”

“That you had an intruder?” JT finished for her.

He obviously thought she'd overreacted. He had no way of knowing what she'd been through in her life to warrant such a response.

“Yes,” she admitted and felt foolish. “I've only been here on the island a month. I guess I'm still getting used to living out here. Especially so far away from town.”

“I see. Well, you don't have anything to worry about living here alone. This is one of the safest places to live in Maine. We rarely have anything more than the occasional high school prank.”

So he
was
a local. This surprised her. “You live here?”

JT nodded. “Yes. I'm restoring the house down the beach from you.” He was a carpenter. That explained the healthy tan. Still, it didn't quite fit her first impression of him.

JT had a funny little grin on his face and she realized she'd been staring again. “Well, thank you for rescuing Ollie,” she said to cover up her embarrassment.

“No problem. I kind of admire the little guy's spunk.” He reached down and scratched Ollie's ears, and the dog rewarded him with a lick on his hand.

Faith laughed warmly. “I think you've made a new friend. Ollie loves having his ears scratched.”

When JT straightened, he looked right into her eyes and her heart did a little flip. He was an incredibly attractive man, yet she wondered if he even realized it.

He glanced away and she could breathe normally once more.

“You know, I remember this house. I came here a lot as a kid. My mom and the previous owners were friends. As I recall, Mom brought my sister and me over a couple of times a week for a visit. Liz and I used to explore the house while my mom and Evie Fitzgerald talked.” He sighed fondly. “I remember Mrs. Fitzgerald used to make this mean chocolate cake and she'd give my sister and me each a huge slice. We would end up with a sugar rush for hours after. It drove our mom crazy.”

She smiled as she listened to him reminisce about his family. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had such a simple conversation with anyone without looking for ulterior motives. It felt nice. “I can imagine. Are you and your sister still close?” Ollie scratched at her leg, his little signal he wanted her to hold him. She scooped the dog up in her arms.

“Oh, yes.” He sounded amused. “Sometimes a little too close. Liz is happily married and determined that everyone around her should be as well. She's constantly trying to set me up on blind dates,” he added with a shake of his head.

Faith found herself unexpectedly drawn to him. She liked the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his sister. It must be an incredible blessing to have someone to care about you in such a way. She'd been on her own for a long time and she'd never really known the love of a family. Since moving to Hope Island, her interactions with others had been limited to the cashier at the local grocery store and the occasional hello from the postal employee who sorted the mail.

“Actually, that sounds pretty nice.” She stole a sideways glance at him and found him watching her with a sympathetic look on his face. When had she gotten so bad at covering up her feelings?

“Yes, I guess it is. As much as I tease my sister about being a mother hen, it's nice having her close. She and her husband, Sam, and my niece Ellie live here on the island as well, so I get to see them a lot.” He hesitated. “I take it you don't have any family close by?”

Faith struggled against feelings of loneliness. She hated being completely alone with no one to talk to about her problems and terrified of something she couldn't remember.

Before she could come up with an answer, JT held up his hands. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked and it's none of my business. Here I am talking about Liz being nosy.” He chuckled. “Blame it on the detective in me. I guess we're always searching for answers.”

Faith did her best not to react to the news that he was a cop. After what happened in Austin and the way the detectives had treated her, she had stopped trusting in the police for help.

“You know, we can keep doing this all night,” he said softly, interrupting her troubled thoughts.

She swallowed hard. “Doing what?” But she knew.

His expression gave nothing away. “Making polite conversation while we ignore what we should be talking about. Like who you really thought was following you tonight.”

Faith couldn't hold his gaze.

“I know you're scared of someone. Who's following you, Faith?”

He had no idea the dark secrets her mind had locked away because they were just too ghastly for her to remember. “I can't. I'm sorry, you don't understand.”

A single muscle worked along his jawline. Evidence enough he didn't like her answer. “Then help me understand. I take it this isn't the first time this has happened?”

She took her time answering. “No, it isn't. But it's my problem and I know what I'm doing.”

That look on his face said that he didn't believe her, and she couldn't blame him. After all, the way she'd reacted tonight wasn't the normal behavior of someone who had things completely under control.

“I suppose you're right. It's not my place to—” Before he could finish the sentence, her cell phone chirped to life on the kitchen counter where she'd left it earlier. Suddenly, she couldn't move. “Don't you think you should answer it?” JT asked when she made no attempt to do so. “It might be important.” She read every single one of the questions in his eyes. She knew them all by heart.

After the third unanswered ring, JT picked up her cell phone and handed it to her, forcing her hand.

The caller ID registered “Unknown,” just as it always did. Faith wanted to throw the phone as far away as she could, but if it were truly him, it wouldn't matter if she didn't answer. He would just keep calling...or worse.

It took everything inside her to accept JT's challenge without falling apart. “Yes. Yes, of course you're right.” Her hands shook as she hit the talk button and listened to the familiar stanza of the old love song, “I'll Be Seeing You.”

She murmured something to JT—some excuse—she wasn't sure what. Somehow, Faith managed to draw air into her lungs. Put one foot in front of the other. She needed distance between herself and the man watching her every move, seeing too much. If she wanted to stay alive, she couldn't fall apart. If she stayed in the same room with JT, she would.

Faith closed the door to the great room and leaned against it. “Please, please, just leave me alone,” she whispered frantically. “I don't remember anything. I can't hurt you.” The sound of a receiver slammed into its cradle was her only answer. She pushed away from the door and sank down to the sofa. Tears sprang easily to her eyes and she rubbed her hand over them.

She was so tired of fighting this battle alone.

“Is something wrong?” JT asked quietly from the doorway. She hadn't even heard him come in.

Faith rose to her feet and moved away before he could spot the tears. “No, I'm fine. It's...nothing.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“I'm not—” She couldn't go on when he came over to where she stood and stopped inches away. JT touched his finger gently to her cheek and held up the proof for her to see.

“Who was that on the phone just now? What's really going on here, Faith?” The gentleness in his tone made it next to impossible to remain strong. It would be so nice to be able to lean on someone besides herself for a change.
Remember Austin. Remember how the police treated you there.

She shook her head. “It was just a wrong number.”

“That's not the truth, is it? Tell me what's going on in your life. I promise you can trust me.”

She'd give anything to believe him, but she couldn't. Two people were dead already because of her, and she was no closer to learning the name of the person responsible for their murders now than on the night of the attack. Even if she did trust JT, she'd be putting his life in jeopardy by doing so. “I'm sorry, I can't.”

JT glanced around the great room at the unpacked moving boxes scattered around the room. “You said you've been here a month and yet you're prepared to pick up and leave at a moment's notice. What are you running from, Faith McKenzie?” he said, a challenge in his voice.

She drew in a shaky breath and did her best to answer without giving anything else away. “Nothing.”

Just the tiniest of smiles lifted the corners of his mouth. “I spent way too many years as a detective not to know when someone isn't telling me the truth. Whatever this is, it won't go away on its own.”

When she didn't answer, he added, “Okay, I understand. You're not ready, but when you are, you can talk to me.” He glanced at his watch. “It's late and I should go, but if you need anything, anything at all, you can call me. I live just down the beach from you.” He reached inside his wallet and pulled out a business card. “Here are my numbers. The one at the bottom is for the house here but you can reach me on my cell at any time, day or night.”

“Wyatt Securities” jumped out at her in bold black lettering.

“I mean it, Faith. If you need anything, you call. Even if it's just to talk.”

He walked over to the door before adding, “I'm going to give you a piece of free advice. Living on the island, especially out here along the beach, can be isolated. We are all neighbors here. We take care of and rely on each other. I don't know what's going on in your life, but if he's bad enough to make you as scared as you clearly are, I hope he doesn't follow you here to Hope Island for everyone's sake.” JT lifted a finger in a final farewell then strode out her door and she could breathe again.

He had no way of knowing how much she desperately hoped for the same thing.

* * *

JT had seen the expression in Faith McKenzie's eyes a hundred times before while working domestic violence cases. It never got easier and it always promised a bad ending. Faith McKenzie was scared to death. God only knew what kind of trouble lurked in her past.

He'd encountered a lot of desperate victims on the job, but the type of fear he'd seen in her tonight seemed fused to every part of her being. He couldn't imagine what had happened in her life to bring her to this point.

JT tried to dismiss the unfamiliar stirring in his heart as he walked along the beach to his house. There was something about Faith that made him want to help her. No one deserved to live in such turmoil, and although she was clearly scared out of her mind, he couldn't deny he found himself attracted to her. He hadn't thought of another woman as beautiful since Emily's death.

Even without a trace of makeup, Faith was a strikingly lovely woman. She'd twisted her raven hair up into a makeshift knot on top of her head. Several strands had worked loose and framed her oval face. She hadn't been trying to impress anyone and yet she possessed the type of beauty that didn't need enhancing. But it was her eyes that tore at his heart the most. They were the color of midnight blue and haunted by fear.

Without a doubt, she was one troubled soul and he didn't know what to do about it.

You can't help someone who doesn't want your help,
he could almost hear his sister saying. It was certainly true enough and it wasn't as if he didn't have his own set of concerns to worry about.

This had been the most stressful week in a long time and the upcoming one promised even more issues. One of Wyatt Securities' potential clients, a global energy firm, had recently detected a major security breach in their servers and had come to Wyatt for advice on how to overhaul their systems and to ferret out any additional breaches. If Wyatt landed the contract, it would mean a huge amount of business for the company. With their already heavy workload, the additional business added up to a lot of overtime for the staff and for JT. While part of him welcomed the challenge, lately he was feeling a little overwhelmed and unfulfilled. There had to be more to life than work. Even for someone like him.

JT rubbed a hand across his jaw. He had enough on his plate figuring out his own life, so the
last
thing he needed right now was the kind of trouble Faith represented.

Lord, You help her. I can't.
His prayer sounded about as empty as he felt inside. Truth be told, he had stopped looking to God for help after his wife's death. He wasn't even sure he believed anymore. After all, if God was so all-powerful and loving, why had He let someone good like Emily die in such a brutal way? JT himself should have been the one to walk into that convenience store and confront the robber. He should have died that night. Not her. Yet for his sister's sake, he still attended the small church they'd grown up in each week and pretended. But the pastor's message, the scriptures he read—they didn't reach into his heart the way they had in the past.

The house JT had been restoring here on the island for the past three years had become his only real source of contentment.

His father had been a local Hope Island police officer for more than twenty years and had taught JT how to find comfort in the simple things of life. After Edward Wyatt retired from the force, he'd begun restoring houses up and down the Maine coast. JT loved working with his father. He'd never felt closer to him than when they were working side by side to bring something on the brink of ruin back to its former glory.