someone come for him?
Fearing the worst, he sprinted out of the kitchen and ran toward the dock.
* * *
Samantha James’s heart pounded wildly as she slipped into the safety of her cabin. The hammering in her chest wasn’t just from the run across the resort grounds. That man, that Diego Cruz, hadn’t made any attempt to harm her, but even the slight contact of his hand against hers was enough to awaken old fears.
She grabbed a pillow from the couch and tossed it across the room. She crossed her arms over her body and paced, waiting for her sense of peace to return. Nothing worked.
She slipped out of her clothes and jumped into the shower, allowing the warm water to soothe her. Since heated water was at a premium here, she kept her shower to only a few minutes. By the time she stepped out and had got into her pajamas, she’d calmed down...a little. She retreated to the kitchen to make some tea. She was doing all the things that normally helped her relax, but she still felt bent out of shape.
The nerve of that man being so friendly. Hadn’t she made it clear that she didn’t want to make friends? She came out here to do a job and for a little extra money. Since the crippling end of her marriage to Eric, she’d spent the past year keeping her head down. People didn’t usually want to make an effort with someone as prickly as her...but Diego had. That kind of warmth and persistence was disarming. Her stomach twisted into a knot.
Then again, those qualities were the first things she’d been attracted to with Eric. She was shy by nature. She’d been drawn to Eric’s ability to navigate social situations with such ease. Diego struck her as being outgoing, too.
She washed her teacup with brisk jerky motions. Through the window above the sink, she thought she saw movement. Her heartbeat quickened. Was Diego wandering around outside her cabin? That was kind of creepy if he was. She leaned over the sink to get a better look...but there was nothing there. It had just been a trick of the evening light. Still...something had disturbed the tree branches. Maybe the caretaker was out checking on things or it was a wild animal of some kind.
As she turned her attention back to the teapot, her fingers brushed over the knotted scars on her neck and her chest, reminders of why she’d been running away from herself for the past year, why she would never let a man into her life.
She had loved everything about Eric, his laughter and his smile. People gravitated toward him. He seemed to know what she wanted even before she said anything. She’d felt so safe when he held her, when she nestled her head against his neck, breathing in the musky scent of his skin.
But shortly after they were married, she saw a darker side to Eric. He’d taken out credit cards in her name and run up debt that drained her savings. She found out he’d lied about his education. His response to questioning his actions was rage. Fearing for her physical safety, she’d filed for a separation and begged Eric to get help for his destructive behavior.
He refused to admit that he had a problem—and had promised her that he would never let her go. She knew it wasn’t because he loved her but because, as he put it, no one crossed Eric James. So when she refused to call off the divorce proceedings, he responded by destroying her life, as completely as he could. After he threatened her physically, she’d signed the house over to him.
To the other residents in Cambridge Heights, he remained charming Eric. Slowly, his subtle lies poisoned the rest of the tight-knit community against her. So thorough was his manipulation, they’d believed Eric over her. When her father passed away, she lost her last ally. Her mother had died when she was a little girl.
The final straw had been the car accident Eric caused by grabbing the wheel and driving them off the road so he could tell everyone that she had a drinking problem. The windshield had shattered, embedding glass in her neck and chest.
After the accident, she grew tired of the sideways glances and controlled whispers as she walked around Cambridge Heights. Eric’s destruction of her reputation made it impossible for her to live in the neighborhood she’d grown up in. She had no one to turn to and no resources left to fall back on. When the divorce was final, she moved away, rented an apartment and got a job as a waitress while she tried to figure out how to put her life back together.
Seattle was a big city, and she was careful not to talk about her past to anyone. She used her maiden name on job and rent applications. Still, she didn’t stay at any one job or apartment for very long. If she could ever manage to save enough money, she’d move out of the city.
She touched her neck again, taking in a quick, sharp breath. She didn’t like other people to see the scars. They made her feel ugly, and telling the story of how she’d got them caused her to feel shame all over again. But in a way, she was glad for the scars. They served as a reminder that nothing was as it appeared to be and everyone had secrets. Especially men. For all his charm, Diego Cruz was probably a drug dealer or married or who knew what.
What was he doing staying here in the off-season, anyway? Even that seemed weird. He was definitely hiding something. She had been told that there would only be a caretaker on the island.
She shook her head. Why was she even letting him take up space in her brain? All she had to do was avoid that man until the ferry and the rest of the work party arrived. She did like her job with Evergreen Catering and the people she worked with. It was exciting to be part of a team making a celebration come together. Whether it was a wedding or birthday, bringing joy to others kept her from giving in to self-pity.
She crossed her arms and stared out the window at the darkness. Her encounter with Diego had her all stirred up to the point where she thought she’d seen someone outside. She didn’t feel safe here anymore.
The metal of the lock on the door was cold against her fingers as she clicked the dead bolt shut. She retreated back into the cabin and pulled out the hide-a-bed in the couch. The cabin consisted of two rooms, a small bathroom and a second room that served as living room, kitchen and bedroom. She turned out the lights, slipped under the covers and squeezed her eyes tightly shut to keep the tears from coming. Anguish suctioned around her throat, and she wondered if there would ever come a time when she’d find a place where she could truly feel settled again. She’d been driven from her home. She didn’t belong anywhere or to anyone.
The sound of her own breathing surrounded her in the dark. She closed her eyes and waited for the heaviness of sleep to overtake her.
Instead, the muffled thud of someone breaking into her bathroom sent a shot of terror through her body.
Diego stomped along the rocky shoreline, searching the inlet for the boat. He’d wasted precious time going first to the big dock where the ferry pulled in. He hadn’t found any trace of the boat, but that didn’t mean anything. A motorboat could pull in almost anywhere. Darkness shrouded the landscape, and he wished he’d had the presence of mind to grab a flashlight before he’d taken off running. He was sure he’d heard the sound of an approaching motorboat. Maybe it was just someone from a neighboring island out for a late-night boat ride, but he had to check it out.
He felt not only a need to protect himself but Samantha, too. She sure didn’t need to get caught up in any trouble that might have come after him.
As he recalled their encounter, it was that moment of vulnerability he’d seen in her when their fingers touched that kept replaying in his mind. As if all of her hostility was an act designed for protection. She wasn’t easy to figure out
