Keeper of the Peace (Graveyard Guardians #2) (10 page)

“Shut up, you prick,” Dan sneered at Jack,
but one more poke from Reese’s bat had him backing up a little
bit.

“Dan,” Reese shook her head, “please don’t
make me kick you out of here today, let’s go at least a week
without having to do that.”

Dan threw his hands up in surrender. “You
all act like I’m the one doing something wrong here. He’s the
asshole putting his hands on my sister.”

Hannah moved back toward David just a tiny
bit. “He wasn’t trying to hurt me, you idiot.”

“I don’t give a fuck. Like he hasn’t hurt
you already. I swear, I will kick his ass again just for looking at
you.”

David laughed. “I
let
you kick my ass
that day.”

Hannah shook her head at David’s lack of
fear
. I guess that would make him a good cop though,
she
thought.

Dan lunged at David again and Hannah
reacted, pushing forward with both hands and shoving her brother
back.

“Move, Hannah,” Dan growled under his
breath.

With a shake of her head Hannah could not
believe she what she was saying. “Not a chance.” She only had a
slight buzz left after the rise of her adrenaline, which allowed
her to think a bit more clearly and her thought was that David
needed to leave and it didn’t look like he was going to be doing
that anytime soon.

Unless she went with him.

Frustrated, David raked his fingers through
his hair. “Look, I just wanted to talk to her. That’s it. We don’t
have to be doing any of this.”

Lucy stepped forward and softly urged Dan
back a little bit further. “David, she will talk to you when she’s
good and ready.”

“Sorry Luce, but you don’t get to speak for
her, neither does Dan.”

Fuck. He did not go there.

As expected, Jack pushed Lucy back and
stepped in front of her. “And if you even look at my woman wrong I
will destroy you. Understand?”

David narrowed his eyebrows. “Who the fuck
are you anyway?”

“If you hurt any of these people in anyway,
I am your worst nightmare, that’s who I am.”

Lucy grabbed Jack’s hand and pulled. “Okay,
it’s over. Let’s go.”

Jack stood his ground. “I’ll go when we all
go.”

Dammit, this situation wasn’t getting any
better. It looked like she was going to be the only one who could
end this. “David, drive me home.” She spat out the order, grabbed
her purse and stalked toward the door. As a last minute thought,
she turned and called out to Reese, “I’m sorry about this.”

Reese gave her a nod and shooed her away
with a wave.

Her sister and brother called her name as
she swung open the door and stepped out into the warm summer night.
She ignored them and hurried toward the parking lot. She knew that
David would be right behind her, so she didn’t even bother turning
around to check, until she got to the parking lot. She skidded to a
stop and spun around to face him. “Which one is yours?”

Not taking his eyes off of her, he pointed,
“The Chevelle.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I should have known. Let’s go.”

Just because she was going with him, pretty
much against her will, did not mean that she had to be happy about
it. He wasn’t happy either, she could tell. She tried not to look
at him as she slid into the seat and buckled up.

He went around and got in behind the wheel.
When he turned the key the engine roared to life and they rumbled
out onto the highway.

CHAPTER

9

DAVID

It only took about two minutes to get to
Hannah’s house. He turned into the driveway and killed the
engine.

“You don’t actually think I’m going to ask
you in, do you?”

He cast an irritated glance her way. He’d
had enough messing around. They were going to have this out … in
private. “I don’t care if you ask me, I’m coming in anyway.”

“Fine. Whatever.” She pushed open the door
and then slammed it shut behind her.

He followed her up to the front door where
she paused and looked around. “Shit. I left my keys with
Reese.”

“You have a spare?” he asked, keeping his
voice soft. His blood was still pumping from the confrontation with
her brother and that other guy. Not that he had been afraid, the
whole thing just pissed him off.

“Yeah … under one of these rocks. I put it
there a few years ago, so I don’t remember which one.”

He could tell she was already stressed out
about him being here at all, so a missing key was just one more
thing. She picked up a couple of rocks and looked underneath them,
not finding anything. So he joined her, picking up a few larger
rocks that were close to the front door.

“I found it.” She withdrew a key from
underneath a good sized rock. The thing was covered in dirt and a
bit rusty too. She blew on it and then wiped it on her pants. “That
should work.” She tried it in the door and, luckily, it did open.
“Come on.” She waved him inside.

The inside of Hannah’s house was pretty
nice. Cozy, yet it gave off the feeling of class. Her living room
was white with beige carpet and beige curtains hanging from the two
windows that faced the driveway.

A dark brown, leather couch sat in the
center of the room in front of a cherry wood coffee table. A large,
flat television took up a good portion of one wall. David shook his
head, thinking the thing had to have been at least sixty inches.
Below the television were all the gadgets usually associated with
an entertainment center, including a gaming system.

She had several dark wood cabinets with
glass shelves and mirrors behind them. He strode across the room to
get a look at what she had inside. He wasn’t surprised to see all
kinds of
Star Wars
memorabilia strategically placed on the
shelves.

“You still into all this?” He gestured to
the cabinet.

She tossed her purse and the dirty key onto
a small table by the door. “Of course I am,” she snapped. Then, she
appeared to soften a just a bit. “What about you?”

“I grew out of that,” he lied. He didn’t
know why felt like he should keep it from her, it was something he
usually kept to himself. He went a really long time before he
realized that if you told people about your love of all things
nerd, you will never live down that label.

“Look, David,” Hannah moved into the kitchen
as she spoke to him, “I don’t really know why you want to talk
about this so bad. That part of our lives is over, let’s just
forget about each other and move on.”

He followed her into a blue and white tiled
kitchen. It looked like a room you would see on the cover of
Country Homes
or something. She opened a cupboard and pulled
down a canister of coffee. He leaned against the counter and
watched her while she got a pot brewing. “Honestly, I don’t know
why, Hannah. I just … I need you to understand.”

Taking out two large mugs, she sighed and
turned to face him. “I do understand. That’s what you don’t get and
I don’t get why I’m so angry about it either. But, yes, I do get
why you left and I know I’m a selfish bitch, but I didn’t want you
to go. I understood that first day you told me. Like I said before
though, it doesn’t take away the hurt.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you.”

Her eyes softened at his words, but she
still stood behind a wall she had built. “I’m sorry too. But,
here’s the thing. It took me far longer than I ever wanted it to
take to get over you. For so long, I hoped you would call, that you
would visit, even send a freaking letter … and you never did.
That
, is why I’m still so mad, not because you left in the
first place.”

How did he explain to her that if he had
done that, it would have made it harder on him? In the beginning,
he wouldn’t have wanted to go back to L.A. if he had come to visit
her. If he heard her voice over the phone, he would have just
wanted to see her even more. It had been better with the clean
break.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered again, unable to
explain the rest of it to her.

The pot finished and she poured some of it
into both mugs and then handed him one. “We can both be sorry all
we want, but it doesn’t change things.”

He poured some of the creamer she set out
into the strong black liquid. “We can change things now.”

“We are not the same people anymore.” She
shook her head. “We have spent twelve years apart. I don’t even
know if I would want to be your friend. Besides … it hurts to be
around you.”

“I can’t just walk out of your life again. I
hate that I did this to you.”

“But, this time I want you to leave, David.”
He told himself that she didn’t mean it, it was the pain
talking.

“Hannah, I’m not leaving again. I will make
it up to you.”

She laughed and then shook her head. He
spotted a few tears brimming at the corners of her eyes. “Make it
up to me, seriously! How do you expect to do that?”

Time to spill it. No one else would ever,
ever see this side of him. He was a cold, hard detective. But, with
Hannah, he was just a man. He set the coffee mug down on the
counter and strode across the kitchen to where she was leaning
against the counter.

Her eyes widened as he gently took the mug
out of her hand and set that one aside also. Then, he took both of
her hands into his. “You … you are the only woman I have ever
loved. I’m not just saying this to make you forgive me, I don’t do
shit like that. Hannah, you have
always
been mine, even all
this time we were apart and I am telling you right now that I am
going to make this right. I want a second chance.”

The tears spilled over and ran down her
cheeks, but she didn’t pull her hands away. “Why are you doing
this?” she whispered.

“I’m just telling you how I feel,” he
answered, bringing her hands up to his heart, which in turn brought
her a bit closer to him as well. God, how he had missed having her
close to him.

“You’re just going to leave again. You said
this was temporary.”

He hadn’t thought about that part of it.
Would he go back to the city if they let him? Fuck, that probably
wouldn’t happen anyway. “I hoped it was temporary, until I saw you
again.” It was only partially a lie.

She stared up at him. “David, this just
isn’t good timing.”

He hated that she was crying, so he reached
up and touched her cheek, wiping away the wetness with his thumb.
“Is there someone else?” He hoped to God there wasn’t another man
in her life. It was hard enough getting her to speak to him at this
point, never mind having to fight another man for her.

“No. No, it’s not that.” She suddenly let
out a sob, but still didn’t pull away from him.

“What’s the matter?” His instincts told him
there was something else going on aside from the situation between
the two of them.

“I … I … it’s nothing.” Her eyes betrayed
her, there was something wrong, she just didn’t want to talk about
it. “I’ll be fine,” she finished.

David didn’t want to let her go, but he
forced himself to release her hands and take a step backward. “All
right, I won’t push it, but know that I’m here if you need
anything, even just to talk.”

Using a dishtowel, she wiped the wetness off
her cheeks and took a deep breath. “All that stuff you said, about
loving me and all that. Well, it’s the same for me.”

Holy shit, did she really just say that. He
had thought that he was going to have to fight for her, to spend
months or even years proving himself worthy of her.

“But …”

Aw shit, there was a but in there.

“Like I said before, we don’t even know each
other anymore, how do we know we would even like the people we have
become?”

David rolled his eyes and lifted his coffee
cup off the counter, “Duh, it’s called dating. You know that thing
people do to get to know each other. It’s not like I asked you to
marry me or anything. I think we owe it to one another this chance
to find what we once had.”

Closing her eyes, Hannah didn’t respond
immediately. After a moment she regained her composure and opened
them again. “Listen, David. Under normal circumstances I would say
okay. But, I have a lot of issues going on right now at … work.

“Work?”

She nodded and turned to face the sink.
“Yes, work.”

Yup, definitely hiding something. Oh well,
fuck it, he was hiding something too. He didn’t have any right to
invade her personal life.

What the fuck was happening to him? For the
last twelve years he had thought about what it would be like when
he saw her again, but he never thought that he was going to turn
into a pansy ass who was suddenly professing his love.

As if the thought just occurred to her,
Hannah spun back around and caught his gaze. “The other thing that
bothers me is that you hate it here in Summer Hollow, you left me
to get away from this place.”

It was true. “I did,” he sighed, “but, I
won’t do it again.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I guess I will have to prove it to you
then.”

She let out a bitter laugh and tucked a
renegade strand of hair behind her ear. “I still have my issues to
deal with first. Then we can talk about it again … if you’re still
around.”

“Oh, I’ll be around, don’t worry.”

“This is so crazy,” she mumbled under her
breath. “I never thought any of this would be happening.”

He had finished his coffee so he went to the
sink and rinsed out the mug, then set it down on the counter. “Not
me, I always knew I’d see you again.”

She either didn’t know what to say or didn’t
want to respond because the room suddenly went silent. After a
moment she rinsed out her own cup and then looked up at him. “I’m
pretty tired. I need to get to bed.”

There it was. She was giving him the boot.
“I’d better go anyway, I have work tomorrow.” He did not want to
leave.