Saving Hannah

by Saving Hannah (epub)

  She glanced over at him as she pushed a plate through the window and called, “Order up!” before grabbing another. “Did he deserve it?”

  Caine shrugged...at one time he’d thought Joey deserved the beating. Not anymore. “That’s anybody’s guess.”

  The door swung open again and Hannah stumbled in, drenched and dripping in brown liquid. The front of her blue uniform and apron were stained with a big brown spot. “What the hell is taking you so long?” Hannah muttered, pushing her hair back as she glanced up. Her gaze travelled back and forth between them, her eyes clouding over with something he couldn’t decipher as she froze for a second. “It’s finally clearing out,” she said, locking her gaze on Mia and refusing to look at him again. “But it’s still a big mess out there. What are you doing?”

  “Caine needed a little bit of help...” She said, turning to Hannah. “What happened to you?”

  “Only an entire pitcher of Pepsi,” she said with a groan as she untied her apron. “Can you take over while I go change?”

  “Of course.” Without another word, Mia moved on into the dining room, leaving Caine and Hannah alone.

  He looked over at her, wondering what he should say, or if he should say anything at all. When his gaze landed on her, she looked trapped, like she’d been ready to bolt but was caught. Taking a slow step back, she decided to turn without saying anything and went into the locker room.

  Chapter Two—Plans

  Rain poured from the sky, splattering in puddles on the dark concrete. The wind blew fierce and strong. Caught out in the rainstorm on his motorcycle, Caine decided to pull over by the hollow tree. It’d been a long time since he’d been able to enjoy the feel of cool, night rain in the spring.

  So he sat, leaned against the hollowed trunk, and let the rain soak through his jeans and gather in beads on his leather jacket. It felt refreshing and clean, and filled him with the true sense of freedom.

  Turning his head to take in the view of Main Street in the dark, the closed stores and streetlights, he saw Hannah, struggling to keep an umbrella overhead against the wind. A fierce gust of wind blew the shelter right from her hand.

  Jumping to his feet, he lunged forward, catching the handle as it blew by him. Turning to face Hannah, he offered it back to her.

  She blinked in surprise, looking at the umbrella in his hand. “Was that like…one of your mutant powers or something?”

  The tension and fear in her voice threatened to ruin his moment of peace. He tried to be understanding—it was reasonable she’d be scared, after what happened when they were together. “It’s not dangerous anymore,” he said, taking her hand and wrapping her cold fingers around the handle. “I’ve got it under control.”

  “Do you?” Her lips curved in a smile that looked forced and weak. “That’s good to know.”

  He nodded, taking in the sight of her in the rain and grease splattered uniform. “Do you want a ride or something? You’ve been working all day; you’ve got to be tired.”

  She looked over at his motorcycle, and he could swear he saw her stagger back a step, as if remembering the times they used to ride it. When she turned to him, though, she was composed, unaffected. “No. Thank you, I mean, but I’m fine.”

  Stepping past him, she started down the street in the rain.

  “Are you just going to keep pretending we don’t know each other?” He called after her, unable to play along any more. “I’m not asking you to marry me...I’m just offering to drive you home.”

  She stopped, without turning to face him. “I’m not pretending not to know you. It’s just…things are different now. I can’t be around you.”

  Just climb on your bike and drive away...she clearly doesn’t want to talk. Even though his brain told him to leave, he’d never been one to let sleeping dogs lie, and he followed her. “Why?”

  Looking up at him, her eyes were watery and red around the edges. She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again. Giving a quick glance around the street, she leaned close to him, covering their heads with the umbrella. “I’m trying to do you a favor here,” she said, her voice low as the rain made pelting sounds on the umbrella’s fabric. “Get on the bike, leave town and don’t come back.”

  Stepping back, her face was solemn and serious as she nodded toward the motorcycle. Turning, she took quick, quiet strides away from him.

  “Thanks for the warm welcome,” he called after her, remembering just how cold she could be. “It’s nice to see you too, honey.”

  She kept walking, pretending not to hear, but he could see a pause in her step. Rolling his eyes at her, at the entire ridiculous situation, he climbed back on his motorcycle. But he had no intention of leaving town and never coming back.

  ***

  Turning down a dirt road off Main Street, Hannah slipped and slid in mud while struggling to keep the umbrella over her head. After a quarter of a mile down a curvy road, she finally came to her house, sitting in the middle of a field with only a narrow dirt driveway leading to it.

  Just looking at it gave her the creeps and it always had, even when she was a little girl, more so now that she’d rented it. The house was big, but cheap and falling apart, with dripping faucets or clogged drains popping up all the time. The roof was missing more shingles than it had and, on a night like this, would probably be leaking. And cold.

  Approaching the house, she told herself to be grateful the electricity was still on. Glad to finally rid herself of the umbrella, Hannah closed it and darted up the steps, forgetting to skip the second one. As her foot landed on the step, it caved, making her lose her balance and slam face first onto the porch.

  She whimpered, in pain and anger, cursing her bad luck as she clumsily stood to her feet and pushed open the door on the side of the house, leading her into the kitchen.

  Letting out a sigh of relief, she stumbled into the kitchen and out of the rain. Using her toe to slam the door shut, she took off her coat and tossed it and the umbrella behind the door. Turning to take a much needed shower, she spotted Max. Elbows propped on the table, fingers massaging his temples, he looked lost in thought as he studied a bunch of papers strewn out in front of him.

  A sick feeling settled in her stomach at the sight of the maps and building blueprints. “Max...Is this what I think it is?”

  “Probably.”

  “Max, we talked about this.” Starting to panic, Hannah sat down at the table so she could get a good look at him. She wished she hadn’t. In his eyes, a look of cold determination had set in and she knew nothing she said would make a difference.

  “You talked.” He pulled a blueprint over to him, keeping his gaze on it and not her. “I never agreed to anything.”

  “Caine being back in the picture changes your plan more than you know,” Hannah said, desperately trying to warn him. “If you act now...Max, so much could go wrong.”

  “Hannah,” he snapped, in a tone that practically said shut up, finally looking up at her. “We had a plan. And you might be willing to let it all go because some old flame rides into town, but I’m not.”

  “This has nothing to do with Caine...it’s about the danger that always follows him. Now that he’s back, Sean’s going to come back, too.”

  “So we’ll deal with him again,” Max said, as if it were that simple.

  She shook her head, growing angry with him. He didn’t understand...he’d never be able to understand why she’d rather die than see Sean again. “Max...please, just wait a few weeks.”

  “A few weeks?” He laughed, shoving his chair back as he stood up. “No. This has taken long enough already.”

  She sighed in defeat, crossing her arms across her chest. “Then count me out, because it’s too dangerous. I’m not going to risk my life because you can’t be patient.”

  “After everything I’ve done for you, this is the thanks I get?” Max glared at her as he walked to the refrigerator. “One afternoon working in a diner with Caine and he’s already got you on
his side.”

  “This isn’t about Caine.” Hannah sighed, resting her head in her hands. “He just wants to start over...he has no idea what he’s walking into.”

  He eyed her as he leaned into the refrigerator and grabbed a can of soda. The can opened with a loud pop as he scoffed at her. “Yeah, I know what Caine wants.”

  Hannah’s gaze cut to meet his. “Excuse me?” Sitting up straight in her chair, she glared at him. “Did you read his mind?”

  He had his head back, gulping down the soda when she looked at him. He had that look. The determined, nothing’s-gonna-stop-me look.

  “I didn’t need to. He had all the alpha-male flares up,” he said finally, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

  “He’s just—”

  “I don’t give a damn,” he snapped, cutting her off. “I’m not going to let him interfere with my plans, okay? And if you weren’t so messed up and panicked about this guy being back in town, you’d see that I’m trying to do the right thing.”

  He didn’t understand, she thought in fear, he could never understand just how much could go wrong if Sean were to show up now.

  “No, but you’re too humiliated because the jailbird saw his homecoming queen decrowned.”

  The words hurt as badly as a smack to her face. She tried not to cry, because he was right—Caine seeing her in this shape was embarrassing. But it was more than that. It was her—she was too prideful to tell him what happened, to ask for his help. Even though she knew he’d help her any way he could, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the drama he’d unwittingly walked into. Even though he’d gotten a glimpse of the shattered existence the girl he’d thought of as perfect lived in these days, she didn’t want Caine to see just how far she’d fallen.

  ***

  Max climbed out of the car, lingering outside the restaurant instead of just dropping Hannah off like usual. Seeing him stand outside his car, she glanced over at him before going inside.

  “What?” She asked, a little annoyed. He’d been brooding all night, and now he probably wanted to fight again, and she just didn’t have the energy right now.

  “I’m sorry about how last night went,” he said, his brown eyes looking like amber in the sunlight. “Times are pretty stressful.”

  Tapping her foot restlessly, she glanced back in the restaurant, wishing she could just slip inside and disappear for a little while. “They are for everyone.”

  “I want you to change your mind.”

  “Max...” Sighing, she turned to face him. “I told you, we’ll go ahead with the plan, but we can’t do it right now, it’s too risky.”

  “It’s always going to be risky,” he said. “You knew that when you agreed to help me.”

  “I promise, we’ll get them back. But we have to postpone it...just for a few weeks, like I said.”

  Lunging toward her, he grabbed her arm. “Do you know what could happen to them in a few weeks? No, we’re not going to wait. Now tell your old beau it’s not a good time for him to be here and then let’s go ahead with things the way we said we would.”

  She tried to pull away from him, but he tightened his grip. “Max...let me go.”

  “No, you need to listen to me—”

  “I’m pretty sure you heard the girl.” Turning, Hannah saw Caine walking lazily toward them, with that cocky arrogance and tough nature blatantly displayed on his face. One thing she’d always loved about Caine—he had a way of drawing attention. When he walked into a room, people noticed.

  Max let go of Hannah’s arm, and she quickly turned to Caine with broad smile that felt too fake. “Caine, what are you doing here?”

  “I work here.” He pointed to the diner behind her, his gaze traveling back and forth between Max and Hannah. “Everything okay?”

  With a loud sigh, Max rolled his eyes and stalked over to his car, giving Hannah a glare that made her want to yell at him.

  She was trying to cover for him, couldn’t he see that? Why couldn’t Max just play along, instead of raising Caine’s suspicion even higher?

  Max drove away, leaving Hannah alone to come up with an explanation. Caine’s mind would twist this into some kind of abusive relationship scenario—but even that would deter him from the truth, and actually work in her favor, she realized.

  “You sure you’re alright?”

  Under his warm gaze, when he gave her that charming smile, she felt the urge to spill her secrets. Tell him everything. Why not? After all, it was fair to say that everything that happened could be traced back to his first arrival in Tree Hollow last year. He had a right to know, in some aspects.

  But she said nothing, she just nodded, knowing she wasn’t convincing at all. Turning, she walked into the diner, letting the door separate them as it swung shut.

  ***

  Hannah dragged a bag of trash toward the dumpster behind the restaurant and struggled not to glance in through the open kitchen window to look for Caine. Ever since he’d started working at the diner, she’d felt that burning attraction to him take hold of her again. Drawing in a shaky breath, she continued across the gravel parking lot.

  They’d been happy together, for a short time at least. Even though their relationship had been secretive, and wrong in many ways, she still missed the time she didn’t get to spend with him anymore. She’d look back on the nights they passed studying at Angel’s Place, and she’d long for just one more minute like that with him. One more minute of him thinking she was the most perfect, most beautiful thing that walked the earth.

  But a lot happened since their relationship started. For one, she found out he had freaky shape-shifting abilities that turned him into a monster—literally—when he was angry. For a while, she’d thought he killed her boyfriend of the time, but then she’d found out it was actually his psychotic and envious older brother, Sean.

  To torment Caine, for God only knows what reason, Sean kidnapped Hannah, and her life changed forever.

  Tearing herself from the painful memories, she told herself that if she could just make it through the day...just make it back home without too much interaction with Caine, she’d be alright. She could face Caine later, but not now.

  She swung the trash into the dumpster, with a little more force than necessary just because she was so frustrated.

  She should have known better than to think she’d be immune to Caine’s presence, she should’ve known that once she finally saw him again, she’d want to leap into his arms and plant a big kiss on him in front of everybody.

  She should have known she would want to tell him everything—the whole gory story. If he knew, he’d feel sorry for her. He’d want to be with her and protect her because that’s just the kind of guy Caine was. But she could never let that happen.

  Because if Sean knew that Caine and Hannah were together, he’d never let them be happy. He’d made that perfectly clear.

  So she’d stick to the plan—ignore Caine, push him away, and hope that eventually he’d grow bored of Tree Hollow and move on to someplace else. Someplace safer.

  And she’d never see him again. Frustrated and angry at that thought, she kicked at a patch of gravel just as she turned the corner of the restaurant. Just as Caine rounded the building.

  She kicked him in the shin, a full-on soccer kick. He winced, gnashing his teeth down on his lip. “Ouch,” he said with a light laugh. “Quite a kick you’ve got there.”

  Hannah stumbled back a couple of steps before she regained her balance. Then she just stood in front of him, refusing to smile, but thrilled to look into those deep grey eyes.

  “Hi.” Hi? Seriously? Had that been her lame opening line? Why couldn’t she ever remember how to talk when he looked at her?

  He shifted the black trash bag he carried to the other hand. “Hi.” His eyes danced over her face, as if drinking her in. He gnawed on his bottom lip and thrust his chin in the air a little. “How ya been?”

  Her lips cracked upward, just a little, at how attractive he was
. How could she fight her feelings for him?

  “Fine.” She twirled the bracelet around her wrist. “Fine. I’ve been really busy. You know, what with…” She scanned her brain to come up with something to tell him, something that wouldn’t make her sound like a lovesick loser. With a shrug of her shoulders, she gave up. “About what you saw earlier...it wasn’t what it looked like.”

  He made a sound; it might have been a chuckle or a scoff. Then giving her a slow nod, he stepped around her. “Take care of yourself, Hannah.”

  As he walked past her, she squeezed her eyes shut at the soft way he’d said Hannah. She’d always loved it when he said her name. Unable to stop herself, she spun around. “Caine, wait...”

  His steps slowed for a beat, but he kept walking, tossing the bag of trash into the dumpster before he finally turned to face her.

  “I know I’m not exactly who you expected to come home to.” She felt the tears thicken in her throat, felt them pierce her eyes, but she willed them away. This was no time to cry—she needed to get these words out. “And...I just want you to know that I don’t hate you. I mean...I’m not avoiding you because I’m still freaked out about...about what you can do. That’s not it at all.”

  His head tilted a little to the right as he started walking toward her, making her heart thump at a painful rhythm. As he approached, she was sure he was going to kiss her. She knew Caine—at least, she knew when he wanted to kiss her—and the way his gaze narrowed on her lips, the way his breathing slowed, told her he wanted to. He’d wrap her in his arms, safe, sheltering, and then everything would be okay...they’d live happily ever after.

  When he came within a foot of her, he stopped, still gazing at her with that look that read right through her. “You mean that?”

  She nodded, her heart pounding at being in such close proximity to him. A breeze blew; carrying the scent of his cologne to her and making her head swim with memories. Tell him, tell him, her mind chanted relentlessly, making the words bubble up her throat...to her lips.

  He eyed her up and down, as if seeing she had a secret. “You know I’ll always be here for you. No matter what—you can tell me anything and I’ll try to help.”