Not Another Soldier by Samantha Holt Page B

mess?”
    “It doesn’t matter, babe. You still need to report it.
Maybe they can get some fingerprints.”
    “Fine.”
    To be honest it’s bad enough I’ve had someone in here,
trashing my stuff, but the idea of the cops pawing through it too makes my
stomach twist. He’s right though. He pulls his cell out of his pocket and I
shake my head as I reach for the house phone.
    It’s so very easy to let Nick do everything. He has
that kind of take charge manner that makes you feel all small and protected. As
much as I like it, I need to assert some kind of independence again. After all,
I’m supposed to be proving to myself I can do it all on my own. I let Rob
railroad me once. I’m not going to let that happen again.
    I finally get through to a dispatcher and they promise
to have someone over shortly. Now I just have to wait, not touch anything and
stare at the mess someone has made of my first decent home.
    But actually it’s a good thing because it seems to
create some kind of anger in me. I’d rather be angry than feeling sorry for
myself. How dare someone come in and trash my home? I was just getting on my
feet and now this? Nick hands me a coffee and I clutch my hand tightly around
it, making my knuckles white, as he leans across the breakfast bar opposite me.
    “I don’t get it, Nick. Why?”
    I hear his long inhale and wait for what he has to
say. I know it’s not going to be good by the furrow in his brow, as if he’s
deciding whether to protect me from his thoughts or not.
    “It’s pretty strange.” He glances around. “If they
didn’t want valuables—and not trying to be rude, but this isn’t exactly the
wealthiest of buildings—then I think they were looking for something.”
    They? I don’t even know who they are. That’s
the worst thing. Up against some unknown entity.  “But what could they be
looking for? We’ve already established I don’t have anything of value and it’s
not like I’m a… a secret agent or something. I’m a nurse for Godsakes. Hardly
anyone important.”
    He fixes his gaze on me. “Now that’s not true,
sweetheart.”
    I wave my hand, dismissing his words. Not that they
don’t strike me but I can’t focus on stuff like that right now. I want to think
about why he said it. To wonder if he means I’m important to him or to
the nursing world or what, but for now I need to figure out why the hell
someone would turn my apartment upside down.
    “Seriously, though. What could I have? I hardly look
like the type to have government secrets or millions stashed away.”
    “Let’s just wait and see what the cops say. Perhaps
they’ll find some fingerprints and be able to bring someone in.”
    “I hope so. It makes me nervous to think of someone
out there, watching me. What if I’d come home earlier and interrupted them?”
    His gaze darkens and he straightens. “Let’s not think
about that.”
    “Well, maybe I should think about it. Maybe I
should get a gun or something.”
    He groans as if the idea of me having a gun pains him.
    “What? I can shoot. Sort of.”
    “Yeah, right. Sienna, you’re all city girl. The idea
of you running around with a gun… well, it scares the hell out of me.”
    “But me running unarmed into someone in my apartment
doesn’t?”
    Nick pinches the bridge of his nose and eyes me. “All
of it scares me. The thought of something happening to you probably scares me
more than anything.”
    The tone of his voice is deep and intense. Actually
the way he says it sends a tremor to my toes. Sometimes I wish Nick wasn’t so
upfront and honest. He makes me confront things that I really don’t even want
to think about.
    Like the fact that maybe he cares for me way more than
he should. And maybe I care for him more than is good for me. It’s going to
make resisting him much harder than I realized.
    I fight the urge to groan too. As if it isn’t hard
enough already.

Chapter
Five
    Nick
    We
walk down to the coffee place on the corner when