The Devil's Daughter (Hidden Sins #1)(48)

“I know.” Every single Marine she’d met, no matter how long out of the Corps, still identified as a Marine, present tense. She doubted he was any different. That didn’t explain the darkness, though. “But?”

“But war is ugly and monstrous, and I wasn’t prepared. I don’t know if you can be prepared. I didn’t realize how much I valued what Clear Springs had to offer until I was out in the world, seeing how horrific people act toward one another if given half the chance.”

It was a different side of human nature than the one-on-one or small-group violence that she usually experienced with her job. War was . . . something else altogether. “And now it’s happening here.”

He transferred meat—chicken, she was pretty sure—to a cutting board and started chopping it up. “And now it’s happening here. I’m taking it too personally, and I know I’m taking it too personally, but it doesn’t seem to matter, because this is my town, and some monster is hurting my people.”

“Do you often collect people you consider yours?” The joke fell flat, full of things she wasn’t sure how to put into words.

He shrugged. “Call it a habit I’ve never been able to escape.”

Would you collect me if given half a chance? She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. The very thing she’d initially resented about him—the fact that he fit here—was a strength in its own way. No matter how striking the chemistry between them, she and Zach were as different as a circle and a square. They just didn’t fit.

She needed to remember that.





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


Zach wasn’t sure what he’d said to make Eden shut down, but she spent the rest of prepping and the meal itself steering the conversation to safe, meaningless topics. He didn’t mind, exactly. Small talk had its time and place, and he’d promised her a night when they could tune out the case and relax as much as possible. He couldn’t very well start demanding she share her deepest secrets with him that same night. He finished his last bite, watching her closely. “You don’t seem to have much of an appetite.”

“No, I don’t.” She stopped playing with her food and set her fork to the side. “Some people stress eat, but I’m usually the exact opposite. Spending any amount of time with my mother does that to me.”

He sat back. “You don’t live in this town as long as I have and not hear rumors about what goes on up in Elysia once they’ve cleared out all the folk who don’t actually live there. From what you’ve said, it’s worse than people think. You don’t have to tell me more for me to know that.”

She blinked those dark eyes at him. “How generous of you.”

“Not really.” It didn’t feel generous. He felt like he had back when he was in his early twenties and had gone hunting with his old man. He was a bit out of practice with both, but being around Eden reminded him of being out there, the cold biting through the layers of his gear, the bow heavy in his hand, and having to hold his body perfectly still to avoid startling the deer that was just out of range.

The only difference was his end goal.

He kept his voice pitched low, his words steady and slow. “I figure you’ve seen a thing or two that’s enough to give anyone a lifetime of nightmares, and I’m not the kind of man who would ask you to break yourself open for my curiosity. There are things that happened in the desert that I have no desire to think about, let alone talk about. I expect it’s the same for you.”

“Then why bring it up at all?”

That was the damn question. He lifted his hands and let them fall in a half shrug. “I don’t know. I want to know more about you.”

Eden picked up her fork and then set it down again. “You have a strange way of going about it.”

“It’s a strange situation.”

A small smile pulled at the edges of her mouth. “That it is.” It was a great mouth. The kind of mouth that could tempt a man to thoughts of things best done naked and in the dark. He jerked his gaze to her eyes, and the knowledge there threatened to take his breath away. She was as aware of him as he was of her, and she wanted him, too. Fuck, that’s going to make it hard to keep control.

She pulled her hair over one shoulder, braiding a small lock without looking down. It was the first nervous move he’d seen her make. Nothing seemed to faze the woman—not facing down one of the scariest motherfuckers Zach had ever come across, and not blazing back into a situation she’d fought tooth and nail to get out of. It was downright astounding.

What if you were ever called back into action?

He’d go. He didn’t even have to think about it. But it would be hard, and he’d face things he never wanted to face again. Zach scrubbed a hand over his face. “Do you watch movies? Read? Listen to music?”

“No, yes, yes.”

He opened his eyes. “That was very specific.”

Eden’s smile widened, her eyes lighting up, just a little. “I’m a fan of immersive experiences. With the work, well, you’re getting the idea with this case. It can take over everything, until you’re obsessing every moment that you’re awake, and then you go to sleep and you dream about it. I almost burned out my first year.” She made a face. “I would have, too, if my partner hadn’t stepped in. Vic. He’s a good guy, and he’d been there. So I started taking time and reading, listening to music. I got back into the habit of playing.”