Free Hard Charger: Jake & Sophia: A Hot Contemporary Romance by Tracy Fobes Page B

table, she put her face in her hands.
    His heart still pounding in his chest, he forced himself to speak calmly.  “Why not?”
    “Because you’ll be disappointed in me.”
    “What did you do—kill someone?”
    “No, of course not!”
    “Then tell me.  Because if you don’t, my imagination will make up something much worse than the truth.  Who punched you in the eye?”
    “It was an accident.”
    “All right, who accidentally punched you in the eye?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You don’t know,” he repeated, then shook his head.  He was obviously going to have to pull it out of her, inch by inch.   “Was it a he or a she ?”
    “A he ,” she admitted.  “Two guys.”
    “Two guys.”  He nodded slowly, as if he understood.  “Why did two guys punch you?”
    “Well, just one guy punched me, but two guys stopped by.”
    “Two guys, here in this house?”  He sat up straighter.  “Were they trying to steal something?”
    “No, Jake.”  She let her hands drop to the table and stared at him with a tortured expression.  “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you.  But there’s nothing you can do.  Nothing anyone can do.  You’re just going to get frustrated.”
    “I’d like to know who my enemy is,” he replied softly.  “Because your enemy is mine, too.”
    She gazed a moment more, then slowly brought her tears under control.
    “Go ahead,” he urged.
    “Okay.”  She paused and visibly swallowed before focusing on him again.  “You know that Hurricane Sandy blew this town to shreds.”
    “Yes, I know.”
    “A lot people lost everything—their homes, their businesses, everything.”
    He nodded.
    “Well...both this house and the salon were heavily damaged.”
    “I remember you telling me,” he said.  At that time, he’d been deep in Afghani territory, scouting by day and sleeping in a bivouac by night.
    “I did have insurance,” she told him.  “And I received a government payout, too.  But they weren’t enough.”
    Not enough.
    “So where did the rest of the money come from to finish the repairs on the salon and the house?” he asked.
    She pressed her lips together and her eyes darkened.  Jake realized they were finally getting to the heart of the matter.
    “A guy named William Hansen moved into town a few years back.  He’s been very generous with his money, and he apparently has a lot of it.  He’s supported a number of town projects, like the Veteran’s Wall that was erected in the Community Garden.  Your name is on the wall, by the way.”
    “I’ll go visit it later,” he said.  “Tell me about William Hansen.”
    “Well, he lent me money to finish the reconstruction on Beach Waves.  He said I wouldn’t have to pay interest if I paid the loan back within a year.  But I wasn’t able to pay it back.”  She paused and took a deep breath before continuing.  “So now I owe him most of the original loan, plus interest.”
    “How much did he lend you?”
    “Twenty thousand.”
    He groaned.  “How much interest?”
    “Fifty percent.”
    “Fifty percent!”  He stood and started pacing.  “How can it be legal for him to charge that much interest?”
    She sighed.  “It’s not legal at all.  He’s clearly not a legitimate businessman.”
    “What is he, then?”
    “A loan shark?”  She shrugged.  “I don’t know, Jake.”
    He stopped pacing and sat down next to her.  “How much do you owe, in total?”
    She hesitated, appeared to think it over, and then said, “Fifty thousand.”
    He let out a low whistle, and noticed how his mom was refusing to look at him.  “That’s a lot of money.”
    “I know.”
    “Tell me the rest,” he said, and almost wished she’d refuse to.
    Her shoulders sagging, she nodded.  “When I wasn’t able to make the payment to close the loan, a couple of men visited me.  They told me that they represented Will Hansen, and that Hansen in turn represented others who had a stake in my loan.