Free Above Protection (Imperfect Heroes Book 1) by C. J. Pinard Page B

an ogre, I wouldn’t mind sitting and
talking with him. But he was just a big jerk.
    I kept walking, twirling the flower in
my hand as I got lost in my thoughts. I wanted to talk to Duke, ask
him questions if for no other reason than to pass the time. I
wanted to ask him how he got that limp, and why he ate so healthy
and worked out but insisted on chewing tobacco. Which totally
grossed me out. I had a feeling the two were related. Had he been
shot in the line of duty and now he used nicotine to calm himself?
I figured he couldn’t self-medicate with marijuana like so many did
since he had a government job and probably got drug tested on the
regular.
    We’d had clients at the law firm who
had sought legal help for getting fired from their jobs for testing
hot for drugs from their employer. We had basically turned them
down, telling them we couldn’t do anything for them. It was a state
law and they were out of luck. We had a couple government employees
seek our help in getting back their jobs, and we couldn’t help
them, either. Self-medicating or not, smoking marijuana was
illegal. Well, it was in Florida. I knew other states had legalized
it, but I didn’t think we’d ever see that in my home
state.
    I sighed, thinking about my job. I
loved being a paralegal. I was hopeful after this mess was over
that I would find another job and get back to doing what I loved.
That was – if I survived this mess.
    Thoughts of the threatening phone
calls I’d received for days still echoed in my head. They had
scared the shit out of me, and if I were honest, I was still
scared. I knew I had to testify at that trial in eight days, as
much as I wanted to just bury my head in the sugar white sands of
the beach. What George and Elmo had done was despicable and they
deserved to go to prison. The thought made me sad. The brothers had
been like uncles to me during my five years of employment there,
and once it sank in what they had been doing, I was just so hurt
over the whole thing. And to think they had paid someone to
threaten me not to testify. To call me and promise such hideous and
awful things if I went into that courtroom hurt badly. It scared
me, too. I hadn’t slept much in those days before the government
had taken over and sent agents to protect me. If I were honest, as
much of a jerk as Duke was, I was glad they had sent him to look
after me. It was clear he took his job seriously, and was acting
professionally – for the most part. Still, something inside of me
wanted to get to know him better.
    Maybe it was the ‘fixer’ in me. My mom
had always told me I wanted to fix people, and she was surprised I
hadn’t become a nurse. Honestly, I’d thought about it, but I cannot
stand the sight of blood and I get queasy at the slightest thing.
Still, every boyfriend I’d ever had – all 3 of them since high
school – were broken men whom I thought I could fix. In the end, I
couldn’t, and I let them go. Or rather – two of them dumped me. All
of them were users and I was glad they were out of my life. I’d
been single now for two years, and as much as I longed for someone
to take care of me, and admittedly, someone I could also take care
of, I was mostly happy being on my own. I was proud I had bought
that condo and all the stuff inside of it by myself without going
into any debt, except the condo itself, of course.
    Without thinking, I began twirling the
purple flower in my hand as I walked. How was I going to continue
to pay the mortgage on my condo without a job? The responsible side
of my brain had been niggling at me to job hunt so I wouldn’t miss
a payment. I only had enough in savings to make one payment after
my paychecks stopped from the law firm in which I was set to
testify against in just days. But I couldn’t return to St.
Petersburg and job hunt because my life was in danger.
    I sighed in resignation, continuing to
walk, enjoying the quiet of the forest. The trees were beautiful
and the air was starting