My Kenna: A Military Romance Read Free Page A

bullet hole directly in the heart.  

    Butch watched as Kenna shook out her blonde hair, a big smile plastered on her face.
    “Go out with me,” he said.
    Kenna had that look again, the same doe in headlights look she had when he’d caught her crying. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, though. There was something this woman was hiding, that’s for sure, but that wasn’t the reason Butch wanted to go out with her.  
    He’d only met her twice and in those two encounters she’d woken something in him. Kenna was like lightning without the thunderstorm. She was dangerous to those who didn’t understand. She was an enigma.  
    “I…” Kenna stuttered, looking at the target on the firing wall.
    “I don’t want to hear it,” Butch said. “Just go out with me. Please.”  
    Kenna frowned. “You’re making a mistake.”
    Butch shrugged. “Then let me make it. Don’t decide for me.”
    Kenna looked at the target then back at Butch. After what felt like an eternity, she nodded. “Okay.”

Four

    It goes without saying that Kenna was nervous. It was her first date since Caleb. She dressed and redressed, did her hair over and over, and in the end she still wasn’t satisfied. When Butch picked her up butterflies the size of beetles had taken residence in her belly.
    The night sky was clear for once and stars blanketed the blackness, another perk of living in a remote mountain town. They got dinner in a small, lodge-like restaurant that boasted soups and roast beef as their main entrees.  
    Kenna ordered mashed potatoes and steak and Butch ordered the roast beef.  
    “I’m glad you ordered steak,” Butch said.
    “I love steak!” Kenna said, genuinely excited. “And mashed potatoes.”
    “I might have had to end the date now if you’d ordered salad.”
    Kenna frowned. “Salad is good sometimes.”
    “Yeah, but for dinner?” They then proceeded to get in to an argument over whether or not salad could ever be a meal. Kenna was pro, Butch was against. By the time their entrees had arrived both were laughing and Kenna was actually having a good time.  
    She hadn’t had a good time in so long.  
    “How’s your steak?” Butch asked.  
    “It’s so good,” Kenna replied, her mouth full.  
    When they finished their entrees they each decided to share dessert. Kenna got up and excused herself to the bathroom to freshen up.  
    Kenna looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. For the first time in months she was smiling, a real and true smile. She didn’t know how this night was going to end, but it didn’t matter.
    She was happy.  

    Kenna was even more beautiful when she let her hair down, figuratively speaking. She was smiling and joking with Butch—and that laugh! It sounded like bells and music. Whatever made her sad, Butch hoped it had disappeared forever. All Butch wanted to see was her smile.  
    She had eaten a full meal, she had smiled, and she had laughed. As far as he was concerned, this date was going wonderfully.
    When Kenna excused herself for the restroom, Butch had a huge, goofy grin on his face. Then her phone buzzed in her purse. And it buzzed. And buzzed. And it kept on fucking buzzing. Butch finally fished it out, thinking there was some kind of emergency.

    Fucking whore.

    Startled and curious, Butch skimmed the rest of the messages.

    I’ll find you Kenna . You belong to me.

    Butch placed the phone back in to her purse, his mood sobered. It all made sense now. Why she hadn’t wanted to go out with him, why she’d been crying, and why she was at the gun range.  
    Her sadness.
    It all made so much sense.
    There was some evil bastard out there terrifying Kenna. Beautiful, full of light Kenna.  

    Kenna sat back down at the table but the mood had shifted. Butch wasn’t smiling and though he was looking at her, there was a shadow behind his gaze. Kenna shifted nervously.
    “Is everything alright?”
    Butch ran a hand over his skull-shaved hair. “You tell