Broken Perfection

By Brynn Paulin

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

 

That's a problem up on my mountain. I deal with the blaze quickly. But the out-of-control inferno licking inside me isn't so easily doused.

 

I thought I was okay with being a hermit. Until I smelled that smoke and Little Miss Sunshine invaded my pity party. For four years, I've rebuilt my life after the Army, but I'm broken. I'm finished. I've shut out everyone, because that's the way I want things.

 

My sunshine is determined to fix this grumpy recluse. She doesn't believe I'm broken. She's wrong, but the longer she's around, throwing around her happiness like glitter, the more I want to keep her. I'm just not sure I can.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Supernova Indie Publishing Services LLC
• Release date: Apr 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781623444280

Book preview

Broken Perfection

Heart of the Wounded Warrior

By Brynn Paulin

Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

Powered by Your Imagination

Broken Perfection

by

Brynn Paulin

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

That’s a problem up on my mountain. I deal with the blaze quickly. But the out-of-control inferno licking inside me isn’t so easily doused.

I thought I was okay with being a hermit. Until I smelled that smoke and Little Miss Sunshine invaded my pity party. For four years, I’ve rebuilt my life after the Army, but I’m broken. I’m finished. I’ve shut out everyone, because that’s the way I want things.

My sunshine is determined to fix this grumpy recluse. She doesn’t believe I’m broken. She’s wrong, but the longer she’s around, throwing around her happiness like glitter, the more I want to keep her. I’m just not sure I can.

Copyright

© 2022, Brynn Paulin

Broken Perfection

Cover Art by Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

Electronic Format ISBN: 978-1-62344-428-0

Published by: Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.

Thank You!

Thank you for your purchase of Broken Perfection.

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Chapter One

~ Gunner ~

I smelled smoke.

My whole face pinched in annoyance. Maybe back when I’d been in the military, I would have kept stone-faced, but who the hell was around to see me on this mountain? I could be as emotive as I wanted—which, spoiler alert, wasn’t often.

Who needed emotions? I didn’t.

But right now, what the fuck? Who’d set a fire? Up here? On the mountain?

Even at this altitude, we were under a no burn warning because of how dry it had been. And I couldn’t fucking wait for the snow to get here and cover everything.

The weather forecast didn’t call for snow yet, but it was coming. I could feel it. Deep in my knee. Right above the missing rest of my left leg.

Annoyed that I’d have to go track down this person—or worse, the fire—I smacked my ax down onto my chopping block, ripped my flannel off the branch where I’d hung it and stomped toward my truck, my slightly uneven gait making a thu-thud sound as I marched.

Maybe, it would be a more even stride if I’d done all the bullshit therapy, but what was the fucking point of that? All I’d wanted was to get on with my life. Become the old recluse up on the mountain. Alone. I didn’t have much family. I didn’t really have friends. I’d broken all my connections, because that’s what I did. I’d had enough of buddies and teamwork in the Army.

Now that I was only part of the man I’d been, I was no use to the country I’d served. Not anymore. Here are your discharge papers. Adios.

Pushing away my dark thoughts, I hefted myself up into my truck. Moments later, I was peeling down my drive to find the asshole firebug. The roads weren’t well traveled up here, so I could swivel my gaze between its curvy slope and the plume of smoke.

I didn’t have to go far, only to the plot of land beside mine, just ever so slightly farther down the mountain. Broken tree limbs told the tale of a vehicle driving down the poor excuse for a two track that would lead farther into the land—land I knew would need to be cleared before any structures went up.

Not even considering what I might find, and determined to stop any danger to my solitude in the form of a forest blaze, I veered onto the path. My big truck bucked down the rutted track as if it had been created for such a thing. Which the F250 truly had been. I smiled with grim satisfaction as it took the gully-like dips with ease.

My smile slid away as I broke the tree line into a clearing, a clearing that surprised the hell out of me since it must have been newly cleared. How had I not noticed?

I filed that question away for another time as I skidded to a stop. Grabbing the extinguisher I always kept in the vehicle, I leapt from the truck and sprinted toward the small fire, thankful I’d taken the time to