I'll Protect You (Clueless Resolutions Book 1) Read Online Free

a coin-operated laundry room, remained vacant.
    The accounting papers that Max was scanning, this April morning, showed a change in his rental operation dating back to 2004.  He thought back to that one evening at Jerry’s Pub, as he was having a late supper and martinis, an old acquaintance which Max hadn’t seen since his army days in Kuwait, approached him.
    “Captain Hargrove, I presume” he said along with a brisk salute.
    “Sergeant Grover!” exclaimed Max, “Skip the salutes; I left that back at the discharge station a long time ago.”
    Bruce Grover had been in charge of maintenance of the barracks at the last base where they served on active military service during the “Desert Storm” campaign in Iraq. Max invited Bruce to sit and ordered him a beer.
    Bruce Grover was a civilian now, and he was in the area looking for work.  Grover was a drifter, and still a bachelor.  He was ill-at-ease with people in general.  He was a stocky man of medium height, in his late forties. His head had had lost most of its hair.
    Although he was heterosexually inclined, he did not have an abundance of respect for females.  Rejection by the opposite sex, socially, was a common occurrence with Grover but he compensated by doing business with prostitutes.  They were paid to be civil and they usually were, at least until his time was up.
    Max and the old acquaintance spent time reminiscing about military days, the only thing they had in common, and they parted ways around 10:00 o’clock.  Having given Bruce Grover a business card, Max told him he would check around for possible employment and suggested that Bruce call him in a few days.  When Grover called Max, a week after their reunion at Jerry’s, they agreed to meet at Max’s apartment building.
    Max had been handling the daily dealings with tenants himself and had hired helpers to assist in the maintenance chores over the years since he bought the property.  It was eating into his business pursuits, time wise, and he had been thinking of hiring a full time maintenance man.
    Grover drove up in a high-mileage, twenty-year-old pickup truck that showed wear, but was mechanically sound.  Max showed Grover around and offered him a job as maintenance and grounds keeper with a moderate allowance and use of the vacant basement apartment at no cost. Grover accepted, ready to move in and start immediately.
    A storage barn behind the building served as an out-of-sight garage for the truck.  Max felt that the dilapidated looking truck distracted from the overall upscale image of the apartments.
    Maggie had met Bruce Grover and, having heard about how he and Max knew each other, and after being pressed afterwards by Max for her initial impression, she gave a rather tactful non-opinionated response.  In reality, Maggie was rather repulsed by Grover but, since she wasn’t sure of Max’s attitude toward him, she reserved any judgments until she came to know Grover a little better.
    Max had finished his paperwork and was leaving the apartments for an appointment this Saturday morning. Bruce Grover, returning from a trip to the village center for coffee and a newspaper, pulled into the apartment driveway and circled around to his parking area behind the main building. As he stepped out of his truck, Max called out his name.
    “Hey Bruce, hold up a minute.”  Startled, Bruce turned and waved as Max approached him.  “I’m on my way to an appointment and I just got a call from Unit 2A,” Max said, “They’ve got a stoppage in the shower drain again.  Isn’t that the woman with the big hairdo?” he asked.
    “Yeah, right, I’ll check it out.”  Grover responded brusquely.  At that, he turned on his heel and walked toward the rear entrance to his apartment.
    Max was surprised at Grover’s abruptness.  He had noticed a recent change in Grover’s demeanor.  As Max had come to know him, he felt that Grover did not have a confidence about him that one would expect