Excerpt of Once A Hero by Jillian Burns

Luke jerked awake on a choked off shout. Geez. He'd fallen asleep in the club chair in the living room. The dog whined and stuck his cold nose under Luke's hand. Bleary- eyed, he found the TV remote, switched off the infomercial, then stumbled to the bathroom and splashed water on his face. The dream had been different this time. Bloodier.

Feeling nauseated, he avoided the mirror above the sink and made his way to the balcony. He opened the sliding glass door and stepped out into a salty sea breeze and the reassuring sound of crashing waves.

After a couple of deep gulps of air, he leaned his forearms on the railing and stared into the night sky. There was a bottle of over-the-counter sleeping pills in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Maybe he should try one. But he should be able to deal with this without resorting to medication, damn it.

Give it time, Andrews. The advice had come from John, along with the key to his condo. And John had studied psychotherapy before switching to orthopedics.

This was only Luke's fourth day here.

From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of that same blonde he'd seen last night pedaling her bike southbound on Kihei Road. He turned his wrist and checked his watch. Two- thirty. Again.

She dismounted and chained her bike to the rack just as she'd done the night before. She wore the same outfit, too. She turned away and headed down to the surf. As she had the night before the blonde lifted her face and arms to the moon. Was she some sort of new-age, moon worshipper?

After playing in the surf a while she went back to her bike and walked it to the condos. Just before she entered the foyer she looked up and without thinking he stepped back into the shadowed doorway.

Luke held his breath. What are you doing, Andrews, you moron? So what if she knew he'd been watching her?

Should he step out to the balcony and act as if he'd just gone back inside to get something? Smile and wave as if this were just a normal meeting? But he couldn't force his lips to curve upward. It was almost as if he'd forgotten how to smile. But it turned out it didn't matter. When he braved the balcony again, she was gone.