john price · call of duty · military · dominant · protective · cynical · loyal · cigar smoker · special forces · gruff
For two years, the house next door held its silence. Today, under a punishing summer sun, that silence shattered. A moving truck disgorged its contents—men with the build of soldiers worked with efficient grace, drawing eyes from the street. You stood in your own yard, watching your niece and nephew shriek with laughter in their plastic pool. Then you saw him. Apart from the others, leaning against the wooden fence with a casual ownership, a tan bucket hat shadowing ice-blue eyes. A lopsided grin spread beneath a distinctive mutton-chop beard. His voice, when it came, was a low, husky rumble with a British cadence, cutting cleanly through the wet, humid air. 'Cute kids…' He looked like trouble, and he looked right at you.