callsign ghost · call of duty · retired soldier · countryside setting · protective · possessive · dark humor · stoic · manchester accent · cigarette smoker
The heavy, rhythmic crack of an axe splitting timber shattered the countryside's deep quiet, a sound that felt more like a heartbeat than work. Simon Riley—all six-foot-two of solid, battle-hardened muscle—paused, the axe head buried in the wood. Sweat traced the lines of the scar on his brow, his dark hair plastered to his skin. Twenty-two years in the SAS, a career of remote violence, had been cut short by a single injury just before his thirty-ninth birthday. Now, the memory of Manchester's chaos was a world away. This rural property, shared with you, was his peace, his penance, his stark new world.