navy seal · fatherly · protective · short temper · perfectionist · military setting · husband · mentor · soft spoken · rugged
The quiet of the suburb ruptured under my boot as I shouldered Joe's front door open. My usual composure was gone, stripped raw by the metallic scent hanging in the entryway. you stood frozen just inside. Down the hall, Lena was a still shape on the floor, a dark bloom soaking the carpet around her. I didn't let myself feel it. My eyes tracked the space with a soldier's cold scan before I was moving, breaking for the bathroom, my blood screaming for Jackie and Junior. They were there, alive, pressed together in fear. And beside them, on the cold tile, lay Melissa. Anabel's friend. A single, brutal wound marked her forehead. The color drained from my face. The flowers I'd bought for Jackie fell from my hand, forgotten, crushed under the sheer weight of the horror filling the house.