Page 261 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Ex-Delta Force,” I corrected, pulling on my jacket.
“I’ll likely be calling you in for more questions before this thing goes to trial.”
I nodded, heading towards the door. With one last glance at Emma over my shoulder, I pushed my way out of the office and into the parking lot.
The light had faded, afternoon becoming evening when I was wasn’t looking. The rain still came down, but it was back to a chilly drizzle. The drive home was uneventful, and I tried to find my center, tried to push down the adrenalin that was still making my hands shake.
I’d been so terrified during the fight. Those bastards had followed Emma. What if I hadn’t been there? What if she’d gone home, or somewhere else, instead of the office? They would have done God knows what with her, and I wouldn’t have been able to do a goddamn thing to stop them.
I entered my condo and didn’t bother to turn on the lights. Instead of hitting the shower, I went directly to the bedroom and my shitty floor mattress. I collapsed onto it, my face pressed to the pillow. My heart was still beating a mile a minute, and none of the training I’d had on meditation could make it calm down.
When I finally drifted off to sleep, the nightmare attacked me. It was the same, over and over. The quiet town square. The woman in black who smiles at me. The explosion. The carnage. The end of my sanity.
It was before dawn when I finally gave up on sleep. A hot shower did little to chase away the ghosts of the night before. I was sitting at my kitchen table, the one that had only one chair, nursing a lukewarm cup of coffee, when I heard a knock at my door.
I opened the door, squinting into the newly risen sun. Emma stood there, bundled up in a thick coat. Her eyes were puffy, her face wan.
I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I said, “What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk. Can I come in?”
I stood aside, letting her enter. As she walked into the living room, I felt a sudden burst of shame. Here I was, in the middle of my empty condo, a reflection of the empty life I was leading.
I expected her to comment on the sad state of my place, but instead she ignored her surroundings. “What happened last night?”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. It took me a minute, to gather my thoughts and find a place of calm. “I stopped the bad guys from hurting you.” It sounded lame when I said it.
She nodded, though, and I felt a little better. “And I appreciate that. Truly I do. But I’m talking about after that.” Emma crossed her arms over her chest. “You freaked out on those guys, and I could tell you wanted to hurt them, even after they were down.”
I remained still. I couldn’t deny her words. I had wanted to stomp each of them to pieces for even considering harming my precious Emma. They’d gotten off easy, every one of them.
“And...” she said, her voice turning small, making my insides ache. “After, you just...left.”
I moved closer, her words knocking lose something inside me. She looked up at me, her golden eyes shining with the makings of tears. “Talk to me, Jack,” she whispered. “Tell me what’s going on.”
I had held the memory inside for so long, I didn’t think it could ever be released from its prison. But when she held those eyes on me, when she was close enough to feel my warmth, suddenly the words were beating a path to my mouth.
“On my last assignment, we’d been stationed in a small desert town, one that had been threatened repeatedly by insurgents. It was a simple town of no real importance, other than it sat at the convergence point of several forces, ours and the enemy’s.”
I ran a hand through my hair, feeling myself transported back to that hot day in the desert sun. “Our unit was the only thing keeping the bad guys from overrunning the town, taking the women and either killing the men or forcing them to join the enemy.”
Every day I’d taken my turn in the central square, watching for signs of danger. “One day, I’d been in position near the middle of town, like almost every other day, and was watching the comings and goings of the locals.”
One local in particular always had attracted my attention. She was the village leader’s wife, a nice older woman with a kind smile. Her smile was just about the only thing of hers I could see, since she was covered nearly head to toe in black fabric.
“I’d just nodded to the village leader’s wife, who came to the square every day to buy fresh fruits from a stall there, when I heard a sound that was out of the ordinary. Before I could identify its origins, a car parked next to the fruit stall exploded.”
I hated to continue, but now that I’d gone this far, I couldn’t stop the words that came out of me. “It was...horrible. A ball of fire rolled upwards into the sky, and shrapnel from the exploding car flew at bullet speed around the square. Several locals were injured.”
“And the village leader’s wife?” Emma’s voice was soft as she asked.
“Dead.”
She’d been the only death that day, luckily. Even the fruit seller had lived, as had those who had caught pieces of shrapnel. The only person to lose her life had been the woman whose eyes had showed a kindness I’d seldom seen.
Eyes like Emma’s. Full of compassion and warmth.
“The village leader had blamed our troops for the explosion, saying our presence there was making things worse. Despite our best arguments, he insisted that our unit leave. Our ranking officer had finally gotten tired of fighting it and we pulled out.”
