Some lessons you learn fast.

The first time I had a squib load malfunction with my MK23 because I hadn’t cleaned it properly beforehand, Jack nearly tore me a new one and I never, ever made the mistake again. But some lessons you learn slowly. Some lessons sneak up on you. Sure, I’d heard the other guys talk occasionally about their families. I’d seen men get misty eyed over torn photos of toddlers they’d pin inside their uniforms. But until that sleepy, rainy night when we lay together, I didn’t truly get it.

I wasn’t sure where things would go with Ally, sure. But I was absolutely clear on one thing: she deserved my protection. Whether we ended up together or not. Those kids deserved it. I guess I had joined the military for pretty bone-headed reasons. During our raids we seldom encountered women and children, thank god, but now I saw with crystal clarity: they were the whole reason we were there in the first place. What was worth defending more than those two kids’ sweet, innocent, trusting little faces? No wonder I had never been much of a soldier – I never got it until then.

I may have no longer been in service, but as I lay there in her warm arms, in the early hours of the morning, I thought how perhaps my best service was still ahead of me. I fell asleep and when I next woke up, it was light. I peeled her dozy arm off me and got up to stretch my legs. It was late. We had clearly both exhausted ourselves. She had been so beautiful last night. I could still smell her on me, still taste her, still feel her all around me. I looked down at her crumpled sweetly in the sheets, pulled my pants back on and decided to head downstairs.

I froze dead in my tracks, a jolt of goosebumps flashing over my skin. Downstairs to my 4 o’clock, someone was inside the house. Fuck. Ears pricked, I glanced over at her. Still sleeping. I searched the room for potential weapons. Two heavy lampshades, nothing sharp. There was a window I could fit through and jump out of if necessary, and the wardrobe door between the room’s entrance and Ally would make a good impromptu shield if I needed to buy her some time to escape.

My muscles tightened as I realized that the intruder had forced open the front door and was now walking upstairs. The whole world went quite as my ears zoomed in on those stealthy steps. I positioned myself between the door and Ally and waited. I don’t know how, but I knew it was him the moment I set eyes on him. Evil colors a man’s soul. It leaves traces in his eyes, in the lines around his mouth. I had seen enough of it to spot it a mile away, and the face now staring at me had it in buckets. My heart pounded furiously in my chest as we stood and took the measure of one another.

He was astonished to see me. He took one glance at Ally’s sleeping figure in the bed, the lower curve of one perfect breast peeking out from the sheet, then at me, and the tendons in his neck throbbed. He said nothing, but we understood one another. An invisible line of hate seared in the space between us. I didn’t have to look to know that his hands formed fists at his side. He hadn’t been prepared for a fight. But I had been training all my life to deal with men like him.

I took one menacing, silent step towards him and he took a corresponding one backwards. He seemed just as unwilling as I was to wake her, at least not yet. I took another few steps and drove him out the bedroom door, then quietly closed the door behind me. I could tell he was intimidated, despite the smarmy smile he had plastered all over his place. I was glad I hadn’t put my shirt on yet.

He nodded and looked me up and down.

“Punching above her weight, huh?” he said with a sour smirk on his lips.

I kept my face stony.

“You should leave. She won’t want to see you,” I said, blocking the entrance neatly.

“Excuse me? And who the fuck are you?”

“David Segal,” I said. “United States Navy SEAL.”

He laughed.

“And I’m the king of France. You don’t look old enough to be out of school buddy. Can you step aside please? I need to talk to Ally.”

“David?”

We both turned to Ally’s faint voice in the room, and in a split second he leapt forward and past me to fling the door open. She shrieked when she saw him, but I had already sprung towards him, hooked him under both arms and had him jammed hard against the door frame, wedging him there before he reached her.

“Andrew! Oh my god!” she screamed.

“So it’s fucking true then? Huh? You’re screwing around with some asshole in front of my fucking sons?”

I gave him a hard shove as he tried to leap at her again. I could tell instantly that he was in no sense a trained fighter, but he was pissed as hell and if my training had taught me anything, it was that insanity and rage were still a fearsome combo.

“Why don’t you kindly get the fuck out of here?” I hissed under my breath to him, my forearm pressing hard into his chest. I quickly glanced over my shoulder to see Ally panicked and hugging the far end of the room, the sheet held to her naked chest. I locked eyes with him. He glowered back at me. Like a tight cord snapping inside him, he let loose with a heavy punch into my left side. I recoiled but kept hold of him. Ally screamed. Taking a deep breath, I pinned him even harder into the door, lifted my fist and brought it swinging heavy into his scowling face. His head banged the door frame behind him, but in a few seconds he was lashing back at me again.

This time, I used all my force. I wouldn’t let anyone lay a fucking finger on Ally. Just when I thought I detected alcohol on his breath, he raised his knee up to my groin to pry me off and took a full swing at me. I ducked easily, tackled him around him middle and flung him to the ground. Instead of falling out towards the staircase, he staggered into the bedroom where Ally was hurriedly putting her shirt back on. Clearly dazed from banging his head on the door, he stood and staggered dizzy for a moment, then stood and collided with the wardrobe. I held out my hand and Ally ran to me, grabbing it and hiding behind me. She gasped and I followed her gaze to the ground. He had hit the wardrobe and knocked something off the top. We both realized at the same time what it was: a knife.

I instantly reached for it but he beat me to it, snatched it and rolled over, drawing it on me so I had to quickly back away again, hands raised.

“Andrew, stop it! Put that down!” Ally cried, but this was no longer about her.

I looked at him. It always amazed me no fucking end. All these white supremacists? All these self-appointed master-race Nazi assholes? Man, whenever you got to take a good look at them, they were all so wretched. Here was a man who had neglected his physical form, who hadn’t shaved in days and who reeked of alcohol. Here was a man ugly inside and out, a man who spoke to the mother of his children like a dog and treated his fellow man like they were all his inferiors. My blood was beyond boiling. I looked down and saw the hate twisted into his cruel-looking face and felt a sudden …freedom. I didn’t want to be like him. Ever. I wouldn’t even give him the benefit of my hatred.

I eyeballed the drawn knife. I could hear Ally’s frantic breathing behind me.

“You really don’t want to do that,” I said quietly, and stood my ground. He clamored to his feet and waved the knife around. Piece of shit.

“Get out of my way. Ally, you’re fucking this asshole? You have to be kidding me.”

“It’s time to leave now,” I said, still calm. I could see his knuckles whiten around the handle of the knife. I leapt out of the way before he took a lunge at me, then I grabbed his wrist, twisted hard and when the knife clattered to the floor I kicked it towards Ally, who was already scrambling for her cellphone.

“Don’t call anyone, Ally. He was just leaving,” I said as I held him, arm twisted behind. This guy was no contest, not even close, but I had hoped it wouldn’t have to get messy like this. I loosened my grip to try and talk sense into him but he squirmed away and began taking swings at me again. He was drunker than he looked. I blocked most of them but some of his blows made contact. One to my neck. One in my ribs. I didn’t care. He’d have to hit a lot harder than that. I dropped my weight, slipped my foot between his feet and kicked out his heel so he tumbled back and onto the floor. I pinned him down and delivered a series of three sharp, brutal punches to his jaw. I could go harder but I didn’t have the heart to completely hand his ass to him, not in front of Ally.

Teeth reddened, he stared up at me bleary eyed. Fuck I love that moment. That moment when you know you’ve won. It had almost been too easy. I could almost hear him thinking, then he changed tacks.

“You’re in big fucking trouble, pal. You have no idea. You’ve fucked with the wrong guy. I know people who could destroy your life in an afternoon… David Segal,” he spat, drawing out the second name like it was a dirty word.

I leaned all my weight down onto his chest and looked at him with contempt. It took all my willpower not to tear into him then and there, but one glance at Ally’s frightened face and I knew that justice wasn’t mine to give, not today at least.

“You know people, huh? You mean your little friends from the National Legacy? It would be my pleasure to meet them actually,” I said, and dug my knee down deeper.

“What the fuck do you know about—”

“Andrew you need to go.”

We both turned to look at Ally, who was utterly distraught.

“Go and never come back. Don’t ever set eyes on Ben and Alex again, I’m warning you.”

Her voice was quiet and soft, but she spoke with such conviction even I was a little scared. It took me a moment to notice the knife she was now holding tightly at her side. I felt a quick little flutter of pride for her. That woman had spirit, that’s for sure.

Andrew went limp underneath me, and looked to me then her, then me again.

“Oh, I get it now. Silly me. What has she been telling you, huh, buddy? Fucking women, man, I’m the big bad ex, aren’t I? She telling you stories? She pull the abuse card and go crying about how much she loves her kids? Ally, you were just as involved as I was, honey. Did you tell your little toy boy that?”

“David, he’s lying,” she said instantly. Her eyes were big as saucers.

Andrew held my gaze. His eyes were blue and the whites a milky yellow. They were so different from my own dark, brown eyes.

“Come on, man, what’s your end game here? She’s obviously just using you. You train to be the badass marine you are and serve your country so you can hand your paychecks to some leech and raise another man’s kid? Come on, have some pride.”

I froze. He was a much better speaker than he was a fighter. Here was a man who talked a big game, even flat on his back and beat. I shuddered to think of him with Ben and Alex, pouring poison into their hearts, teaching them his hate. But I had to admit that he wasn’t wrong. I had promised myself I’d never allow any woman to hitch herself to me and make claims on me. I had never dreamed I’d get involved with one who was forty and had two kids.

“I bet she plays a real good little victim, doesn’t she? Poor, sweet little victim Ally, but does she tell you she happily takes my money every month? Ooh, I bet she leaves that part out. Takes one man’s money while fucking another? Sure, sounds like she’s the good guy here, huh?” he chuckled.

The blood in his mouth was disgusting. But not as disgusting as I found his words. I looked to Ally with questions in my eyes. Could it be? That Ally was a member of the group as much as he was, and she had lied? That she had manipulated me somehow?

I took one look at her wide-open eyes and …just couldn’t believe it. I had held this woman in my arms. I had held her as she let go with me, as she had let me take her into those sweet, secret places, and she had trusted me, and now there was nothing in my heart, no matter how hard I looked, that couldn’t trust her now. I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and yanked him up to his feet.

“Nice try, buddy,” I said and loomed threateningly over him.

“Get the fuck out of here. I love Ally, and I love Ben and Alex.”

This seemed to genuinely give him pause. He tried to hide it, but I could tell I had beaten him pretty bad. He looked with disbelief at us both, then half limped out of the room, giving a poisonous sidelong glance to Ally and then hobbling down the staircase. The look of pure shock on her face lingered long after we heard the front door slam behind him. Chest heaving, she turned to look at me. In that moment, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I stood before her, knuckles bloody, some raw scratched welts on my bare chest, trying to find my own breath. I had said the words, and now they were out there.

She looked down the staircase, then at me, then at the staircase again.

“I’m… I’m so sorry that any of that had to happen,” she said at last.

“I’m not.”

I looked into her eyes and immediately saw the same beautiful, juicy woman I had spent all night loving. I never wanted her to feel afraid again, of anything. Especially not a low-life clown like him. A wobbly line of tears clung to her lower lashes. I gave her a goofy smile.

“That was him, huh? He’s not so tough, I could eat like, five of him for breakfast,” I said and took a cheesy pose. She burst into relieved laughter and ran over to hug me tightly, pressing her wet tears to my bare chest. Already the moment was whizzing past us, but when she looked up at me I knew instantly what was on her mind.

“You said…”

“Yeah.”

“Did you…?”

“Yeah. I meant it.”

“That’s …crazy.”

I nodded. It sure was. I had never said those words to any woman. But it wasn’t just romance for me. I loved her kids, too. They were a part of her, weren’t they? I loved all of them. Why the fuck not? I didn’t know if that feeling I had whenever I thought about her was what people called love. I didn’t know if I was just a big idiot who didn’t understand love at all. When that asshole came close to her, I was ready to do anything. No question. Was that love? If there was a risk that she went around in this world not truly understanding how awesome I thought she was, then I would rather err on the side of being a big gushy idiot. It felt so good, to hold her then.

“It’s crazy. But it’s sexy too,” she said.

I peered down at her. Her lips were parted; her hair was wild and her eyes wilder. She wore the adrenalin well. I suddenly understood exactly why the fairy tales always had the noble knight swooping the rescued maid off at the end of a battle for her honor…

“You wanna…?”

Scarcely had the words left my lips when she kissed them, deeply. I grabbed her, flung her onto the bed and watched her fall, squealing, her hair everywhere. I pounced on her and kissed her back. Her little hand was already furiously rubbing small circles between her legs, like she couldn’t even wait for it. Fuck she was gorgeous. I collapsed my weight onto her and kissed her for all I was worth, my tongue against hers, tasting that hot desperation on her breath, feeling the eagerness in her limbs. And soon, before I’d even caught my breath from the night before, I’d be fucking her sexy little body all over again.