My first encounter with a woman in so long ended with a broken condom and a beautiful but panicked woman. It wasn’t the picture perfect ending to my return from service, but fuck… nothing about it I’d take back.

I had reassured her, told her I’d help her with whatever comes, whatever she decides.

Then I asked her on a second date.

I mean, odds are likely nothing comes of it at all, right? People are careless all the time, so I tried to make sure she knew that.

But I won’t lie, part of me is excited at the prospect. I’m ready to get back to normal life, or as close to one as I can get. I put all the years of service behind me, and all the ugly, nasty moments it entailed.

A new girl and, hell, even a baby, could only help me get back to feeling like a normal man. What person wouldn’t want that?

Both of us were feeling better before the night ended, and I held her ‘til she fell asleep in my arms. I didn’t get a wink myself. I didn’t want to spoil that moment, and watching her slumber as the golden Vegas sun filtered in behind the curtains was one of the most serene moments of my life.

And when she woke up, I got that date.

Officially we’re not supposed to meet until tomorrow night, but I wanted to come see her at work just before she gets off. Escort her back and let her know I’m thinkin’ of her. Maybe all that time abroad, fighting endless battles has made me soft. Or maybe I always wanted to find the right woman, and now I feel like I have.

We’re drawn to each other uncontrollably. She’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, and even though we only had that one night together, she couldn’t sleep right after the broken condom.

I held her and reassured her for so long, but in the end we stayed up almost all night talking. About everything. I was able to really get to know her. Not just Aphrodite. I got to know Alice, and I’m even more smitten with her.

She told me about her plans for her life, and I told her about mine. I told her about how I was on my way for a new job with a military contractor in Vegas that paid well, and how someday I hoped to retire to the countryside where I was from. I wanted to start a business and return something to the community I was from. I hated to leave it as a kid, but there were no jobs, no prospects.

The marines were the only way out for me and my buddies. It was a way to serve my country and give something back. And it was also a way to get paid, get an education, and see the world beyond our little fishing town on the Maine coast.

But as with all young military men, we didn’t all make it back. And of my small group that did, I’m even sadder to say that not all of my buddies made it back feeling up to life as a civilian again.

The best thing was... she was on my same wavelength. She, too, wants to get out of the city and find a simpler life eventually. I can’t believe my luck that I found someone who so perfectly gets me. Someone who understands, and burns just as hot for me as I do for her.

I’m getting giddy as I near the club. I’m not gonna let the shit that happened overseas, the friends I lost to bombs, bullets or trauma drag me down tonight. I’m just going to focus on her. On us.

There’s a beautiful girl I gotta win over.

It’s that thought in mind when I pass by a small tussle. A big guy, round in the middle, is grabbing hold of a dancer on smoke break.

“Come on, you came with us last time,” the big guy says, pulling on her arm as she’s tugging away with all her strength.

“Let go! I’ll never go anywhere with the likes of you again!” she spits at him.

Then the big guy’s friend — or more likely his bodyguard, judging by his attire and demeanor — steps in as she strikes out at the man. He restrains her, and as big and tall as he is, it’s not hard for him to lock the svelte woman in place.

Instinct kicks in and I’m already in action. It’s like a flip has been switched. As soon as I see that man lay a crude hand on the woman, I send a stiff elbow to his ribs before I say a word. That’s probably the wrong approach for civilian life. I should’ve warned him first, but in the marines, I learned to respond before I think. That’s how we out-survive our enemies.

“Let her go!” I bellow at him with another blow to his elbow that stuns his arm and makes him lose his grip. The dancer he was restraining kicks him in the groin and earns her freedom the rest of the way on her own.

“Assholes!” she says to the two guys, before shooting me a grateful look and heading inside.

The big guy is glaring daggers at me, but his bodyguard is cradling his arm and backing off. He knows better. He’s learned his lesson... or the guy he works for simply isn’t paying enough.

“Bah!” the big guy says, dismissively, calculating that he’s lost his only muscle. “Used that tart up anyhow.” They turn to go to the parking lot as I stare them down, fists clenched. “Remember her pathetic sobbing by the end? ‘No no! Stop! I didn’t agree to this!’” the big guy says in a mocking tone.

My vision turns red.

I can see the woman again in my mind’s eye, and her panic when she was grabbed. The way she said she’d never go with them again was the voice of a woman deeply traumatized. She was a tough woman, and she’d managed to sound angry and intimidating despite being in heels and a silk robe to shield her bikini clad body from unwanted view. But there had been a quivering to her voice. She’d been hurt. She was afraid.

She’d been raped.

He just said it. Laughed about it. Turned her pain into a joke.

Time stops meaning anything. The two of them are at the rich man’s car, the bodyguard helping open the door for him when I set out. The big guy is inside, but before his helper can shut the door, I’m on him and slamming his head to the metal door, knocking him to the ground.

There’s no thinking. There’s no moralizing. There’s no worrying. There’s just acting. That’s the way I was trained. That’s who I am.

I yank that piece of shit out of his car and toss him against a concrete pillar at the edge of the lot. I hear him thud and cry out painfully, wind knocked from him. Before he can say a word though, I’m on him, pummeling him down.

I’m making him pay for what he did. I’m teaching him a lesson that he won’t forget.

I was raised to believe that a real man uses his strength to protect those weaker than him. That a real man never takes the cowardly way out and uses his power in this world to prey on those beneath him.

That’s what drove me to service. And that’s what drives me to beat the shit out of this rich prick.

Even in my haze of rage, I know enough not to kill him. I can direct my blows to crack a few ribs, bust his nose and make him ache for a year, but I won’t leave him dead. Just teach him a lesson.

“Don’t you ever fuckin’ touch another woman without her say so, you hear me?!” I bellow at him, yanking him by his collar before planting another punch in his gut.

That’s it, I tell myself. I made the point. But I let myself get carried away; I underestimated the rich prick’s guard. And a gun goes off at the back of my head.

Everything’s dark.