CHAPTER 1
Jason
“Who is that?”
I squeeze my eyes tight and then open them again. I need to make sure they’re not playing tricks on me.
I’ve been walking through the cold, icy wilderness the past forty-eight hours and there’s a chance I might be hallucinating.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
And that’s exactly why I’m here. At least one of the reasons.
For each of the past eight years I’ve made the trek from my fortress of solitude up in the mountains to down here into this little mountain town for their annual parade to honor military veterans.
You’d have to stretch all the way out to the county line to find thirty-five hundred people living here. Shoot, there are probably more species of animals in these parts than there are people. I know. I’ve come across most of 'em up by my cabin. The one I built by hand. The one that’s not on any maps and never will be.
Even if you were crazy enough to take a helicopter out to the peaceful patch of land that I call my own, you wouldn’t see me. I’ve got the roof covered in moss so from overhead you wouldn’t notice a thing.
You learn little tricks like these when you’ve been in the kinds of third world nightmares I’ve been in. You find out ways to avoid detection and stay alive for another day.
But some days I wonder why I’m still here at all. I should have died over there in Afghanistan. And if it weren’t for the heroics of another patriotic freedom fighter I sure would have.
And how do I repay the ultimate display of generosity he bestowed upon me?
By avoiding everything and everyone.
He died so I could live and now I live in a way most people would consider death.
Cut off from the world entirely.
But once a year I come down here to remember. To pay my respects. To show that I’m grateful and that I’ll never ever forget.
But this year is different.
Much, much different.
Because of her.
I’ve never seen her around these parts.
Maybe that’s because she looks so young. I’d put her between eighteen and twenty-two. I can hardly guess the ages of kids these days. Another sign that I’m getting older.
Maybe she’s been here before and I just never noticed her although I strongly doubt that.
Maybe she hit a growth spurt and she’s a lot different than she was last year. It’s not like I’d forget that face and it’s not like I miss a single one when I come down here.
I just take my perch up here at the top of the hill and survey the entire parade. Something about my training kicks in whenever I’m around crowds of people, especially a lot of innocent women and children. I can’t help but to scan. I’m still looking for faces that are just a little too intense. I’m watching for small body language tells that give away those who are up to no good. And I’m always thinking about how I can put a stop to them immediately without anyone getting harmed, and preferably without anyone knowing.
In and out. Save the day before anyone even knows there was even a threat. My rewards are internal. I do my job so no one notices a thing, except the fool who dares to think he’s going to cause chaos and bedlam on my watch.
But right now I can’t stop watching her.
I pull out my government issue binoculars from my backpack for a closer look.
One look at that silky smooth skin of hers and that soft innocence of her expression and I already know this is the kind of girl I’ve always dreamed of.
And my cargo pants suddenly feel tighter in the crotch letting me know I’m thinking about her with both heads.
But that’s not the kind of girl you just enjoy the physical with. No sir. That’s the kind of girl you make love to.
Not that I would know anything about that. I can’t even remember the last time I felt myself get hard, but I do know I was trained to read people better than just about anyone in the world and she’s giving me all the signs of an angel.
A thought flashes through my mind. I take her up to my cabin and lock her away from the rest of the world. Just her and I and a bunch of babies forever.
Just up there doing our own thing. Living off the clean, pure land and teaching our kids the lessons of the wild. No wars. No television. No distractions.
Only focused on each other. Our little house on the prairie, except this one would be up in the mountains.
She’d never want for anything. I’d give her anything and everything in the world. Most important of which are the things you can’t buy.
I’ve got some money, but it’s darn near worthless where I live. If it got much colder I’d burn it to stay warm, but there’s no need. I chop down enough firewood each fall to easily last through the winter.
I’m prepared. Always prepared.
But I wasn’t prepared for her.
I wasn’t expecting this. Not now. Not ever.
I already know how this parade finishes. It’s the same each and every year.
If I want to make a move it’s now or never.
Go down there and say something to her or live for the next year wondering “what if.”
But what young woman wants to live in the middle of nowhere with a damaged man like me?
Yeah, I’m in great physical shape, if you look past the shrapnel scars. It’s the mental that still needs some work. Just when I think I’ve got it whipped the dreams come back.
But she’s gonna give me a whole different type of dreams.
The kind you wake up in the middle of the night with where you can’t sleep because your groin is so sore. Where you need a release, but you know you can’t. Not thinking about a girl like that.
She’s not a release. She’s a keeper for life.
Just not for an old man like me.
Thirty-three isn’t exactly old, but when you’ve lived the kind of life I have it’s more than enough. I’m thirty-three going on sixty-three. I’ve seen too much. Felt too much pain. And now here I am.
But there’s one thing about me that no-one will ever be able to change.
Make that two.
I don’t always make the smartest decisions, but the decisions I do make are always made from the heart. And when I see something I want I go for it with everything I’ve got.
And if there’s one thing I know it’s that I want her more than life itself.
I shove the binoculars in my backpack and march right down that hill to introduce myself to that angel before she up and flies away.