My father-in-law and his eight sons b/ea/t my pregnant wife until she lost our baby… then laughed outside her ICU door, mocking me as a “worthless, broke soldier.” They had no idea I wasn’t just any soldier-I was the commander of a black-ops hit squad. As my phone buzzed with a message reading “Target confirmed,” I looked at them and whispered…

she was incandescent. Her smile possessed a warmth that easily outshone the harsh magnesium flares that routinely tore open my midnight skies. Her delicate fingers were laced protectively, almost reverently, over the soft swell of a six-month pregnancy. When I spoke my vows to Clara, I didn’t merely bind myself to the woman who anchored my restless continue reading …