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thought you took the pics. He's mad as hell."
    "What do you mean confront her?"
    "He's pretty pissed at her, too. I pointed
out that she obviously took the pictures herself. I know he's going
to ask her about them and you."
    "You idiot, you should have kept your mouth
shut and let him think it was me."
    "Sorry, Dad, I didn't think."
    "Shit, I better call her."
    It wasn't exactly the reconciliation he'd
hoped for. They hadn't had any contact since he left.
    "Yeah, you better do something or Mark is
going to make sure she never sees you again. No lie, Dad."
    "All right. Thanks, Son. I'll let you know
what I do."
    "Bye, Dad. Good luck."
    John called Tricia as soon as he hung up with
Patrick.
    "Tricia, hi it's John."
    "Hi John."
    Mark was yelling in the background. He was so
loud John could hear every word.
    "Tell him I'm going to fucking kill him if he
comes near you again. Do you hear me John?"
    "Stop it Mark," she yelled.
    "Tricia, are you OK? What's going on?"
    "I'm fine, just in the middle of something
here. I'll call you back…"
    Mark grabbed her phone.
    "No, she won't."
    The line went dead.

Chapter 9
    John's composure started to unravel. What was
he supposed to do to help her way over here? He could send Patrick
back over to her house but there was no guarantee he could help
this situation. Patrick could physically protect her but that
wasn't the issue.
    Mark was going to carpet bomb their
relationship. He was going to make her feel ashamed about the
pictures and she would likely never come back to him. And she
probably would become even more repressed as a result. God Damn it.
He had to get back to her ASAP.
    He had two weeks left in his assignment. He
decided to bug out. He wasn't going to lose Tricia because he had
to finish training a bunch of Afghan soldiers. They could carry on
without him this time. He got on the phone and started calling in
favors and pulling rank.
    Inside of two hours, he was boarding the
first aircraft to head home.
    ***
    Tricia crossed her arms and glared at her
son. She didn't say a word, just lifted her eyebrows at him. They
were on the front lawn. She'd gone outside to talk with John, but
Mark had stumped out after her and grabbed her phone.
    "Are you happy with yourself, Mark? Because I
know I couldn’t be more proud of the way you are behaving."
    He handed her back her phone.
    "Do you want to continue this out here?"
    "I don't care."
    "Well, that's obvious."
    "Well, I guess you don't care either; about
me or Trina or Dad."
    "That's not true."
    "Like hell. What are you doing with this guy-
this low life?"
    Tricia took a deep breath. What was she doing
with John? After he left, she was wrecked. She found out just how
much she missed him, needed him, loved him. She hoped he would
call, but they'd left on such bad terms. When he didn't call she
decided she needed to be bold to let him know, she wanted him no
matter what.
    "Mark, honey, I care about John. He's a good
man and you know it. I know you checked him out."
    It was true. Mark didn't turn up any bad
information about Sergeant Major Davis, though he tried. The worst
that could be said, was that he was divorced. But he'd raised his
son himself, with full custody because his ex-wife was not
reliable. The courts had sided with John.
    He'd had a great career that started in
Somalia. He'd been injured there, but he'd distinguished himself.
He continually climbed the ladder. He was a born leader. He'd had a
few girlfriends but John was clean.
    "And what about Dad? Did you just forget
him?"
    "No, I haven't forgotten him."
    She edged closer to her son, her twenty-one
year old, six foot six, two hundred sixty pound, vulnerable
boy.
    "Did you ever even love him? What are you,
are you a slu…"
    She interrupted him before he could say
something he would regret.
    "I still love your Dad. I always will."
    She put her hand on Mark's arm
    "Then, what? 'Cause I can't understand why
you would do such a thing!"
    He was choking up. He looked down at