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Chapter 10 - Liam

Liam’s hands were shaking when he climbed in the truck. He took the gun off his waistband holster and put it in his passenger seat. He gripped the steering wheel and put his forehead on his knuckles while he took deep breaths. She probably thinks I’m insane, he though as he started the truck and backed out of the parking lot.

The ride back to his cabin took about a half hour, and he used the time to think. Usually he thought about his businesses, his club, or his own demons. But today he was preoccupied with Ellie. Seeing her with his mom made him feel good. The normalcy and the ease she had with his mom felt right, and Liam wasn’t sure how to process that. He had know Ellie for two days, and he didn’t even know her real name. He wasn’t the type of guy to fall in love at all, let along be so preoccupied with a girl so quickly.

“And you couldn’t keep your s**t together,” he said to himself, hitting the steering wheel.

When he finally pulled into his driveway it was getting pretty late, but Liam decided to stay up a while longer and build a fire in the pit outside. He built a fire and then ran inside to grab a six pack from the fridge before returning outside with a lounge chair.

Once he got settled, he laid back and pulled out his phone. Before he knew it, he found himself browsing through familiar pictures. A group of soldiers stood around a Humvee in battle gear. Brandon, KIA. Dean, suicide a year ago. Henderson, overdose on prescribed painkillers after he was blown up by an IED.

Liam’s hands shook as he tossed his phone to the side and took a sip of beer. As he laid back, he looked at the stars and wondered, why him? Sure, he wasn’t a complete first class human, but he didn’t think he had done anything so bad in his life to be dealt this hand. Finn came put okay, what was his deal?

Liam clenched his fist closed, release; close, release. He had lost a lot of buddies and he was here, for what reason? He took another drink of his beer. Why was the world so cruel? His buddies didn’t deserve to die. Ellie definitely didn’t deserve to be abused. She hadn’t told him, but it was obvious between what his mom said and Ellie’s ribs. The way she came into town with nothing.

Liam found himself dosing off while thinking about her. He thought about her beautiful green eyes, how small she was, how scared she looked when she first saw him outside her room.

Liam was back in the desert, on a mission gone sideways. They were supposed to go in under the cover of dark but like most things in the military, nothing went to plan. The enemy saw them coming and retreated into their village, bullets and mortar shells were flying everywhere. Liam watched as one by one, his team went down and he was helpless.

“Liam, we’ve got to move,” Finn shouted as he half carried Henderson, whose leg was blown to bits. Liam reacted, grabbing Henderson’s other side and moving to cover. As they retreated, he passed Brandon, who was shot in the neck.

Liam let go of Henderson’s other side and reached down to grab Brandon under his arms and his head lulled back and just the way his lifeless body moved almost made him vomit. He was gone. But he couldn’t leave him there so he dragged him back to where Finn and Henderson were. And RPG wizzed past and exploded an abandoned car yards away. His ears rang.

Liam woke up in a cold sweat. He had shattered the beer bottle in his hand and his palm was gushing blood.

“s**t,” he said, picking up the pieces of glass with his non-injured hand and carrying it inside. He dumped the shards in the trash bin and stuck his injured hand in the sink to run water over the cuts.after washing the blood away, he decided it wasn’t serious enough for stitches and grabbed a towel to wrap around his hand as he went to the bathroom for the first aid kit.

A short while later, Liam had wrapped his hand in gauze and tape and was putting out the fire in the back. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. 12:30AM. Liam hadn’t had a full nights sleep in weeks, and he didn’t want to resort to the sleeping pills the doctor gave him. He had seen what addiction could do first hand, and he didn’t like the way they made him feel. So, he decided to settle on the couch and turn on the TV until reruns of old game shows finally lulled him to a restless sleep.