Page 173 of Enemy Within

Andrew brightened. “Oh yeah? What kind of farm did you guys have?”

“He didn’t own it, sir. He was a farmhand. We lived on the land, and he worked for the owners. It was dairy and beef.”

Andrew looked contrite, but pushed through quickly. “Well, if you’d like, I can show you around this place. We’ve got just under a hundred acres. Some good spots for deer hunting. A few wild boars that I’m trying to get rid of.”

“I’d love to see it.” Ethan rose and followed Andrew, but stopped and dropped a kiss to Jack’s lips first. Jack snaked his hand around Ethan’s neck and pulled him closer, deepening their kiss with a grin. On the way out of the back door, Ethan flashed a smile back to him.

Mary smiled at Jack and squeezed his hand on top of the table. “He’s wonderful, Jack. He really is. He takes good care of you?”

Jack smiled. “He treats me too well, Mom. He’s the love of my life. I’m so happy with him.”

Mary’s smile wavered and then fell. She licked her lips. “Jack, honey… there’s something I need to show you.” She sniffed as she rose, walking slowly to the kitchen counter. An envelope lay there, yellowed on the edges from age. She looked down at it and closed her eyes, exhaling carefully.

“What is it, Mom?”

Wordlessly, she passed it to Jack. She wouldn’t look him in the eyes.

It was a letter from Leslie addressed to his parents. The postmark was sixteen years old.

His breath caught. Sixteen years to the month of her death, exactly.

“Mom…”

“Just read it, honey. I never knew why she sent it here, but… maybe after everything that happened, you do. I never showed this to you because I thought it would hurt you too much. I just can’t keep this anymore.” Her voice faded away, and she turned to the sink, grasping the white tile as she stared at the faucet.

He slid the worn paper from the envelope.

Dear Jack,

I hope this gets to you. I’m sending it to your parents. I’ll tell you why when I see you again.

You need to know how much I love you, Jack. I love your goofiness, your terrible cooking. How you always want to do what’s right, even in a crazy, complicated world. You keep me honest, Jack. Keep me stable.

Which is why I’ve decided to leave the Army. After this tour, I’m going to resign my commission. I don’t know what I’ll do. But I do know that whatever it is, I want my future to be with you.

All my love,

Leslie

He checked the date, scratched into the top of the paper in her slanted cursive.

She’d written the letter two days before her death.

Madigan’s voice, again, crashed into his brain.She was on the verge of joining my team. I recruited her myself.

She’d said no. And Madigan had killed her for it.

Leslie… How did we get trapped in this madman’s world?His eyes closed as he folded the letter and set it on the table.

She didn’t deserve what Madigan had done to her. No one in the world deserved what he had done. How many lives had he torn apart? He and Leslie were just two people, just two out of thousands and thousands of lives he’d shredded.

But, for the first time, conviction settled in his blood, in his bones. Since he’d snapped Madigan’s neck, the world had seemed broken, twisted at the same angle as Madigan’s wrecked body, everything just off-center as if he were watching the world in a carnival fun house. He’d delivered a cold justice, the justice of revenge, of a raging, furious man. And he’d doubted himself every day since.

Leslie’s smile, and then Ethan’s, played in the darkness behind his eyelids.I got him, Leslie. I got the bastard who killed you.

It seemed, for a moment, that Leslie smiled back, nodding like she heard him. The image of her turned to Ethan, beaming and radiant. She laid her hand on Ethan’s shoulder and smiled at Jack before walking away, fading into the darkness.

Quiet sobbing made him open his eyes. Mary squatted on the kitchen floor, holding on to the sink with one hand and covering her eyes with the other as she tried to stifle her bawling. “Jack, I’m so sorry,” she gasped. “I should have told you. I shouldn’t have kept it from you. But Madigan, and everything he’s done to you, and to our family—” Her hand rose, covering her mouth.