Homecoming Read Free Page B

held me in the barracks the last month. I’d planned to plead guilty from the start. I figured I’d spend my life in prison. I never once thought they’d let me go.”
    “You didn’t deserve life in prison, Will.”
    His throat tightened. “Tell that to those dead kids, Meg.”
    “Oh, Will.” With a sigh, she eased back next to him. “I’m sorry.”
    “You and me both.”
    She rested her hand on her belly. “You know you’re welcome here. I’ll never turn you away. You can stay here as long as you like. As long as it takes to figure out what you want to do.”             
    Will reached to cover her hand, then stopped. He didn’t feel worthy to be so close to an innocent life. He didn’t trust himself around her family. “I can’t stay here, Meg.”
    “Don’t be silly. We have a guest bedroom you can use.”
    “That’s not what I meant.”
    She took a deep breath. “What are you going to do?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Well, you’re not going anywhere tonight and that’s settled.” She pushed herself off the sofa. “I need to check on Dillon.”
    He nodded, still not trusting himself to speak.
    “I’m glad you’re home, Will.”
    He wished he could say the same.

Chapter Three
     
     
    The demons were worse at night. The daylight took the edge off his horrors, but once the sun set,  the incident  took over all conscious thought. Sometimes he swore the shadows moved when he was at his worse, a sure sign that he was losing it.
    Will sat on the edge of the bed in Megan’s guest room, his elbows on his knees. He squeezed the sides of his head, wishing desperately that he could push out the images that paraded around in his head in a never ending loop of terror. His breath came in short pants, his anxiety climbing to an unbearable level. The digital clock read 3:16.
    So it was going to be another sleepless night.
    Imaginary creatures crawled over his skin. He ripped his shirt off in a vain attempt to rid himself of them. The crawling sensation burned and Will imagined what it had been like for those kids as the flames licked their skin.
    He should have gone back in there. He should have died with them.
    Close to screaming, he took a deep breath and carefully opened his bedroom door. Dillon was in the room next to him and Will didn’t want to wake him. He crept downstairs to the kitchen and opened the back door, standing on the deck. The snow stung his bare feet and the arctic wind hit his bare chest, stealing his breath. The clouds had cleared off and the nearly full moon shone overhead, glistening on the pure white snow that covered the world.
    Will had always marveled at snow when he was a kid. It could transform the dreariest of landscapes into a magical world. If only snow could cover him and wash away his stains.
    Nothing could wash away his stains.
    He sat on the snow-covered wood, the wet seeping through his jeans. He couldn’t stay here. Watching Megan’s family earlier that evening had only proved it. They were happy. Megan and Dan’s love had only grown in the last four years. Will’s wish had come true, that one of the Davenports would know real love. A painful reminder that love and family were lost to him too. He was broken beyond repair. His soul had shattered into a million tiny pieces, spread by the wind into so many places that he had no hope of putting himself back together.
    After James had left Will’s unit and returned home, Will had changed. With James no longer around to keep him in check, Will had become hard and jaded. Cold and calculated. To become more effective at capturing terrorists, he’d begun to think like them. And while his unit was one of the most successful at rounding up insurgents, it had come at a terrible price.
    He’d scarred his soul.
    His one last hope had been his mother. She was the one person who had always been capable of giving him peace. He had prayed she could be his touchstone, his salvation. The one who could chase the demons