“ignorance is bliss” fashion. Back when Leo had been an army ranger and on the side of the white hats, he and Jackson had never had a difference of opinion on anything. They had raised Docia by themselves, Leo paying the majority of the bills while Jackson went to college and the Academy. But by the time Jackson had graduated from the Academy Leo had seen two tours in Afghanistan and was looking at a third if he didn’t ring out while he had a chance. It wasn’t that he couldn’t hack humping around seventy pounds of gear in the scorching desert heat, watching a man being blow up right next to him after he was unlucky something else entirely.n when enough to step on a land mine. No. What had chapped his ass had been something else entirely.
The things they weren’t allowed to do. Protect villagers from gunrunners or other such bullies. Keep the local children from being forced to walk a field in order to test for land mines before the enemy moved forward. Or bomb-detecting dogs who were treated as “equipment” in the army, ferried onto planes not properly pressurized, heated, or cooled, and not given the rights of the true soldiers that they were. Including contented retirement with a loving family who would be given the funds for the animal’s room and board. Perhaps it was Jackson who had made him more sensitive to that. But more likely it was from his own eyewitness accounts of those dogs’ infinite bravery and devotion that saved lives. Outside of their handler’s praise and some food, they didn’t ask for much of anything else.
But the clincher had been the women. Whether it was coming into a village and seeing the remnants of a raid of killers and rapists and hearing those unforgettable wailing cries, or the frustration of female soldiers being mishandled and maltreated by a bunch of arrogant sadistic motherfuckers, he simply couldn’t abide being part of an army that let those things happen … and then let it slide by, neatly swept under a red-tape rug and a code of silence that, basically, victimized the woman all over again because she couldn’t bring her rapist to justice. Now granted, it didn’t happen on a constant basis, it all depended on who was investigating and just how important the soldier accused was to the unit. It had been the final straw for him. He’d gotten out of the army. From then on he’d set his own moral compass, a code of honor really, and gone from there. For a guy like him, mercenary just seemed the way to go. He’d just pick an underdog that appealed to that code and hire himself out. He wasn’t Superman of course; he looked for compensation in order to pay the mortgage, buy some beer with a good dose of pay-per-view, and the occasional .44-caliber hollow-point bullet. But sometimes some jobs compensated for the lack of funds of others.
Now, because of the sometimes polar sides of the law each of them operated on, he and Jackson had agreed that, for the sake of their friendship, Leo wouldn’t talk about doing anything overtly illegal, and he wouldn’t do anything construed as misbehaving in Jackson’s jurisdiction.
He could live with that. He knew Jackson would be there when he needed him most, no matter what the circumstances. It was just his job to see that those circumstances never arose.
Since Jackson was the closest thing he had to a brother, Leo’s actual blood brothers being contemptible douches, he was inclined to do anything that might make life easier for him.
“Hey, since Jackson is AWOL at the moment, what do you say I take you to my place for breakfast? I’m pretty hungry and I’m just around the corner.” He hadn’t even been home yet since landing, so he’d have to hit the Price Chopper on the way.
“That sounds great!” Andy said eagerly. He followed Leo to his truck and they both got in. Leo stopped at the store and then went to his house. Actually, it was Docia’s house. Or used to be. She’d left it vacant in order to abandon all her loved ones and run off with some golden boy. The man could do no wrong in Docia’s estimation and Leo could swear he saw stars twinkling in her eyes when she looked at him. But after she’d moved out she’d let him move in and take over the mortgage. It was a nice