Soldier For Hire. Kimberly Meter Van

She half expected him to decline and change the subject or worse, return the radio to country but he surprised her with an answer.

      “Kinda like your story. Dad was an abusive dick. Didn’t have the means to go to college, not that I would’ve been able to handle more school, but the army was my ticket out of hell. I took it without looking back.”

      “Is your dad still alive?”

      “No. He died when I was overseas. Felt weird to get the message. I mean, I’d prayed for the man’s death more times than I could count when I was growing up but when it actually happened, I was numb. Kinda disappointing, really. That was the biggest reveal. I thought I’d feel more. Relief, maybe? Or joy, even? But nope, I felt nothing. My LT gave me the message and ten minutes later I was back on the job.”

      Scarlett understood the numbness Xander had felt. She’d felt the same when her own father had died.

      She’d long come to the conclusion that people who were damaged had two choices: wither and die, or deal with it.

      Her way of dealing with the abuse at her father’s hands was to walk away and never mention the man’s name ever again.

      “Funny how the mind works,” she murmured. “I didn’t feel anything either when my old man kicked it.”

      Xander nodded, understanding. “I think I felt nothing because he’d become nothing to me. He was no longer my father. The military became my family. My brothers and sisters in arms... They were the ones who had my back. Unlike that asshole who’d done nothing but beat me black-and-blue until the day I was too big and he realized I’d tear him up if he laid another hand on me.”

      Scarlett would like to say that their stories were the exception but there were plenty of military people with similar backstories. If military life wasn’t ingrained in a person from childhood, signing a blank check to the government took some balls or some other driving force, and sometimes that driving force was desperation.