Well, that didn’t make me feel good.I sat down on the bed bench. “How did I disappoint you? All because I don’t want to go to a stupid meeting?”
He closed his eyes for a second with a sigh. “Please don’t downplay the importance of support groups because you don’t see the benefit. I am not offended, but it is offensive. I am disappointed because you are not willing to look past yourself. Min, we are two vets that have diagnosed PTSD. We have some of the same and potentially different triggers. Love, I need to know that you are willing to use the resources available to you to better handle your triggers.
“I’ve seen PTSD ruin relationships and families where only one person was diagnosed, and they didn’t take it seriously. Baby, imagine two.” He moved and sat next to me. “Min, all I want is peace for you. The peace that exists outside of me for you.”
I smacked the tear that fell from my eye. “Can I think about it, please?” I asked.
He kissed my temple. “Love, you can do whatever you like. I didn’t tell you to force you to do anything. I just want you to know my stance on it.”
A Little Time Later
Fuck Around & Find Out . . .
Errrrrt! Errrrrt! Errrrrt!
The alarm startled me out of my sleep. It took me a minute to focus and realize where I was. I glanced next to me to see Vic was already out of bed. He was at the dresser urgently dressing.
“Baby, what is that alarm for? What’s going on?” Worry weighed my words down.
He faced me after he had his shirt on. “It’s the alarm to let us know that someone has crossed our property line. No one should cross the property line anywhere except the front. Our entire property is fenced off.”
My eyes bulged because their property is huge. I climbed out of bed to throw on shorts. I already had on one of Vic’s tank T-shirts.
Vic rushed out of the room, and I was on his heel. He mentioned an alarm for the property, but I never imagined that it was that startling. He walked into the office of his house that had a wall of monitors that covered the farm. He picked up a two-way radio. “Vince, you copy?”
“I got you, Bro. I’m looking at the monitors. You see anything? Over,” Vince asked.
Vic and I both scanned the monitors. I pulled my sneakers on. Neither of us saw anything. He pressed the PPT. “I don’t see nothing yet.”
I pointed at the top corner monitor. “There!” I counted. “I count eight. Who are they?”
“What the fuck?” Vic mumbled. He pressed the PPT. “Eight. Right. Back. Meet me front, left, in five. Over.”
“Copy,” Vince said. The radios went dead.
Vic grabbed another radio, then turned to me. He handed me the radio. “Watch the monitors and radio channel two where they are, love.”
I heard him. “Okay.”
He walked over to the wall across from the monitor to the bookshelf. He pulled out a book, and the wall went in. It was a whole damn arsenal. I wanted to get into it, but I needed to stay focused. I pressed the PPT. “Move in steady. Masked up.”
It took less than two minutes for my baby to get what he needed and leave the house. My heart dropped at the sight of him in a tactical vest. I did not like this. I did not like this at all. My mind raced, and I felt useless.
Moments later, I saw Vince and Pop Carl in the bottom-left monitor. Yeah, no. They both had on tactical vests as well. This was a military family, and they were in war mode. Pop Carl was seventy-six. If his ass could get out there, then so could I. I would just do it in a different way.
Dawson’s farm had watchtowers around the land that averaged forty feet tall. That would be the perfect place for me to get a better view. I needed to decide which tower I needed to be at. I rushed to the room that I used to sleep in to get what I needed. When I got to the monitor, I communicated the new location of whoever it was on the farm. They had split into groups of two and were getting close to the livestock in the pasture.
The moon was high and bright tonight which provided the natural light that I needed for my NVD (night vision device). The two-way radios had earpieces. I placed my tactical vest on, clipped the radio on it, then placed the earpiece in my ear. I continued to scan the monitors. Vic, Vince, and Pop had on their own night vision.
Gasp!“They’re shooting cattle! Over!” I communicated. I had seen enough.
“Moving in. Pop, contact left,” Vic called.
My mind triggered, and I was in a zone. I knew the tower I needed to be at. With my rifle on my back, I sprinted to the watchtower. It took me less than two minutes to climb it and get in position.
My bipod was steady, scope dialed, and body prone. I scanned the pasture. “Two, twenty meters, left, Pops,” I called.
The hostiles were all masked up, so I had no idea who they were.What the fuck is going on?I had no spotter, so this was on me. “Ten meters, Pops.” I would not let my family down. A firearm was raised in the direction of Pop. My finger reacted with a squeeze.
