Free Promises to Keep by Nikki Sex, Zachary J. Kitchen

wall, standing nose to nose.
Dwight's guilty eyes were open wide. It was plain that his confidence had
turned to surprise, and surprise to fear.
    Jack
could tell, just by looking into his quivering expression, that he’d finally
got the obnoxious twit where he wanted him.
    "You
took my ring and now you're going to go straight to the stockade." Jack
didn't have a clue what a ‘stockade’ was or even if there was a single one in a
thousand miles, but the threat sounded satisfyingly ominous.
    Dwight
must have thought so too. He looked petrified. "I didn't steal it, I found
it—on the ground, out by the washbasins. I thought it belonged to this guy and
so I tucked it into the bag."
    "Well,
that was pretty stupid. It could have belonged to anyone. Ever think that there
might be a reason why a ring would be lying out by the washbasins? Ever think
that somebody might have taken it off to—oh, I don't know—wash their
hands?"
    "I
didn't think—" Dwight stammered.
    "That's
your problem, you don’t think. You're so wrapped up in your own little
self-righteous world, where you’ve decided everybody else is so damned stupid,
and you are so damned brilliant and above it all. You can't even imagine that
there might be anything out there that you can't understand or know
about."
    Jack
grabbed the man’s shirt. His hand closed into a fist against Dwight's chest as
he pushed him into the frozen meat wagon wall, hard. "Well you
don't know half the shit you think you do. You'd be better listening a lot more
and running your mouth a lot less. Got it?"
    "Yes,
I got it."
    "Yes,
I got it what?"
    "Yes,
I got it, sir."
    Jack
backed off and pointed towards the door. "Get out of my face and find
something useful to do."
    Dwight
ran out into the daylight and Jack watched him go. He reminded himself to
collect any other keys to the meat wagon, so he and Chief were the only two
people with access.
    Satisfied
and relieved, Jack calmly walked out of the trailer and shut and locked the
door behind him.

Chapter 15.
    When
Jack got to his tent, he pulled out his dog tags, undid the chain that hung
them around his neck, and slid the ring over the chain. Then he refastened the
chain and tucked the dog tags back under his shirt.
    The
ring felt cool and heavy against his skin. The only way he'd ever lose it again
would be if he were dead and the dog tags were taken off his body.
    In
that case, it wouldn't matter much anyway.
    With
the ring safe, Jack kicked off his boots and lay back on his cot. One hand
behind his head for a pillow, he put his irritation at the jerk LaGuardia aside,
and fished in his pocket for Laura's latest letter.
    He'd
already read it twice, but he found it calmed him. It took his mind away from
all of the shit he faced on a daily basis. Reading her letters was like an all
too brief visit with a friend.
    Ashamed
to admit it, Jack had started having deeper feelings for Laura than simple
friendship.
    Over
the months that they'd been corresponding, her letters became such a positive
force for him. He always had something to look forward to—another letter.
    Jack
found himself thinking about Laura more and more. He began to picture what she
looked like. Thoughts of her helped him drift off to sleep, and once asleep, he
often dreamed of Laura and the ocean.
    Jack
began to associate the two calming, centering forces in his life.
    He
longed for both of them.
    Jack
enjoyed writing to her but nothing beat getting her thoughts by mail. Laura's
letters gave him the mental escape that he so desperately needed. They were
like an oasis in this God forsaken place.
    Jack
had been in Iraq too long. It had been so long that the life he'd had before he
first stepped off that helicopter in Fallujah, seemed like a dream. What he
hated most was that like a dream, his previous existence seemed to grow more
faded and fuzzy with every passing day.
    Laura's
words took him back, back to the beach, back to ocean waves and fresh, salty sea
air. She reminded him