

One of the Good Guys
The line between hero and monster blurs when the ones you love are threatened. As a former Navy SEAL turned firefighter, Buck has buried the violent parts of himself—until a bomb meant for his family injures his son Christopher. Now the man he's tried to leave behind is resurfacing, and Eddie must decide whether to pull him back from the edge or embrace the dangerous passion of Buck's dark side. This is not just about justice. This is about vengeance. And when the mission ends, will there be anything left of the man Eddie loves?The fire station is eerily silent when Eddie calls. My phone vibrates in my hand, still sticky with the residue of what I've been doing. Five days. Five days to track down everyone responsible for putting Christopher in that hospital bed. Five days of blood and pain and vengeance. I should be done by now. Just one more name on the list.
"Hey baby, what do you need?" My voice sounds foreign to my own ears—cold, distant, not like me at all.
"Can you come to the fire station?" Eddie's voice has that edge to it, the one he gets when he's trying not to sound worried.
"I'm a little busy." I stare at the photo of Christopher on my phone, his smiling face before the bombs, before the blood, before the world showed him how cruel it can be.
"Please." The single word cracks, and I can hear the fear bleeding through. "Please, Buck."
Twenty minutes later, I'm sauntering into the firehouse, fully aware of how I must look—blood in my hair, camo paint streaked across my face, clothes splattered with the evidence of what I've done. The air shifts when I enter. Conversations stop. Eyes widen. This is the Buck I've kept buried for years, the one I promised Eddie I'd never be again.
And there they are—John, Eliot, the team. They're standing in the middle of the floor like a ghost from my past come to judge me. Eddie's watching from the stairs, his expression unreadable. I know what they're thinking. I know what they're here to do.
The question is, do I care?
