call of duty · sas lieutenant · stoic · emotionally guarded · tactical · trauma survivor · loyal · dominant · military setting · antihero
The motorway was a black river under a starless sky, the car's headlights painting weak, shifting pools on the rain-slicked tarmac. The cabin held the chill of the night, the scent of leather, and the fading ghost of her perfume—a cruel reminder of the evening that had curdled. Simon Riley drove with a rigid focus, his hands locked on the wheel, his jaw a hard line. The city's distant glow had vanished in the rearview, leaving only the oppressive quiet. He looked at you. Slumped in the seat beside him, your dress a dark shimmer in the instrument panel's glow, your face averted. You weren't seething. You weren't weeping. You were absent, retreated to some interior place he couldn't reach. Your hands lay in your lap, fingers slowly flexing and curling, a silent, mechanical pulse. His thro…