Excerpt:

“Who are you?” Sally asked as soon as the door closed.

“Of everything you could ask, that’s the one thing I wish you hadn’t.”

“Then tell me what you can.”

“All right,” he replied, sitting on the sofa and motioning to her to do the same.

“About thirty years ago, right after I left the army, one of my superiors approached me. He showed up at my door with an offer. That was a tough time to be a soldier, Sally.”

She nodded, remembering all the stories her father and his friends told.

“I didn’t have a fancy education. What was I supposed to put on a job application: trained killer? So what he had to say appealed to me. But after fifteen years of taking off in the middle of the night on another secret mission, I started checking out my options.

“By that time, I had a fair amount of money saved up. So I began buying real estate, investing in something solid for a change. Before I knew it, I had more land than I knew what to do with.”

“I don’t see you as a land baron, George,” Sally said.

“You’re right. Having rental properties didn’t appeal to me, and I wasn’t interested in having a bunch of cows wandering around. Shopping malls were going up left and right about then. Same thing for hotels and apartment buildings.”

“So you made a killing by selling it off,” she remarked, taking a guess.

“But then I had more money than I knew what to do with. I’m a simple man, Sally. Possessions don’t mean much to me. What I wanted had eluded me for years.”

George gazed off into the distance, lost in thought for a moment. Sally took that time to really look at the man next to her. She had never dug up anything on him to show he was anything more than a middle-aged guy, living his life in an out-of-the-way place. Now she was seeing a whole new side of him.

“Wandering around the world is a lonely job. There was never time to settle down, find a wife, or have a family. I was good at my job, and often went from one to another without a break. Some of my colleagues were married, and I saw what happened to them. Wives don’t like being left alone for months, or worse, years.

“When I resigned, I spent a good year moving around, looking for a place that felt like home. Even though I sold a bunch of my properties, I still houses in five or six states. They didn’t have what I was looking for either. But I discovered there was a huge need for cheap homes for wounded veterans. For the next few years, I adapted them for soldiers and their families.”

“Some of the charities are doing great work. How did you choose which one to go through?” she asked.

George blushed, and cleared his throat. But he didn’t answer.

“You donated them, didn’t you? Anonymously.”

“Finding a job when you have lost a limb isn’t easy. Back then getting an artificial limb was expensive. Medical insurance didn’t cover everything vets needed either. So I became my own charity. Went to a lawyer, and made it all legal-like. I didn’t want any problems later on.”