“You know, Mike brags about you more than your brother,” Jack sighed. “I’ve known your pops for a long time. We served together at a training center in Louisiana in the late nineties. He saved my butt a few times. I owe him one.”

Valerie still had a hard time believing him. He looked so young, younger than her. She remembered living in Louisiana in middle school but did not recall ever meeting him. He would have looked then how he appeared to her now.

Alice&rsq...