“What about Kyla,” I said.
“Don’t worry about Ms Rose. The sooner you disconnect from this life, the sooner you can get on with your new life. I know it sounds cruel, but we do this all the time, and everyone ends up happy.” I was starting to wonder if I was speaking directly with a bull’s asshole.
“What are you going to do to her?”
“Hunter…”
“Tell me.”
Bremkin sighed, looked around the room as if we were in the middle of a public park, and then he leaned forward. “We’re going to tell her to keep her mouth shut. If she does, there won’t be any problems. She can go on living her life happily with Corporal Silverstone. We’ll even do our best to take care of the press for her.”
His smile made me sick. He was so sure that he was being comforting. He was so sure that I believed the lies he was feeding me. I didn’t believe shit, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t have a choice. All I could do was say, “Just make sure she understands she shouldn’t say anything.” At least if she knew what would happen if she talked, then she had a chance.
“I’ll talk to her myself,” he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The police didn’t say much. They asked me to write down my contact information, asked if I needed any medical assistance, and then they sent me on my way—they even dropped me off at my front door.
Throughout the whole ride in that cruiser, I was worried about Liam’s reaction. When I finally arrived, and I could see his truck parked in the driveway, my worries turned to paralyzing anxiety. Liam was waiting inside for me with a week’s worth of pent up rage. I had no idea what he knew, whether word had gotten out that I’d been with Hunter and that I was never in Kansas City. As far as I knew, there could have been pictures of Hunter ramming his big cock into me on the front page of every paper.
“You okay, lady?” the police officer asked when I didn’t step out from his car as he held the door open.
“Huh? Yeah. I’m fine.” The moment my feet were planted on the sidewalk, the officer was halfway down the street. I was alone, with nowhere to go but inside to face Liam.
So that’s where I went.
Liam was sitting at the kitchen table when I walked in the door. His head turned to me and his eyes became wide. He was slow to stand up. His eyes were glazed over, as if I’d just woken him from some wandering daydream. I wasn’t sure whether to approach him or to back away. He was expressionless, unreadable. For all I knew, his blank face could have been hiding rage, or it could have been hiding sorrow.
“Kyla,” he said softly. He took a step towards me, letting the sunlight from the kitchen window hit his face. He looked dishevelled, unshaven, as if he hadn’t slept since I’d left. He walked towards me like a zombie, his mind still half lost in whatever daydream he’d slipped into. “You’re back,” he said.
“Liam, you don’t look well. Are you okay?” I asked. My eyes wandered down to his hands, to make sure he wasn’t clenching them into fists—to make sure he wasn’t wielding a gun or a knife. He wasn’t.
“I’ve been worried sick about you. I tried to call your phone, but I couldn’t get through.”
“I forgot my charger,” I said. “It died on the bus ride.” I quickly regretted lying, knowing that there was a phone charger in my bag, and I wouldn’t be able to stop him from riffling through to find it.
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said. He opened his arms and hugged me. His face nestled into my shoulder and he started to weep. “I’m sorry,” he said.
My body was tense. A week ago, he would have slit my throat for leaving for days without answering my phone. Carefully, I wrapped my arms around him. I couldn’t even smell the whiskey on him, as if this wasn’t just some drunken apology.
“I had a lot of time to think,” he said, keeping his face buried in my shoulder. “I don’t know what came over me. There’s no excuse. I betrayed you. You deserve better. You deserve to go out and find a better man. If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you.” His voice was strained. He was trying to hold himself together, but I could feel his tears soaking through my shirt.
I wanted to tell him it was okay, but a clenching at my gut wouldn’t let me. Apology or not, it wasn’t okay. But I couldn’t tell him that, either. Even though he was sober, I was still worried he would snap. A week is a long time to think, but it’s not enough time to change.
“If you give me another chance, Kyla, I promise I won’t let you down again. Things will be better. I got a job.” He finally released me and wiped the tears from his face. “I got a good job, working for my friend’s dad. It’s a renovation company. They do the higher end homes, across town. Starting pay is sixteen bucks an hour—that’s already two bucks more than I was making at the warehouse.”
He smiled for the first time since I walked in the door. His eyes were wide and bright, staring into mine. After a few seconds, they relaxed, and his brow lowered. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’m happy for you, Liam, but…” The lump in my gut moved up to my throat. I wanted to tell him I was leaving, but the lump wouldn’t allow it. His face turned white, as if I didn’t need to say it.
“What?” he said weakly.
“I need some time to think,” I managed to say through the lump.
His shoulders sunk down as his heart broke into a million tiny pieces. His lips remained parted, totally taken aback. ‘But what about my new job?’ I could practically hear him saying. It just wasn’t enough. He hurt me. He hit me, bruised me, cut me. He screamed at me and threatened me. I wouldn’t have cared if he still had no job—if he’d lost the house and his truck and we were left with nothing. The damage was done.
“I know I hurt you, Kyla, but that’s behind me.”
I couldn’t look him in the eyes. He was too broken, too sad to look at. He used to be so strong, so understanding, so happy. I stared at the floor in silence. I was still afraid he would hit me any second.
“I understand,” he finally said, turning away. He already had a bag packed, sitting next to the refrigerator.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m going to stay with Tom. He told me I could crash on his couch for as long as I wanted. I wrote down his number. It’s on the kitchen table.” He kissed me on the forehead. “When you’ve made up your mind, call me and let me know, either way.” He started towards the door. Before he left, he turned to me and said, “And just so you know, people can change.”
He closed the door and I was alone.
I got a call from my boss the next day, asking me if I could come back into work. With my arm feeling better, and teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, I said sure. It was my first shift in weeks, but it was a welcomed distraction from my life.
At least it was for a few hours.
Halfway into my shift, around midnight, a familiar face came into the bar. A tall, middle-aged man. I recognized him right away, despite having only met him once, very briefly. It was Matthew Bremkin, the military lawyer. He hung up his coat on the back of a barstool and took a seat at the bar.
I pretended to be busy, checking in on each of the regulars, hoping they would order some drinks to delay having to face the lawyer.
I knew he was there to see me. His type never came around that bar—no one with more that a few bucks to their name ever came around that bar. The leather boots on Matthew’s feet were worth more than any of our regulars’ paycheques.
No one placed any orders. I couldn’t avoid him any longer.
“What can I get you?” I said, hopelessly pretending not to recognize him.
“Scotch, neat. And a smoke break,” he said.
“We don’t have scotch. We’ve got rye and we’ve got whiskey.”
“Then in that case, just the smoke break.” He didn’t bother waiting for a confirmation. He stood up and walked past the bathrooms, towards the backdoor.
I hesitated, but delaying did nothing but worsen my anxiety, let my mind
wander and create a long list of possible reasons why he showed up at the bar and why he wanted to talk to me in private. I met him outside.
“I can only take five minutes,” I said to him.
“You’ll be fine.” He lit a cigarette and then offered one to me. When I didn’t take one, he said, “I insist,” so I took one.
He smiled. “A dog bit me today,” he said.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I hate dogs. Never liked them.”
“I’m sorry. Is this about Hunter and Greg? Or did you want to talk about dogs?”
“It is about Hunter and Greg,” he said, taking a long drag from his cigarette. “I’m sure you heard, they’re getting help. We’ve checked them into a PTSD rehabilitation facility—a really great one, in upstate Washington.”
“Is it true? Or did you just send them to another cabin?”
He laughed. “You need to relax. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “I’m just curious to know what you know about Hunter and Greg.”
I’m not sure if it was the cigarette or his questionable assurance, but I was suddenly aware of the tension in my shoulders. I let my body relax. “I know a lot. I’ve known them most of my life, after all.”
“What do you know about their mission in the Congo?”
I thought. I didn’t know anything more than anyone else. But Matthew was staring at me expectedly, waiting for me to tell him everything, so I did. I told him that I knew it was some sort of peace-keeping mission, and that the rumour was that they were actually there to find some terrorist. I told him what I knew about the prison camp, and that was it.
“Hunter didn’t tell you anything else?”
“I don’t think he likes talking about it,” I said.
“The name Noric Gizenga doesn’t sound familiar?” It didn’t, so I shrugged and shook my head. “What about Frederick Meraux?” he continued. That name I knew—years ago, it was on the cover of every newspaper.
“He died in a roadside bomb, right? I remember the news.”
Matthew laughed and shook his head. Was I wrong? Was I mixing up his name with someone else’s? Regardless, I didn’t understand what any of it had to do with Hunter and Greg. That story was in the news when we were just barely out of high-school, for crying out loud. Matthew continued to laugh.
“What? Am I mistaken?” I asked.
He told me to take a seat on the little smoking bench, so I did. He gave me another cigarette.
“I should be getting back to work.”
“Don’t worry about that. This is important. That can wait,” he said. Then, he started telling me about Hunter’s mission, about how Lieutenant Meraux was also the terrorist, Noric Gizenga. Hunter, Greg, and Sammy were part of a taskforce sent to kill Meraux, an ex-Marine who never actually died in the roadside bomb that they said he died in.
When I asked Matthew why he was telling me everything, he just smiled and shrugged. “I figured Hunter already told you,” he said, but his smile was too sinister to believe. “In fact, I’m almost sure that he did tell you. He must have, no?”
“I told you everything he told me,” I said.
“Maybe you just weren’t paying attention when he told you.” Matthew lit another cigarette for himself, that devilish smile still lingering on his face. “They never got him, though. Meraux’s still out there.”
“Is that where Hunter is? You sent him back out to the Congo?” I asked.
He laughed again. “No, no. Like I said, Hunter was sent to the training facility in Georgia. He’s training recruits.”
My heart fluttered in my chest. A training facility in Georgia? He just told me Hunter went to a PTSD rehabilitation center in Washington. “Wait, what?” I said.
“Hmm?” Matthew said, tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes.
“You said they were being treated for PTSD.”
“Did I? Excuse me, that was my mistake.” He smiled.
My confusion was quickly turning to anger. Matthew was screwing with me, he was intentionally confusing me. But why?
It suddenly hit me. Matthew had no idea what I knew. He didn’t know what Hunter and Greg told me. And he was clever enough to know I wouldn’t tell him anything if I did know. He was probably telling me the truth about Meraux, thinking Hunter really did tell me everything, but he was padding the truth with lies, and making sure I knew it, so I wouldn’t know what was right from what was wrong, to discredit anything Hunter might have told me.
Had Hunter told me anything, it would have worked, but Hunter never told me anything. The topic never came up. This was the first I’d heard about any attempt to kill Meraux.
“I should tell you,” he started again, “that you’ll probably never see Hunter again.”
I felt sick. It was a good thing I was sitting, or I might’ve fallen down. Was he saying that Hunter was dead? Tears were welling up in my eyes.
“I can send him a message, if you’d like—before he’s gone.” The smirk was still there.
“What’s wrong with you? Do you get a kick out of this? Hunter never did anything wrong. He didn’t shoot that general.”
“Hey, if I had it my way, things would be different. I hate all these politics just as much as you do. You have to understand that the military is just trying to protect their secret.”
He sure didn’t look like he hated the politics. He looked like he was having the time of his life, the heartless pig.
“I don’t care about your damned secrets,” I said, wiping the tears from my cheeks again, just to have them soaked again within seconds. “I want to see Hunter.”
“Yeah, sadly, you can’t. I can’t even get a hold of him. They don’t let the patients at the rehab facility take calls.” Training center, rehab facility, even he knew it was all crap. “But, you never know these days. Since ‘Nam, the media’s been pretty powerful.”
I looked up at him and he was looking down at me, smirking lips pressed thin. “What are you saying?” I said.
“Oh, you know. With the internet and whatnot, people start asking questions and the military doesn’t like the attention. If they can put out a fire before it gets out of control, they will.”
I stared into his eyes. “Is Hunter dead or not?” I asked slowly.
“Dead? No. He’s training new recruits in Georgia,” Matthew said. He bit his lip as if to hold back a laughing fit. “If they killed Hunter—could you imagine the headlines? Hunter’s a War Hero. America loves a War Hero, especially a controversial War Hero.” Matthew slipped his cigarettes into his coat pocket and nodded his head. “It was nice talking with you, Ms Rose.” He turned and started to walk away.
“Wait,” I said.
He stopped and looked back, waiting for me to continue.
“Why did they want Meraux dead?” I asked.
He smiled. “You look stressed out, Ms Rose. Why don’t you take a little vacation?”
“Tell me,” I said.
“Get your nails done, get a massage, go spend a few nights at the cabin.” He turned and walked away.
My head was spinning. When the military lawyer disappeared around the corner, I began to wonder if I’d dreamt the whole thing.
Matthew was telling me to go to the press and publically announce military secrets—secrets that Hunter wouldn’t even mention in private.
But before I could do that, I needed the final piece of the puzzle. I needed to know why they put the hit out on Lieutenant Meraux. I needed to know what Meraux found that was so shocking that he went into hiding—that the government was willing to pay millions of dollars to track him down over—and risk major controversy and backlash over.
But that wasn’t all Matthew was telling me to do.
He was also telling me to lie, to humiliate myself in front of the whole world. I was picked to play the role of Judas, to martyr myself in the name of some ideology. At least Judas believed in his ideology. I would tell the world that the government killed Hunter to cover up some
controversial secret, then they would release Hunter and say no, not only is Hunter is fine but that woman just slandered America’s most beloved troops! In case that wasn’t bad enough, I would have to admit that I was never in Kansas City, that I was actually with Hunter at the cabin, while Liam, an ex-Marine himself, was oblivious at home.
And if I didn’t, Hunter would probably die.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
They flew me three states over, to a high security base somewhere in Nevada. The base was so high security, it didn’t even have a name. The pilot of the plane simply referred to it as “Panda Field,” which made no sense, as there were no pandas or fields anywhere in sight. Just desert, hangars, and barbed-wire fences.
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