“Ah, you prefer English. Sorry, I assumed.”
Something about his voice gave me the urge to tell him how Mamá insisted on it at home. Then, I realized he still hadn’t answered my question.
“I’m trying to reach Calix Black,” I said.
“Calix Black.” The man clicked his tongue. “Such an ironic name. But I guess the world is full of such ironies. Hitler wasn’t blue-eyed or blond, you know.”
I was all ready to switch back into Spanish for an injection of swearing. Then, I realized what I’d just heard. This guy knew about Calix and his biker gang. Should the army know about that?
“Sorry,” I said. “What’s your position again?”
“Ah, where are my manners before such a beautiful voice. I’m Carlos Montego. I head up the military police at Fort McPherson.”
A sinking feeling joined the ache in my stomach. But I managed to keep my voice level. “Why am I talking to you?”
“The question is really why are we talking now and not sooner? And the answer is that I screwed up my duties. If I had talked to you directly instead of letting that hospital conduct its internal processes, this whole mess might have been solved sooner.”
“What whole mess?”
He laughed cheerfully. “Ms. Perez, I’ve interrogated some of the roughest criminals on the planet. Let’s not waste time shall we? I know about the keycard. I know about the gunshot. I know about the gangs. I know everything.”
My breath went out. I was sure he had heard that too. “Oh.”
“I would ask you some questions now to confirm, but they’re not even necessary. Mr. Black confessed everything.”
“What?” I yelled.
“Ah, that livened you up, huh? Yes, he sat down before me this morning. He admitted he was shot on his way to help his old club transport drugs. He told me how he stole the card from you to get the bullet. He even told me how he tricked you into taking it back.”
I heaved in the parking lot, trying to process all this. He had told the base the whole truth about how we met?
“Don’t worry,” Montego said. “None of this affects you at the hospital. Our military investigations are separate from any civilian questions. Personally, I get why you lied. It was clear how the, uh, circumstances under which the card was returned would make you look more guilty than you actually were.”
I blushed. My head was spinning. “Why is he telling you all of this?” I said.
“That’s what a full confession entails, Ms. Perez. Plus, he didn’t have much choice. The tape doesn’t make sense without some personal involvement.”
“Tape? What tape?”
“Ah, yes. The one that a Dr. Lem Sygard sent this morning.”
My heart pounded in my chest. What the hell had that bastard done? I remembered Calix’s voice though, the soft detached way with which he had said. “Nothing I hadn’t already lost.”
Oh, god, Calix, what did you do for me?
“Could I hear this tape?” I said.
“I don’t generally play criminal evidence over the phone for civilians.”
My eyes darted to the edge of the parking lot. A taxi was dropping someone off.
“What about in person?” I said. “What if I came in?”
Even his breath seemed to smile. “You want to come into the middle of a military investigation?”
“Yes.”
“I can show it to you. I do have a few questions about it. ”
“That’s fine.”
He snorted. “I really should have called you earlier. Yeah, come in tomorrow.”
“How about now?”
For the first time, his voice rose. “Right now?”
“I can be there in twenty five minutes.”
I heard him tap something. “Yeah, that should be fine.”
“I’ll see you then.” I nearly hung up, when I remembered the point of all this. “Wait, is Calix there? Can I see him?”
“He’s being kept in confinement till his tribunal.”
“No visitation rights?”
“It’s not a conjugal trailer, I’m afraid.”
“That’s not what I meant. Can I see him or not?”
He sighed. “We’ll see.”
I should have been upset to hear that, but even the chance of seeing Calix shoved out everything else in my head.
I hung up and rushed to grab the ride before anyone else could. The whole way over I tried to imagine what Lem could have done to Calix. The sneaky bastard had left a poison even in his wake. Had he gone after Calix, just cause he couldn’t get to me? He had no reason but spite.
I arrived at the base entrance. The guard checked in and called for an escort. He led me through yards and buildings that could have been any office campus if not for the guys in uniform posted everywhere, carrying wicked black rifles. The whole place had a smoky, sulfur scent to it.
The escort led me to a one story office for the military police, and took me all the way through to Carlos’s office. He looked just as slick as his voice, long and tan with cropped dark hair squared on top.
I gave him the full truth about the bullet. It occurred to me that this might all be a trick, but he seemed to know the information anyway. It felt like small potatoes compared to what Calix had confessed to.
In return, Carlos played the tape. I listened to Lem’s long, soft voice and Calix’s sparse, deep one trade words as the microphone itched against fabric. It must have been hidden. Calix had never seen it coming.
I remembered the officer watching me and stayed still, even as I heard Calix reveal dangerous truths and even worse lies.
But the things Lem said were outright disgusting. He sounded like he already owned me. It was lucky I hadn’t eaten in hours.
“What exactly was the arrangement that this doctor had with you?” Carlos asked after the tape ended.
“You don’t know?” I said. “I thought you knew everything.”
“It’s not exactly relevant to Calix’s case.” His mouth tightened. “But I can guess.”
“It’s exactly that,” I said. “He was blackmailing me into his bed with a lie.”
Carlos’s face went very dark, and I heard him swear viciously under his breath. “There are grounds from a civilian case against him here. Your involvement would be brought up, but the jury would easily side with you.”
“No,” I said. “No, he left. I just never want to see him again.”
Carlos raised his brow. “He left?”
I stared at the speaker. “Don’t you see what that tape is? Calix was just trying to get him get him away from me. He’s not involved in any of that gang stuff anymore. You think I’m going to be dating a racist?”
Carlos bent in to the table. “Don’t try to bullshit me just cause I have a heart. Calix confessed. His involvement with the Storm’s Soldiers is real. We already got spent shells from the warehouse where he got shot.”
“Yeah, so he got shot, but that doesn’t make him a criminal. Did you find anything else there?”
I had been asking to find out for myself, but Carlos’s rage flattened out. “Just cause there was nothing left doesn’t mean there was nothing there. We have a team casing the site for residue.”
I knew nothing about the law, definitely not military law. But Carlos’s doubt was easy to read off his face. I couldn’t see any harm in adding to it.
“You know he was with me most nights the last two weeks,” I said. “There’s no way he was involved in anything then, and I guess he was at base most of the day.”
Carlos shook his head and stood. “Stealing the bullet and threatening a civilian are plenty big as crimes. The rest is just icing.”
“Well, that’s going to be a pretty bland cake you’re making then.” I stood. “Now, can I go see the man who kept me from becoming a sex slave?”
He looked me over like I had just become a suspect. Maybe I had, but I owed Calix whatever little doubt I could raise. After what I had just heard him do, I owed him eve
rything.
“Fine, go see him,” Carlos said.
He called one of his men and took me to the door, but before he let me out, he held my shoulder a moment.
“You are being monitored in there. “So be careful.”
This seemed like a thing he didn’t have to say. “Thanks,” I said.
He nodded, his face still dark as the falling night. At least he understood Calix better now. It might not save him from what he had done, but it might be worth something.
I’d expected the guard to take me to some barred jail cell or underground dungeon. Instead they took me to a small bungalow, manned by two soldiers in MP hats. They patted me down, then opened the door.
Calix was reclined on a cot on the far end. He had on army pants and a white t-shirt, nothing to mark him as any prisoner. His eyes were shut and his broad chest rose and fell with deep gusts. But he wasn’t asleep. His knees were bent up and one leg was crossed over the other.
He looked like a mountain range, something sturdy and soft to climb into.
His eyes parted and they turned to me.
“Rosa?” He popped awake and turned to a seat on the edge of the cot. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh Calix.” I went over and cupped his face with my hands. “What are you doing here?”
He nuzzled into my grip, the high cut of his cheek carving deeper into me. “I’m doing what had to be done.”
“Like this?” I looked up for the cameras. The corners of the room seemed to hold little black orbs. This place was fully monitored.
Calix gripped my arms and pulled them away. “It was the right thing,” he said. “I was tired of holding the lies. Setting them free to help you was a bonus.”
He looked up at me, curious. I realized he didn’t know what had happened.
“It worked,” I said. “Lem already left the city.”
He erupted into a magnificent smile. I forgot how rare it was to see those. It was all I could do not to kiss him, to descend on him.
“You were lying to him, though,” I said. “You’re not with the Storm’s Soldiers anymore right?”
He shrugged. “People believe what they believe if you look a certain way.”
“But you’re not,” I said, looking up to the cameras. “He is not with the gang.”
Calix yanked me back towards him. “No, I am very far from them. I am far enough to answer your question.”
“My question?”
His face went serious. “I am not a white nationalist. I have not been for some time.”
I looked at the blank expresssion on his face. I had forgotten what had even made me ask him. It had made so much sense then, but what kind of nationalist would fight this hard for me? What kind would even fall for me?
Just cause he couldn’t put it in words didn’t me he didn’t feel it in his heart.
But he was waiting for my response. He wanted to see if it was enough.
As if he didn’t know the answer to that either.
I sat on his lap, wrapped my arms around him and sank deep into a kiss. His mouth tasted like mint, and then his flavor was fresh and thick on me. He hugged me tight to him, and I felt safe in his grip, like I had never left.
Let the cameras see me. Let the men call me crazy. They hadn’t seen what I’d seen. They didn’t know this man like I did.
He was sturdy around me, but he wasn’t too rigid to change his views. I wanted him, but I wanted him free first. We lay down together.
I pulled slightly away and teased his lips with a finger. “So you can finally admit it, huh?”
“You’re the first person I have told.” He smiled off at some deep distant thought. “But there’s one more person that needs to hear.”
“Your dad?”
His broad mouth went unexpectedly flat.
“Two people.”
CHAPTER TEN
Calix
The investigation wrapped up within days. The tribunal’s justice worked swift. Their judgments tended to lean harsh.
I still got far less than I expected.
All they could pin on me was dereliction of duty and criminal intimidation of a civilian. The felony-level charges were not proved. Despite confessing what earned me the bullet, the sweep teams found no drug residue at the facility. The only blood at the scene was mine. The Storm’s Soldiers had taken to drug trafficking better than they ever did to white nationalism.
A civilian court would have pressed for a full felony charge. The evidence of gunfire and the Soldiers’ involvement could have been built into enough proof for a dishonorable discharge with time in detention. But that would take time. The tribunal seemed keen on not spending it.
In truth, it seemed like Montego held back. He still growled at me in the defendant’s seat, but his eyes didn’t radiate that old hate. He wanted me out, but he didn’t want me buried.
The only reason I could imagine for that was Rosa.
In the end, I was discharged with a less-than-honorable distinction. It was better than dishonorable. I faced no jail time. I could keep my medals.
But they still stripped me of my rank. They took my uniform. They withheld income I was owed and revoked my veteran status. Then they marched me off the base.
I bore it all with silence. None of this was unearned. Rosa might have forgiven me, but the US military could not afford her kindness. There were too many lives at risk for that.
I even saw the good in it for me. I needed a new start, free from my past.
But as I waited for my taxi outside, looking out at a flat expanse of Georgia brushland, I had nothing to do but listen to the distant sounds of another brotherhood I had lost. Beyond the fence, whistles pierced the air. Gun fire chattered faint in the distance.
Men’s voice chanted in unison, rising and falling as they approached and passed somewhere behind me. Some instructor might be making new arrivals runs laps. Perhaps they had earned it, perhaps they had not it. It didn’t matter. If they were lucky, a few of those recruits would one day gleam the exercise’s purpose.
Trouble found you whether you earned it or not. Nothing forged a bond better than sharing that misery.
I had learned that lesson long before I arrived, but I had appreciated it best here.
I watched a green munitions truck roll in past the base entrance. Both soldiers working the gate had been trained under me, but they did not even regard my presence as they let it in. Their world wanted nothing to do with mine.
Still, when the pedestrian gate behind me creaked open a minute later, my breath caught. I glanced back and saw Dennis come out. He lit towards me with a great grin.
“Thank god I didn’t come all this way for nothing,” he said.
Just the sight of him in his drab olive fatigues made me feel a sudden amiable warmth.
“I’m not sure you’re right in that assessment,” I said.
He made a show of looking me over. I only had on a white undershirt, jeans and a couple duffel bags containing my personals. It felt close to naked. Dennis shook his head.
“Na man, you ain’t nothing. You still you. Where’s that bike of yours though?”
“Can’t hold all this,” I said, hefting my arms.
In truth, I’d parked it back in the city again to keep it from being confiscated. It was the one piece of my time in the Storm’s Soldiers that I still had any pride in. I wanted it waiting for me far away from here.
“I see. And you got more than what’s in your arms right? You’ll be ok out there?”
“I’ll be ok. Saved plenty while overseas.” I sighed. “But leaving this is harder than I expected. I’ll find something to do, but I don’t know if it can match the service.”
“Not many things can.” Dennis shook his head, thoughtfully. “It’s true what you said right?”
“I’ve said a lot of things.”
“I mean your closing statements in front of the tribunal. The bit about regretting choosing the wrong brotherhood to support against your c
onscience.”
“Who told you about that?” Only people directly involved with me had been allowed in my tribunal. Dennis had not been called.
“Sgt. Lilton. He was at the trial.”
“Oh.” I remembered Lilton’s staunch defense of my work on base. “Yeah, it’s true.”
He nodded off at the landscape. “I figured as much.”
We both looked out in silence a while. I didn’t know what he came out here to do. I didn’t know if I could handle it. Even this simple act - standing beside a man I had bled with - was quickly forming a lump at my throat.
A bright yellow dot blurred into view far down the road. The taxi started coming down the long stretch toward us.
“You know what you’re doing next?” Dennis asked.
“Figuring out who’ll have me,” I said. “The terms of the discharge will make things difficult, but it’s not unearned.”
“No. But neither is that Purple Heart.”
I looked at him and saw the deep reverence on his face. “The tribunal was right about that. It’s not enough to make up for what I did. Even if I were the hero you think I am, that still wouldn’t be enough.”
Dennis’s look sharpened. “You know, man, I joined to become a hero. Half my uncles served. Both my grandpas did - one in Vietnam, one in Korea. The stories they would tell, you wouldn’t believe them. And the guys in them? Larger than life.”
He shook his head. “There are heroes, but they’re not something other than human. Some beat their kids. Others get blind drunk. They got flaws just like the rest of us. Just cause you fucked up here doesn’t mean you’re not a hero somewhere else.”
I hung my head. I could not accept his faith, but I couldn’t face it either. “If I was ever anything, it was because I was inspired by the men around me.”
The taxi was almost here. I didn’t know what else to say. There was no time to say it anyway. I wanted to apologize to Dennis, to say I was sorry for letting him down. But that sentimentality would have been rebuffed. It was beneath both of us.
Instead, I simply said. “It was an honor to have served with you.”
“The honor was all mine.”
We turned face to face and saluted each other sharply. Dennis had a grim look, his smooth, brow fighting to remain unwrinkled. I felt the same difficulty overcome me.
Little Dark Secret (Storm's Soldier Book 2) Page 9
