Kassie choked on the punch she’d been drinking. She looked at Emily with wide eyes. This was Emily? The Emily? “Is your name Emily Grant?” she asked.
Everyone’s eyes turned to her as Emily responded.
“It was. Now it’s Emily Fletcher. I got married a couple weeks ago.”
Kassie’s mind whirled. She’d known this group of men were the ones Richard hated, but it hadn’t really solidified in her mind. She’d pictured them as more redneck, rougher, more assholey. But they’d all been really nice to her so far. She couldn’t reconcile Richard and Dean’s rants against them with the men standing in front of her now.
“Do you know her?” Fletch asked in confusion.
Kassie quickly shook her head. “No, not really. But I read about you in the paper,” she said, trying to come up with a reason that would make sense to these men on how she might know Emily’s last name.
“Damn papers,” Fletch grumbled.
Emily smiled a bit ruefully. “Yeah, I never thought I’d ever be famous. And certainly not for being kidnapped by a psychotic soldier.”
“But, you’re okay? You and your daughter?” Kassie asked, needing to know.
Emily nodded. “Yeah, we’re both great. Annie thought it was an exciting adventure. I hate that it happened at all, but thank God my daughter is resilient and more adventurous than skittish.”
“Good,” Kassie said in a heartfelt tone. The more she got to know the men and women around her, the more her anxiety rose. If they knew why she was there, they’d hate her. And that thought was becoming more and more abhorrent.
A chime rang throughout the room and the men all looked toward the door.
“It’s time for the receiving line,” Blade said.
“Good. It’s my favorite part of the evening,” Coach said, putting his arm around Harley.
Kassie stiffened. God. The receiving line. Images of what Richard had made her do swam through her brain. Once again, because of her research, she knew his version was perverted and twisted, but she couldn’t help shuttering when she thought about it.
“It’s not as bad as you think,” Hollywood whispered into her ear as he gently took the now-empty cup from her hand and placed it on a nearby table. “I’ll be right next to you the whole time.”
Everyone started walking toward the doors and Hollywood pulled Kassie with him. Her mind went back to that night in Richard’s apartment.
They exited the room into the lobby, where a line had formed headed into a second, larger ballroom. After going through the receiving line, they’d have dinner…if Kassie could force anything into her stomach. She was nervous and unsure about everything going on around her.
“You’re really tense. Are you okay?” Hollywood asked quietly as he leaned down and spoke next to her ear.
Kassie nodded tersely.
“I don’t think you are,” Hollywood countered, and once again turned her so she was facing him. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Kassie,” he warned.
“I just…I’ve had a bad experience with a receiving line,” she blurted out.
“Christ,” Hollywood muttered. “What did that asshole make you do at his so-called fucking ball this time?”
Beatle and Blade were standing on either side of them, and Kassie didn’t really want to admit what Richard had made her do. She pressed her lips together nervously then finally said, trying to joke, “What do they say? When you’re nervous, try to picture everyone standing in their underwear?”
Hollywood sighed, as if he realized she wasn’t going to tell him what had happened with her ex. “That’s when you’re about to give a speech, Kass. The receiving line is another tradition that goes back a long way. It’s annoying and somewhat archaic, but it’s nothing to be afraid of. We’ll tell the attendant our names, and he’ll announce us. Then we’ll walk down the line of the highest-ranking officers and non-commissioned officers who are attending tonight. You’ll shake their hands, say hello, and move on. That’s it. That’s all that’s going to happen.”
“I know.” She did. But it didn’t stop the memories from flicking through her brain.
“What did he make you do?”
She licked her lips nervously, but didn’t answer. If she’d thought she was embarrassed back then, it was nothing compared to the thought of admitting to Hollywood what Richard had made her do.
“Tell me so I can reassure you, and you can get that wide-eyed look of consternation off your face. I hate it, sweetheart. I hate that this is freaking you out. Do you want to leave? We can totally go. In fact, I think we will. Beatle, tell Ghost that—”
“He made me kiss all his friends as I went down the line.” Kassie blurted out.
Hollywood looked her with such an expression of horror on his face that she hurried to joke, “I know that’s not what’s going to happen tonight. I mean, can you imagine what the men would look like with all that lipstick on their faces by the time it was over?”
“When you say kiss, what do you mean?” Hollywood asked in a lethal tone. “Like on the cheek?”
Kassie shook her head.
“A peck on the lips?”
She shook her head again and bit her lip. He was really pissed. She should’ve kept her mouth shut.
“Let me get this straight. He made you go through a line of his friends and make out with them? When he was standing right there? What the fuck is wrong with him?”
Hollywood’s voice had risen enough so Blade and Beatle easily heard him. Kassie glanced at their faces and winced. They looked equally horrified.
He turned to Blade and said tersely, “We’ll be back.” Then he grabbed hold of Kassie’s hand and towed her toward the front of the line.
Panicked, Kassie tugged on her hand, but he wasn’t letting go. “Hollywood, please, I know it’s not true, he’s an asshole and…” Her voice trailed off when he pushed past the people waiting at the doorway to the ballroom and pulled her to the side against the wall. He leaned against it and pulled her so that her back was to his front. He put both arms around her belly, and held her tightly against him.
Then he leaned over until his chin rested on her shoulder and he said in her ear. “Watch, Kass. This is what the receiving line at an Army Ball is like. What a real one is like, not what your ex made you do.”
Without a word, eyes huge, Kassie watched. Couples and single soldiers alike would introduce themselves to the attendant at the front of the line, and he would in turn say their name when they greeted the first person in the line. Then they walked down it, shaking hands with each person. No one lingered. No one kissed anyone else. Everyone was smiling and polite. It was exactly like what she’d seen online.
Feeling humiliated once more at what she’d admitted to Hollywood and what Richard had made her do, Kassie’s entire body shook. Hollywood tightened his arms around her, keeping her from breaking into a million mortified pieces at his feet.
Putting his lips at her ear once again, Hollywood said softly, his warm breath sending shivers through her body as it wafted against her sensitive ear, “It’s obvious everything that asshole of an ex told you and made you go through was complete bullshit. He used and abused you—and that is not acceptable. No way in hell. I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m glad you were smart enough to go online and find out what a real ball is about, but I’m still sorry you had to go through what you did in the first place. The Army is about respect, sweetheart. Yeah, we can be outspoken assholes, but traditions are meant to honor those who came before us. Not to demean and insult.”
He took a breath and ran his nose gently up the side of her neck, just as she’d done to him earlier. Kassie heard him inhale deeply before he continued. “There’s no way in hell I’d let anyone treat you with disrespect. When you’re with me, no one will touch you. No one will kiss you. And I certainly wouldn’t stand next to you and let it happen in the first place. I’m kinda possessive when it comes to my girlfriends. I don’t shar
e. I’d never share you.” He pulled back and turned her in his arms.
Kassie felt her heart beating way too fast, but she liked being in Hollywood’s arms. Instead of feeling trapped, as she had in Richard’s, she felt protected and safe.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead gently before asking, “You okay?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to keep freaking out on you.”
“I don’t blame you. If I’d been through what you obviously have, I’d be freaking too. But trust me when I say that nothing that happens tonight is going to embarrass or humiliate you. We’re going to eat, then there will be speeches that will probably bore you to tears. There will be toasts to the Army, Fort Hood, and our units. Then there will be dancing. Nice, respectable dancing. No one will have to take their clothes off. Okay?”
Kassie knew he was trying to make a joke, and she appreciated it. “Darn, and I wore my pasties and everything.”
He grinned and shook his head in amusement. He ran his index finger down her nose and said simply, “If you’re concerned about anything, just ask me about it. I won’t laugh.”
“I will. Although you do know that if something is on the Internet, it has to be true. I can’t wait for the parade of lions, tigers, and bears that are supposed to come at the end of every Army Ball.”
The look on Hollywood’s face was priceless, as if he hoped she was kidding, but wasn’t one hundred percent sure. Kassie tried to keep a straight face, but couldn’t. Her lips twitched and she bit her lip to keep her smile from escaping.
“Jeez,” Hollywood breathed. “I thought you were serious for a second. I can see I’m gonna have to stay on my toes around you.”
“I have a tendency to joke when I’m nervous,” Kassie told him. “I’ll try to curb it.”
“Don’t. I like it,” he told her, leaning down and kissing her once more on the forehead. He took her hand in his own again and headed back through the doors to their spot in line.
“All okay?” Truck asked when they returned.
“Yup,” Hollywood said.
“Do I want to know what her asshole ex did with the receiving line?”
“Nope,” Hollywood answered succinctly.
“I’ll tell you later,” Blade told Truck, sounding pissed.
Kassie blushed and bit her lip nervously. Man, these guys had to think she was a complete idiot. She refrained from making a bad joke…barely.
They shuffled along in the line until it was their turn. Kassie watched carefully as Harley, Rayne, Emily, and their men went through the line. Then it was Blade, Truck, and Beatle’s turn.
“Just keep breathing, sweetheart,” Hollywood murmured before he gave the attendant their names.
Before she knew it, they were through the line and it was done. Hollywood kept his hand on the small of her back the entire time, giving her the support she didn’t know she needed to keep her memories at bay.
“Where do you want to sit?” Rayne asked no one in particular. Ghost led their group to a table at the outer edge of the room.
Following everyone’s lead, Kassie stayed standing next to her seat. As the ballroom filled up and it got noisier, she leaned into Hollywood and asked, “Why are we all still standing?”
Without telling her she was stupid for asking, or belittling her, Hollywood simply answered her question. “We’re following the lead of the ladies at the head table. It’s considered rude to sit before them.”
“Oh,” Kassie said. At Richard’s gathering, she’d had to serve the men, and because that hadn’t seemed weird to her—he always made her serve him and he ate first—she hadn’t researched it.
Finally, the women at the head of the room sat, and the men at their table held out the chairs for them. Kassie smiled up at Hollywood and carefully sat. He immediately pulled out his own chair and settled himself next to her.
Kassie picked up the program on the table and followed along as the night commenced. First they all stood as the colors were presented. They stayed standing for the invocation and as several toasts were made.
Then a spotlight came on over a table near the front of the room. It had a white tablecloth and there was a single red rose in a vase with a yellow ribbon tied around the top. A place setting with an upside down glass, a single candle, and an empty chair completed the setup.
The lights dimmed and a man at the front of the room began to speak.
“The cloth is white—symbolizing the purity of their motives when answering the call to serve.
The single red rose reminds us of the lives of these Americans…and their loved ones and friends who keep the faith, while seeking answers.
The yellow ribbon symbolizes our continued uncertainty, hope for their return and determination to account for them.
A slice of lemon reminds us of their bitter fate, captured and missing in a foreign land.
A pinch of salt symbolizes the tears of our missing and their families—who long for answers after decades of uncertainty.
The lighted candle reflects our hope for their return—alive or dead.
The glass is inverted—to symbolize their inability to share a toast.
The chair is empty—they are missing. A moment of silence for the lost heroes.”
No one moved in the large ballroom. No one coughed, nor said a word. After a few moments, the man at the podium spoke once more.
“Let us now raise our water glasses in a toast to honor America’s POW/MIAs, to the success of our efforts to account for them, and to the safety of all now serving our nation.”
Everyone in the room raised a glass and toasted to the missing men and women—and Kassie closed her eyes to hold back the emotion she was feeling.
She felt a hand on her thigh and turned to face Hollywood.
He didn’t say anything, but stared at her as if he could read her mind. As if he knew the awful thing Richard had done. And as if compelled to tell him, Kassie said, “Before we ate at my ex’s get-together, he called it the ‘traitor table.’ He said the white tablecloth is there because it more easily shows the blood that fell because of his actions, the empty plate is because he doesn’t deserve to eat, the rose represents the tears of the women and children who weep for their loved one, the yellow ribbon is for revenge, and the empty chair is because he doesn’t deserve to sit at the table with civilized society.”
The anger in Hollywood’s eyes was piercing in its intensity, but Kassie knew it wasn’t directed at her.
“By this point in his stupid event, I knew he was whacked. Everyone knows what a yellow ribbon symbolizes. They’d have to be an idiot not to. When I was researching formal Army events the next day, I found a picture of the exact table he called the traitor table, and read the words the man here just said.”
She paused and looked back up at the front, toward the heartbreaking symbolism of the empty table. “It was much more beautiful read aloud tonight,” she whispered.
The speeches continued, but Kassie couldn’t pay attention. She felt Hollywood lean into her and once again his lips were at her ear as he spoke.
“I wish I could have one minute alone with your ex. Kassie, he deliberately bastardized the most honored traditions of the Army.”
“I’m embarrassed I stayed with him as long as I did.”
“You have nothing to be embarrassed about. He’s the one who should be about what he did. Embarrassed and ashamed.”
“I’m sorry about the traitor thing,” she mumbled. “Even though I knew it couldn’t be true, he made it sound so believable.”
Hollywood brought a finger up to her chin and turned her until she was facing him. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. He might’ve made it sound believable, but you were smart enough to still know something was wrong and research it yourself.”
Without another word, Hollywood’s mouth came down on hers, and he gave her the sweetest kiss she’d ever had. It was just a brief touch of his lips to hers, but it was the most intimate kiss she’d ever received.
<
br /> Kassie stared up at him with wide eyes, her breaths coming fast and hard.
“Now you know.”
She nodded and licked her lips. Kassie swore she could taste Hollywood on them, but that was stupid, he hadn’t even really kissed her.
His eyes went to her lips and she saw his pupils dilate.
Good. Lord. She, Kassie Anderson, was turning this man on. This beautiful man who could have any woman in the room. She had no idea what to do with that.
Everyone around them repeated a toast, shaking them both out of the moment. Kassie turned and raised her water glass, having no idea what or who they were toasting now, but going with it nonetheless.
How this night was both the worst and best one of her life was something Kassie would never understand, but it was. It seemed as if Hollywood liked her, really liked her, and she cared about him right back. He was understanding, sweet, funny, gentlemanly, hot, and he’d kissed her. But she was only there because Richard wanted information about the men and women sitting at the table that he could use against them. She didn’t know what he wanted to do to them, but if kidnapping a woman and child wasn’t enough, she didn’t want to know what he had planned.
Making the decision right then as the servers began to bring out plates of food, Kassie knew she had to come clean to Hollywood before the end of the night. She couldn’t in good conscience continue any relationship they might have with this big secret between them.
He wouldn’t be happy, she knew that. But hopefully after he heard why she’d done it, he’d understand.
She smiled over at him, somehow thankful that her ex-boyfriend had blackmailed her into messaging the soldier sitting next to her.
Chapter 6
Hollywood smiled down at the woman in his arms. Somehow, after the misunderstanding at the beginning of the night, things had calmed down once the meal started. He couldn’t believe she’d agreed to come to the ball with him after her experience with her ex. What a douchenugget.
Rescuing Kassie: Delta Force Heroes, Book 5 Page 6
