Before Sunrise (9 page)

Liam first saw her at a house party and
thought she was just another snot-nosed bitch. Until she smiled at
him. Her smile forced him to cross the room despite himself. Back
then he had little respect for anything, least of all women,
something he’d learned at his stepfather’s knee. He’d watched years
of abuse heaped on his mother. But Kennedy had been different. Her
love and trust for him made him different. She looked at him like
no other girl ever did, like he was some kind of hero. Silly as it
sounded, he needed someone to believe in him.

One night at a party in the
Hamptons, she got close to him. Real close to him. And he forgot
this girl wasn’t an option. He looked down into those big brown
eyes of hers and lost himself. She gave herself to him. Told him
she loved him no matter what anybody thought about their
differences in race or class. Said she would be
his
girl. And it didn’t take him long
to believe. Maybe she could fall for another man, maybe. With any
other man he’d try to understand—maybe. But not this man, God help
him, any man but this man.

“
She fell in love with Phil
Freeman?” He repeated the words as if pronouncing a foreign
language.

“
Brother, listen to me.”
Eric shot Alexa a withering glare. “They just got married last
year. She didn’t believe us when we said you were dead. She almost
lost her mind. She started saying she talked to you in her dreams.
She even turned away from her faith. She met with psychics to find
proof you were alive. She didn’t give up until we intervened and
convinced her to. We practically forced her to. She only recently
moved on. Do you understand? Kennedy loves you.”

“
She married that fuck!”
Liam spat.

Eric shook his head “Only a year ago, man.
He was just…there. Fuck. Fuck.”

“
I never stopped believing
you were alive,” Alexa said softly.

Eric shot her a look and put his huge hand
down on the table, like he’d use it for leverage if he needed to.
Alexa glared.

“
Liam, man, you have to
understand what happened when you died.”

“
Oh, I fucking get it,” he
said through clenched teeth. “You got your bars and that
motherfucker got Kennedy. This is what I gave my life for? THIS
SHIT? You swore to me you would protect Kennedy. All of you. And
what you do? Sit back and hand her off to that…creeping bastard. To
that—” Liam began to wheeze. The overexertion left his head
swimming. He wanted to turn the table over. Punch and gut every
motherfucker in sight, starting with the three friends who sat back
and watched his life go up in flames. But he couldn’t even stand
without help. He couldn’t even speak. There was no air.

“
I told you both we
shouldn’t have told him. I told you,” Alexa said.

“
Shut up,” Liam snarled.
“You never gave a shit about Kay. This is exactly what you
wanted.”

“
That’s not
true—”

“
SHUT UP!” he
shouted.

He could give a pointed shit about their
rank. All of their staring faces made him dream of murder. He
wanted to snap something, namely Alex’s slender neck. Liam closed
his eyes. In his head he heard the screams and whimpers of the
other POWs. He remembered telling them it would pass, that one day
they’d be free again. Their suffering would only be temporary. He
could smell the blood, his own blood as it ran down his back and
chest, and mixed with the piss and the shit caked to the dirt floor
of their prison. He wanted to scream.

“
Liam? Are you okay?” Alexa
asked with a shaky voice.

He forced the door shut in his mind. The
madness couldn’t overtake him. Not now. He couldn’t give in just
yet. He leveled his hooded gaze on her. “The fucking marriage ain’t
legal. She’s my fucking wife. Hell, I was MIA, it’s just been five
years, she can’t remarry—”

“
You were KIA, Liam,” Alexa
reminded him.

“
AM I FUCKING
DEAD?”

Alexa withdrew. Liam couldn’t take another
minute. If there were a weapon near him he couldn’t be sure what
he’d do: take one of their lives, or even his own. He grabbed for
his crutches with shaky hands. The idea of Phil Freeman touching
Kennedy, holding her, laughing at him and mocking everything he
shared with her… it became too much to bear.

“
Wait, Liam, wait.” Alexa
rose.

“
Stay the fuck away from
me,” he wheezed. Liam managed to summon enough strength to stand.
To be a man. Everyone stood, tense, hands up and out, but no one
dared move. Liam braved one last look at Kennedy in Phil’s
arms.
Before sunrise my
ass
.
You gave up
on me
. They should have left him in that
fucking hole and let him die with his memory of their love. It was
all he had.

As he limped out to the passageway, he
glared at the linoleum floor. He let go a bitter laugh. In his
darkest moments over the years he thought there would be hope
outside of his hell. Now he knew the only hope he had was buried
with him in that fucking desert.

***

“
Mommy? I don’t want to take
a bath.” Mackenzie stood in the doorway of the hall bathroom
wearing nothing but her flowery underpants.

Kennedy walked up the hall. Since when had
this become a democracy? “Why, Mac? Why don’t you want to take a
bath?”

“
Because Auntie Harper lets
me take showers.” She pointed behind Kennedy to the shower
enclosure. Mac’s crinkly, bushy hair almost reached the middle of
her back. Kennedy grabbed a banana clip from the sink and pinned
the wildness to her daughter’s head. Mackenzie swatted at her
mother’s hands.

“
We agreed no more showers
at Harper’s, missy.”

Mackenzie pouted. Kennedy walked her over to
the tub and rolled her undies down. She set her in the tub. The
phone rang and Kennedy’s head shot up. Phil would be telling her he
expected to work all night again, all the more reason not to bother
answering. Besides, she couldn’t leave Mac. Even if nothing
dangerous happened, by the time Kennedy got back, there would be
more water on the outside of the tub than the inside. She decided
to let it go to voicemail.

“
Okay…stand up,” Kennedy
said. She rolled up her sleeves and got down to the business of
scrubbing and rinsing Mac’s little body. Mackenzie talked a mile a
minute. Kennedy’s mind drifted to unpaid bills and work
obligations. Before she knew it, her daughter began to stomp in the
tub, sending water everywhere. “Mac! Enough, baby!” she cried,
shaking her head and laughing with her.

***

Liam handed the satellite phone back to
Eric. “She didn’t answer.”

“
Well, it’s best you see her
in person anyway.”

“
Right,” Liam
mumbled.

“
Hey, bro, I know what
you’re going through.”

Liam cut his friend a look. He saw Eric drop
his shaved head in shame. “What I mean is, I know how you and
Kennedy felt about each other. Fuck, I might lose a bar my outburst
in there. Alexa is full of shit. Kennedy never gave up on you. She
didn’t, brother. Go home and get your family. You didn’t survive
hell to give up now.”

“
How could she marry him?
Were they fucking around behind my back?”

“
You know Kennedy better
than that.”

“
Correction, I knew her. The
woman I loved wouldn’t do this. If I’d lost her or believed she was
dead, I’d never fucking replace her.”

Eric pressed his lips together, unable to
counter his argument. Liam might be a dick on many counts, but when
it came to his woman he was one hundred percent. No man or woman
who knew him questioned his love and devotion for Kennedy. Eric’s
silence spurred Liam on.

“
Four years or four minutes,
it doesn’t matter. She spread her legs for him. When I think of
Phil touching her, I want to kill them both. Fuck it. Fuck
it.”

“
Word of advice,” Eric said.
“I sincerely hope you are not going home to her with that attitude.
Trust me, the lady needs you to return solid in your love for her,
and Mac. I’ve seen her and Phil and he won’t give up without a
fight.”

Liam laughed. It came out
dry and angry. “Oh, he wants to fight me for
my
wife, for
my
kid. Yeah, I want to see
this.”

Eric shook his head “None of this is
anyone’s fault, least of all yours. Stop punishing yourself and
don’t punish her. It’s Kennedy, man. You know she loved you more
than life.”

Liam rose up on his elbows. “Loved. She
loved me. Looks like she got over it.”

Eric squared his shoulders. “I’ll let you
get some rest.”

Silently, Liam watched him go. He dropped
back on his pillow and let go of the tears he wouldn’t shed in
front of them. “Kennedy, why?” he moaned, gripping the sheets.
“Before sunrise…. It was our bargain. How could you forget me?”

***

Kennedy walked into her bedroom, drying
herself. She was soaked. Phil said she should wear a swimsuit to
bathe Mac. She had to agree. Mackenzie followed behind with her
towel around her shoulders like a cape, making a case for another
after-dinner snack. Kennedy half-listened. She remembered the
missed call and picked up the phone.

US DOD 1 888 334 2045

Kennedy frowned down at the number. Had Eric
called, or God forbid, Alexa? Well, they weren’t calling her: they
were calling Phil, she supposed. Still, she stared down at the
number and felt her pulse race. It felt strange.

“
Who is it,
Mommy?”

“
No one, baby. Let’s get you
dressed and yes, you can have a cup of applesauce. Then it’s lights
out. Deal?”

“
Deal!” Mackenzie
grinned.

Chapter Five

Liam absorbed every detail of the city
during their approach. So far, his return had been both surreal and
a disappointment. Matchbox-shaped houses with racecar-track roads
wound between them. After years of darkness, he found himself
marveling over the simplest things. The Army-issued transport
bounced lower and lower through the clouds, doing absolutely
nothing to dispel his unease. He didn’t so much mind the takeoffs,
but he’d always preferred parachuting back to earth. It kept him in
complete control of his landing.

Liam had worked hard to prepare. His nights
were spent on the floor doing push-ups and sit-ups until his limbs
shook hard enough to force him to stop. Most days he roamed the
ship, re-learning the rhythm of walking. He’d gotten to the point
where he could stand and cross the room without seeking support.
He’d put on a couple of pounds, too. He felt stronger physically,
though maybe not so much mentally. He’d gotten a clean shave and
though she liked his hair longer, an even, short haircut. He wanted
her to see him at his very best. He planned to walk back into her
life, not hobble.

Liam had been forced to rely on a black,
silver-tipped cane that Vasquez purchased for him after they
arrived. Walter Reed Army Medical Center was the last stop. Another
change in plans; he should have gone to the Navy hospital in
Portsmouth, but at the last minute, they’d told him it would be a
specialist in DC. Every ridiculous change seemed to bring him
further away from home, and Kennedy.

The psych doctors said the usual crap around
PTSD and anxiety, but he called bullshit. One doctor said his rage
issues would prove to be a problem if he wasn’t put on some intense
medications. This caught him by surprise, considering he barely
said two words to the jackass during the entire consultation. At
Liam’s vehement insistence, phone calls were made. Alexa stepped in
and to his surprise, they cut him loose. He’d been cleared to
return to Fort Bragg.

The plane jerked through
landing and taxied far off from the usual hangar. The door slid
open, allowing Liam to step cautiously out with the aid of his
cane. He walked upright, forcing his leg to behave, and keeping his
shoulders back and chest forward. A black Ford Expedition waited.
The sergeant behind the wheel had been given orders to take them to
group HQ first.
Another goddamn
delay
. Liam swallowed down his resentment
and got himself under control.

***

“
So why haven’t you returned
my calls? First you send word that we must meet, and then you make
me wait and never call.”

“
It was a matter of national
security.” Alexa crossed her shapely legs.

Phil glared at her. “Since when am I a
security risk?”

“
Since you were emotionally
compromised,” she answered in a dry tone.

He hated this bitch. Most people did within
five minutes of meeting her. For her to be seated before him, all
smug and coy, meant something big was about to come down.

“
What are we talking
about?”

“
Ghost.” She
shrugged.

“
Come again?”

“
Ghost of love past,” Alexa
said, a dark, seductive smile playing over rose-colored lips. Phil
had no idea what her riddles meant. Despite their long-established
practice of working together in support of their mutual interests,
he was two seconds from forgetting her rank.

“
Liam’s alive.”

Phil stepped back. “Alive?”

“
Found him three months ago
in an Afghan desert. He should be returning to Fayetteville
sometime tomorrow.”