Edge of the Heat 6 (25 page)

“I guess it started a few days before I was actually taken. I was at home, and my father was very upset because he thought his brother was doing something illegal. He told me this and I decided to head to Kuwait to talk to Uncle Kevin myself.”

Kirk nodded, his face set carefully into sympathy lines. “This Uncle Kevin, that’s Colonel Kevin Clarkson, the man who had you taken hostage.”

“Yes.” Dani tried to say. It came out a whisper. “Yes.” That one was stronger. “When I got to Kuwait I called Uncle Kevin and asked him to meet with me. He said ‘OK, tomorrow at noon at a cafe in Kuwait City.’

Kirk nodded. “Uh-huh, uh-huh, and that cafe is where it happened.”

Dani looked at her father again, for strength. “Yes. The men cleared the cafe, and then they came in from the back with guns and ordered us to cars in the alley behind.”

“You and Sergeant Taylor.”

Dani nodded and pushed on, not wanting to talk about JT at all. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since she sneaked her last peak at him in the hospital bed at Camp Patriot. Sara had given her updates the few times they had spoken on the phone, even though Dani didn’t ask. She was glad for the news of him, but thinking of him always called up the pain of him staring at her in anger and saying ‘Is this some sort of story for you?’ And it hurt so much. Too much. There had been the letters though…

Kirk interrupted her thoughts of the unopened letters hidden at her parents’ house. “Please, tell us in your own words what it was like being in the hostage camp.”

“It was horrible. They put a hood over my head and tied me to a chair. My hands were tied behind me for 5 days straight. I didn’t eat. I barely got enough to drink. And I slept sitting up, tied to that chair.” Dani heard a few horrified murmurs from the audience. She chanced a look and sure enough, there was a bit of softening on the faces closest to her. She didn’t dare look at her parents now though. She knew her mom would be crying. Her dad too maybe. She wanted to tell about JT talking to her and getting hit with the gun butt for it. About his bravery and his strength. But the words wouldn’t form in her brain. A tear leaked out of her eye and ran down her cheek. Not for the experience. She’d worked on it relentlessly with a therapist and thought she was ready to put that part behind her. But for her fledgling relationship with JT. The relationship that rose from the ashes of a tragedy and promised to be so good, but instead ended without even a bang in that car in the desert. That rolling ending whose seed had been planted with her lie, and whose roots had been exposed with his flat accusation. That still hurt every day. She hadn’t even told her therapist about that part. She wasn’t ready to get rid of that hurt yet. It was a bad hurt, a horrible hurt. But it was
her
hurt.

Kirk leaned forward, a hungry look on his face. “And what part did Agent Acosta of the former DCIA play in your escape?”

Dani pushed on. Soon they’d be getting to the worst of it. “Every part. She impersonated one of the women servants, who was little more than a slave, and entered the compound. She cut us loose and led us out of there, then called in missiles from the Navy to blow it up.”

“What happened next?”

“We walked in the desert. The helicopter that was supposed to pick us up had gotten shot down by rebels so Agent Acosta, Sara, led us to the mountains and we slept in a cave.” Even as Dani said this part, what loomed in her mind was the feel of Sara’s gun, bucking in her hands as she shot two men. She wasn’t going to share that though.

“Did you have food, water?”

“We had a little. Sara had MREs on her. She collected water from the plants in the desert.”

“So you walked to St. Marin.”

“Yes, we walked the next day, all day.”

“And what happened in St. Marin?”

Sara looked at her parents. They sat frozen in their seats. She swallowed and heard a click in her throat. “Sara left us in an empty building while she went to arrange for us to get out of town. The villagers found us. And they chased us. We ran, trying to find Sara. Instead, my uncle found us.”

“What did he do?”

“He pointed a gun at us and ordered us to go to his hotel room.”

“And that’s when you knew that he had been behind it all along?” To Dani, Kirk looked suddenly rat-like, and ugly. She knew she was being unfair, anyone would have asked these questions. But he didn’t have to ask them so … so
hungrily
.

“Yes. That’s when I knew.”

“And how did that feel? How did it feel to know that your Uncle had arranged to have you taken hostage and killed?”

“Like shit,” Dani snarled, watching Kirk recoil and look at the director, flustered out of his greed. Gladness leapt in her heart at his discomfort. She had said it. But he would be blamed.

“Then-then what happened once you were in Colonel Clarkson’s hotel room?”

“Uncle Kevin hit Gunnery Sergeant Taylor in the head, knocking him out. He ordered me to tie his hands up. I did. Then he tried to tie my hands up. I fought with him and broke the window with a phone.” Dani’s voice came out robotic, mechanical. She just wanted this to be over already. She couldn’t believe she had agreed to it. “He knocked me to the ground and kicked me. Gunnery Sergeant Taylor woke up and told him to stop. He lowered his gun to shoot me and Gunnery Sergeant Taylor knocked me aside, taking my bullet. But he fought with Uncle Kevin. I cut the ropes on his hands and he wrestled the gun away. Uncle Kevin had another gun. He lifted it to shoot at us, but Gunnery Sergeant Taylor shot him first. And then Sara found us and got an Australian helicopter to take us to Camp Patriot.” Dani heard the crowd murmuring softly again, but she no longer cared what they thought. Maybe she would move to Australia.

“Wow, that was quite an ordeal. Would you say you owe your life to Sergeant Taylor?”

Fuck you Widebottom
, Dani thought. She looked at him, eyes flashing. “Of course I do. Weren’t you listening to what I said?”

Kirk smiled at her this time, and made a there-there gesture with his hands. Dani stared at them, red staining the sides of her vision.

“Have you talked to Sergeant Taylor since the incident?”

Fuck you sideways
, she thought viciously, and was dismayed to find that she almost said it out loud. “No.” The word hung in the air like a balloon. Kirk’s smile broadened.

“We have a little surprise for you, Miss Clarkson.” He looked offstage and Dani wet her lips.
Oh no
, she thought.

JT walked out, wearing a perfectly-fitting, expensive-looking suit. His hair was still cut in the standard Marine haircut, and his eyes sparkled with a joy she’d barely glimpsed during their few days together. God, he was handsome. Knock you on your ass, handsome. Dani heard a woman whistle in the audience and that brought some light laughter. She wanted to climb in a hole and pull the dirt over the top of her. She wanted to disappear into the couch cushions. She wanted to run.

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Gunnery Sergeant Jon Taylor.”

During the wave of applause that followed (much stronger than what she got, Dani noted), JT shook the hosts’ hand. His eyes only touched Kirk’s for a second, then they slipped off and found Dani. His mouth moved. Dani saw his mouth form the silent words:
I’m sorry
.

She realized her mouth was open and she wasn’t breathing. She tried to compose herself and took a deep breath, breaking eye contact with JT. She looked at her parents and saw them sporting identical, wide smiles. Her mom lifted her hand and waved. She looked at Kirk. He was watching her closely, probably trying to figure out exactly what was going on between her and JT.

Nothing. Nothing is going on.

JT walked towards her. She got the impression he was thinking about hugging her. She pulled back a little, not wanting to touch him. Or not daring to.

He must have read something in her face because he made an awkward half turn and sat next to her instead. Kirk ran his eyes over both of them and then addressed JT. “Sergeant Taylor—” JT held up a hand. “Please, call me JT. I’m not in the Marines anymore.” Dani’s heart jumped.
Why not?

“
Why not, what happened?” Kirk asked, looking slimy as ever to Dani.

“I entered rehabilitation for my gunshot wound, and after a month, the physical therapist came to me and said I would never gain full response in my right hand again. He said that since I was a gunnery sergeant, they wouldn’t kick me out for that, as long as I could still pass the physical fitness test. But he also said they would put me on a kind of permanent light duty if I decided to stay. So I weighed my options and decided not to stay.”

“You can’t use your hand then?”

JT raised his arm up to the audience and flexed and moved it in a circle. “So far, I’ve regained most of my usage and a lot of the range of motion, but this area is still numb.” He ran his hand from his inner elbow up to the chest. “I can’t feel anything there.”

“How did you fight with and shoot Colonel Clarkson if your hand wouldn’t respond to you?” the host-from-hell asked. JT looked at him for a second, as if he were trying to decide where such a senseless question came from.

“With my other hand,” he said quickly. “But Kirk, I know you’ve already heard exactly what happened from Miss Clarkson here. Do you mind if I take a few minutes of your show to apologize to her?” But he wasn’t looking at Kirk when he said this. He was looking at Dani. Dani felt every eye in the place swivel to her and imagined she could feel the cameras pan in tight on her face. She struggled to keep her face neutral.
What is going on?

“Apologize to her for what?”

“Well, when I discovered her Uncle was the one who was responsible for the mess we were in, I did something reprehensible.”

Kirk smiled indulgently and chuckled lightly, like JT was a four year old using a big word for the first time. Dani fought an urge to punch him in the face. “What did you do?” Kirk asked.

“I didn’t give her the benefit of the doubt. I assumed that she maybe had something to do with what had happened, no matter how remote. I jumped to horrible conclusions based on my limited knowledge at the time. But I’ve since found out that Miss Clarkson and her family had no knowledge of what was going on, and they are as horrified as all of us.” JT gave the camera a hard stare. “Dani Clarkson was kidnapped on her Uncle’s say-so, because she had asked a few too many questions about why he was acting strangely. She and her family are just as much victims of circumstance as the rest of us.” The audience murmured. JT looked back at Dani, his eyes soft again, and pleading with her. She felt his plea in her gut, way down deep where she stored the memory of her stolen time with him. “Dani, I am so sorry. Will you ever forgive me for what I did to you?”

“If you forgive me for not telling you he was my uncle,” Dani said softly, surprised when the words came out of her mouth.

“Done.” JT said, and held out his hand. Dani took it. JT pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it lightly. “I’m so sorry.”

Dani felt the stone that had weighed her heart down for three months crack in half and poof out of existence. She laughed a surprised laugh at the lightness she felt suddenly. Applause started in the audience, somewhere near the back, and it crackled and popped weakly before dying again. Dani looked at her parents. Her mother had her hands clasped to her chest. Her father’s face was split in a wide grin.

Kirk Kussler cleared his throat and opened his mouth to say something, but JT spoke first, clearly and strongly.

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you for the last three months. Will you go out on a date with me?”

Dani felt warmth flood her body and happiness fill her heart. “I would love to, JT.”

And this time when the applause started, it picked up quickly and thundered through the room. Waves of warm feelings flooded in from the audience and Dani felt her eyes fill with tears. What she hadn’t quite been able to do with a horrible story, JT had done in an instant with an expression of remorse and emotion.

JT stood and pulled her up too. “Is right now OK?” he asked, struggling to be heard over the applause. Dani glanced at Kirk and giggled. “Right now is perfect.”

JT blew a kiss to the audience and yelled “Thank you!” and the noise level from the applause doubled. Dani looked out at them and knew that, thanks to JT’s charm, the only one who would feel cheated in the room was Kirk. She was OK with that.

JT pulled Dani to the left side of the stage and down a small hallway lined with people who applauded, every face lined with a smile, some women even crying openly. Dani yanked her microphone equipment off and pushed it into someone’s hands, then she pulled JT’s off too. He squeezed her hand and kept leading her through the maze of backstage.

Dani wondered if he knew where he was going. She decided he did when he pulled her down the last hallway that would lead to an exit in an alley behind the building. He gave her a goofy smile and said, “I have a car out here.” He almost looked embarrassed. Dani raised an eyebrow, but followed. As he pushed the exit door open she saw a black limousine waiting in the alley. She looked at it curiously, expecting JT to pull her past it to his car. But he stepped to the back door and opened it, motioning for her to enter before him.