Contingencies, page 11
Reilly grabbed the chair across from her. “You okay?”
Dani put the spoon in the cup, slid her arm out on the table and put her head on her hand. The light over the double sink cast a soft glow as they sat there listening to the low hum of the refrigerators. “It’s just too much to take in right now.”
“Again, I’m sorry about all this,” Reilly said, fidgeting with the bottle.
Dani sat up again and brought her knee up on the chair. “What are you apologizing for?”
A pitiful look was his reply.
“Just, don’t, okay,” she said. “Viktor has humiliated me enough for one day.” She played with the spoon inside the plastic container to avoid Reilly’s stare. He started to reach for her hand then obviously remembered her earlier reaction and pulled a mouthful of beer instead.
Add another apology, she said to herself.
“If there was a reset button in life, I’d gladly press it for both for us,” he said. “But we’ll figure this out.”
Dani wanted to say whatever but looked past Reilly. As lovely as the enormous kitchen was, she couldn’t enjoy it. Built to feed what was technically a small army of men, it was laid out with unending wood cabinets, an enormous steel range and several stainless refrigerators that were never empty. Several oak farm tables were flanked on each side with either benches or chairs for cafeteria-like dining. Blue and white planters holding a rich array of green herbs and cut summer flowers filled the deep windowsills. She found no beauty in them tonight and wondered if she would in anything ever again.
The blackness of the night matched how she felt inside. She needed the sun, the light, some sort of release. A long run that could last forever would be most welcome but the faint glow of a cigarette from one of Dmitri’s perimeter guards brought back a desperate fear and diminished the idea. She wouldn’t give Viktor an opportunity to corner her again especially after embarrassing him twice in front of Dmitri and Reilly. He’d find a way to repay her.
“It won’t change anything,” she said resigned.
“You’re right, it won’t. We can only try to stop whatever they have planned next.”
Disbelief pounded Dani’s head for answers she didn’t have. They gripped her stomach and churned with the yogurt now ready to come back up. Any idea of moving forward had disappeared. She was still standing but there was nothing beneath her feet.
“Listen, I usually take a run in the morning,” Reilly said. “Interested?”
Dani stopped playing with the spoon. She wondered if his training had taught him to read minds. Part of her wanted to yell hell yes, but Viktor’s taunt that Reilly was her bodyguard came back with full denigration.
He kept his offer casual. “Just six miles around the short side of the compound. I’m sure you know it. I’ll be at the front steps at six-thirty if you want to come along.” He rose from the table and dropped his bottle in the proper waste can.
“Okay, thanks, maybe,” Dani replied as she eyed him from behind. She may have sounded noncommittal but already knew she would join him. A hot, sweaty, exhausting run would be exactly what she needed to erase the numbness from her body. It might be tough to keep up with him but it would force a different kind of pain. As sick as that might be, it would be one she would actually welcome.
*****
Reilly flashed Dani a sly smile. A yellow tank top exposed her thin, toned arms and its matching skort showed off those great legs. Without makeup and her hair pulled up in a long braid, her eyes seemed even bigger and that little fist in his chest pounded again. He sent it back to its corner. This was supposed to be a cleansing run, nothing else.
“Trail preference?” he asked.
“North,” she smiled. “South is normally a killer on the way back.”
The sun was just cresting at the treetops as they started out in the cool morning air. A long stretch of flat ground gave them proper time to warm up before graduating to several rolling hills and then a long steady climb. The peak marked the halfway point.
Dani wasn’t on his heels but Reilly was impressed with how adeptly she kept pace. She would sense his holding back so he didn’t cow-tow to her size, or lack thereof. Her form was also impressive and his libido was grateful that she wasn’t running in front of him. He reached the top first and waited for her to catch up.
Dani took a quick moment to look down on the compound from the top of the hill. She ran this route every day when she lived here, sometimes with Viktor as she trained but mostly alone. Those runs made her body strong and sharpened her focus for the next step. Back then, they fueled her fight to become who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do.
That was ancient history now. Everything had changed. The people, the work, even she was different. Everything she thought was real was a lie and all she had were questions she wasn’t sure she wanted the answers to including how to start over when there was nothing and no one to trust. She needed a new focal point. Maybe a few more runs would help her find it.
As the fresh morning air weaved its way to dissipate the fog in her head, she was glad she joined Reilly. Bodyguard or not, she decided Viktor could go screw himself. She was also pleased with how well she could keep up. His long legs took one stride to her two, making it a stronger workout but she didn’t mind. It always felt great in the end. She hated to admit that the view was nothing to complain about either.
Black running shorts covered thick, muscular thighs that were perfectly proportioned to his calves and there were those arms again, sweat shining in each cut and groove and soaking the center of his cut-off grey t-shirt. She stopped the next thought then turned to start again and bumped into him.
“Sorry,” she said, quickly removing her hand from his chest. “God, you’re quiet. You have to stop doing that.” His eyes sparkled in the sun with his laugh and matched the sky, amazingly deep and crisp and full of light. The slight scruff growing on his face did nothing to settle her either. This run was supposed to be clearing her head, not adding to her problems.
“There’s a turn up here,” he offered. “Want to finish at four miles?”
“You said six last night. Don’t change your workout for me. I’ll keep up.”
“You got it,” Reilly said. He agreed with Dmitri that what Dani lacked in size was filled to the brink with determination. He hoped that determination went to the bone so she’d survive this entire ordeal. She was going to need every ounce.
Reilly let her start out ahead of him but after watching her form and fighting another round of invisible boxing, he passed her along the trail. He listened for a grunt or comment, and prayed she wouldn’t be insulted. She never made a sound except for the steady breathing keeping time with her cadence. Its rhythm echoed in his head and reminded him of another sort of workout.
He put some more distance between them hoping the thought would fade. He reminded himself again that work came first. It was why relationships never lasted. Charlie had called him a pig but no one complained. It had always been mutual, casual fun. Mixing it up now would be a huge mistake.
For the last four years, he’d been fully immersed in this one task, deep undercover, quietly jumping between continents trying to put together the missing pieces not just for the director but to honor his friends and clear his name. The mission had come to a standstill until a week ago when Dani walked, drove, into his life. He couldn’t screw it up now. The game clock was ticking and it was fourth and goal with what could be only seconds left. To win he needed to score.
Not that kind of score, stupid.
He was reminded that if either he or Dani had had their way, she wouldn’t be here. What she’d be doing back home now that Charlie was dead, he didn’t know. The only thing he did know was that her world wouldn’t have collapsed around her. Being part of that collapse added a surgically precise slice of regret through him. Her father would be crushed if he knew how she’d been used.
He slowed when he realized his anger had quickened his pace. Dani caught up and fell into step alongside him as the path widened near the end of their run. Breathing steadily and keeping pace together, he was more determined than ever to keep Daniel Tyler’s daughter safe from O’Donnell, from Viktor, and from Mariner.
Maybe that was what he’d been feeling all along.
At least that was the story he was going with.
*****
The run had put things in perspective just a bit and Dani hoped the effects would last the day. If not, she’d ask Reilly if he wanted to take another one. She kept a full breakfast down and worked with Dmitri on several recent operations whose timing coincided with trips she’d made earlier in the year. They had been for scouting purposes only.
If she followed Reilly’s assumption about the identifying numbers corresponding to completed missions, it appeared that four remained unfinished. She stretched her neck to release the tension but neither an image nor clue appeared. She should be able to recall the smallest detail but Reilly was right – she didn’t know because Charlie wanted it that way. She still wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
Reilly sat across from her reading briefs on the laptop with a focus that was almost mechanical. Dani stole glimpses as his expression changed from serious to joy and then back to a subtle sadness until he abruptly rose and walked outside.
She waited for the door to close before turning the laptop and skimming the AAR on the screen: a covert operation in South America; ambushed at the drop site; two men under Reilly’s command had been killed; he and a third had gotten separated. They sought cover in the jungle but were outnumbered by the local guerillas. Reilly had been captured and tortured for two weeks before finding a way to escape.
Dani gasped but continued reading.
Severely wounded, Reilly had trekked through the jungle for two days, avoiding both man and beast. Without food or water, he had been delirious from infection, the unrelenting heat and dehydration. The missing soldier, Timmy Kelly had found his way to a remote village where he contacted O’Donnell. He had been ordered home but disobeyed. He found Reilly barely alive in a ramshackle hut in a deserted village buried deep within the jungle. Kelly had saved Reilly’s life.
Dani swallowed a deep throated sob. This betrayal was just not hers but one that directly affected him on the most personal level. Charlie had wanted him and his men to die. He orchestrated the entire thing then stood aside when the Army accused Reilly of depraved indifference, of conduct unbecoming. He was dismissed, wrongly.
Dmitri lifted his head from his own papers when Dani followed Reilly out. She found him standing at the railing looking out over the compound.
“I am so sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t realize that you were coming from the other side.” She studied his profile as he looked down at his hands then back toward the horizon. Remembering his attempt, she moved her hand to cover his as it gripped the railing. He did not pull his back.
“The soldiers and people I worked with,” he started, “were the best of the best, not just at their jobs, but as true friends.” He paused then looked at her. “I don’t know if you know this, but there is an ironclad rule in Special Forces. You never lay a hand on a brother. It’s unforgivable by your teammates as well as your superiors.”
Dani studied him and silently questioned the level of pain necessary to break a warrior’s heart. He gave his life to others – from strangers and countrymen to friends and comrades – only to have Charlie rip it all away. It had been his entire life. Reputation and honor meant everything to Reilly but his name now conjured disgrace and disgust among those in charge instead of pride for a decorated soldier who was one of their own.
“I didn’t know,” she said. “I thought this was just another mission for you.”
“I still hear their screams. I thought they’d fade with O’Donnell’s death, that they’d finally be at rest, but they’re not because I’m not. Even dead, I feel like he’s won. Maybe I am obsessed, I don’t know.”
Dani knew all about silent screams and the images that fill one’s head. “If I had anything to do with any of it,” she said then lowered her voice so she wouldn’t cry. “I’d take it all back in a minute.”
Reilly’s shoulders dropped and his brow softened. He placed his left hand over hers covering his right and squeezed. “I know you would but this is all O’Donnell’s doing, period.”
She had her doubts.
Chapter 15
Reilly quietly padded to the kitchen for the third night in a row. He was chomping at the bit now that they’d reviewed and deciphered every page and sickening entry. By day’s end, he and Dmitri had narrowed it down to two possible targets: one in Pakistan, the other in Yemen. Dissection would begin at first light and while he needed some sleep, his mind hadn’t settled yet. Questions remained in spite of those that had been answered in the remnants left behind. Names of men and women bought and used to facilitate twisted schemes were being pulled in by McNeal’s net methodically and carefully lest any fish escape and warn others. Reilly took some solace in that those who were alive would pay for their crimes. As he rooted through the refrigerator, the slightest of sounds caught his attention.
Ice in a glass, he thought, before cautiously peering around the large steel door. Dani was seated alone at the far end of the kitchen. A bottle of vodka and her small bare feet were on the table.
“Jeez, you startled me,” Reilly scolded. He was glad he put on a t-shirt.
Dani raised her glass to him. “Learned from the best.”
Reilly frowned at the half-empty bottle. He recognized its shape as one from Dmitri’s private stock. It was liquid fire. He closed the refrigerator door and walked over to her. “How long have you been sitting here?” When she didn’t reply, he sat on the table’s edge facing her and slid the bottle from her reach. She smelled great, so close, and looked adorable in loose cotton pajama pants and camisole. The way her hair was sloppily pulled up on her head only added to thoughts that were definitely not appropriate for the seriousness of the moment. “This won’t solve anything.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” she said and finished what was in her glass. A piercing burn rolled down her throat to immerse her body in a fiery blaze yet after three rounds, it had not yet reached her point of pain. While the morning runs with Reilly helped her process some of the horrors, they ultimately changed nothing. She was like a ghost trapped half in his world, half in limbo. Reilly’s constant levelness through this whole ordeal pissed her off, too, and she damned him for making another midnight food run. She should’ve brought the bottle back to her room. That would’ve been the ultimate in pathetic, but that’s what she was. She wanted to be alone and feel sorry for herself, just for a little while. She didn’t even care if Viktor was around, although that wasn’t entirely true. He was doing night maneuvers with new recruits tonight and wasn’t in the compound. An old memory made her shudder until Reilly’s voice seeped through the mental haze.
“No, but you’ll feel like shit in the morning and you’re not getting out of our run that easy. You’ve had enough.” Reilly grabbed her hand with the glass when she stood to reach around him for the bottle. Dani held onto the tumbler and neck of the bottle in a slight tug-of-war beneath his oversized hand.
“Let go,” she demanded. “This is my pity party and you’re not invited.”
“No,” Reilly said softly.
Dani shoved the glass and bottle at him and let go. “Fine, drink it yourself then.”
She turned but staggered slightly when she stepped on his foot. Reilly quickly reached for her arm and guided her to the seat. “Just sit. I’ll get you something to eat.”
She did as he asked and tried to blink away the carnival ride starting in her head. Reilly flipped on the small light over the sink and dug around the kitchen. He grabbed anything that would not pose a volatile mix with the vodka and brought it all to the table. She teared up when he handed her a cloth napkin and a sleeve of crackers.
“I know,” he said. “This really sucks.”
Dani couldn’t decide whether she hated or appreciated his company. A hard lump formed at the back of her throat, not from the vodka but from knowing that there wasn’t enough liquor in the world to make the pain go away. “I just don’t understand,” she sighed. “I did everything he asked me to do. I followed all his rules and never complained. He ruined everything…all my relationships. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I had to break plans with friends. Eventually, they all stopped asking.” She pulled a cracker from the waxed paper sleeve and broke it in half. “How could I be so stupid?”
Her question sliced through him. He had asked the same of himself so many times. The world is far from fair with horrors and tragedies that can’t be rationalized away but these were planned and calculated. He had learned to let go of the anger, to turn it and use it, and while he was raised to forgive, some things were not forgivable. He was patient though. He would see this mission through to the end but in order to do that, he needed Dani to stay focused. He and Dmitri had worried about her silence these last few days and knew it was only a matter of time before she exploded. This wasn’t much of an explosion really, not like the one at the cabin. This was just pure, helpless despair.
“You are far from stupid. What did I tell you the other day about O’Donnell?”
Dani closed her eyes. “That he was the master at manipulating the truth and no one was a better liar.”
“Exactly. Lies and contradictions are our greatest weapon in this business. They create confusion and chaos and in the hands of a master manipulator, the perfect camouflage. Now, since this is your pity party, I’ll ask you another question. Do you have any expertise in ferreting out the truth?” When she didn’t answer, he continued. “Have you been schooled in interrogation techniques? Do you know how to coax, or even torture, the truth out of someone?”
Dani stared at the broken crackers on her plate and shook her head.
Dani put the spoon in the cup, slid her arm out on the table and put her head on her hand. The light over the double sink cast a soft glow as they sat there listening to the low hum of the refrigerators. “It’s just too much to take in right now.”
“Again, I’m sorry about all this,” Reilly said, fidgeting with the bottle.
Dani sat up again and brought her knee up on the chair. “What are you apologizing for?”
A pitiful look was his reply.
“Just, don’t, okay,” she said. “Viktor has humiliated me enough for one day.” She played with the spoon inside the plastic container to avoid Reilly’s stare. He started to reach for her hand then obviously remembered her earlier reaction and pulled a mouthful of beer instead.
Add another apology, she said to herself.
“If there was a reset button in life, I’d gladly press it for both for us,” he said. “But we’ll figure this out.”
Dani wanted to say whatever but looked past Reilly. As lovely as the enormous kitchen was, she couldn’t enjoy it. Built to feed what was technically a small army of men, it was laid out with unending wood cabinets, an enormous steel range and several stainless refrigerators that were never empty. Several oak farm tables were flanked on each side with either benches or chairs for cafeteria-like dining. Blue and white planters holding a rich array of green herbs and cut summer flowers filled the deep windowsills. She found no beauty in them tonight and wondered if she would in anything ever again.
The blackness of the night matched how she felt inside. She needed the sun, the light, some sort of release. A long run that could last forever would be most welcome but the faint glow of a cigarette from one of Dmitri’s perimeter guards brought back a desperate fear and diminished the idea. She wouldn’t give Viktor an opportunity to corner her again especially after embarrassing him twice in front of Dmitri and Reilly. He’d find a way to repay her.
“It won’t change anything,” she said resigned.
“You’re right, it won’t. We can only try to stop whatever they have planned next.”
Disbelief pounded Dani’s head for answers she didn’t have. They gripped her stomach and churned with the yogurt now ready to come back up. Any idea of moving forward had disappeared. She was still standing but there was nothing beneath her feet.
“Listen, I usually take a run in the morning,” Reilly said. “Interested?”
Dani stopped playing with the spoon. She wondered if his training had taught him to read minds. Part of her wanted to yell hell yes, but Viktor’s taunt that Reilly was her bodyguard came back with full denigration.
He kept his offer casual. “Just six miles around the short side of the compound. I’m sure you know it. I’ll be at the front steps at six-thirty if you want to come along.” He rose from the table and dropped his bottle in the proper waste can.
“Okay, thanks, maybe,” Dani replied as she eyed him from behind. She may have sounded noncommittal but already knew she would join him. A hot, sweaty, exhausting run would be exactly what she needed to erase the numbness from her body. It might be tough to keep up with him but it would force a different kind of pain. As sick as that might be, it would be one she would actually welcome.
*****
Reilly flashed Dani a sly smile. A yellow tank top exposed her thin, toned arms and its matching skort showed off those great legs. Without makeup and her hair pulled up in a long braid, her eyes seemed even bigger and that little fist in his chest pounded again. He sent it back to its corner. This was supposed to be a cleansing run, nothing else.
“Trail preference?” he asked.
“North,” she smiled. “South is normally a killer on the way back.”
The sun was just cresting at the treetops as they started out in the cool morning air. A long stretch of flat ground gave them proper time to warm up before graduating to several rolling hills and then a long steady climb. The peak marked the halfway point.
Dani wasn’t on his heels but Reilly was impressed with how adeptly she kept pace. She would sense his holding back so he didn’t cow-tow to her size, or lack thereof. Her form was also impressive and his libido was grateful that she wasn’t running in front of him. He reached the top first and waited for her to catch up.
Dani took a quick moment to look down on the compound from the top of the hill. She ran this route every day when she lived here, sometimes with Viktor as she trained but mostly alone. Those runs made her body strong and sharpened her focus for the next step. Back then, they fueled her fight to become who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do.
That was ancient history now. Everything had changed. The people, the work, even she was different. Everything she thought was real was a lie and all she had were questions she wasn’t sure she wanted the answers to including how to start over when there was nothing and no one to trust. She needed a new focal point. Maybe a few more runs would help her find it.
As the fresh morning air weaved its way to dissipate the fog in her head, she was glad she joined Reilly. Bodyguard or not, she decided Viktor could go screw himself. She was also pleased with how well she could keep up. His long legs took one stride to her two, making it a stronger workout but she didn’t mind. It always felt great in the end. She hated to admit that the view was nothing to complain about either.
Black running shorts covered thick, muscular thighs that were perfectly proportioned to his calves and there were those arms again, sweat shining in each cut and groove and soaking the center of his cut-off grey t-shirt. She stopped the next thought then turned to start again and bumped into him.
“Sorry,” she said, quickly removing her hand from his chest. “God, you’re quiet. You have to stop doing that.” His eyes sparkled in the sun with his laugh and matched the sky, amazingly deep and crisp and full of light. The slight scruff growing on his face did nothing to settle her either. This run was supposed to be clearing her head, not adding to her problems.
“There’s a turn up here,” he offered. “Want to finish at four miles?”
“You said six last night. Don’t change your workout for me. I’ll keep up.”
“You got it,” Reilly said. He agreed with Dmitri that what Dani lacked in size was filled to the brink with determination. He hoped that determination went to the bone so she’d survive this entire ordeal. She was going to need every ounce.
Reilly let her start out ahead of him but after watching her form and fighting another round of invisible boxing, he passed her along the trail. He listened for a grunt or comment, and prayed she wouldn’t be insulted. She never made a sound except for the steady breathing keeping time with her cadence. Its rhythm echoed in his head and reminded him of another sort of workout.
He put some more distance between them hoping the thought would fade. He reminded himself again that work came first. It was why relationships never lasted. Charlie had called him a pig but no one complained. It had always been mutual, casual fun. Mixing it up now would be a huge mistake.
For the last four years, he’d been fully immersed in this one task, deep undercover, quietly jumping between continents trying to put together the missing pieces not just for the director but to honor his friends and clear his name. The mission had come to a standstill until a week ago when Dani walked, drove, into his life. He couldn’t screw it up now. The game clock was ticking and it was fourth and goal with what could be only seconds left. To win he needed to score.
Not that kind of score, stupid.
He was reminded that if either he or Dani had had their way, she wouldn’t be here. What she’d be doing back home now that Charlie was dead, he didn’t know. The only thing he did know was that her world wouldn’t have collapsed around her. Being part of that collapse added a surgically precise slice of regret through him. Her father would be crushed if he knew how she’d been used.
He slowed when he realized his anger had quickened his pace. Dani caught up and fell into step alongside him as the path widened near the end of their run. Breathing steadily and keeping pace together, he was more determined than ever to keep Daniel Tyler’s daughter safe from O’Donnell, from Viktor, and from Mariner.
Maybe that was what he’d been feeling all along.
At least that was the story he was going with.
*****
The run had put things in perspective just a bit and Dani hoped the effects would last the day. If not, she’d ask Reilly if he wanted to take another one. She kept a full breakfast down and worked with Dmitri on several recent operations whose timing coincided with trips she’d made earlier in the year. They had been for scouting purposes only.
If she followed Reilly’s assumption about the identifying numbers corresponding to completed missions, it appeared that four remained unfinished. She stretched her neck to release the tension but neither an image nor clue appeared. She should be able to recall the smallest detail but Reilly was right – she didn’t know because Charlie wanted it that way. She still wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
Reilly sat across from her reading briefs on the laptop with a focus that was almost mechanical. Dani stole glimpses as his expression changed from serious to joy and then back to a subtle sadness until he abruptly rose and walked outside.
She waited for the door to close before turning the laptop and skimming the AAR on the screen: a covert operation in South America; ambushed at the drop site; two men under Reilly’s command had been killed; he and a third had gotten separated. They sought cover in the jungle but were outnumbered by the local guerillas. Reilly had been captured and tortured for two weeks before finding a way to escape.
Dani gasped but continued reading.
Severely wounded, Reilly had trekked through the jungle for two days, avoiding both man and beast. Without food or water, he had been delirious from infection, the unrelenting heat and dehydration. The missing soldier, Timmy Kelly had found his way to a remote village where he contacted O’Donnell. He had been ordered home but disobeyed. He found Reilly barely alive in a ramshackle hut in a deserted village buried deep within the jungle. Kelly had saved Reilly’s life.
Dani swallowed a deep throated sob. This betrayal was just not hers but one that directly affected him on the most personal level. Charlie had wanted him and his men to die. He orchestrated the entire thing then stood aside when the Army accused Reilly of depraved indifference, of conduct unbecoming. He was dismissed, wrongly.
Dmitri lifted his head from his own papers when Dani followed Reilly out. She found him standing at the railing looking out over the compound.
“I am so sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t realize that you were coming from the other side.” She studied his profile as he looked down at his hands then back toward the horizon. Remembering his attempt, she moved her hand to cover his as it gripped the railing. He did not pull his back.
“The soldiers and people I worked with,” he started, “were the best of the best, not just at their jobs, but as true friends.” He paused then looked at her. “I don’t know if you know this, but there is an ironclad rule in Special Forces. You never lay a hand on a brother. It’s unforgivable by your teammates as well as your superiors.”
Dani studied him and silently questioned the level of pain necessary to break a warrior’s heart. He gave his life to others – from strangers and countrymen to friends and comrades – only to have Charlie rip it all away. It had been his entire life. Reputation and honor meant everything to Reilly but his name now conjured disgrace and disgust among those in charge instead of pride for a decorated soldier who was one of their own.
“I didn’t know,” she said. “I thought this was just another mission for you.”
“I still hear their screams. I thought they’d fade with O’Donnell’s death, that they’d finally be at rest, but they’re not because I’m not. Even dead, I feel like he’s won. Maybe I am obsessed, I don’t know.”
Dani knew all about silent screams and the images that fill one’s head. “If I had anything to do with any of it,” she said then lowered her voice so she wouldn’t cry. “I’d take it all back in a minute.”
Reilly’s shoulders dropped and his brow softened. He placed his left hand over hers covering his right and squeezed. “I know you would but this is all O’Donnell’s doing, period.”
She had her doubts.
Chapter 15
Reilly quietly padded to the kitchen for the third night in a row. He was chomping at the bit now that they’d reviewed and deciphered every page and sickening entry. By day’s end, he and Dmitri had narrowed it down to two possible targets: one in Pakistan, the other in Yemen. Dissection would begin at first light and while he needed some sleep, his mind hadn’t settled yet. Questions remained in spite of those that had been answered in the remnants left behind. Names of men and women bought and used to facilitate twisted schemes were being pulled in by McNeal’s net methodically and carefully lest any fish escape and warn others. Reilly took some solace in that those who were alive would pay for their crimes. As he rooted through the refrigerator, the slightest of sounds caught his attention.
Ice in a glass, he thought, before cautiously peering around the large steel door. Dani was seated alone at the far end of the kitchen. A bottle of vodka and her small bare feet were on the table.
“Jeez, you startled me,” Reilly scolded. He was glad he put on a t-shirt.
Dani raised her glass to him. “Learned from the best.”
Reilly frowned at the half-empty bottle. He recognized its shape as one from Dmitri’s private stock. It was liquid fire. He closed the refrigerator door and walked over to her. “How long have you been sitting here?” When she didn’t reply, he sat on the table’s edge facing her and slid the bottle from her reach. She smelled great, so close, and looked adorable in loose cotton pajama pants and camisole. The way her hair was sloppily pulled up on her head only added to thoughts that were definitely not appropriate for the seriousness of the moment. “This won’t solve anything.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” she said and finished what was in her glass. A piercing burn rolled down her throat to immerse her body in a fiery blaze yet after three rounds, it had not yet reached her point of pain. While the morning runs with Reilly helped her process some of the horrors, they ultimately changed nothing. She was like a ghost trapped half in his world, half in limbo. Reilly’s constant levelness through this whole ordeal pissed her off, too, and she damned him for making another midnight food run. She should’ve brought the bottle back to her room. That would’ve been the ultimate in pathetic, but that’s what she was. She wanted to be alone and feel sorry for herself, just for a little while. She didn’t even care if Viktor was around, although that wasn’t entirely true. He was doing night maneuvers with new recruits tonight and wasn’t in the compound. An old memory made her shudder until Reilly’s voice seeped through the mental haze.
“No, but you’ll feel like shit in the morning and you’re not getting out of our run that easy. You’ve had enough.” Reilly grabbed her hand with the glass when she stood to reach around him for the bottle. Dani held onto the tumbler and neck of the bottle in a slight tug-of-war beneath his oversized hand.
“Let go,” she demanded. “This is my pity party and you’re not invited.”
“No,” Reilly said softly.
Dani shoved the glass and bottle at him and let go. “Fine, drink it yourself then.”
She turned but staggered slightly when she stepped on his foot. Reilly quickly reached for her arm and guided her to the seat. “Just sit. I’ll get you something to eat.”
She did as he asked and tried to blink away the carnival ride starting in her head. Reilly flipped on the small light over the sink and dug around the kitchen. He grabbed anything that would not pose a volatile mix with the vodka and brought it all to the table. She teared up when he handed her a cloth napkin and a sleeve of crackers.
“I know,” he said. “This really sucks.”
Dani couldn’t decide whether she hated or appreciated his company. A hard lump formed at the back of her throat, not from the vodka but from knowing that there wasn’t enough liquor in the world to make the pain go away. “I just don’t understand,” she sighed. “I did everything he asked me to do. I followed all his rules and never complained. He ruined everything…all my relationships. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I had to break plans with friends. Eventually, they all stopped asking.” She pulled a cracker from the waxed paper sleeve and broke it in half. “How could I be so stupid?”
Her question sliced through him. He had asked the same of himself so many times. The world is far from fair with horrors and tragedies that can’t be rationalized away but these were planned and calculated. He had learned to let go of the anger, to turn it and use it, and while he was raised to forgive, some things were not forgivable. He was patient though. He would see this mission through to the end but in order to do that, he needed Dani to stay focused. He and Dmitri had worried about her silence these last few days and knew it was only a matter of time before she exploded. This wasn’t much of an explosion really, not like the one at the cabin. This was just pure, helpless despair.
“You are far from stupid. What did I tell you the other day about O’Donnell?”
Dani closed her eyes. “That he was the master at manipulating the truth and no one was a better liar.”
“Exactly. Lies and contradictions are our greatest weapon in this business. They create confusion and chaos and in the hands of a master manipulator, the perfect camouflage. Now, since this is your pity party, I’ll ask you another question. Do you have any expertise in ferreting out the truth?” When she didn’t answer, he continued. “Have you been schooled in interrogation techniques? Do you know how to coax, or even torture, the truth out of someone?”
Dani stared at the broken crackers on her plate and shook her head.
