“So, here’s the little corporal,” came a voice from beside her.
Katie opened and lifting her head, she shielded her eyes with a hand and saw Dana Edwards standing beside her.
“What do you want?” she asked dismissively and sighed with irritation.
“Oh, just a little chat,” Dana answered. “You do realize that whatever went on between you and Staff Sergeant Anderson is over. He doesn’t want you anymore, if he ever did. You know marines… They’re all for picking up stray fledglings then throwing them over for the real thing.”
Katie glared at the sergeant. Biting her lip, she attempted to force back the angry words that Dana Edwards had provoked but finally, unable to keep from retaliating, she snapped, “Oh really?” Her tone was cold and sharp. “What would you know about it?”
“I’ve known Joe a long time,” Dana replied. “We go back a long way, have things in common, including our ranks. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that your little war romance was anything more than that.”
Katie rose to her feet, putting on her helmet and turned to face the sergeant. She knew that she should walk away, turn her back on the other woman to avoid a confrontation, but it wasn’t in her nature to do so.
“Who are you trying to convince, me or you?” she exclaimed, stung with anger. “But I guess you’re the type of woman who always thinks she’s cleverer than she really is.”
She was perfectly aware that the discussion was quickly moving toward a juvenile squabble between two adult women over a man but could not bite her tongue. An angry expression settled on the other woman’s face.
“My, you are so full of yourself, aren’t you?” Dana responded, her voice rising. “Don’t forget who has the rank around here.”
“Oh please, this has nothing to do with rank,” Katie retorted bitterly. “This has to do with wanting a man you know you can’t have, and…who doesn’t appear to want you as I’m sure you’ve found out at your cost.”
If we were anything other than humans we would be hissing and spitting at each other, Katie thought, but the image did not amuse her in the slightest.
“You think?” Dana responded. “Oh. Joe wants me all right but he has integrity and he feels responsible for you.”
“Why would he feel responsible for me if he doesn’t want me?” Katie asked, feeling herself bristle at the inference that Joe might want another woman. “Get your facts straight, sergeant, before you start throwing accusations around.”
Katie watched the sergeant, feeling combative and furious at the fact that another woman obviously wanted her husband. She had no intention of giving him up—no matter what the cost. Joe was her man, the father of her children—one yet to be born—but apart from that, she loved him. Still, she could say nothing to get this predatory woman off her husband’s scent. She folded her arms.
“Let me give you a piece of advice, from one woman to another,” Dana said slowly. “No man likes a woman to throw herself at him, offer herself as easy meat so to speak. We all know what marines are like and Joe is no exception.”
Furious now, Katie glared at the woman standing in front of her. “Let me reciprocate the advice,” she said quietly and evenly. “Stop putting yourself about. It’s not becoming for a woman of your…intelligence.”
With a last stony glare, Katie spun on her heel and began to walk unhurriedly along the wall of the building toward its end. As nonchalant as she hoped she looked, inside Katie was boiling with fury.
How dare that woman speak to me like that? Who the hell does she think she is?
Deep inside her, the sergeant’s words had stirred up some vague doubts.
Does Joe want Dana Edwards? Does he really love me—want me as his wife, even after all the hostility and fighting that has gone on between us?
Katie was about to turn the corner when an angry voice shouted from behind her, “Corporal Anderson! Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
Katie spun round to see Joe jogging toward her, a look of annoyance on his face. As he approached her, he asked forcefully, “Corporal, what the fuck do you think you’re doing? This location is dangerous. We’ve only swept the immediate area for mines and IEDs. You could get your ass blown to Hell and back or get shot by an insurgent.”
Realizing that he had every right to be angry, Katie nodded. Glancing over her shoulder at the marine manning the gun in the MRAP to see if he was listening in on their conversation, she finally answered quietly, “I needed to…go to the bathroom.”
Tipping his helmet back on his head and nodding, Joe said, “Okay, be that as it may. You always take someone with you. You should know that. Never wander around out here alone. For Christ’s sake, you don’t even have your weapon off your shoulder. This is not the goddamn English countryside.”
Realizing again that his anger was fully justified, Katie pushed her helmet back from her forehead and nodded.
“I’m sorry, Staff Sergeant,” she said meekly. “I had a run-in with your…Sergeant Edwards and got distracted. I won’t do it again.”
Putting his hands on his hips, Joe gazed off into the distance, shook his head, then glanced back at Katie. He sighed and rubbed at his stubble-lined chin.
“I thought as much. She followed you out and when I saw her come back into the building it looked like she’d swallowed a piece of lemon.”
Katie tried not to smile at the image his words had conjured up and said, “That’s an awful thing to say.”
“What was the run-in about?” Joe asked.
Hearing the curiosity in his voice, Katie hesitated. “You,” she finally answered. “She tried to tell me in no uncertain terms that I was to stop throwing myself at you.”
A grin spread across Joe’s face. “She did, huh? Hell, I think I can picture what your reaction to that was.”
Katie looked down at the ground and intently toed a pile of dust into a small mound with her boot.
“I told her that my advice to her was to stop putting herself about. That it wasn’t becoming for an…intelligent woman,” she eventually replied, gazing back at her husband to see his reaction. She could see his face was working and that he appeared to be struggling to prevent himself from laughing.
“You did, huh?”
Feeling a warm shiver run up and down her spine at the look on his face and wanting suddenly to be in his arms and have him kiss her hard and passionately, Katie nodded, feeling breathless.
The silence stretched between them, suddenly full of sexual tension and Joe moved uncomfortably.
“Look,” he began, his voice husky, “I’ll take you somewhere private where you won’t be disturbed then I’ll escort you back here. But, don’t do this again, Katie. Make sure you always take a buddy with you. If you don’t want one of the other guys to escort you then come and get me. By rights I should haul you over the coals but under the circumstances…”
Katie nodded and together they continued around the corner of the building, almost bumping into the security team patrolling the perimeter.
“Anything to report?” Joe asked them as they passed. Both marines answered in the negative and moved on.
Joe and Katie left the shadowed safety of the building and headed in the direction of a tall, broken mud wall—all that was left of an outbuilding—a few meters distant.
“I’ll wait here,” Joe said, indicating the outer side of the wall. “You go in there.”
Katie did as she was told, carried out her business undisturbed, and was just going to join Joe when he appeared at her side.
“Wait one, Katie,” he said. “I need to talk to you while we have time, before we move out.”
Noting that he looked uncharacteristically nervous, Katie stepped back into the shelter of the ruined wall and waited, wary at what he had to say to her, hoping that it wasn’t going to be anything that would hurt her any more than she already had been.
Joe hesitated. He folded his arms, glanced off into the distance then said, “First off, I wanted
to say that you did a good job with that pregnant woman under difficult circumstances. I’m sorry we couldn’t medevac them out like you wanted. I didn’t like saying no. I understood where you were coming from, but, time is tight and we need to get to the FOB before nightfall.”
Katie nodded, was about to speak but Joe interrupted her quickly.
“Let me finish, Katie. This is hard enough for me as it is. This is really not the right moment, I know. The place is all wrong, and the timing definitely is, but I have to say this to you now because I haven’t been able to say it before.” He took a deep breath.
“I never meant to hurt you, Katie. I wouldn’t have hurt you for the world. I’ve been thinking a lot since I’ve been back out here. I don’t know why but everything has become much clearer.” Joe paused again, struggling to find the words.
Katie waited patiently, realizing that he was actually talking to her for the first time in months.
“You’ve always been right. My thinking back in the States and in the early days here was pretty wacko. In fact, sometimes I think I was nearly off my rocker. All I wanted was revenge for the murder of my men and for what those fuckers did to me. I thought coming back here would give me that chance. I was going to hunt them down and…kill them. One. By. Fucking. One.”
Katie, watching Joe’s face, saw a familiar cold blankness come over it and for a moment her breath caught in her throat as she wondered if the words he was speaking would dry up as they had so many times before, but he seemed to shake himself, cleared his throat and the cold expression disappeared.
“But then you arrived and I realized that you’d put yourself in danger to be here with me, presumably to keep me from doing something I might regret, and that knocked me back on my ass. I am so sorry, Katie, for everything I’ve done to you. It all got out of control. I got out of control and it took coming back here to set me straight.
“At the PX that night, I thought that if I committed myself to the marines again, got that bit straight then I would be getting rid of the guilt at the death of my men, but it hasn’t worked out like that. I’m not saying that everything is…okay with me. I still have some…issues so when we get this mission over and done with, I’m going to hand myself over to the psych guys at the CTH and I want you to be with me. I want us to get out of here and go home, and I want to do what I should have done before it got bad and get some help. I know I’m asking a lot of you. You could just tell me to fuck off and I would deserve it. I need my ass kicked for what I’ve done to you and Josie.”
Katie, on hearing the words that she had been praying to hear for so long, stepped toward her husband, wanting to ease his struggle to find the words to explain the torment he had been under and his attempt at making amends to her for his actions. Placing the palms of her hands on his chest, she rubbed her hands over his body armor.
“Joe,” she began gently. “Who accused you of murdering your men?”
Watching his face settle into a stony expression, Katie wondered if she had said the wrong thing, but her husband’s face relaxed and he cleared his throat.
“Nobody has ever accused me,” he answered at last.
“Well then, you have your answer,” Katie continued softly. “You’re the one accusing yourself, punishing yourself for something that was a tragedy and something that you couldn’t prevent. The sooner you come to accept it—come to terms with it—the sooner you can find peace.”
Nodding, Joe put his hands on her waist and pulled her toward him. “I love you, Katie. You and our marriage have never been a nuisance. You and Josie have been the best things in my life and always will be.”
Katie raised a finger and gently placed it on his lips. “I love you too,” she said gently. “I’ve never stopped loving you.”
She smiled slightly at the bemused expression on his face. “Shall we start again, even if the time and place is totally wrong and the terries are probably having a field day watching us?”
Instead of answering her question, Joe pulled her closer to him, his arms tightening around her waist. Their body armor separated them but Katie could still feel the warmth of him against her and experience the flare of passion that was always present between them burn intensely the instant that his mouth touched hers. She put her arms about his neck and returned the kiss with all the love she had for him. The heat from the sun and the dusty, burned-smelling air faded and all that remained was the feel of a warm body, hot breath against skin and warm moistness of lips.
After a few minutes, Joe drew back. “God, I’ve missed you, Katie. I’ve been such a fucking asswipe.”
Katie shook her head then laughed. “Not a fucking asswipe, just a misguided asswipe,” she answered. “No more talk about the past until we need to, Joe. I have something I have to tell you. Like what you’ve just said, I may be making a big mistake by telling you—wrong time, wrong place and putting you under more pressure what with one thing and another—but I think you deserve to know.”
Pulling her closer, Joe tilted his head to one side and said, “Okay, shoot.”
Katie hesitated, wondering if she was doing the right thing and he shook her gently and frowned. “What’s up?” he asked.
“I’m pregnant,” Katie suddenly blurted, wanting to get it out in the open as quickly as possible. She held her breath and watched his face closely, noting the stunned expression that crossed it followed almost immediately by concern.
“Christ, Katie. What the fuck are you doing out here?” he asked. “You should be at home.”
“Hey,” Katie said soothingly. “I didn’t know I was pregnant until I was already out here. I don’t want to go home without you. I don’t intend going home without you. I want you with me when our baby is born, not thousands of miles away as it was with Josie. You deserve that and so do I. Everything is okay with me and the baby, I promise.”
“Oh, yeah, right, everything is okay,” Joe responded, and Katie detected annoyance in his voice. “My wife is pregnant in the middle of a desert, heading out on a mission with every chance of getting her head blown off and she says everything is fine.” He looked down at her. “How far along are you anyway?”
“Almost three months,” Katie replied then, reaching back, she took one of his hands from around her waist and gently laid it flat on her stomach. “I think it was the night of the Marine ball.”
“Oh yeah, I remember the Marine ball,” Joe answered, his voice deepening as he remembered their lovemaking in the grounds of the hotel. He felt the warmth of her body through her combat shirt and also a faint curve to her lower abdomen, below the bottom of her body armor, where there had been no roundness before. He felt a powerful emotion soar inside him at the thought that the woman he loved beyond anything in the world—the woman that he had nearly lost—was carrying his child. He felt a new and emotional responsibility toward her, to protect her at all costs and get her back home in one piece.
“Okay,” he said softly. Removing his hand from her stomach, he pulled her against him again. “I am never going to let you out of my sight again, you hear me? You do everything I say without argument. I’ll try to give you light duties but you will take it easy, Katie. We need to get through this together with no heroics.”
Smiling slightly at her big, not-so-tough marine acting so protectively toward her, Katie said teasingly, “Yes, Staff Sergeant.”
“Now, I suggest we get moving.”
“Just one more minute, Joe,” Katie said softly and put her arms about his neck. Pressing herself against him she continued, “We might not have a minute to ourselves for a long time so, I just wanted to say I love you—we love you—and I am so proud of you.”
She gently kissed his lips, relishing being back in his arms, then he was holding her so tightly that she could barely breathe and kissing her hard and hungrily.
“Love you back,” Joe said after pulling his mouth away from hers. He placed a warm hand on the side of her face and rubbed a thumb across her moist lips. His gaze roamed her
face intently, his expression serious, then he smiled. “Now, we have to get back.”
Releasing her, he slipped his M4 from his shoulder. “And get that rifle off your shoulder and ready to use, Corporal.”
Without waiting for her answer, Joe moved to the edge of the wall facing the building and hesitated, scanning the land surrounding them before moving out beyond its confines. Instantaneously, a loud crack sounded with a horrifying loudness, reverberating across the desert with frightening intensity.
Chapter Twenty
A puff of sand and concrete-hard shards of mud splintered away from the wall beside Joe’s head and with lightning fast reflexes, he jumped backward, grabbing Katie’s shoulder, and shoving her to the ground to join him in a crouch.
Katie held up her rifle, unsure in which direction she was to aim it, her breath suddenly coming fast with panic. She stared at Joe, eyes wide, watching him as he bent low, crossing to the edge of the wall again. Peering around it, he aimed his M4 and immediately ducked backward when a fusillade of gunshots came at him from the same direction as the first, projectiles thudding into the wall causing chunks of mud to break away leaving gouges and cracks in the surface.
“Fuck!” he exclaimed.
Katie watched him turn, stare at her then he scrambled back to her side. “The bastards have a bead on us. They must have been watching us all the time. Are you okay?”
Katie nodded silently, unable to find her voice as terror attempted to strangle her vocal chords.
Joe pressed his PRR. “All on this net…Sergeant Eastman?”
Releasing the button, he waited and received an immediate response. “Copying you, Staff Sergeant.”
“We have contact from the north-west,” Joe continued his voice calm. “We are taking fire. I repeat, taking fire and are pinned down behind a wall approximately three-meters from the building. Can you get a fix on the terries?”
A Fallen Hero Page 19