Jesse felt a rush of satisfaction. Caldwell was right. Her ability to worm her way into that meeting
was
brilliant. She sipped on her drink and mused.
“Never underestimate what you can learn from secretaries. They know everything. By the end of the first day I’d heard from three of them about their ‘boss-man’s’ interesting bathroom. And how he graciously shared it. He insisted that anyone working with him could use his bathroom instead of the ladies room down the hallway.” Jesse gave a disgusted groan. “God, what a pig!”
As she was remembering the offensive man and the ugly tales his staff had relayed, Jesse was surprised to see Elliott go to the bar and pour himself another drink. He came back to the sofa holding his glass and the bottle of Scotch. He sat down a couple of feet away from her and pointed the bottle at her glass.
“You need a refill, Jesse. We have a lot to celebrate tonight.”
Inching away from him, she demurred. “No, thank you. I’m fine.”
Elliott winked at her. “That you are, Major.”
Jesse was debating how quickly she could get up and leave when Elliott’s expression changed from interest to something more primal. Unfortunately Jesse had seen that look on many men’s faces and was preparing to leave when he shocked her with his next words.
“I don’t know if you are aware, Jesse, but I was with Mason when you did your tantalizing striptease.”
Jesse fought to stay calm. She remembered the way Elliott watched when Mason came on to her in the car. He hadn’t tried to stop Mason or disguise his own interest. She’d wondered at the time if the upstanding colonel was aroused by what Mason was doing to her. Shaking off the memory she struggled to get enough spit in her mouth to respond to his ugly admission.
“No, I didn’t know that. I wish you hadn’t done that, Elliott. That is an invasion of my privacy, Colonel.”
The Colonel roared, laughing in her face.
“Your privacy? Good God, woman. You stood there stark naked in front of a stranger and you object to one of your teammates seeing you in the buff? How the hell could that upset a pro like you?”
Jesse stomach clenched at the insult, her surprise turning to anger.
“Yes, my privacy. You took advantage of me, Elliott. I was vulnerable and you…” She stopped, wanting to end the conversation not discuss the issue.
“Look, Colonel, I don’t like where this is going.” She glared pointedly at his now empty glass. Reaching for her shoes, she hunted for her purse. As she started to rise, she added. “Thank you for inviting me. But I’m leaving now and—”
He interrupted her as if she hadn’t spoken. Leering at her breasts, he sneered, “I have to tell you, I sold you short, Jesse. I always thought that ‘equipment’ of yours wasn’t real. You keep it well camouflaged. But watching you strip tonight sure opened my eyes! I saw exactly who and what you are.”
Jesse clenched her fists at her sides and spit out the words.
“Exactly who and
what
am I, Colonel?”
Elliott again acted as though he hadn’t heard her. Instead he moved in closer ignoring her obvious intent to leave.
“Let me put it this way. It was a pleasure getting to know the real you. Before that strip tease, I had to rely on my imagination to envision what you have hidden under your uniform. We all know that you are one hot sexy babe. But now I know the real thing is even hotter, if possible. I’ve seen you in enough missions to know how you flaunt it, Jesse. Fling it in a guy’s face. But I have to believe that there are real rewards for the any guy powerful enough to take you up on the ‘come-hither’ messages you send so loud and clear.”
Jesse’s heart was pounding against her chest. It hurt to breathe. She didn’t know when she’d been angrier. And the buffoon wasn’t done yet.
“Hell, Jesse, I wouldn’t have missed that show for the world. I’m not sure what part I liked better. You ditching your bra and deciding to let those headlights shine or when you bent over and ran that satin string up your ass crack.”
Shocked, Jesse jumped up to leave. Elliott caught her and pushed her back down on the sofa.
“Admit it, Jesse. Admit that you enjoyed doing that striptease as much as we enjoyed watching it. Why would you not? You like to tease men, don’t you? Taunt them with your whore’s body and then saunter off leaving them holding their dick in their hands.”
Jesse couldn’t hide her shocked gasp. But Elliott was fierce, strong. Keeping one hand clamped on her wrist, he slipped his other hand under her skirt. His voice was low, gruff.
“Like Mason, I’m a sucker for thigh-high stockings. And thongs? Can’t get any better than this.”
He grabbed for her hair and pushed her down hard against the back of the sofa. She was stunned. He was stronger than he looked and he was determined.
Moving up against her, he snarled. “C’mon, Major. Cut the bullshit. We both know what we want. Admit it. I can feel your heart speeding up!”
Before she could push him away, he landed on top of her and began to kiss her.
A boiling caldron of fury rose up in Jesse, filling every muscle with blazing heat. With a mighty twist she freed herself and rolled to the floor. Catching herself, she stumbled toward the door. Elliott shouted in surprise and lurched after her, snaring her arm as she went by. As he attempted to throw her back on the couch, Jesse wound up and slammed her fist in his face—hard. The blow knocked him against the end table with a crash. When he rose to his feet cursing and yelling she didn’t have to see the blood to know that his nose was likely broken. She’d heard and felt the muffled crunch. His split lip was a pleasant surprise, though. She grunted. Two for one, a lucky punch.
Jesse stepped back, shaking with rage.
“You goddamned son of a bitch! How dare you?! Apparently you forgot who I
really
am, Colonel. In addition to being a Major in the United States Army and a member of
your
team, you are my superior officer and you are
seriously, grossly
, out of line.”
She grabbed her shoes and purse and marched to the door.
His angry threat stopped her.
“Goddamn you, Jesse O’Donnell. You are going to be one sorry cunt.”
Swiping at his face with the back of his hand, he punched a buzzer on the edge of the table and faced her. His face was white with fury which made the blood oozing from his mouth and nose more stark.
“Don’t think you are going to get away with coming on to me like this. Shame on you, Major.”
Jesse stepped back, stunned. Only then did she see the Colonel’s aide, PFC Kolmar, standing in the doorway. Too late she realized that Elliott had summoned him with the buzzer.
Elliott whirled on her, his voice shaking with indignation. “Major, you are a shame to your rank, to your team and to your country. I’m going to run you of out of this man’s army if it is the last thing I do. The Army is no place for oversexed sluts.”
Making an obvious effort to control himself, Elliott turned to the wide-eyed young man hovering in the doorway.
“Private Kolmar, please show Major O’Donnell out. She clearly has had too much to drink and has behaved disgracefully.”
When the pale-faced private approached her, Jesse held up her hand. She was surprised and grateful that she sounded calm, rational.
“Thank you, Private. That won’t be necessary. I can see myself out.”
Jesse walked out the door with her shoes in her hand and her head held high, knowing that she had been had by a consummate predator.
~~~
Leaning against the elevator wall, Jesse slammed her eyes shut trying to erase the reality of the situation. But it didn’t work. She had just slugged her commanding officer—in the face. She might even have broken his nose. She chided herself. For God’s sake, why didn’t she hit him in the gut or kick him in the balls? Somewhere that would hurt like hell but not leave visible marks. But, no. She had to go for the asshole’s face.
Remembering the blood spurting from the Colonel’s nose and his enraged threat, Jesse groaned. Even though their mission had been an unqualified success and brought an international illegal arms enterprise to its knees, it was likely career ending for her.
Chapter 5
“The General is ready for you, Ma’am.”
The young soldier stood and saluted her. He looked straight ahead not meeting her eyes. The pit in Jesse’s stomach dropped several more floors. Corporal Sanchez was the General’s guard dog. He knew the crusty officer’s moods as well as anyone. The serious expression on Sanchez’s face didn’t bode well for Jesse.
“Thank you, Corporal Sanchez.”
Jesse tapped on the door. A brusque voice welcomed her.
“Come in, Major O’Donnell.”
Jesse stood in the doorway watching General Peters scribble on the pad in front of him. The rigid set of his wide shoulders and fierce scratching of his pen added to the palpable tension in the room. When he looked up and met her eyes, the strain on his face was apparent. Impressive sitting at his desk, the general at his full 6 ft. 4 in. was overwhelming. As he rose to his feet he responded to her salute with a flick of his hand and motioned her to the chair in front of his desk.
Neither of them spoke for a long moment. The bear of a man held her gaze. His perpetual frown formed deep crevices on his brow matching the furrowed creases on his weathered cheeks and around his mouth. Only the web of lines circling his steely gray eyes spoke to the laughter that was often there. Jesse hitched a breath as she met his eyes. There was no humor on the general’s countenance today, only a deeply troubled expression. Jesse missed his smile. She’d seen it often. In addition to being the commanding officer on the post, the general was her friend.
“Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.” He paused and then barked, “What the
hell
, Major?”
Jesse hitched a breath and forced out a terse response. “I presume you’ve heard?”
The General growled. “Not only have I ‘heard’ but I have here a sworn statement from Col. Caldwell.”
He waved a large paw at the sheaf of papers on his desk.
Holding up his hand, demanding her silence, General Peters’ voice was gruff, serious.
“For the moment, Major, you and I are going to speak off the record. We will be having a formal conversation soon enough. Agreed?”
When she nodded her agreement, the General gave a deep sigh and leaned forward, his beefy arms resting on the desk.
“Jesse, you know that slugging a superior officer at the very least forces me to consider an Article 32 inquiry. As you also know a negative result could mean a general court martial. Given the nature of the offense, chances are that I could get it knocked down to an Article 15 non judicial punishment hearing, but you would still be looking at serious charges.”
The General paused letting his words sink in. Jesse didn’t need to hear them. She’d spent the night studying the
United States
Uniform Code of Military Justice
. Not an optimist to begin with, the descriptions of the various Articles, although couched in arcane legal jargon, were terrifying.
“Let’s go over the facts as I know them.”
Jesse interrupted. “You mean the
facts
as stated by Col. Caldwell… Sir.” At the warning light in the General’s eyes, Jesse had added the ‘sir’ and swallowed hard trying to quiet her rising anger. Naturally, Elliott had been there at the crack of dawn with his case laid out—every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed. No doubt he’d had several JAG officers craft it for him. The thick stack of papers on the desk combined with the troubled frown on General Peters’ face confirmed that what Jesse knew was a bad situation was worse than she’d thought.
“Let me reiterate the ‘facts’ as stated in Col. Caldwell’s statement. According to the Colonel, after you and he turned the mission target over to our British Colleagues, you asked the Colonel if you could go to his hotel suite for a debriefing.”
The general ignored her disbelieving gasp and continued.
“According to the Colonel, once you arrived in his suite, you removed your wig and several articles of clothing.” Again, ignoring her outraged gasp, the general glanced at the papers. “To be specific, your shoes. After you had a couple of drinks, you ‘came on’ to the Colonel. When he attempted to dissuade you, you became enraged and struck him. Hard enough to break his nose and spilt his lip.”
Jesse couldn’t hold back her derisive snort.
The general held up his hand to silence her.
“To continue. The only person present besides you and Col. Caldwell to observe the incident was his private aide and house man, PFC Kolmar, whom I interviewed this morning.”
Jesse broke in. “But Private Kolmar
didn’t
observe the ‘incident’! He only came in when that asshole called him—”
“That’s enough, Major. I will tell you when you may speak.”
Jesse sunk back in her chair. For the first time the full enormity of the situation hit her. A cold wave of fear fought with her anger and won. Despair settled in its place.
“Private Kolmar was unwilling to go further than to say that the Colonel requested that he show you out and that he overheard the Col. Caldwell say that he would not let you threaten him. Private Kolmar also indicated that you may have had too much to drink and—”
Jesse rose from her chair. The words she spit out were blasts of acid in her throat.
“General, do you want to know what really happened?”
The General didn’t rebuke her for her impertinence. Instead he breathed out a heavy sigh.
“No, Jesse, at this point I do not. Please sit down.”
Jesse was shocked that this man whom she admired wasn’t willing to listen to her. Hurt overcame her anger. She sunk down in her chair and rested her hands in her lap. She no longer had the energy to grip the arms.
General Peter’s expression softened.
“Basically, Jesse, your story can’t be corroborated. At this point we have Col. Caldwell with a broken nose and cut lip swearing under oath that a member of his team attacked him. The only other person there was his aide PFC Kolmar, who can only testify to what the Colonel told him happened.” General Peters’ sigh this time was even deeper. “It is a classic ‘he said, she said’ story.”