Fraternizing (42 page)

Once
everyone filed out, Jensen left the room without speaking more than a few
words, telling Newsome where he’d be. I stepped out the back door and peeked
around the wall, seeing her ditch her crew and scamper over to where I was. When
I got her inside, I couldn’t help myself; I pinned her up against the wall,
kissing her hard before she playfully pushed me away.

“Well
good to see you, too.”

“Fuck
the greetings. Do you even know what having you in this room does to me?”

“I
think I’m beginning to figure it out.”

“Just
now beginning? What the fuck is that? You should already know.”

She
kissed me again, her soft, moist lips placating me for the moment.

“So
I need to know something,” I told her, taking her hand and leading her over to
the front desk. Her eyes shifted down to it as she softly smiled.

“Not
in the classroom, too.”

I
looked down at it, remembering the delicious lunch I’d gotten out of her on the
desk in my office.

“I’m
starting to realize that you as my meals is turning out to be pretty damn
healthy for me.
But, no.
Not in the
classroom—not yet anyway.”

She
hit my arm and I caught her hand, taking a seat on the desk and pulling her in
between my legs.

“On
a serious note,” I said, my voice turning harder, “I need to know what’s going
on with Private Allen and you.”

Her
look of shock and disgust caught me off guard.

“Are
you asking me if we have something going on?” The acid in her tone was
noticeably apparent.

“Not
so much. Calm the fuck down. I just noticed the look on your face when he
offered to be your partner, and I wanted to know where it came from.”

 
“Allen is just an idiot. I don’t want to
have anything to do with him if I can avoid it.”

She
started to pull away, but I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her
closer. “There’s more to it, Blondie. I know it. I’m going to do some digging
on this shit, believe that.”

“Alex,
why can’t just take my word at face value? He’s a dumbass, and I just choose to
avoid him.”

“Because
the look on your face was more than just disgust with a dumbass. I’m not
fucking stupid, Cassie. The kid rubs me wrong, and that look tells me that my
feelings about him are absolutely right. So if you won’t be honest with me,
I’ll find out on my own.”

“I
am being honest,” she quickly retorted.

“You’re
omitting, and that is not being completely honest.”

The
more I looked at her, the more I wanted to know exactly what was going on here.
I didn’t like it. I didn’t like tension in her body where this guy was
concerned, and I damn sure didn’t like that I couldn’t get a straight answer
out of her.

“Why
are you withholding?” I asked, eyes narrowing, voice growing more husk.

She
swallowed. “I’m not. I just know you get all crazy over the smallest little things.
I don’t want any issues, Alex.”

“Issues?
You don’t think you have a fucking issue already on your hands? I don’t even
know what it is, but it’s written all over you.”

She
rolled her eyes and looked away.

“I’m
telling you right now. I’m going to find out what this is because I don’t like
the feeling I get when he’s around. He’s a loose fucking cannon, and I don’t
get why you’re protecting him.”

We
stared at one another for a minute when Cassie finally broke the silence.

“I
need to get some chow. I’m starving.”

I
didn’t want to let her go. I could tell she was upset, but sadly, I didn’t
care. Her evasiveness where this Allen guy was concerned was ammunition for me
to find out exactly what was going on there, and deep inside I knew none of it
was good. I reluctantly stood and walked her to the back door.

My
phone buzzed in my pocket. I reached in and grabbed it, seeing a text message
from Smith light up on the screen.

Smith: Sgt. Major. Thomas wants to see you.

“Fuck!”
I called out. She stood staring at me, wanting to know what had come through.

“What
happened?”

“I
have to go and see Sgt. Major. Thomas.”

Her
breath caught. “Do you think—
“

“No.
She’s not calling me in for this.” I kissed her. “And… I will be digging
around, and I don’t give a shit if you warn Dalton either. I’m going to find
out what the hell is going on. I’ve already told you, I don’t play fair. I’ll
get my information one way or another.”

I
pushed open the door and let her out before throwing on my cover and
straightening myself up. I cracked my knuckles as I walked toward Sgt. Major’s
office, the tension building up in me like cement blocks on a wall. Cassie was
hiding something, and what it was I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but I was
more determined than ever to find out.

Chapter 26

Cassie

We
were so close to the end of school that I didn’t want Alex going ape shit and
everything that we had to come unraveling. Allen had been a sore subject for me
since the very beginning, but I felt like I could hold my own when it came to
him. Now my nerves were on edge. Alex wanted to know what was going on, and the
Sgt. Major was calling him in. There could have been a whole host of reasons
that she wanted to see him, but when you have a guilty conscience it
automatically jumps to the negative, and that is exactly where I was wallowing.

I walked across
the street to the mini mart, grabbing a bag of chips and a Gatorade since there
wasn’t going to be enough time to walk all the way to the chow hall, eat, and
get back. I sat under the tiny bit of shade created from one of the pillars as
I lost myself in thought. Alex, for as much as he saw Allen as a loose cannon,
was just as much a loose cannon, if not more. I had to find Dalton and talk to
him because I knew he would be the first person that Alex would interrogate. I
didn’t want to be babied. I could handle Allen on my own. Even if I had to keep
going at him here and there, he knew he would have a fight with me, and usually
didn’t cross that line.

I took out my
phone and texted Dalton. The last thing I wanted was for him to be caught off
guard by Alex.

Dalton: Need to see you ASAP. I’m in the
courtyard.

I waited for a
few minutes but didn’t get a reply. Instead, I heard footsteps. Dalton came
running, and the sight of him, red faced and breathing hard, had me laughing a
bit.

“What’s so
funny?” he asked, trying to catch his breath.

“You. You look
like you came to put out a fire.”

“Well, when you
put ASAP, I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Anyway, what’s up?”

I scooted over
and tapped the seat, inviting him to sit down. “Alright. Alex knows something
is up with Allen. We were working on radio systems in class today and had to do
it in pairs. Allen called me out and offered to be my partner and I froze,
totally disgusted. Well, Alex saw that and went haywire. He asked me what was
going between us and I wouldn’t tell him.”

“Why? The guy is
a douche. Maybe letting Alex kick his ass is what he needs.”

“Dalton, wake up.
If Alex goes after him,
which
he will if he finds out
some of the shit he’s said to me, everything will be blown, so you have to keep
quiet. He already said he was coming to you, so please, do your best to not say
anything. I know you think I’m crazy, but it’s for the best.”

“I do think
you’re crazy, and I would love to see Allen get his ass kicked, but I get it. I’ll
keep my mouth shut.”

“Thank you,” I
said, finally able to smile. “Anyway, how was your weekend with Ben?”

A dreamy look
spread across his face. Whatever happened, it must have gone well.

“It was awesome. We
went to Palm Springs and stayed in a resort hotel. Played some golf, ate at
amazing restaurants, did some shopping and had amazing sex. He said
he’ll
be back out for graduation in a couple of weeks.”

“That’s awesome. So
are you a couple or what’s the deal?”

“I don’t know
about that part. I mean, he’s super sweet and all, but I still don’t even know
where I’ll be stationed, and long distance relationships rarely work out.”

“Well, I wouldn’t
automatically rule it out. It sounds like he really likes you. What does he
do?”

“He’s a
paralegal.”

“Good job. I’m
just glad you had a good weekend. You were so worried about it.”

“I know.
Anyway, what about you.
How was your weekend?”

“Oh, it was
amazing. Alex took me to Huntington Beach. I’d never been to a beach before. He
taught me how to boogie board, then we had a bonfire, cooked out, made s’mores,
made love—“

“Whoa. Made love?
Do tell.”

I laughed. It did
sound a little strange for me, too. “Yes. We learned a whole lot about one
another that night, and rough sex just didn’t feel appropriate. It warranted so
much more.”

“Wow!”

“I know. Kind of
shocked me too. So anyway, the next day, he took me sailing, and then-“

“And then?”

“And then, he
shocked the hell out of me by taking me to meet his family.”

“What the fuck?
Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“That’s huge. How
did that go?”

“Well, I was
nervous as hell, but it went well. His mom and sister are awesome, but his
grandma, hmmmm, not so much.”

“Yikes. Did she
say anything rude to you?”

“No, but she said
it about me. She asked him, ‘who’s the white girl?’” I raised the pitch of my
voice, mimicking the sounds of hers.

Dalton laughed,
prompting me to finally laugh about it.

“Sounds like
Grandma
is
old school.”

“Oh, she is. His
sister told me that. It was a good visit. He has more people in his family than
I’ve known in my entire life.”

“Glad you had a
good time. So, are you two a couple?” he asked, slightly turning his head and
scrunching his eyebrows.

I blew out a deep
breath. “Yeah, I guess you can say that. And we’ll just have to make this long
distance thing that you say never works, work.”

He laughed again.

Busy chatter
filled the hallways as everyone began filing into the courtyard. Lunch had
flown by, and now all I had to do was keep Dalton inaccessible for Alex.

Later that
evening, after a quick study session, Dalton and I went to the gym to do some
light cardio. Alex texted and let me know that Sgt. Major Thomas just wanted
him to sign some paperwork and possibly send him away for some radio seminar
for a few days. I was able to relax once I found out why she was calling for
him, but anxiety still sat inside of me as I realized now he was free to
interrogate whomever he wanted about Allen. I had hoped that he would just let
it be, but of course as soon as he told me,
I’m
letting that go like I’m letting you go. Get over
it,
I
knew he was hell bent on finding out and destroying him. If I could keep him
out of the specifics of what Allen had actually said to me that might placate
him just a bit, and not turn him into a maniacal body crusher. Hearing his
story over the weekend of what he did to the guy that hit his sister let me
know that where the women he loved were concerned, he had no limits, no
boundaries.

The next couple
of days were filled with Alex’s inquisition. He was relentless, pulling
students aside to try and find some dirt, but luckily no one besides Dalton
really had anything, and he did much better at keeping quiet than I gave him
credit for. Alex had asked him about everything and Dalton, being the smart
friend that he was, simply told him that Allen was a loud mouth and because I
ran mine too, Allen and I had gotten into a couple of arguments. When Alex
pressed him further, he said he didn’t know anything else. Alex went even
further, even underhandedly threatening Dalton, but my dear friend still gave
nothing up. I could have kissed him when I found out. I thought for sure the
rough exterior of Alex when he was pissed and on a mission would have broken
Dalton, but it didn’t. He held his ground, even though he said he thought Alex
was ready to snap his neck if he didn’t give him what he wanted. I could only
laugh at that and thank him profusely. Dealing with Alex was definitely no easy
task, but he did it, even if he didn’t agree with my reasoning.

Friday, Alex
texted me and told me to be ready for a taxi at the Subway again around
eighteen hundred because he wanted to spend time with me. He had been given
temporary orders to travel to a joint forces base in Florida, so he’d be gone
for the weekend, sitting in on a presentation for a new radio system that would
be coming in. I hated the thought of it. He would be leaving first thing in the
morning and wouldn’t be back until Tuesday.
 
Even though it was only a few days, every
day that we had together was precious because there was a good chance that at
the end of this course, we’d be split up, living on opposite coasts with
different time zones and different training and deployment schedules. That
thought sickened me even more, so I let it go and focused on enjoying my night
with him.