Chapter 66

I made a few more phone calls after convincing Liz to go work out some of her anxiety on the treadmill.

Ryan was the first.

“I know,” he said instantly. “I can’t walk away with security concerns over the next few weeks. If anybody in South America believes that shit then Liz is going to be in a lot of danger.”

“Yeah,” I said. The rest of my explanation was interrupted by the doorbell.

I broke into laughter when I saw Ryan standing on the doorstep with Brian and Dom.

“I could have saved the minutes on my phone,” I said.

“I’m committed through Dallas but after that...” Ryan said.

“We’re in as long as she wants us to be,” Dom said, gesturing to Brian and them himself.

I lifted my eyebrows as their boss turned to look at them.

“We talked it over,” Brian said. “We ... we both saw some shit overseas. We both know people that made bad choices for the right reasons. I didn’t back away from them and I’m not backing away from Liz. She had a very limited set of choices and she took the only one that stood a reasonable chance of keeping everybody safe.”

“Police officers were killed,” Ryan pointed.

“I know they were,” Brian said angrily. “And if their God damned commander hadn’t fucked it up they might not have been. They notified the police of the location, the participants and the strength. It was a shitload more information than we usually got. If someone higher up didn’t pass the information along then it’s his fault alone. I’m not going to fault the soldiers on the ground and I’m not going to fault the person offering the intelligence. It was typical REMF bullshit.”

I knew that REMF was slang for a “rear-echelon motherfucker” or a commander that sat in his comfy office while making those working beneath him assume all the risks.

“She had no viable options,” Dom said. “If she had backed out or tried to walk away, you would have been killed and so would she. I hate it that cops got hurt but I’m with Brian. The blame lands somewhere far away from here.”

Ryan looked to me for a moment.

“Do you think Nadia was telling the truth about things?” he asked.

“I think Liz is telling the truth,” I countered. “I know that Nadia’s account is almost identical. She had a little more information since she was in on the planning stages. That’s really what changed my mind. Liz didn’t plan any of this. She showed up and they told her what part she’d play. She was the bait. She had something all of them wanted.”

“Her ass,” Ryan muttered angrily.

“Well, I guess she had two things,” I corrected. “She was already world famous at 20 years old. She could go anywhere and open any door to them. Chinese companies weren’t going to hire Anastasia or Nadia. They weren’t going to permit someone like Caley or Emelda to even visit their country. But Liz could go. Liz could go to Australia; she could go to Dubai. There wasn’t a single place on the planet that she couldn’t schedule a concert and have the government treat her like royalty.

“Both groups saw an opportunity. Nadia said the Ukrainians had already stopped asking her to ingratiate herself to Liz and started to insist upon it. In a week or a month, they would have found a way to put Liz under their heel, too. Then she would have probably killed herself. You would have made a fight of it and they would have killed you. Then she would have OD’ed or hung herself or crashed her car at 110 miles an hour.”

“I’m amazed that she’s been able to live with this on her conscience for so long,” Brian said.

“Yeah,” I said. “We need to watch her for the next few days, particularly if people close to her walk away. I’m not saying that should sway your decision but if you’re going to be around it’s something to watch for. She said she tried that night. That’s why she was so drunk when you found her. She tried to drink herself to death but passed out first.”

Ryan sat down again and exhaled noisily.

“Damn,” he said. “I just keep thinking I should have seen it and done something.”

“It was that fucking label,” Brian said, shaking his head angrily. “I got a pretty good idea of what she went through in high school. I saw it all the damned time with kids I grew up with. I’ve spent a lot of time with Travis over the past few weeks and he paints a picture of a lonely girl with no real friends and little parental supervision. So what does that fuckin’ label do? They pulled a guppy out of the fish bowl, dressed her up in a meat suit and tossed her into the water with a bunch of sharks. What did they think would happen? She was already neck deep by the time she heard your name, Ryan. The only people that could have stopped this hired you to clean up the fucking mess they made.”

Brian rarely raised his voice but it was pretty obvious that he was angry.

“I guess,” Ryan said. I had rarely seen the man’s confidence shaken.

“He’s right,” I said. “She wasn’t prepared for that sort of life. We’re small-town kids, Ryan. If my parents hadn’t had a firm hand – even when I was 21 – I would have wound up mixed up in some pretty shitty things. I’m not blaming her parents. But their parenting style wasn’t conducive to raising a child that would be prepared emotionally to handle fame at a young age. Don’t kick yourself for this. I can’t even kick Liz for this. This is another thing that falls to the label to police. They ran every other facet of her life. Why didn’t they step in to make sure this didn’t happen? They are the ones that insisted she hang out with those awful people.”

I heard a noise in the other room and silenced the group. I didn’t want Lynwood hearing us talking about Liz behind her back. A few second later I heard Liz in the next room.

“Travis?” she asked.

“I’m out front,” I yelled. She walked in wearing a white sports bra and a pair of very tight and very short bicycling shorts.

“Oh, sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know you were visiting.”

“We weren’t here to visit him,” Brian said, rolling his eyes. “Dom and I just came to tell you that we’re with you.”

“Me, too,” Ryan said. I lifted an eyebrow in his direction and he gave a slight nod. “We talked it over and figured out that you were backed against the wall. You did all you could to protect everyone and it wasn’t your fault that some asshole police commander didn’t pay attention.”

Liz blinked and I saw she was trying to keep more tears from falling. She covered her mouth for a moment before shaking her head quickly.

“The police weren’t the only people I got killed,” she said.

“NHI,” Dom said.

“No Humans Involved,” Brian explained. “People in that line of work always die violently. You were in a spot where your choices were bad and worse. Yeah, you should have been smart enough to stay out of that life in the first place but we understand why you got caught up in it. We know who you are now, Liz.”

I watched as my sweaty girlfriend gave hugs to three of her friends. All three of them looked extremely uncomfortable at her actions. In the month I’d been around them, I’d never seen Liz give them anything more affectionate than a hand slap. I wondered if I had been forgotten when she spun from Ryan and embraced me so hard that I worried about my ribs breaking. I patted her sweaty back and kissed her salty hair.

She gave me a smile and a quick kiss before she turned around to face the rest of the group.

“Thank you,” she said. “I ... I’m sorry for keeping it from you. I promise to keep trying to do better.”

“Just do what you’ve done since I’ve known you and it’ll be fine,” Brian said.

“We need to get going,” Dom said. “Skye is waiting for me. We just wanted to let you know what we’d decided. Skye wants to come with you to Jacksonville. Is that OK?”

“Great!” Liz said. “She’s always welcome.”

“We’ll see you Sunday morning unless you two decide to hit the town tonight or tomorrow,” Dom said.

“Sunday is good,” Liz said. “You guys are always welcome out here if you’re bored but...”

She stopped and looked at me for a moment.

“You might want to call first because I’m going to have to earn my way back into Travis’s good graces,” she said.

“No, you don’t,” I said. She turned and gave me an air kiss and a wink. I shut up.

“Tell Skye I said ... thanks,” Liz said.

“I had to tell her,” Dom said.

“I know,” Liz said. “I shouldn’t have kept it from you for so long. I hope you won’t tell outsiders but I won’t fault you if you do. I’m ... I’m not a terrible person.”

“We know that,” Ryan said. “That’s why this hit me so hard. I know you’re a good person.”

“Have any of you talked to Stephanie and Jill?” I asked.

“I talked to Jill,” Brian said. “I’m not sure how she is going to go. I tried to point out that you stepped in for her when she was in trouble. You had no one to do that when you were in the same spot. I don’t know if I did any good. I guess we’ll see. I just want you to know this. I’ve been where you are, Liz. I’ve been in life-and-death situations. My decisions turned out better than yours but it was only luck. So you keep your chin up. OK?”

Liz wiped her eyes again as they left.

“Thank you,” she whispered. I thought she was talking to them until she turned and kissed me.

“I didn’t do anything,” I said. “They looked at the facts and made their own decision. I can’t push people one way or the other. I’m too close to you for me to be objective.”

Liz pulled my face down until our lips met again. She smelled of sweat mixed with her body lotion and her lips were salty with sweat and her tears. I held her until she moved her hands to my wrists and pushed them down to her Lycra-covered butt.

“I was thinking about a lot of things while I was running,” she said when she pulled her face back.

“Oh?” I asked.

“I’m very lucky to have you in my life,” she said. “You’re right. I’ve been angry at myself for the past week. I’ve been angry at others for years. Rather than see that you’ve been on my side all along, I’ve done my best to push you away. I don’t want you anywhere but with me. So I’m going to show you just how much I want you with me forever.”

“It’s OK,” I said as I lifted my hands upward.

“You don’t ... want to?” she asked. She had been grinding her crotch against mine so she knew the answer to that.

“I don’t want you to think I’m going to ... look elsewhere when you don’t want to,” I said. “It’s not an obligation.”

“I know that,” Liz said. “I’m not feeling obligated. I’m feeling ... loved. It took me some time to figure out why you were willing to do everything you’ve done. I couldn’t see any reason why you didn’t just ... cut and run. It finally hit me when I was on the treadmill. I played the whole week over in my head. You’ve done it because you love me and you’re willing to do whatever you have to do to make sure I have a life when this is through.”

I shrugged and Liz kissed me again.

“I’ve never felt ... this!” Liz said. “I’ve never felt I was the most important thing in anyone’s life before. I ... it makes me ... awed. I stood there thinking about how I’ve acted toward you. You love me enough to let me get through this in whatever way I need. Yeah, you finally put your foot down today but, God, I would have snapped on you days ago if the roles had been reversed. It’s going to take me some time to get used to having someone that ... cares so much about me.