Chapter Eleven.
Jesse - On Deployment
We’d just spent thirteen days looking for a government contractor who’d gone missing. When we found him, there wasn’t much left to collect.
All I wanted to do was shower, shovel some food in me, and sleep. I could remove food from the list if necessary. We’d done our informal debriefing as soon as we’d returned to base, but now I had roughly thirty-six hours to become human again. Definitely shower, sleep, eat.
When I returned to my bunk, I turned on my cell phone. I hadn’t talked to Lyrical in all the time I’d been gone, so I figured I would send her a quick text to let her know I was alive and well, and that I’d call her tomorrow when I had a few minutes.
The text that appeared woke me up as fast as an explosion would have.
Your father stopped by.
Above it was a photo of a manila envelope, clearly sealed. I never would have believed an envelope could be menacing, but this one was.
I looked at the timestamp of the text. Five days ago. Jesus, she had to be going absolutely apeshit.
Instantly, I dialed my phone, thankful it was midday and next to no one was here in the tent with me. This was not a conversation I wanted public.
She answered on the second ring.
“Jesse?” Her voice came out breathless, as if she’d run for the phone.
“Yeah, sweetness, it’s me. You okay?”
“I’m good. Are you in one piece?”
“As good as. What’s going on?”
“He tried to bribe me to leave you. I didn’t even open the envelope. It’s still lying exactly where he threw it. He told me I had seven days to accept his offer, or it would go away. I told him to take it with him, but he refused.”
Anger surged through me. It wasn’t the first time he’d tried to tear us apart.
The first time he tried was while I was in boot camp.
He tried to get my contract canceled. When that didn’t work, he tried to bribe someone to cancel it.
He visited shortly after the military assigned me to Camp Pendleton and offered to help us desert and sneak out of the country.
We never told Lyrical, but I doubted it would surprise her.
Jamie told him to shove his offer up his ass.
I said nothing. I simply stood, turned, and left the room without looking back.
I hoped that would be the end. Obviously, he’d considered other avenues and waited until he knew Lyrical was vulnerable. I wouldn’t be home for at least another eight months. Would he continue to batter at her until she gave in?
Desperate to help her, my brain steam-rolled through options. The need to protect her from him was dominant, but I was thousands of miles away. What could I do?
“It’s all right, sweetness. He can’t harm you. Go stay at a hotel for a few days.”
“But, Jesse—”
“Please, Lyrical,” I begged. “For my sanity, take a few days off work and from volunteering at the food bank. I don’t want you anywhere he can hunt you down. I’ll figure something out, but just do this for me. Please,” I said again.
Fallujah may be across the world from where she was, but it’s like I can hear her conscience pushing to fight me on this.
Her self-confidence has grown by leaps and bounds these past few years, but the sight of my father has put her into a tailspin, allowing many of her insecurities to push to the surface.
“Why can’t he leave us alone?”
“Because he’s used to getting his way, and he’s never taken no for an answer. Hell. People don’t say no to him, so it’s completely unfathomable to him.”
“I never want to leave you, Jesse. I love you.”
“You’ll never have to leave me, sweetness, and I’m not leaving you because I love you more. I’m sorry you have to deal with this on your own. I want nothing more than to be there right now, curl up with you in my arms, and make it all disappear for you.”
A sniffle traveled through the line. “Okay,” she finally agreed. “I’ll call Ava. She always said I was welcome to come and visit. I’ll take the first bus there.”
Relief passed through me. Lyrical found it difficult to make friends, but she’d eventually bonded with a Marine wife across the hall from the apartment. My father would never think to look for her there. Plus, if something went wrong, she’d be close to the base, and they would help her.
“Call her as soon as we get off the phone. Buy an airplane ticket.” She protested. “Don’t argue, sweetness. We can afford the flight. Make sure you take enough money with you to stay for two weeks. If you can’t stay with her that long, get a hotel.”
“I love you, Jesse. Please be safe.”
“You too, sweetness. Text me when you get to Joelle’s. I’ll call as soon as I can.”
After I hung up, I sat on the edge of my bunk, the phone clutched loosely in my hand between my knees.
All her life, she fought for everything.
As smart as she was, as wonderful as she was, the unfairness of even more shit being piled on top of her ate at me.
My girl was a fighter though. No matter what, she refused to quit.
My memory drifted back to the first challenge we faced. Our first date. The Snow Ball. She looked beautiful in the pale blue dress I bought her, like a princess. Jamie’s date, an exchange student whom he’d been chasing for a few weeks, helped her do her hair and makeup.
She was incredibly nervous, but after a lot of coaxing from me and gentle flirting from Jamie, she relaxed. We had a great time.
But the following Monday at school, the whisper campaign began.
Everywhere she went, people stared. Conversations stopped when she walked into a room.
A few times, people made comments aloud for her to hear.
Everyone was talking about how she “gave it up” to me the night of the dance and what a total slut she was.
Of course, it wasn’t true. I was pretty sure Natasha started it all, pissed off I turned her down and took Lyrical instead.
Calling her out publicly had been my plan, but Lyrical begged me not to.
Said it would make things worse, but there was no way I was going to let it go unchecked.
Instead, I made sure everyone at school saw us together everywhere.
I sat with her at lunch, walked her to all her classes, held her hand, and kissed her hello and goodbye every time we met and parted ways.
Jamie staunchly defended her to everyone, but that backfired big time.
Suddenly, the new rumor was that Lyrical was “doing both the Forbes boys.” The rumors got worse and worse, so much so that she was called into the principal’s office and suspended for three days for “causing a distraction” amongst the students.
We were livid when we heard about it, but our attempts to argue with the administration got nowhere.
Then our parents heard about it. I tried to explain to them it was all lies, but because Jamie had such a wild side, they thought he influenced me.
Leading me astray or some shit like that.
I swore none of it was true, and so did he, but they weren’t having it.
My parents forbade me from even speaking to her.
Yeah, that wasn’t happening. However, I kept our time together on the down low from my parents, and figured when I went away to school, they’d assume I was too busy to talk to her anymore, especially since I was across the country from her at Stanford. What they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
But this? This went beyond the pale. It ended now.
Shoving off from my bunk, I strode out of the tent and to my captain’s makeshift office. Upon arrival, I knocked on the trailer door and waited.
“Enter!” came the muffled response.
I crossed to his desk, stood before the desk he sat behind. He frowned. He saw that something was wrong. “What is it, Forbes?”
My stomach clenched. I knew I couldn’t go home. Yes, my wife was in distress, but my father visiting her would not qualify as an emergency.
“I have a situation at home, sir.”
“With Lyrical?” he asked. He sat up straight. “Is she ill?”
“No. But she’s being harassed. By my father. It’s a long story, but both my brother and I went no contact with our families after our freshman year of college. Lyrical was part of the reason. Since then, my family has tried many times to break us apart.”
“I’m not exactly the best person for relationship advice—”
“It’s not that,” I assured him. “Lyrical and I are fine. I sent her to Parris Island to visit a friend for a couple of weeks. Hopefully that gets my father off her for the time being. But I don’t know how I can help her legally. Is there someone on the base she can go to?”
“Any Judge Advocate can help her. You know that.”
“Yes, but… I need someone good. I need someone who will not let money or power sway them. My father has both, and he’s proven in the past he’s not above trying to use them. He actually tried to buy my way out of the Marines.”
“So you need a recommendation. Someone who would stand up to your father because he’ll try to turn it around to get what he wants.”
“Yes.”
The captain sat for a moment, his fingers drumming on his desk. “He’s not a JAG. Not anymore. He’s in private practice these days, and he doesn’t come cheap. But I’ll call him. He might help you. More likely, he’ll help Lyrical.”
I smiled at that. “She brings out the protector streak in a lot of men.”
“It might take me a day or two to get in touch with him, and even then, I can’t promise he’ll help.”
“Understood. She’ll be out of state for a couple of weeks, so that should be good enough for now. But I can give him her phone number if he wants to speak with her before she returns. Thank you, sir.”
I turned to walk out the door, but his words stopped me.
“Forbes! Your head needs to stay in the game.”
With a nod, I replied, “Yes, sir. She’s strong. I need her to have the tools to help her so she doesn’t break.”
“Get some rest. I’ll let you know when I have information.”
“Thank you again, sir.”
As I walked back to my bunk, I dialed my brother’s phone.
Hardly surprising, it went immediately to voicemail.
I hadn’t heard from him in almost three months.
The Marines tapped him for a special project—he couldn’t tell me what he was doing, or where he was—but I knew whatever and wherever it was, it was dangerous.
“Jamie. We need to talk. Dad went after Lyrical. She’s okay, and my captain is helping me get her some legal counsel, but we need a plan.”