Chapter 20 #2
“When he called, he told me her name and where I could find her.
He said she was shacked up in Bristol, Virginia, with a bunch of bikers.
He indicated that there were doubts as to what actually happened on that mission.
Since she was the only survivor, they had to accept her testimony as truth, but he had doubts.
“He then sent me a portion of the official records that was only lightly redacted, which detailed what she said happened on the flight and during their subsequent capture. As soon as I read it, I knew she lied to the Navy. She protected herself and allowed my brother and those other men to be killed,” Baker hissed.
He threw a hate-filled look in Astrid’s direction.
I took a chance and looked at her at the same time.
I detested letting him talk about her this way and me pretending to go along with him, but it was getting us vital information.
I was proud of her straight stance and impassive expression.
Fighting the need to comfort her, I asked him my next question.
“Who was the officer who told you this? I’ve got connections high up in the military. I can see if they can get us more information or put pressure on whoever you got that call from. But to do that, I need to know his name,” I casually slipped in.
Baker hesitated. I sat there and waited. My brothers were playing into it by whispering urgently and shaking their heads as they frowned and gave Astrid suspicious glances. After a minute or so, he caved.
“The guy is a captain. Captain Cass Snyder is how he introduced himself the first time we met.”
I heard the swift inhalation Astrid made.
I didn’t need to see her face to know she felt betrayed.
As for me, anger hit me. That son of a bitch turned on her because he couldn’t have her.
He knew we were serious, and I wouldn’t give her up.
I had news for Captain Snyder. He’d be receiving a visit from me before this was put to rest. And he’d never do it again, or think to open his fucking mouth and lie.
Baker heard her and smirked over at her, causing me to have to fight not to punch him in the face.
“Yeah, Snyder told me you’d come on to him and pretended to be into him, and then as soon as someone new came along, you dumped his ass. He’s ashamed that he let someone like you fool him for so long, and he feels guilty that he covered for you when even the Navy had doubts about your story.”
“Cass Snyder is full of shit. He and I were never anything more than friends. He’s the one who’s a backstabber, not me,” she said with a bite to her voice.
“There’s something I want to know. Did Snyder say if there was more he knew that wasn’t in the official report? Like, did she tell him anything?” I wanted to know to help dig the hole for Snyder deeper.
“He said that she was evasive when he asked what happened to the other pilots. She claimed in her report that they were tortured to death, and that she was tortured as well. However, if that was the case, why wouldn’t they have killed her, too?
Hell, she’s a woman. She would’ve been the first to go.
The only way she could’ve survived was by working with them.
“At the farmhouse, she claimed they tortured her first, and when that didn’t break the others, the enemy moved on to them.
She then said my brother was alive when the SEAL team showed up, but during the rescue attempt, they got into a firefight, and my brother was shot in the heart.
I say that was pretty convenient. The only person who could call her a liar and tell the truth about what happened dies.
She provided information about our military to them, I know it.
Hell, she no doubt fucked them all to let her live. ” He sneered at Astrid.
It was becoming harder not to react the way I wanted. But before I let him see the real me, I had two more things to find out. He was arrogantly telling me everything I wanted to know without laying a finger on him, all because he thought I was a misogynistic prick like him.
“Is there anyone who was helping you get this information, or whom you talked to about what you found out from Captain Snyder?”
“Naw, I didn’t want to drag anyone into this.
I knew if she were responsible for my brother’s death, I’d make the bitch pay, with her life.
No need to make a friend an accessory, though I had a plan that I doubt would’ve gotten me caught.
The only thing I did was ask an old Navy buddy if I could stay at his Virginia farmhouse for a while so I could relax and get some rest. I wasn’t leaving her body there, so he wouldn’t have been implicated even if she was found. ”
His last boast answered my question. No one would think of foul play when he disappeared. He had intended to kill Astrid—no doubt after torturing her. Something made me ask one more thing, as if I needed more reason to be enraged.
“I think if someone did that to my brother, I’d do more than kill them.”
He smirked. “I was gonna make that whore beg for me to stop. She says she was tortured, and she fucked our enemy to stay alive. I was gonna torture and fuck her to death. It’s what she deserves.”
I snapped. There was no holding me back. At the same time, vaguely as if from a great distance, I heard my brothers yelling. I roared as I sprang from my chair and rushed Baker. His eyes widened, and he attempted to scramble out of his chair to get away from me. He didn’t make it.
I tipped him and the chair over backward onto the floor. I was on top of him. Then, I began pounding his face in. I’d wipe that smug look off his face. I didn’t know how many hits I got in before I was torn off him. I struggled against my captors.
“Let me go. I’m killing that motherfucker!” I yelled. I was seeing red.
“Brother, reel it in. I swear you’ll get to kill the bastard, but not until he suffers. You’re making the end come too quickly. He deserves to suffer pain first,” Maniac said.
I tried to calm down, but I kept trying to escape.
That is, I did until Astrid came up and placed her hand on my chest. She wasn’t pushing, just laying it there.
I glanced down at her. I saw the pain there.
Someone whom she considered a friend had betrayed her.
It bothered her more than the lies Baker spouted.
“Baby, just breathe. Maniac is right. We don’t want him to escape his punishment. I believe it’s time to share some truths with him. He has no idea what his brother did.”
“He won’t believe you,” I told her.
“I know, but he needs to know, and maybe it’ll cause him doubt. It’ll give you time to get focused. You got us so much. It’s my turn.”
Astrid raised on her toes and placed a kiss on my lips.
It was more than a peck but less than our usual passionate ones.
It conveyed comfort. I hated for it to end when she moved away, turning to face Baker.
My brothers had lifted him and the chair upright.
He was back to being cuffed. He was red in the face.
Bruises, welts, and swelling were already overtaking his face.
Grim satisfaction filled me at the sight.
“You cocksucking motherfucker! You and your whore will pay!” he shouted.
“Wow, you’re delusional in more ways than one. You’re the one who’ll pay. But before you do, I want to tell you about your precious, stupid, egotistical, chauvinistic asshole of a little brother,” Astrid growled.
Baker glared at her. “Shut up, whore!”
In a flash, in which I barely saw her move, Astrid darted close to him and backhanded his face. The force behind the slap wrenched his head to the side. The cracking sound was loud and echoed.
“I’m tired of you calling me a whore, bitch, and slut. I’m none of those things. However, you’re a motherfucking stupid, egotistical, chauvinistic asshole like your brother. Your parents raised a couple of losers,” she taunted.
Baker growled and jerked in his restraints to no avail.
Not getting loose, he ran his mouth. “Why would I stop calling you what you are? And you’d better keep my parents out of your mouth.
They’re fucking saints. Hard-working people who raised Rodney and me to be upstanding citizens who served our country with honor and distinction,” he spat back at her.
“Upstanding! Don’t make me laugh. I saw your military record, Baker. There’s a reason you didn’t pursue retirement. You were a problem child, and Uncle Sam refused to allow you to re-enlist. You have so many terrible evals and counseling in your military jacket, it’s pathetic,” Spawn chimed in.
“Those were put there by ass-kissing morons like the ones who advanced her over more qualified men. I didn’t want to stay in the Navy. I was done with their unfair bullshit,” Baker responded.
“Hmm, sounds like his brother inherited the same bad behavior. I wasn’t the only one who wrote him up and gave him bad evals.
Let me tell you what that redacted report didn’t.
Captain Snyder lied to you. He let you see only what he wanted you to know.
And he’s jealous of the fact that I’m with Mayhem and not him.
He told you a pack of lies out of spite,” Astrid told Baker.
Baker snorted in derision. “Sure he did.”
“You’re right, I was put in charge of the mission.
I was a commander, and your brother and the other pilots were Lt.
Commanders. I outranked them. And I didn’t get there by fucking my way up the ladder.
Our command was clear. I was in charge of the mission.
We laid out the plan in detail before we took off. There were six of us.