Raleigh settled into the chair that sat behind the table in the middle of the room, Sam in the corner behind him as they waited for Thompson to be brought in for questioning. Raleigh turned and looked back at her and winked.
“Are you ready for this, Raleigh?” Samantha asked. She knew how close Thompson and Raleigh had been, that this whole thing was so personal to him. Thompson and Raleigh were like brothers, so when Thompson betrayed their unit, he also betrayed Raleigh, and it hurt.
“Sammie, I am about as ready as I am gonna be. After this, I will be ready for a few beers. I wanna take you to the regular hangout here. My unit spends a lot of time there, not that we are alcoholics, just that they have a great pool table and regulation dart games,” he explained.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I will be ready for a few beers myself.”
When the door clicked, they both sat quiet and waited for the door to open. Major Chambers stepped in first, followed by Thompson who was led by a military police officer holding him by his handcuffs. As the MP pushed Thompson forward, Thompson jerked away in a show of defiance and sat down opposite Raleigh. The MP clicked Thompson’s handcuffs onto the table and stepped back.
“Who the fuck is that?” Thompson asked, pointing at Samantha in the corner with her notepad and pen.
“That is Sergeant O’Hara. She is my assistant and will be taking notes for me,” Raleigh scolded Thompson. “So, you can either talk now, or we go see Semeana and see what she has to say. I am sure she will be more cooperative, seeing as she has a baby to worry about too.” Raleigh didn’t like bullying Jared, especially when it came to threatening a baby and its mother, but he didn’t have a choice, and it made him sick to his stomach thinking he had actually used those words.
“I’ll talk. Just don’t let anything happen to Semeana, please. She is innocent in this whole thing,” Jared pleaded.
“How can I believe you, Jared? You’ve gotten our brothers killed, you exposed others, you stole equipment to help the enemy, and you watched as I was tortured when all the while you were helping them. I laid in that cell listening to your screams. They tore me up inside, then I find out it was all an act. How do I know Semeana is innocent?”
“She is, I swear,” Jared begged. “She had no idea about her families’ involvement in terrorist activities. She would not have approved, she is a true believer in Islam, she is not a radical. She is pregnant, Raleigh. I swear I will cooperate and tell you everything. Just please help her.”
“Well spill it, then. Show me something, tell me something that I can use to help your wife.”
“I will write a complete statement, and I will help you bring them all down. Just swear to me with all that we have been through in our lives that you will help her.”
Raleigh sat for a moment then replied, “I swear, I will do all I can to help her, but you have to help us. Tell me something right now.”
“Okay! Okay!” Jared started his story, and Samantha sat feverishly jotting down everything Jared said. He detailed the threat on their lives and how the organization would not give up until they were all dead, including Jared and Semeana.
“You have to move both of us to another facility, one that only you and your assistant know about. If you think they can’t get to us here, you are dead wrong,” he begged.
“How would they get to you here, Jared?” Raleigh questioned. “You can’t possibly think they have a way into a high-security facility?”
“Hell yeah, they can. They have people everywhere. Sympathizers are throughout the government. If you think you’re safe, you aren’t! If you care for that sergeant behind you, I would get her as far away as possible,” he explained. “Their people go as high up in the government as you could possibly think.”
“Are you telling me that this is a much larger conspiracy than just missing equipment?”
“I can’t go into detail right now. It’s too dangerous,” Jared stated. Raleigh could tell by the look on Jared’s face and the sound of his voice that he was scared.
A knock on the door made them all jump, and Chambers’ face popped up in the window of the interrogation door. “It’s getting close to dinner time for the inmates. You will have to pick this up tomorrow,” Chambers bellowed through the door. Raleigh gave Chambers a thumbs up, showing him that he understood, then turned back to Jared.
“Okay, Jared. It looks like our time is up, but I will be back in the morning. We can get your statement and go into more detail if that’s what you want.”
“Yeah, I do.” Jared reached out his hand to his old friend, gripping it tightly then looking him in the eyes. “Fitz, take care of yourself. Despite what you may think, you’re my brother, and I will always love you.”
Raleigh patted his shoulder, trying to reassure Jared, and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, man. Take it easy, and I will see what I can do about helping your wife.”
***
Samantha
Sam gathered her things and waited for Raleigh in the hallway. The guard brushed her aside as he passed her, nearly knocking her off her feet. He was unapologetic, and she didn’t recognize him from their previous visit. He must be new, she thought as she steadied herself. There was something about him, though, that made her uneasy. He was a different guard than the one who had brought Jared into the interrogation room, but that didn’t really mean much. It was more something about him; he just didn’t set right with her.
She watched Raleigh say his goodbyes, then headed toward the door. She was tired, and it had been a long day already. She was also hungry and wondered if Raleigh was still planning on taking her to his old unit hangout. As she thought about what Raleigh had said earlier of the plans, he referred to “the hangout,” as his unit hangout, not his old unit hangout. It might have been just a slip of the tongue, but it could also mean something much more. Was that what the conversation was all about this morning? Was he going back to the 9th? She hoped he would confide in her soon; the suspense of not knowing was killing her.
Raleigh quickly caught up to her, groaning as he rubbed his shoulder. “Sergeant O’Hara, can you wait up just a quick minute? I need to stop and grab a cup of coffee. I gotta take a few of these painkillers the doc gave me.”
Samantha walked over to him, her face visibly concerned. “Is your shoulder hurting?”
“Yeah, I think I got a little too stressed in there with Jared. I will be okay. Doc said it was a clean through and through shot, so it will just take a little time to heal. Are you ready to eat some really great bar-b-que tonight?” he asked, quickly changing the subject. “I figure we will go to the Twisted Kitty tonight and meet up with some of the guys. They have amazing bar-b-que there that will wet your panties and knock your socks off,” Raleigh said, winking at her. “Gotta keep you wet and ready, never know when I’ll wanna poke around down there.”
Samantha smiled, her face pink as she looked around hoping no one overheard his advances. “You just ain’t right, Raleigh!” she replied, shaking her head as she grinned from ear to ear. “One of these days someone is gonna overhear you, then we will both get hemmed up.”
“Naw,” Raleigh said. “Besides I really don’t care if they do overhear me. I wanna tell the world you’re my girl.”
“You ready to go?” she asked as she headed toward the truck.
“Yeah, darlin’, I was born ready,” he teased as he caught her attention and winked. “Let’s get you back to the hotel so you can get in that little black number. I wanna have full access to what lies under, so no panties. Maybe I can get you off tonight and truly show you what gave the Twisted Kitty its name.”
“You’re on!” she said as she slid into the passenger seat.
“Deal!” Raleigh grinned as he started the truck, heading back to the hotel. He drove the whole way grinning like the cat that ate the canary.