Chapter Ten
Brett
The past week had seen a remarkable change—not only in Hannah, but in our lives. We’d spent more time talking and just being together in a week than we had in the past month. True, she still wasn’t jumping out of bed with enthusiasm, but she had greatly curtailed the moaning and groaning during our warm-up and our runs. Pulling into the driveway, I couldn’t help but think the most moaning I’d heard had been accompanied by gasps, mewls, and pleas begging for permission to come. We’d made love almost every day and it had been fantastic. My wife was losing a bit of her inhibitions and seemed to be enjoying it as much as I was.
Waiting for the garage door to open, I felt my cock stiffening in my trousers. She’d been so great all week that tonight’s maintenance session was not only going to be light, it was going to be followed by our first anal sex. I’d begun prepping her a week ago, had my fingers buried in her back passage this morning as she’d exploded, and I couldn’t wait to sink my cock into her tight little ass.
It took me a moment to realize that her car was not in the garage. Where could she have gone? It was almost eleven and even if she’d gone to some committee meeting, one I had no idea had been scheduled, she should have been home hours ago.
“Hannah?” I called as I entered the house—the dark house. Flipping on the light by the door, I saw the pizza box on the table, but heard no response to my call. Picking up the box to put it in the refrigerator, I was surprised at how heavy it felt. Opening the lid, I discovered that not a single slice was missing.
Had she gone to bed without eating? But if she had, where was her car? I put the pizza away and walked through the house. I didn’t start to really worry until I entered the bedroom, not speaking so as not to wake her if she was asleep. I went into the bathroom and flipped on the light, which spilled enough illumination into the bedroom that I could see the bed. The bed that was still made.
Another switch flooded the room with light. Clothes were on the floor by the bed and the open closet door. Was she in another bedroom for some reason? It only took a few minutes to ascertain that she wasn’t in the house. Pulling out my phone, I dialed her number only to hear the ringtone from our bedroom. Squatting down, I found her phone buried beneath one of my t-shirts. My heart started to pound. My wife was missing and hadn’t taken her phone.
Ending the call to stop the ringing, I opened the record of her recent calls, seeing my number a few times as well as another that was repeated several times. A small circle showed the face of a pretty young woman, but I had no idea who she was. It was late, but I didn’t care. Tapping the number, I listened to it ring.
“Hello? Hannah?”
“No, this is her husband, Brett,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize your number.”
“Oh, this is Stephanie Carter,” she said, putting a name to the face.
“Stephanie, I hate to bother you, but do you have any idea where Hannah is?”
“No. I thought this was your date night. I mean, that’s what she told me.”
Running my hand over my scalp, I sighed. “It is, but I was running late, and I guess she decided to go out.”
“Oh, well, I’m sorry I can’t help you, but I haven’t talked to her since this morning.”
“Thank you anyway,” I said, “I’m sorry to have called so late. But if you do hear from her, could you call me back?”
“Sure, I hope nothing’s wrong.”
“So do I. You don’t happen to know if there was some sort of meeting tonight? She’s involved in a lot of projects.”
“I’m not aware of any and we aren’t on all the same ones. I can call around or give you some numbers… oh, wait. I just saw that she did call me earlier, but I missed it. She left me a voice mail.”
She instantly had my full attention. “What did she say?”
I had to wait while she listened to the message. “Oh, I didn’t know she was going to join us, or I would have called to tell her the party was cancelled.”
“What party?”
“Do you know Keith Dawson?”
“Not well, but yes.”
“Well, his sister, Kelly, is a friend of ours. A bunch of us were going out to a club to celebrate Keith’s band getting their first gig. Then, well, something happened that kept Keith from being able to play so they pulled out. There was no reason to go as the club isn’t in the best part of town and we didn’t want to go if the guys weren’t going to be there. The men had to report back to work and the girls went to dinner and a movie instead. Hannah wasn’t planning on coming so didn’t know it was cancelled. Maybe she went to meet us but we weren’t there?”
I heard what she said but was only focused on one thing. A club in a bad part of town. A club that several women didn’t feel comfortable going to without their men. A club my wife went to alone. “What’s the name of the club?”
“Rocky’s, but I don’t remember giving her the name, just the street.”
“And that is?”
“Oh, Brewster. Rocky’s is down near the end. Right before the warehouses start.”
I could feel my blood racing. Forget ‘bad part of town’, the warehouse district was best described as ‘seedy’. “Thank you, Stephanie. I’m going to let you go.”
“I’m so sorry. If I’d known you’d ditched her…”
She paused and I could practically picture her wanting to snatch her words back. “Perhaps you’d better let me listen to the actual message, Stephanie.”
“Um… I told you what it said…”
About to repeat my request, I heard another voice.
“Who are you talking to so late, Steph?”
The conversation became muffled, as if she’d put the phone against her body, but I could still make it out.
“It’s Hannah’s husband. I think she went to Rocky’s.”
“Didn’t she know you changed your plans?”
I heard her saying something about how she didn’t call Hannah because she wasn’t going to come, but she didn’t want me to hear her voice message as it might make me mad.
Mad? I was about to have a fucking heart attack. I wanted to reach through the phone and grab Stephanie’s and listen to the message instead of listening to her talk to who I now recognized as Gary. Instead, I was a nanosecond from hanging up when I heard Gary’s tone change to one that I recognized. One that brooked no nonsense.
“Give me the phone, Steph.”
“No! I mean, I promised Hannah to keep it a secret!”
“I don’t give a shit what you promised her. She’s missing, Stephanie. That trumps all secrets.”
A second later, I heard Gary, this time much clearer. “Brett, this is Gary. I’m going to replay the message.”
“Thanks,” I managed, and then listened as my wife left a message that had my jaw clenching. How could she have possibly thought I’d ditched her? And her statement about being ‘dressed to kill and ready to party’ had my blood boiling. The only man who had the right to see her dressed to kill was me… her husband. But her final statement about ‘buy me that drink or a dozen’ had my heart threatening to stop. Hannah was not a drinker. Well, she drank, but more than one margarita would put her under the table. That’s why she’d only had a single drink on our anniversary. Now she was talking about downing a dozen and she had driven there by herself? How the hell had she expected to drive home?
Once it ended, Gary’s voice returned. “I’m going to come pick you up.”
“No…”
“Hey, man, if it was Stephanie missing, I’d be nuts. You don’t need to kill yourself racing to Rocky’s and you might need backup. I’m only a couple of minutes away, and I’m already out the door.”
“Fine, but if you’re not here in two, I’m going.” He didn’t answer, evidently already having hung up. I yanked off my uniform, pulled on jeans and a t-shirt, and was waiting at the end of the driveway when his truck pulled up.
As he drove, I tried to call Rocky’s for the fifth time. “Shit!” I said when it rang and rang. “What sort of business doesn’t answer the fucking phone?”
Gary shot me a glance. “One who gets sick of wives looking for deadbeat husbands?”
“What do you know about this place?”
“It’s not as bad as some places I’ve been in, but it’s not the officer’s club either. I’d never allow Stephanie to go if I wasn’t going with her. Hell, Keith didn’t even want the girls to come but his sister wanted to support his band.”
I knew Dawson was a lieutenant, but he wasn’t under my command. Still, I knew him and knew his mind wasn’t on his band… not after the news we’d gotten tonight. I also knew that Gary couldn’t have gotten home long before I had.
“I’m sorry about your men,” I said.
“Yeah, me too.”
We’d both been at the emergency meeting and didn’t need to say more. Unfortunately, we had both lost friends in the war, but it never got easier. All we could do was honor those who sacrificed their lives for their country and be thankful for the ones who came home.
Pulling into the lot had me a bit stunned. “Is it always this crowded?”
Gary shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe they all came to listen to Dawson’s band and didn’t know he’s not playing, or maybe it’s because it’s pay day, or ladies’ night.”
All true and did it really matter? I was searching for Hannah’s car but didn’t see it. Maybe she’d already headed home? Gary flipped on his high beams to navigate through the haphazardly parked cars and I saw that vehicles had spilled out onto the grass. Finally, I saw the one I was looking for. She was still here.
“There it is,” I said, pointing.
Gary pulled onto the grass as well, and I was out of the truck before it rolled to a stop and almost at the entrance when he caught up. Yanking open the door, I was hit by a wall of noise and a cloud of smoke. From the number of cars, I’d known the club would be crowded, but it was as if every car had disgorged a half dozen clubbers. It was wall to wall people. My head swiveled even though I couldn’t yet see clearly. Lights flashed to the beat of some heavy metallic music and the slightly sweet odor told me that it wasn’t only tobacco being smoked. The only thing in my favor was that the haircuts of several men I saw told me that a lot of the customers were military. Evidently news of Dawson’s band had spread though the information of his cancellation obviously hadn’t.
“How about we split up?” Gary shouted, which was the only way to converse.
I nodded and pointed to the left then back at the door, telling him to go left and then meet back where were started. About to ask if he knew what my wife looked like, I realized he must as he immediately started pushing through the crowd. Going right, I began my own search.
I’d not gone ten feet before I recognized someone. Tapping him on the shoulder, the man turned, his eyes going a bit wide even as his hand started to lift.
“No need to salute, soldier,” I said. God, I hated having to shout just to talk, but raised my voice higher when he leaned forward, his hand moving to cup his ear. “Jackson, right?”
“Right, sir.”
Pulling out my phone, I scrolled to a photo I’d taken just yesterday. It was of Hannah with a huge smile on her face. I’d caught her talking to the plants and then slapping at the stem of a tomato plant.
“What are you doing?” I’d asked then grinned. “Hannah Griffith, are you spanking the tomatoes?”
She’d giggled and nodded. “Yes. I read that if you spank the stems, it encourages the pollen to release.”
I’d pulled out my phone and snapped a photo when she gently cupped a group of yellow blossoms.
Holding the phone out, I shouted, “Have you seen my wife?”
Jackson looked and then shook his head. I didn’t bother to thank him, just kept moving. I’d completed a circuit of the outside of the crowd without seeing her. I went down the hall to where a dozen women were lined up outside the bathroom. It was only slightly quieter here. The thumping bass made the very floor vibrate. I showed several women the photo, all who shook their heads, a few giving a look that said they wouldn’t admit to seeing her if they had. I was all for women supporting each other, but not when it put one of them in danger. When a woman I recognized as someone who’d been at my house earlier that week stepped out of the bathroom, I moved to the head of the line.
“Nancy?”
“Major? What are you doing here?”
“Looking for Hannah. Have you seen her?”
“Yes, we were about to leave, but had to make a pit stop. This place is nuts tonight.”
“Where is she?” I asked.
“Oh, at the bar,” she said, pointing back down the hall.
Nodding, I began to turn and then paused. “You’re okay to drive?”
“Yes. I’m the designated driver tonight.” Two other women came out of the bathroom and joined us.
Satisfied that they’d get home safely, I returned to the club, heading straight for the bar. It was three deep, and if Hannah, who was already petite, was at the front, it would be hard to spot her. It wound up that I didn’t have to push through the crowd because I heard a high-pitched cry. Whipping around, I saw red, and it had nothing to do with the color of the dress that Hannah was wearing and everything to do with the asshole who had his hand cupped around my wife’s breast.
I had no idea how I got to her, but the moment I did, I grabbed the guy’s arm. “Get your fucking hand off her.”
“Find your own bitch,” the guy said. “This one owes me…”
He never had a chance to finish because I planted my fist in his face. He grunted, bent over, and though he released Hannah, he also pulled a knife from his boot.
“Brett!” Hannah screamed but I’d already seen the glint of the blade. The guy swiped a hand across his lip, flinging away the blood that flowed from his nose. I grabbed for Hannah to pull her behind me, but the bastard made his own grab.
“I told you, she’s mine,” he sneered, putting the knife to her neck. I froze, my entire body going cold.
“Let her go,” I said, releasing her arm so as not to have that knife accidentally cut her.
“You broke my fucking nose,” he said, one arm wrapped around Hannah’s waist.
“Fuck your nose,” I said. “If you don’t let my wife go, I’ll fucking kill you.”
“You and who else,” he laughed, waving the knife in the air.
That was all I needed. A kick to his wrist had the knife flying out of his hand and another had him on the floor. I hauled him up by his shirt, pulling my arm back, ready to send him to hell.
“Brett, don’t!”
Hannah pulled on my arm. “He’s not worth it. Please… God, please just take me home.”
I noticed Gary, Jackson, and men I saw daily circling us, every single one looking as if they were ready to jump in and help. I also saw my wife, her eyes wide and could feel her body shaking. Dropping the guy to the floor, ignoring his grunt, I pulled her to me. Gary took point as I scooped her up and the rest fell in behind, forming a phalanx that moved straight to the door. Once outside, not a soul broke out of formation until we’d reached the car. It was only then I realized that Hannah didn’t have her purse as I had to shift her a bit in order to dig for my keys.
By the time I had her settled in the passenger seat, the seatbelt around her, Nancy and the other women had joined us.
“It was at the bar,” Nancy said, handing me the purse.
“Thanks,” I said, tossing it into the backseat. Closing Hannah’s door, I looked around. “Thanks to all of you.”
The men nodded; that was all, but it was enough. Nancy followed me to the driver’s side.
“I don’t want you to think she enticed that shithead. She was with us and was about to leave but was afraid to leave alone. She was waiting for us to walk out with her. That guy kept bugging her… wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“We shouldn’t have left her,” one of the other women said.
“It’s not your fault,” I assured her, grateful to hear that my wife had not willingly gone with another man. “Thanks for looking out for her.”
Nancy smiled. “You men aren’t the only ones who have their code. Army wives do as well.”
Nodding, suddenly very grateful for women’s solidarity, I opened my door after Gary assured me he’d walk Nancy and the other two women to Nancy’s car.
“Thanks,” I said, extending my hand.
“No problem,” he replied, and stepped back as I joined my wife.