Maddie didn’t walk into the conference room, she floated in there on the arm of her guard, the sergeant who said he was a friend of her brother’s. Her mind was in a state of suspended animation as she took a seat at the table. She thought they might need to tie her to the chair she felt so light inside.

She might be released today. She would see Sarah, and Hawk…and the other men she owed her life to.

Colonel Wright, the woman she owed more, walked in, gave her a chin nod and a wink, then took the chair beside her. When her father walked in, Maddie tensed, but Claire grabbed her hand under the table to squeeze it.

Claire stood to salute him and offer her hand, but Maddie did not. Not just because her legs were too weak, because she didn’t owe this man she never wanted to see again, but had to this one last time, any respect at all.

The General took his seat across the table from them and tried to intimidate her with a penetrating stare. Maddie didn’t look away like she usually did, she held his gaze and lifted her eyebrow. A laugh bubbled in her chest when his forehead crinkled before he dragged his eyes away first. Take that, you old bastard, because I’m not afraid of you anymore.

“Thank you for coming in today to clarify some of the things in your statement to CID for me and to answer a few more questions, General. I’m sure you know your dau—” Claire stopped and looked at Maddie and cleared her throat then refocused on him. “Captain Carter has retracted her confession and her trial is set for the end of the month, so you’ll probably be called to testify then, too.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” he replied, with a smug curl of his lips. He leaned back in his chair to tent his fingers between the armrests. “Not very smart of her, but I expected no better.”

Claire tensed and Maddie could almost feel the heat radiating from her body, but she ignored his bait. Instead, she reached to the center of the table and pressed a button hard enough to push it through the recorder.

“General Carter, as I explained on the phone, this interview will be under oath and recorded. Is it still your wish to answer my questions today without counsel present?” Claire asked, her voice in eat nails mode.

“Yes, it is. I’m not the one who sold out my country and I have nothing to hide,” he replied gruffly.

Maddie ground her teeth and her mood deflated. No, but you sold out your daughter.

“Very good,” Claire said, then cleared her throat.

She asked him to raise his right hand and swore him in then leaned down to pull out a thick file folder and slap it on the table in front of her.

“Let’s proceed then, shall we?” Claire said in a sing-song voice as she laced her fingers together on the table in front of her as a predatory smile curved her lips. “My first question, General, are you aware that providing false or misleading information to a military investigative body is a felony offense?”

Maddie bit back another laugh when the General’s face paled and he squirmed in his seat. That was just Claire’s opening volley, though. With every successive rapid-fire question, he sank lower in his chair as he gave his answers and Claire unraveled his testimony.

“Was providing that misleading information about your daughter and her possible motives for the alleged crime, your way of punishing her for embarrassing you, General?” Clair asked, and Maddie sat forward in her chair.

“No, it was not!” he growled, sitting up straighter. “But wouldn’t you have been embarrassed if your daughter disgraced you like that, Colonel?” he fired back, his face gray now.

“No, I would have been damned proud that she chose to serve this country with honor, in spite of your influence,” Claire replied, spearing him with her eyes. She leaned back in her chair, tapped her pen against her fingers and smiled. “But speaking of her mother…I have some questions about her death too, if you don’t mind. To set the stage as to what Captain Carter must have endured in your household growing up, General. I’m sure any compassionate tribunal member would take that into consideration at trial.”

“I won’t stand for this disrespect, woman!” he shouted, his face even grayer, his breathing labored, as he pushed back his chair to stand.

“That’s Colonel to you, and no you won’t stand. You’ll sit back down and allow me to finish my questions, or I’ll have the MPs assist you,” Claire replied, her voice deadly.

Maddie thought she’d died and gone to heaven when the General plopped back down in the chair and white-knuckled the armrests. She listened and watched with glee as Colonel Claire Wright proceeded to peel every inch of skin from her father’s body with her tongue.

By the time Claire finally spit him out, the General had to hold onto the wall as he staggered out of the interview room. With a satisfied smile, she reached to turn off the recorder, then smiled at Maddie.

“And that, Captain Carter, is how you bag a turkey,” she said with a laugh.

Maddie smiled, but her eyes burned as she leaned in to hug her shoulders. “Thank you for kicking my ass too, because you saved my life,” she whispered, her voice choked.

“Oh, you’re welcome. I’m all about justice and it has just been served,” Claire said, patting her hand. Maddie jumped and Claire frowned when commotion erupted down the hallway.

She got up, walked out into the hall. Maddie stayed put, because she was still technically under arrest and didn’t want to be shot.

Claire came back into the room a moment later grim-faced. “I’m sorry, I might have taken things too far,” she said, her voice shaking as she pushed her bangs from her eyes. “The General collapsed in the parking lot and they think he’s dead. The MPs called the medics.”

“Don’t be sorry—if he’s dead, he got what he deserved, because he killed my mother with his abuse, just as surely as if he’d put a gun to her head. He would’ve killed me too, because before you came here, I was very close to doing the same thing she did to escape him.”

Now, justice had been served, and maybe Maddie could finally have some peace in her life.