Edge of the Heat 6 (17 page)

"We need to talk before you go to sleep," Sara said as she walked past.

Okay
, Dani thought she followed Sara back to the cave entrance, glad to see that JT had his clothes on again. He smiled at her.

"Feel better?" he asked.

She couldn't help but smile back. "Yep, although I keep imagining I’m a pancake.”

JT laughed. God she loved a man with an easy laugh. And his was so attractive: deep, throaty, and totally authentic. None of that
ha ha
fake crap.

Dani tore her eyes away from JT and told her brain to just
knock it off
already.

Sara motioned for them to come closer. Dani got within a couple of feet and and sat down in the sand. She suddenly felt like she was falling down on her feet. Exhaustion kept trying to force her eyelids closed. JT sat next to her. Sara hunkered on one knee and started talking.

"You guys get some rest, I'm going to watch for the helicopter. I will have to wake you up if it comes —”

JT interrupted her. "About that. I’ve been thinking. There's something I have to tell you and I think it's important."

Sara cocked an eyebrow at him and motioned for him to go on.

A hardness settled in JT's face as he contemplated how to start. Dani watched him, fascinated that all of his boyish charm had fled. Now he looked like a Marine through and through, all hard planes and serious thoughts.
His beard! He shaved it off!
Well, it wasn’t a beard really, but just a 5 day growth. Now, though, his face was clean and smooth. He must have borrowed one of Sara’s knives. She wondered what he’d used as shaving cream, even as she admired his new, clean look.

"I know who had us kidnapped, and why. Well kind of. I know it sounds crazy and horrible but it was a United States Marine Corps Colonel named Colonel Clarkson. He killed my entire squad and my best friend and I was supposed to meet him at the coffee shop when we were taken.” JT motioned at himself and Dani, then went on. “And I - well I'm afraid that he’s the reason our helicopter didn’t come out to get us. I’m afraid he blocked it somehow and now he’s either going to leave us out here to die or he’ll send his own helicopter out and they'll just gun us down out here in the desert."

Dani's mind folded in on itself.
No no no!
it howled.
Uncle Kevin wouldn’t do that
, it screamed soundlessly in denial. She clamped her lips tight together and shook her head. And the horror of it was, she knew he would do it. She knew he
did
do it. Wasn’t she investigating him herself? Wasn’t she supposed to be meeting him at the coffee shop too? The final nail in the coffin of her opinion of Uncle Kevin’s guilt slammed home. If JT was supposed to be meeting him at the coffee shop too, there was no remaining chance, however slim, that this was all some sort of horrid coincidence.

Sara held up a hand, cutting JT off and turning to look at Dani curiously. Dani stopped her head from moving in mid-negation, her brain frozen, still screaming, her eyes wide. “Are you related to him?” Sara asked.

JT turned his head slowly. To Dani it seemed like it took a lifetime. His normally warm eyes went suddenly cold, his eyebrows drawn down in some intense emotion. Accusation? Anger?

Dani tried to unfreeze her brain, but it wouldn’t do what she told it to. Her head shook from side to side.

"Is your last name Clarkson?" JT asked, his voice dripping ice.

Dani's eyes ping-ponged between JT and Sara. She couldn't seem to open her mouth. Sara studied her closely and then Dani saw Sara’s mouth tighten.
She’s made a decision,
Dani thought.

Sara spoke to JT. "Yes, her last name is Clarkson, you didn't know that?"

JT turned his head from Dani to Sara. His eyes were the last to go. "No, I didn't know that."

"Well, it's a common last name," Sara said. "Tell me why you're certain this Colonel Clarkson is the one who is responsible for you ending up in that death camp."

JT told his story, starting with his mother's death, explaining that he was on leave when everything had started. His face lost some of its hardness as he shared this part. Dani could see nothing but sorrow left there. She took some deep breaths and tried to ignore the fact that she had just lied to Sara and JT. For now she just wanted to hear JT’s story. As JT explained about Shane’s letter, and then Shane’s death, the coldness and anger came back into his face and voice. Dani’s mind swirled with opposition. Could Uncle Kevin really have done all these things? Then JT told about how he'd been investigating Colonel Clarkson and finished his story with the Colonel asking JT to meet him at the coffee shop.

"But that still could have just been a terrible coincidence," Sara said. "Is it really enough evidence to say this Colonel Clarkson had you taken hostage?"

Dani tried to open her mouth. Tried to push out the words that she had also been there on Kevin Clarkson’s request, but before she could, JT spoke again, slowly, as if he were explaining something very complicated. "While we were still in the
death camp
, as you call it, just before you cut us free and got us out of there, I heard two men talking and one of them said
Clarkson wants them dead today
."

Sara raised an eyebrow again. "You speak Arabic?"

JT nodded abruptly. "I speak enough."

Dani watch this exchange with horror blooming in her mind. She'd said that she was not related to Uncle Kevin. And JT seemed to believe her. Sara might not, but that didn't matter as much to Dani right now. She tried to open her mouth and say that he was her uncle. But every time she did, she remembered that look of fury on JT's face.
She had to tell them. She had to!
She would just wait for the right moment.

Silence fell over the small group. Dani could see their shadows lengthen as the moon rose above them. She no longer felt tired or cold though. Shame burned her from the inside out. Shame that she was related to a monster. And shame that she couldn’t seem to admit it.

Sara spoke again. “There’s a few things that don’t make sense. First, why did they take Dani too? Why not just you?”

Here’s the right time
, Dani thought.
There will never be a righter time then this.
But still she couldn’t seem to make her mouth work. JT was quick with an answer. “They took her to control me. I would have fought them. I would never have been taken alive if they hadn’t threatened to shoot her.”

Sara nodded, understanding on her face. “OK, but now we’re out here. Say he sends a helicopter full of Marines out here. Even if he’s on it, they aren’t going to gun us down. I can’t imagine any group of Marines obeying an order to just kill us.”

Dani could see JT turning this over in his mind, looking for holes. “He could find a way to misappropriate a helicopter and then put terrorists on it.” He held up a hand before Sara could object. “Look, I know that’s unlikely, but I’m just trying to consider this from all angles. There is no way I’m going to let Colonel Clarkson get the upper hand on me again.” He thought for a second, then added, “He could just leave us out here. He’ll deliberately send the helicopter to the wrong spot in the desert, and we’ll just die of starvation and thirst.”

Sara shook her head. “We can walk to St. Marin in less than a day. And I can shoot or catch us food and find us water. No one is going to die out here.”

Excitement and something like hope flowered on JT’s face. “We can walk to St. Marin? Is that a town?”

“Yes, it’s a small town. I should still have a contact there too, if Agent Farmer didn’t get freaked and bail.”

“That’s what we’ll do! We’ll walk out. And this Agent Farmer, can he get us to Camp Patriot?”

Sara nodded, her eyes already far away, considering. Dani held her breath, scared that JT’s eyes would settle on her again. But Sara looked at her first, her face set. “I think you two should rest tonight, and in the morning I'll catch a few hours while my water is collecting. And then we'll walk to St. Marin. Depending on how fast we can go, I think we can be there by three or four in the morning."

JT nodded almost immediately. "It’s a good plan. It’s the safest course of action for us right now.” He swiveled his face towards Dani. “How about you Dani, what do you think?"

Dani tried to breathe. Her mouth opened.
He's my uncle,
blared in her mind. But what she said was "I think it will work."

“Good, it’s settled then. There’s fabric on the floor in the cave for you so you don't have to lay in the sand. The flashlight is right there by the doorway. Use it sparingly. I'll wake you in eight hours." Sara stood up and brushed herself off and walked straight out towards the desert, continuing her enigmatic project of examining rocks.

Far off in the distance, Dani thought she heard the rotors of a helicopter beating the air. She cocked her head and listened while JT got up and headed for the cave. Finally, she had to admit only silence surrounded them. She followed JT into the cave.

JT waited for her at the entrance. “Which do you want?” he asked, shining the light on two pieces of fabric at the far end of the cave. Dani stared hard, trying to figure out what the fabric was. One appeared to be Sara’s dress. The other, maybe her bag. She chose the bag, because it was smaller. She walked over and sat down, feeling the air grow warmer against the back wall.
It must hold on to the heat of the day longer in here
, she thought.

As she lowered her body to the ground, exhaustion slammed into her. She made a pillow with her arms, feeling consciousness swirling away already. She gladly gave herself over to sleep in only a few seconds, not noticing JT laying awake and contemplative a few feet away.

Sound clawed at Dani’s consciousness, nudging her awake. She opened her eyes to moonlight falling around the cracks of the makeshift door. What had she heard? Was it the helicopter? She turned her head towards JT. His face was white and bathed in sweat. Dani sat up quickly, sleep falling away in an instant. What was wrong with JT?

A low, tortured noise came from his throat. “No,” he moaned. “Run! Tina! Run!” he was yelling now, his strong legs twitching in the sand.

Dani crawled to him and shook his arm. He didn't notice but kept moaning. A tear trickled down one of his cheeks.

Dani shook him harder. "JT, JT, wake up," she whispered directly in his ear.

JT's eyes flew open and he sat up quickly, breaths tearing harshly in and out of his throat.

"Oh God," he said and then collapsed back to the ground. Dani moved closer to him, feeling the heat pouring out of his skin. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice hitching with hesitation.

JT ground the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Yes I'm fine, I had a nightmare." His voice sounded sad and far away to Dani.

Concern tore at Dani’s heart. She’d never heard a man sound so forlorn. "A nightmare about what?" But she thought she knew. The hell that they had just gone through was enough to give anyone nightmares.

JT's hands fell away from his face, dropping into the sand and sending up mushroom clouds of dust. He looked at her, his eyes searching her very soul, as if he was deciding whether or not to tell her the truth.

Dani held his gaze. Time seemed to fall away. His amazing light blue eyes seemed to hypnotize her. To Dani, nothing had ever felt so right or good. Finally, he spoke again, his lips barely moving.  "About my wife."

Dani felt as if she'd been kicked in the chest. He’s married?
But he doesn't wear a ring!
She felt hot tears spring to her eyes like she just found out she'd been betrayed, or cheated on, or dumped, or all three at once. Suddenly she didn’t care that her emotions didn’t make any sense. All she cared about was getting out of here. She began to gather her legs under her to flee into the night when JT spoke again, soft and sad.

"I mean, she's not my wife anymore. She’s dead."

Dani's roller coaster of emotions fell away again and now she felt only sadness. He was a widower? She took a deep breath and tried to get a hold on herself.
What is wrong with you?

After a moment’s consideration, she took his hand. His warm skin and callused fingers served to ground her, and she hoped she was giving him at least some comfort.

He didn't say anything for a few moments, but he held onto her hand tightly. And then the story spilled out of him.

"She was my high school sweetheart. We dated for three years and when we graduated I asked her to marry me. This was 10 years ago already.” He ground his free hand into his eyes again, trying to wipe away the last of the nightmare. “We didn't have any money or any skills so I decided to join the Marine Corps in order to provide for us. It had always been a dream of mine. After boot I got stationed at Camp Pendleton and we rented a nice little house just off base. We had four months together and it was special, you know? She was special.  And then I got deployed to Afghanistan the first time. After I had been gone for two months my commander came to see me one day.” JT’s voice hitched and he stopped talking. Dani took his other hand and rubbed her thumb across the palm, trying to let him know she was there for him.