She sat silent on the phone, her soft breaths my only indication that she was still there.

“Did they pull you in for a statement?” I asked, trying to remove the anger and frustration and from my voice.

“Yes—“

“Who did you speak to? What did you tell them?” I interrupted, feeling more and more powerless with every answer she gave. I looked down at my speedometer, realizing I was nearing ninety miles per hour, and couldn’t give a fuck about slowing down.

“Newsome took it to Gunny Chavez who took it to First Sergeant O’Hara. He just asked me what happened, and I told him.”

“What did happen?”

“We got our orders read to us—“

“Wait, your orders were read? No one fucking told me the orders were ready.”

“Yes. We got them.”

A new level of irritation was setting in. I had no idea the orders were ready. Now I felt blindsided.

“Where are you going?”

“Eighth Comm.”

“In fucking North Carolina?”

“Yes.”

“This is bullshit!”

“Alex, that’s not the worst of it.”

Her words chilled my spine. Whatever was coming next was definitely something that I didn’t need to hear.

“Allen got sent there, too. That’s how all of this shit got started.”

My throat caught fire. It hurt to open my mouth. I couldn’t speak. My mind raged with thoughts of her having to PCS with this jackass, after everything that she had been through with him.

“Alex… Alex…”

“Yeah, I’m here,” I said, finally able to speak after a few deep sighs. ”I need to know exactly what that fucker said to you. Every spec of it.”

“He was pissed about his assignment, so when Dalton told me out in the courtyard that he had gotten Third L.A.R., Allen overheard it and flipped out.”

“What the fuck did he say, Cassie?”

“I don’t remember it word for word.”

“Try!”

She paused for a second before speaking. “He said something about being pissed that Dalton got a combat unit and he was being sent to Eighth Comm with a bunch of bitches.”

“Then what happened?”

“Then I told him he wasn’t good enough for infantry.”

“Why the fuck would you say something to him?”

“I couldn’t hold it in, Alex. He was inadvertently speaking to me when he said it, and after everything else—“

“You tell me right fucking now everything this dick has ever said to you. Since you were trying to protect his ass before.”

“I wasn’t protecting—“

“Yes, you were. I want to know right now what he’s been saying to you. And don’t gloss over and sugar coat shit. I. Need. To. Know. You understand that?”

She blew out a deep breath.

“When I first met him, he told me to blow him if he beat me in a video game. Then he told me I need to know my fucking place and that females didn’t belong in the Corps. It’s always something sexist and misogynistic. Today he told me he would stick his dick down my throat to shut my mouth, or something like that. That’s when Newsome stopped him.”

My heart sank. The shit he had been saying to her was more than sexual harassment, it was a fucking death wish. My frustration only grew as I listened to it because had I known that this shit was going on from the very beginning, I would have put a stop to it then. Instead, his attacks seemed to have only escalated, and now it was out of my fucking hands. I wanted to puke at the image of this asshole trying to do anything to her. I’d put that motherfucker six feet under before I ever let that happen.

“I’m gonna fucking kill him.”

“No, you aren’t. It’s not that serious. They’re just words.”

“That’s fucking easy for you to say, Cassie. I’m trying to erase visual images of that motherfucker trying to ram his dick down your throat, and it’s ripping me apart. I’m telling you, once I get that asshole alone, I’m going to make sure he can’t open his mouth to say another motherfucking word.”

“Alex—“

“And you. You need to listen to me. You don’t talk about it, with anyone—not even fucking Dalton. You understand that?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“No, Cassie. You don’t talk about it. I don’t want anyone overhearing anything you say and blowing it up any bigger than what it already is. I’m going to handle this shit and move it along as quickly and quietly as possible. Act like it never happened, you understand me?”

“Yes. Geez, I understand you.”

“I’ll be home in about ten minutes. Then I’m sending for you.”

“Do you think—“

“Be ready. Talk to you soon. Bye”

I hung up, my fists feeling like weights had been placed inside of them. I knew the second I got the chance, Allen was going to be a dead man.

I couldn’t wait to get face to face with him, and make that fantasy a reality.

Storming through the front door, I stomped into the house, back to my bedroom and threw my bags down on the floor, then promptly shut the door and walked back to the front. Riley was up and off the couch, looking curiously at me.

“Welcome home, man. What’s got you in such a huff?”

“You don’t fucking know?”

He walked closer. “No. What happened?”

“Fucking Newsome filed a sexual harassment claim against Allen today because of some shit he said to Cassie.”

“Oh, fuck.”

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I’m going to fucking smash that motherfucker’s throat in. He won’t be able to say anymore shit like that to her.”

“Like what? What did he say?”

I stood, eyes closed, fists tightly clenched, trying to contain my brewing anger.

I opened my eyes and unclenched my fists. “I can’t even say it all, man, but he threatened to shove his dick down her throat. I’ll cut that shit off before I let him do anything to her.”

Riley walked over to me and patted my shoulder, leaving his hand resting there and trying to calm me down, but it really wasn’t working. He was only adding to my growing frustration because the longer he held me up, the longer it was taking me to get to Allen and beat him until he was unrecognizable.

“You’re not leaving the house right now, Alex.”

I shoved his hand off of me, stepping away before I took out my aggression on him.

“Fuck off, Riley.”

“No. You need to calm the fuck down. I’m sure they’ve got his ass on some sort of watched restriction right now. You go up there, and you’ll blow the whole fucking lid off of you and Cassie. No one knows right now, but you go defending her honor, and the whole goddamned schoolhouse is going to know about it. Think, man.”

He poked me forcefully in the head, pissing me off, but his words were much too rational and made me stop and think for second. He was right. If I went storming up there, way after the fact, it would definitely rouse suspicion. I hated how right he was. That alone made me want to punch him.

I turned and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a water and drinking it down in one long gulp before throwing the bottle at the wall, watching it fall to the ground.

“I’m only looking out for you and Cassie, man.”

“There won’t be a me and Cassie, dude. She got orders to fucking Lejeune. As of next week, she’ll be on a fucking plane to the east coast, and I’ll be stuck here, wallowing in this cesspool.”

He walked into the kitchen, disbelief spread across his face.

“What the fuck are you saying? You’ve gone through all of this—the hiding, the lying, the secrets—to just throw it all away because she got orders to another base? What is wrong with you?”

“Don’t fucking start—“

“No. You need to listen. You’ve changed for this girl.” He walked closer to me, stopping just in front of me. “You fucking love her, and I’ll be damned if I stand by and watch you let her walk away because you aren’t going to be near each other. Wake the fuck up,” he said, poking me in the chest.

“Back the fuck up, Riley.”

“Punch me, Alex. Do whatever you have to do to get the stupidity out of your fucking system. But walking away from Cassie, that’s not happening. You’ve sucked me into this, and I’m not putting my fucking career on the line to watch you throw it all away.”