Montgomery listened.
“Only things didn’t go smoothly. The choppers dropped us on target, and we moved in position. Raven was on his compound but so was his family. When we penetrated, Raven did the unthinkable. He demanded his children run toward us. We didn’t know the kids were wearing bombs. Boomer and Robb died on scene. Linden made it onto the chopper and died shortly after. Their deaths were labeled as ‘training accidents.’ Within six months, we were all removed or left our positions. Signed off by Major Blayney. Except for Mickey…or so we were told. Mickey stayed in.” Neil went on to explain about Billy, about Rick, about how Mickey was played by Blayney to kill them all off to hide the truth about the mission.
Neil talked for hours. Ending with the last night of his life.
Montgomery listened, his face unreadable.
Once he was finished Montgomery asked questions. “Who were the pilots?”
“I’d never seen them before. We flew overseas in a cargo belly, jumped immediately into a chopper, and rappelled to our target. The pilots who picked us up never removed their headgear. I don’t know who they were.”
Montgomery swiveled away from him and dismissed his assistant. Neil witnessed the man pace the room. As much as Neil hated the position he was in at that moment, he pitied the colonel.
“You do realize the position this puts me in, Lieutenant?”
“Retired, sir.”
Montgomery tilted his head. “Not from where I’m standing. Until we have the details you’re officially reinstated.”
Neil sat taller. “And if I refuse?”
Montgomery stared him down. “That wouldn’t be wise.”
Noise from outside the room brought Neil to his feet.
“You were told to take her to a hotel. Not here!”
Neil heard the voice of an angel. “I didn’t give her a choice, soldier. Not why don’t you be a dear and tell me where my husband is.”
Before Neil could prepare the colonel for what walked through the door, Gwen was there. He couldn’t help but smile as she stormed the room. “There you are.” She threw herself into his arms and life fell into balance. “They tried to make me leave without you.”
“Gwen Harrison, I presume?” the colonel asked.
Gwen turned around and offered her hand. “Gwendolyn MacBain,” she corrected. Damn if Neil didn’t love the sound of his name attached to hers.
“Mrs. MacBain, you have five minutes before you need to call your brother back.” A nervous looking sergeant who’d walked into the room with her was waving a cell phone in her hand. She noticed the colonel and immediately saluted her superior.
Gwen shooed the woman off. “I’ll not call anyone until I know I’m leaving with my husband.”
Neil pushed Gwen away so he could see her eyes. He ignored the bruise on her cheek that brought a wave of rage over him. She was tougher than she looked. “He’s calling a press conference in what…four minutes, Piper?”
The other woman nodded, still standing with her right hand to her forehead. “I tried to stop her. I was told she could leave.”
“Press conference?” Montgomery asked, returning the sergeant’s salute and putting her at ease.
“That’s right,” Gwen began. “You know…the one where I tell the world that a major in the US military took me hostage after using a military man to search me out to kill my husband. And how now the same military was holding my husband prisoner.”
Neil lifted a hand to Gwen’s mouth and kept her from saying more. “Is Blake awaiting your call?”
Gwen gave an innocent smile. “Four minutes…give or take a couple. Right Piper?”
“Colonel, sir. What she said is true. I don’t know her family, but if half of what she says is true, sir…we might want to…It doesn’t look good, sir.”
Montgomery twisted around to glare at Neil and Gwen. “Lieutenant?”
Neil couldn’t help the self-satisfied smile that fell on his lips. “Lady Gwen and I know quite an influential list of people. Do you know of a Governor Carter Billings? His uncle Senator Maxwell Hammond?”
Gwen sat her tiny ass on his lap and linked her arm around his shoulders.
“Colonel? That’s a high rank…right?” Gwen asked all innocent. Neil knew she wasn’t that dense.
“It is.” He kissed her cheek.
“You’ll forgive me for being less than impressed, Colonel. But your Major Blayney had held me against my will for the better part of two days. He handcuffed me, gagged me, and didn’t provide me with food or water, not to mention his threat to kill me.” She touched her cheek. “I simply want the right person prosecuted here and not the one who rescued me.”
Montgomery stared at both of them. “How can I be assured you won’t go to the media?”
Gwen glanced to her lap. “I rather liked Charles’s wife, Ruth. She doesn’t need to know how awful her husband really was. I want my husband and me to go home.”
Neil met Montgomery’s eyes. “We won’t go to the media. Gwen’s family, on the other hand, will think nothing of it.”
“I don’t like being blackmailed,” Montgomery said.
Neil felt the muscles in his neck tighten. “I don’t like being held hostage.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
Sergeant Piper spoke up. “One minute.”
Gwen kicked her leg in Neil’s lap as if she were a schoolgirl on a bench awaiting a city bus. Reminded him of her wearing cheap high heels and skintight shorts outside of a No-Tell Motel.