J Saint - Collateral Damage

"Before you appeared at my door, I wondered if Bill had faked his death because he'd gotten himself into some serious trouble. It's part of the reason I haven't told anyone yet."

"No." Jack met her gaze head on and let her see just how deadly serious he was. "You don't have to wonder. I saw Bill die."

Lauren shook her head as she shifted back in her seat, putting more distance between her and Jack. Her mind was too punch-drunk to even calculate if it was possible time-wise. "You were in Sao Paulo last night?"

"No. I was in DC in Walter Reed Medical Center last night."

"Then what are you saying?"

Jack started his sentence three times before he finally said it. "I saw him die two weeks ago in Lebanon, then his body disappeared."

She gripped the table edge until her nails ached. "You're serious."

"Yes. Is there anything you can tell me that might explain why he was there?"

"No." Lauren exhaled hard, a harsh, bitter sound escaped from her. "But he has a condo downtown. Had it before we married. I have a key."

"We'll go tonight, okay?"

She followed his glance toward the play area. Her sons were racing toward the table, happy and excited, without a clue to their father's crimes. "Yes."

"I win! I win!" Matt shouted as he zoomed his race car over the food littered table top.

Mitch came up behind him, trying to push his brother aside. "No fair! I called yellow flag! I tripped. You didn't win!"

"Yes, I did! Yellow flags are for crashes. You didn't crash!"

"Yes, I did too crash," Mitch cried, tears springing into his eyes.

Before Lauren could get a word in, Matt pushed Mitch. The table rocked and all of the drinks tipped over, pouring Jack's way. Lauren braced herself for Jack's irritation, already hearing Bill grumble about how little control she had over the children. She jumped up, searching for napkins, but Jack was faster than lightning. Not only had he removed his lower half out of harm's way, but he managed to stop the flood by tipping over the napkin dispenser and using it as a large sponge.

"Whoa!" Jack reached out and steadied the table as the boys kept scuffling. "The problem is neither of you can honestly race each other yet." Jack caught their attention. Lauren had reached the end of her rope. She was amazed at Jack's calm control and easy manner. He took the boys in stride and guided them in a positive direction, easing the tension and chaos rather than adding to it.

Matt and Mitch frowned, glanced suspiciously at each other and then looked outraged at Jack, clearly upset.

"Why not?" Mitch demanded.

"Why not, sir?" Lauren prompted.

"Sir," the boys both said together.

Jack was undaunted. "First, you can't have an official race unless you have a judge for it. Second of all, I bet you didn't even set up a predetermined course."

Mitch frowned so hard that Lauren's brow ached. "What's that?"

Angie arrived, carrying Mitch's shoe. "You lost this when you crashed, kid."

Her remark set off another argument between Matt and Mitch over the legitimacy of Matt's win.

"Between the birthday yesterday and the excitement today, you two are over-tired and need to go to bed a little early tonight."

"Mom!" they cried together.

"That chimp is behaving better than you boys at the moment." Angie pointed to the big screen TV. Everyone looked toward the CNN broadcast.

Unable to quite hear what was being said, Lauren read the typed feed scrolling up the screen. "Due to the destruction of the world's oil market, Andreas Miles, owner of GreenWorld Corporation, announces his company will go to the ends of the earth in order to put their revolutionary new biofuel, GXP, on the market sooner than planned."

"He has the chimp dressed exactly the same way as he's dressed," Lauren said.

"I know, sort of weird isn't it?" Angie said. "A friend of my mother's, Candace Latimoor from the CNN show Latimoor Live, is doing a live tour of GreenWorld's research and production facility in Peru later this week. She says he's a real nutcase when it comes to the chimp. Treats him just like a son. Probably even better than."

"GreenWorld?" Lauren frowned. "I've heard that name before."

"Where?" Jack turned, studying her, his gaze sharp.

"I don't know." She rubbed her temple. Looking back up at the screen, the man and the chimp were gone, replaced by pictures of what people were now calling the Hell Zones, the burning out-of-control oil fields, reservoirs and refineries in the Middle East and the remnants from last week's attacks in the US. "Everything is running together and I can't think."

"I know what you mean," Jack said. "The past two weeks have been like that for me."

Lauren nodded. Somehow as bad as things were, it would be worse were it not for Jack.

Two hours later, Angie babysat the boys at a hotel where Jack paid cash for adjoining rooms under a false name and Lauren led Jack into Bill's upscale condo. Located in downtown Atlanta in a premium community of shops, restaurants and office buildings, the third floor rooms overlooked a park. With a housekeeper three-hundred-and-sixty-three days a year, Bill kept everything looking like a showcase.

Lauren couldn't breathe, a combination of too many emotions bombarding her all at once, shock from the intruding violence, and Jack's growing presence. The longer she was with him, the more aware of him she became.

But how could she not? He'd been a human shield for her and everything she held dear. She could also be over-reacting as well. She paused in her search through Bill's mail the housekeeper collected each day. Her nerves were on super alert, amplifying everything. The muffled clank from the upstairs tenet had made her jump. Jack opening drawer after drawer had her on edge, worried over what other secrets Bill harbored. A siren speeding by on the street outside had made her heart race. They were all normal sounds, but her responses kept escalating, clawing at her spine, eating at her mind. At every turn she expected a bullet to be waiting for her.

Memories of when she first met Bill were strongest at the condo and they'd collided with the facts she'd learned today the moment she'd walked into the door, turning her life into a train wreck.

Who she thought her husband was had suddenly twisted into an unrecognizable mass of deceit. As if she had gone to bed with a dashing prince and woke up with something worse than a toad, she'd awoken to a horrible devil-a terrorist.

The implications and repercussions of it all were just now bubbling into her shocked brain and her stomach churned with questions. Would people think she was involved in Bill's treason? Isn't that what citizens who acted against the United States were charged with? Would her family be reviled? Would her children be outcasts? Were their lives destroyed?

It was more than she could absorb.

A terrorist.

She just couldn't believe it. Still didn't believe it."

"Hey." Jack touched her arm and made her shiver, making her even more aware. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah." Her voice was thick with emotion.

He studied her a moment. "Bad memories?"

"And worried about what you said and just how devastating it will be to our lives."

"No one stops to consider the collateral damage their actions can cause. I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you and the boys as insulated as I can from what Bill did."

She studied Jack a moment and knew he meant what he said. That she could rely on his word more than any man she'd known other than her brother. There was a solid strength to him that went deeper than his physical presence. It was an essence of something different about him, something stable and good. Maybe it stemmed from the code that he'd committed to live his life by in serving his country. She tried again to draw a deep breath, but couldn't. Not because of fear this time, and not because Jack's reassuring words didn't help, but because they did. They reached inside her and stirred emotions she didn't want to feel. Surely, she'd lost her mind. She'd just met this guy and there was no way she could really know those things about him. Right?