Fraternizing (31 page)

“So anyway,
enough about that crazy ass chick. You need to tell me about this info that’s
burning holes into my thought process. What’s going on with Sgt. Cruz?”

I swallowed and
sat up in the bed.

“Hold on one
second,” Dalton said, retrieving my hairbrush and handing it to me. “I can’t
look at you like this any longer. I can’t take you seriously.”

I had forgotten
that my hair must have been a serious mess after Angelica ripped it from my
bun. I quickly took it down, using the brush to smooth it out while also
massaging my scalp.

“Well, I can only
assume, based on her outburst in here, that he said some shit to her. When he
called me down this morning, he apologized for cutting me off and ignoring me,
and also for fucking up on Friday.”

“Fucking up?”

“Yep! He fucked
up. I guess he was trying to drown me out. His NCO of the Quarter award made
him think twice about what he was doing so he went out, got shitfaced, kissed
some random chick, then let Castillo blow him.”

“What the fuck?”

“Yes, precisely.”

“And he told you
all of this?”

“Angelica
initially told me about Castillo, and I questioned him. He was honest about it
and told me about the random too.”

Dalton rubbed his
hands over his face,
then
blew out a deep breath.

“So now what?”

“Now, he wants me
to go off with him for the weekend.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah. He says he
was wrong, he admits that. He wants me to leave with him this weekend and make
things right.”

“Are you gonna
go?”

“I don’t know. I
was so pissed off at him. I don’t know if I want to just take off with him.”

“Can I throw my
two cents in?”

“Don’t you
always?” I replied, grinning at him.

“True. But
anyway, I think you should go. He fucked up, but the fact that he admitted to
it, even the shit you didn’t know about, says something. I don’t know him well,
but I see what kind of hold he has on you, and apparently you have the same
hold on him.”

I laughed a bit.
He was on to something.

“You two crazy
asses
stand to lose so much if this gets out, and yet you
can’t stay away from each other. I think you already know what your answer is
to his request, but you want to play tough ass. I say suck it up and go. If
he’s to burn for you, with everything he has on the line, are you willing to do
it too?”

“I get what
you’re saying, but the Castillo thing—“

“It sucks. And
you probably need to scrub his dick before you get anywhere near it, but people
make mistakes, and thankfully he didn’t fuck her. So you have to ask yourself
if you want to overlook it or not. It’s simple. Yes, or no.”

“I really hate
you sometimes.”

“I know. But what
would do without me?”

I rolled my eyes
and shook my head.

“Get dressed. Let’s
go get something to eat, Rocky Balboa.”

I laughed at my
new nickname and felt a sense of pride with it as well. Even if Angelica and I
were even in our bout, she knew now that she was only going to go so far with
me, and would probably try and keep her distance from now on.

When I was
finally dressed, we walked down the stairs and past a group of guys, Allen
being one of them. He looked at both of us and sneered, getting an eye full of
malice in return from me.

I could hear his
caveman like laugh as we walked by. “Bennett, I’m still here when you’re ready
for a real man!”

“Just keep
walking,” Dalton whispered. I did because I just couldn’t deal with
anymore
bullshit in one day.

Unfortunately,
Allen kept running his mouth. I was already highly pissed and fed up with the
constant annoyances, so I turned around when he said, “Yeah, she’s in my class.
If she knew what was good for her, she’d climb on my dick where she belongs.”

That was enough. I
wasn’t going to take
anymore derogatory
comments from
him, thus allowing him to grow even bolder with the next one. I marched back
over to where he stood. The adrenaline from earlier came crashing back, making
me feel like I could go toe to toe with him as well.

“Do you ever
think about the shit you say before it comes spilling out of your mouth?”

“Nope,” he
quickly responded, looking down on me.

“Well you better
shut your mouth before I shut it for you. We don’t have anything to say to each
other. Let’s keep it that way.”

“For such a small
girl, you have a big fucking mouth. You need to know your place. My dick is
readily available to plug it up.”

My head exploded,
and I lunged for him, but before I could hit him the way I really wanted to,
Dalton grabbed and pulled me away.

“Yeah, take her
ass before I do it.”

“You’re a piece
of shit, Allen. A giant piece of shit!” I yelled back.

“I’ll fix you,
Bennett,” he called through laughter with the abundance of idiots standing next
to him.

“You need to
chill the hell out,” Dalton said.

“Shut up, Dalton.
You heard the shit he said to me.”

“Yes, and they
are just words. Don’t give them power.”

I looked at
him,
amazed that he was able to say that. Words meant plenty
to me, and they did have power, the power to drag me through the trenches and
fill me with utter rage.

“That’s easy to
say.”

“And easy to
follow, too. Do you think I haven’t been on the receiving end of some nasty
things being said to me? Allen himself has said some horrible things to me, but
you know what, he’s an idiot, a Neanderthal. I don’t pay him much mind, and you
really shouldn’t either.”

I didn’t say
another word. I just marched into the chow hall, angry and starving, feeling
like I could eat everything in sight to fuel me for whoever was ready to come
at me next.

Chapter 19

Alex

Castillo
was nowhere to be found, which was probably in her best interest since I was
sure she’d gotten word that I was on the hunt for her. Ruiz had squealed, and
while I couldn’t be certain that Castillo didn’t speak loud enough for others
to overhear, the fact that she had flat out lied about what happened that night
was enough to drench me in rage.

Of course, Ruiz’s
assault charge burning in my hands coaxed the information out of her, but
nonetheless, she gave up just what I needed. Now, I had to make Castillo
accountable.

Speaking of Ruiz,
the assault charge absolutely worried me. It had worried me when Riley first
discovered it, but now that she was actively engaging Cassie, it was fucking
terrifying me. The girl was a ticking time bomb, a violent machine ready for
war, and the two of them in the same room together played tricks on my mind,
disturbing me with every thought.

Cassie still
hadn’t answered me on my plans for the weekend. As much as I was trying to give
her some space and time, I was growing impatient, and about ready to go and
demand it from her. Thinking about her cutting me off, even though it was
precisely what I had done to her, fucking stung. I was an asshole, but she
wasn’t. And even though there were no excuses, the fact of the matter was that
I didn’t want her treating me the way I had stupidly treated her. She was
better than me, in more ways than one.

I sat on the
couch in only a pair of PT shorts with a beer in my hand. Riley was gone for
the night, having dinner with some chick he’d met at the bar. He’d tried hard
to convince me before he left that she wasn’t a groupie, even though he’d met
her the same night I fell under Cassie’s spell, but as much as I wanted to give
a fuck, I just couldn’t. My mind was elsewhere, and it wasn’t on whatever chick
Riley found attractive for the time being.

I kept checking
my phone, hoping for something from Cassie, but there was nothing there. My
nerves were fried. She was playing hard, and I had to admit, she was winning
because the harder she got, the more I wanted her. I felt like I could say fuck
it to everything standing in my way and take her ass the way she needed to be
taken. I knew I could get her body, that was obvious from the talk I’d had with
her earlier in the morning, but I was after so much more. I needed her heart
and her mind. I needed her to trust me, to know that I would never do anything
to intentionally hurt her, and I knew that would take more than my cock
pleasing her.

I was starting to
get drunk off of beer and
t
hat
was unheard of. Beer never got me drunk, but looking into the fridge, I had
already downed six and was going back for my seventh. The buzz was soothing,
but didn’t relieve the ache I felt where Cassie was concerned. The loneliness
of the house wasn’t helping matters either. As much as Riley could grate my
nerves, he had been my right hand through all of this, and Jensen hadn’t been
around since the fight the day before. The silence was killer, giving me too
much time to think, and none of it good. I needed a reprieve, and I needed it
fast.

I lay down on the
couch with a beer in hand, flipping through mindless TV that did nothing but
stare back at me. I couldn’t find anything engaging, anything sidetracking…
anything at all. I stood, and headed out to the backyard to sit out on the
patio and watch the moths and mosquitoes buzz by.

The front door
closed, and I was jolted out of my fog, lost in painstaking thoughts and an
overabundance of beer. When I looked back in through the slider glass door,
Jensen was walking into the kitchen. He tossed his keys down on the counter,
turned for the fridge and grabbed a beer for himself. I thought about going
inside, but there really was no point. We weren’t
seeing eye
to eye, and I didn’t feel like kicking his ass again if he said the wrong thing
to me. I was drunk, pissed, and looking for a fight. For once in all of this
turmoil, I finally made a smart decision and stayed outside, allowing the still
sweltering desert air to hit my face, sticking the thin layer of sweat to me.

With my head
thrown back over the chair back and up against the wall of the house, I
listened as the slider opened. I opened my eyes and Jenson’s hardened gaze hit
me, thrusting red flags in front of me and putting my senses on high alert. I
stared back coldly, silently giving him the opportunity to provoke me and send
my drunken ass barreling into him. I was ready to shut his mouth once and for
all.

He walked out a
little further, before calmly saying, “Hey, I’m just letting you know that I’ll
be gone for a while. I’m gonna be staying with some friends in town.”

I didn’t say
anything, just sat back and exhaled the thick, painful breath holed up inside
of me. As stupid as Jensen was acting, he was my brother. He’d been with me
since day one of my Comm School instructing, and even though I thought he was
acting like a little bitch about all of this, it hurt to see him turning away
from me. To see him distancing himself where I was concerned. Words jumbled
around inside my head, but I couldn’t think clearly enough to string a coherent
sentence together.

He took a seat in
the chair directly next to me and popped the top of his beer, taking one long
gulp before smashing the can in his hand. I looked over to him, and noticed the
shiner that I’d left on his face. I smiled a bit. He looked at me with his
eyebrows scrunched.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

We sat there,
looking out into the yard at the small birds lining the wall, chirping and
singing, directly contrasting with the dark mood that lay thick between us. I
had a feeling that Jensen looked at me with utter disgust now and if I actually
gave a fuck, I would probably be looking at myself the same way. Honest to God,
if someone else had landed
themselves
in my
predicament, I probably would have been the Jensen in the situation. Prior to
meeting Cassie, I couldn’t fathom doing anything that was in direct violation
of any Corps rules and regulations. The shame was much more than any
punishment, and my loyalty to the Corps meant more to me than breathing. Things
were always black and white, but with Cassie jumping into my world, I was now
living in a very hazy shade of grey. Things that were so matter of fact before
were no longer that way. Jensen couldn’t—
didn’t
want to see that. I
couldn’t make him see it, and if it meant ripping our brotherhood apart, that
was a choice I was just going to have to make.

He sat back,
then
exhaled loudly. We sat in an uncomfortable silence for
what felt like forever. The birds came and went, and the sun set even lower as
the orange and purple mixture stretched across a darkening sky. I’d finally had
enough, so I stood and took a few steps toward the slider glass door when he
finally spoke, stopping me in my tracks.

“Why, man?”

“Why, what?”

“Why her? Why
now? I’m just trying to wrap my head around all of this.”

I walked back
over to where he sat, anger starting to boil deep within me.

“There is no
answer. Only a feeling and I can’t deny what I feel for her.”

“Dude, you can
fuck anything with two legs that opens up to a pussy. I don’t get why her.”

He still didn’t
get it. In his eyes, Cassie was just another piece of ass, and that should have
been very easy to move away from. He was so stuck in his box that he couldn’t
see that maybe, just maybe, there was more to her than what he saw, or wanted
to see.

“I don’t
particularly like having to explain myself, but I’m going to go ahead and set
the fucking record straight,” I grumbled. “I get that you still see life
through the Corps. Fine, good for you. But, I’m lucky enough to have found
someone who has helped me see life for what it is, and it’s not behind a
fucking manual of rules that fail to address real life situations. I’m sorry
that I fucking let my emotions come and play, and I’m sorry that you can’t
understand that. But I will not apologize for falling for Bennett, and I will
not allow you to make me feel fucking guilty about it.”