Page 117 of Forged By Sacrifice

“Meanwhile, Mac and I are going to head down to the police station. See if anyone pressed any charges against him.”

“I was going to make breakfast,” Mom said, her hand halting as she was just about to crack an egg in a bowl.

“I don’t think anyone is ready for food, Clare,” Dad said with a weak smile.

“Robbie?” Mom looked at me.

I gave her a wry smile. “Sorry, Mom.” I looked at Dad and said, “Let me throw some clothes on.”

I wasn’t sure if we were really going to a police station, or if we were going back to the DoD to put out a hit on one goddamn senator from Alabama.

I went back to my room and quietly dressed without waking Georgie up before returning to the kitchen.

Mom handed me a travel mug full of coffee. “Thanks,” I muttered. I turned to Dani. “I need you to do me a favor.”

She nodded.

“Georgie… She had a pretty shitty night, too. Make sure she’s okay?”

“What happened?”

I shook my head. “Not here.”

Her eyed widened, but she nodded. She knew the drill. You didn’t talk about certain things in certain places. It was a well-known fact that we’d lived with not only on the Hill but our entire lives. I didn’t need to say more, but it had her looking around the apartment as if she could see a bug hanging from the ceiling on a web like a real spider. I had a feeling she’d be calling for a sweep of our apartment. If she didn’t, I would.

Our eyes met one more time before I followed Dad out of the apartment.

Georgie

TRYING NOT TO LOVE YOU

“And this kind of pain, only time takes away,

That's why it's harder to let you go.”

Performed by Nickelback

Written by Warren / Warren / Turton / Peake

I woke up in Mac’s bed without him. The apartment was quiet. I looked down at my crumpled black dress and wiped at the makeup that was sticking to my face?a mess. It was a mess. Everything was a fucking mess.

I got up, planning to head directly to the shower, and was surprised to see Dani and her Mom on the couch, the three TVs on, volume low.

“You’re awake,” Dani said, stating the obvious.

I went to my friend and hugged her. Sorry for what she’d been through. Sorry for what I’d been through. And sorry that I was going to be dragging them through more crap.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “Just pissed now, but look.” She waved toward the TV in the middle as Clare greeted me with her own hug that made me want to cry all over again. It had been so long since I’d had anything close to a motherly hug.

I turned to the TV in time to see Senator Fenway’s face and then a cut to a videotape of the senator and a woman whose face was blurred in an elevator. I realized it was Dani. In the video, she was shaking her head no even as he was narrowing the gap between their bodies. He pulled her, and she pulled back, ripping her dress as they battled. He overpowered her, pulling her tight up against him and kissing her. Her knee came up and hit him in the groin. His face contorted in rage, and he hit her right across the face, and as she was pushed backward by the momentum of the hit, the elevator doors opened, and Dani ran.

I felt like I was watching a movie. Just like my life last night had felt. Unreal. Fake. Someone else’s story.

When I turned back to the couch, Clare was sniffling into a tissue and pulling Dani to her, but Dani’s face was all disdain. “Dumbshit thought he was going to be able to say that it was all my fault. His career is over.”

I looked closer at Dani’s face and saw the red mark on her cheek where his hand had hit her, but I was in awe of the power and strength rolling off of her. Dani really was my new female superhero.

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