Page 30 of Stay with Me
“Lieutenant Nolan, thank you for coming so quickly,” Brody said as he motioned him to follow. Okay, Drew was nervous. Not that he was expecting Brody to kiss him in the middle of the emergency room but still…a little recognition that they were at least friends. Guess he was more invested than Brody. Fuck.
When they were away from the door, Brody reached out and took his hand, giving it a quick squeeze as he smiled. “I know that you’ll handle Jared with kid gloves. I’m thanking you ahead of time. He’s a bit fragile right now.”
The name rang faint bells in Drew’s memory. “Jared? Your tech?” He thought he had that right but…
“That’s him. I don’t want to cloud your first impression. See what you think. We haven’t done anything yet. We held off tonot mess with your investigation,” Brody told him as he stopped outside an exam room with an actual door.
“Why do I have the feeling that this is going to be a hard one?” Drew asked. Lord, he’d only been an MP for ten months or so. “Should I call over one of the more experienced MPs? Maybe one of my NCOs?”
Brody started shaking his head before Drew had even finished his questions. “I got the impression that there’s something that would make that a bad thing? I had to reassure Jared that you would handle this confidentially.” He shrugged then knocked on the door. “You okay for us to come in?” Drew heard someone call out before Brody pushed open the door.
A young soldier was sitting on the edge of the exam table and to say that he looked like he’d been worked over hard would be the understatement of the century. Drew shut down the emotions running through him about finding the person who had done this and putting a hurting on them. The soldier didn’t need Drew to mete out physical justice on the asshole. He needed Drew to do his job and have him, or her, face the consequences of their actions for more time than it took for them to heal. Drew cleared his throat and introduced himself.
“I’m Lieutenant Andrew Nolan from the Fourteenth Military Police Brigade. Lieutenant Walker asked me to come and talk with you. Can you tell me how this happened? Who did this to you?” Drew paused to take a breath before continuing, “Do you know them on a personal basis?” There was always the chance that it was a stranger who took offense to this soldier.
Drew watched as the soldier looked at Brody, then back to Drew, then the floor. “Do you want me to step out of the room, Jared? I trust Drew implicitly. You’re safe with him. He’ll take good care of you and then we’ll get you checked over,” Brody offered. Brody’s trust in him warmed Drew from the inside.
“Could you stay?” Jared asked Brody before he looked at Drew. “The guy I was seeing did this.”
Pulling a notebook from his thigh pocket, Drew started his case notes. “Then you can give me his name. Was this the first time he hurt you?” Christ, intimate partner violence. He was going to need a shower after this. He always felt dirty after dealing with the slime who could do this to someone they professed to care for. Maybe he needed to call Uncle Mooney for a debrief. He, unfortunately, probably had dealt with many cases of this. None of his cousins except maybe Cal should have any exposure to dealing with this on a professional level. At least there were no children involved.
“Sergeant Doug Provo,” Jared started crying as he told Drew the man’s name. When Drew heard who the aggressor was, his blood ran cold. He didn’t want to doubt Jared but maybe he’d misheard.
“Jared, can you tell me where the sergeant is stationed? What unit?” Drew was holding out hope that there was more than one Sergeant Provo at JBSA.
“Fourteenth Military Police Brigade,” Jared replied.
Oh fuck.
Chapter Twenty
This day was officially fucked. Drew now had to go inside and inform his company commander that one of their soldiers was potentially a domestic abuser. How ‘bout him remembering that someone was innocent until proven guilty? Part of him was relieved that his training hadn’t gone out the window because of his emotions. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Jared. The man had no reason to lie about who sent him to the hospital. No victim blaming was going to happen on his watch. No one deserved to be beaten by someone they were in a relationship with. It didn’t matter if it was a physical or mental beating. Nothing warranted that. But he also had to remember to go exactly by the book, especially on this one.
Drew turned off the SUV and walked into the MP station. He went straight to Captain Ash’s office and knocked on the door. “Excuse me, sir. I need a minute of your time.”
Captain Ash looked up from whatever he was reading with a frown on his face and a raised eyebrow, probably from Drew being formal. “Is it really a minute? Because I have to have this training plan to the major by noon.”
“I’m sorry, Captain Ash, but I think you’re going to be late getting your plan to Major Hill. Also, I think you need to call First Sergeant Marks to be present.” Drew didn’t know the next steps to happen but the senior NCO needed to be informed.
Captain Ash blew out a hard breath before he reached for the phone. “Hey Top, Nolan’s in my office and apparently needs to speak with both of us,” Steve paused before continuing, “Yeah, I think whatever he has to say is important enough for you to delay going to your meeting,” he said, looking at Drew, who nodded. “This better be of high importance, Nolan.”
Drew wasn’t going to squirm. He hadn’t done anything except take a victim’s statement. When he’d left the ER, Brody had called in the SAFE nurse to do a forensic exam and collect any evidence under the established guidelines.
It didn’t take long for the first sergeant to walk in the office and lean against Captain Ash’s desk. “Lieutenant, something better be on fire. I don’t have time for stupid shit today.” Drew loved that the first sergeant felt comfortable enough with him to speak his mind and not pull punches.
Looking between Captain Ash and First Sergeant Marks, Drew shifted to close the office door. He wasn’t going to have any rumors spreading. This was going to be handled by the book.
“Captain Ash, First Sergeant Marks. I just left the Emergency Room over at Brooke. One of the lieutenants there called me in to speak with a patient who had sustained a physical attack. The patient’s statement covered the violent act performed on him by someone he identified as having an intimate relationship with,” Drew said in a monotone. “To be completely transparent, I am dating the lieutenant in the ER.”
His captain waved off his revelation. “Sadly, this is not the first DV report of the week, Lieutenant. Soldiers aren’t receiving the mental health care they need. Most are handled over at AFSFC. Why did you think that we needed to be told with the door closed?” Ash questioned. “Top and I both have import—”
“Sir, the accused is Sergeant Provo,” Drew interrupted and was met with silence.
It took a minute before either of the men reacted, and then it was with a quiet resolve from the first sergeant. “Sergeant Provo is currently on patrol over in the housing area. I’ll call him in.” Marks seemed to be talking through gritted teeth. “We should call someone from AFSFC to take this over.”
Top hadn’t finished speaking before Steve was nodding. “It would be best if this was handled outside of the chain of command.” The captain reached for his phone and dialed a number. “Sorry for interrupting your morning, Major Hill. We’ve got a situation that needs to be taken over by AFSFC. Do you have time for myself and Lieutenant Nolan to come and brief you?”
Well, fuck. Drew did not want to be in front of the major for another high-profile incident or report. He was already on the man’s radar for the incident on the traffic stop. Christ, all he wanted to do was do his six, figure out a way to tell his family he wasn’t making the military his career and maybe, if he was lucky, have a long-term relationship with Brody.
