Page 25 of Call Sign: Thunder
Silence. Anguish was visible in the father's eyes. Even from across the room he could see tears glistening. "I'm losing her. I don't know what to do."
Righteous anger filled Zach. "I think you came to the wrong place to find her. I lost her four months ago when you stole her away without a good-bye."
"That was a mistake. I see that now." Zach stood silent, refusing to let the senator off the hook until an actual tear escaped at the same moment as his unexpected apology. "I'm sorry."
Instead of making Zach feel vindicated, the senator's uncharacteristic behavior was setting off alarm bells. He had been working hard to push Allison Benson out of his mind. She was part of his past and Zach was smart enough to know he needed to leave her there. Only it wasn't working. Concern took hold of his emotions.
"Is she back in school yet?" He tried to remind himself of how young Allie was.
"She says she's never going back."
"It's only been a few months. She needs time."
It looked like her father was having trouble finding his words. "She's getting worse. She won't talk to me. She sits silent in our therapy sessions. I still don't even know… she won't talk about the rape."
Zach didn't know how to tell the senator she'd suffered through worse than rape. He suspected the elder was fishing for information. "What makes you think she'll listen to me?" It hurt him to admit it, but Allie had made it clear she wasn't interested in Zach's help either. "I sent her several emails. She ignored most of them and finally told me to get lost. She said hearing from me brought back bad memories."
For the first time since he'd arrived, the senator walked into the room, stopping only a few feet away. Worry lines and dark circles around his eyes were signs of the father's distress. He reluctantly reached into the inside pocket of his suit coat, coming out with several papers folded neatly. The hand that reached out to hand them over shook with emotion.
Zach grabbed the papers, unfolding them and glancing down long enough to realize they contained a print out of the emails Zach had sent. Private, heartfelt emails that were meant for no one but Allison. He kept his eyes down, unhappy her father knew what he'd written in a moment of weakness of worry over Allison.
"She didn't see them." His words were a bare whisper of a confession.
Zach's heart stopped. Surely he'd heard wrong.
"Excuse me?" He glared.
"I monitored all of her social media accounts and emails carefully. I was concerned for her safety with the cartel out for revenge for their pending prosecution."
Blood was rushing through his ears as he pushed down his anger. "But she answered me."
Their eyes were locked. "I answered you."
Zach rushed him, grabbing the senator by the front of his dress shirt as he shook him. "You bastard. Who do you think you are?"
"You don't understand. I already lost her mother. I can't lose Allison too."
The father's anguish was enough to douse some of Zachary's rage. "What makes you think she'll listen to me anyway?"
For the briefest second Zach saw fear in the elder's eyes, but he quickly masked it. Seconds later, he reached into his other inside pocket to pull out a much thicker pile of paper, secured together with a rubber band. He threw them down on the desk next to them. The meticulous handwriting on the envelopes was artistic. He hated the effect seeing the nameAllison Bensonin the upper left return address slot had on his heart rate, but recognizing they were all addressed toCaptain Zachary Garrettturned him cold with rage.
She'd been writing him and… He picked the top one up, ripping it open with shaking hands. It was dated three days after he'd rescued her. She'd written pages and pages. He could see sections that were smeared, probably from her tears.
Awareness dawned. She had to think Zach had ignored over a dozen heart-felt letters.
He didn't stop to contemplate his actions. His fist contacted with the senator's jaw on its own accord, throwing the older man backwards, stumbling as he struggled to remain on his feet.
Fuck. Get control of yourself, Garrett or you’re gonna end up in the brig.
Mr. Benson bent over to put his hands on his knees, gasping for air as he recovered from the right hook to the jaw. He spoke with regret. "I deserved that."
"You deserve worse," Zach spat.
He spoke to his shoes, still bent over recovering. "For what it's worth, Allie has been punishing me with her depression. I thought it was a simple hero worship thing that she'd forget as soon as she got home, but she's getting worse. At first, she was quiet and reserved, refusing to talk to anyone about what had happened. Now, she's so angry. She is hurting herself. I've had to lock up all of the alcohol in the house because she'll drink herself into a stupor. I had to take away her computer access because she was ordering cigarettes, alcohol, and even… sex toys… online to have them delivered to the house. I invited a few of her friends over for a weekend hoping they would help things get back to normal, but she only got worse realizing she couldn't go back to being the carefree college student she'd been before the… kidnapping." He paused, as if the explanation of how messed up his daughter was taxing him. He finally stood, looking Zach in the eye to finish the confession. "I had hired bodyguards to protect her when we left the house, but now they watch her 24/7 to protect her from her own destructive behavior."
Unable to hold the senator's stare, Zach reached to pull out a stray letter from the middle of the pack. It was dated two months ago. A quick scan of the contents had Allison talking about being under house arrest, her dad not letting her leave for fear she'd be kidnapped again. The letter read like a diary entry with Allison pouring out her heart with her fears and begging Zach to find her.
"You bastard. I want to knock you out cold for doing this to her."
