Heaven Is For Heroes Read online

  The chaos that ensued happened so fast, I didn’t have time to think before I reacted. When I saw the third guy make a move to gang up on Alex, I let a round house kick fly and nailed the guy in the gut. He doubled over and I dropped an elbow hard on his upper back, a precise blow I knew should send a paralyzing jolt down his spine. He crumpled to the floor.

  I turned to see Alex struggling to keep his balance with the skinny guy hanging on his back. The big man climbed to his feet and charged, swinging a meaty fist at Alex’s head. Alex ducked and the fist collided with the skinny guy’s face, sending him reeling backward. Blood sprang from his nose. I stuck out my foot and watched him sail through the air, landing on his back with a thud and a loud grunt.

  Alex took on the big guy, blocking several blows and taking a hard shot to the jaw before he struck back. His hands moved lightning fast and with a few skillfully executed maneuvers, he dropped the guy on the floor so hard the glasses behind the bar rattled. A wave of relief swept through me. I’d had my doubts for a brief moment. Alex shot me a huge grin, sending my heart into overdrive. I resisted the urge to jump up and down clapping, but I had the desire to kiss him in the worst way.

  Chapter 14

  “You kids better get out of here. I don’t want the cops catching anyone here without legit ID.” Sirens blared in the distance. The bartender stood behind the bar, a baseball bat in hand, looking prepared in case the brawl escalated further.

  “Let’s go!” I grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled him toward the door. The tension in the bar had fizzled, the other patrons returning to their drinks, the three guys on the floor groaning and beginning to stir.

  Alex followed me out and I dragged him to the Rabbit. He resisted. “I have to get my mom’s car.”

  I pulled harder. “No you don’t. You are coming with me.” The sirens wailed close by. “We don’t have time to argue. Get in!” The last thing he needed was to get arrested, and calling my mother to pick me up at the police station would not be the highlight of my day.

  Alex grumbled and climbed in the passenger side. I tore out of the parking lot and drove in the opposite direction of the sirens, leaving a cloud of dust in my wake. My heart pounded and sweat beaded on my forehead. Every nerve in my body was strung tight with the adrenaline rush that coursed through my veins. I had been sparring and practicing for nearly five years, but I’d never been in a real fight.

  “That was…awesome! I can’t believe we did it.”

  Alex laughed. “Your first barfight, huh?” I glanced over at him, grinning. He smiled and then pulled it back, rubbing his jaw and wiggling a tooth with his tongue. “The big guy had a mean hook.”

  “You were amazing. He must have outweighed you by fifty pounds and you clobbered him.”

  “You weren’t so bad yourself. Remind me never to make you mad.”

  I laughed, the adrenalin finally wearing down and my heart rate settling. “Where should we go? I don’t want to take you home yet. You don’t want your mom to see you like this, do you?”

  “No, I guess not.” He looked out the window, a somber expression taking over his face.

  “Don’t worry; I’ll take you back to get her car later. After you’ve had a chance to sober up.” He didn’t respond and the car grew silent. The rumbling sound of the little diesel engine and the hum of the tires rolling on pavement filled the space between us.

  “I suppose I need to say thank you…again,” he said. “Why is it every time I turn around, you’re there saving me from myself?” Sarcasm couldn’t cover the sincerity behind his words—or the frustration.

  “That’s what friends are for, right?” I kept my eyes on the road, my face heating up. I really wished I had AC in my car. I rolled the window down letting in a rush of warm air.

  “After what I said to you, I didn’t think I’d see you for a while.”

  “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” I smiled over at him, trying to lighten the mood.

  “I appreciate all you’ve done for me, Jordie. But…I don’t deserve your friendship. How can you even look at me, knowing that I’m the one who caused Lee’s death?” His voice was soft and low as he stared out the window, cow pastures and rolling hills speeding past as we drove north out of town.

  “Let’s get a few things straight, Coop. Even if…and I mean if you made a mistake or an error in judgment or something…and I still don’t think you did…Lee was killed by an Iraqi bullet. He was fighting in a war, and that means every minute of every day he was taking his life in his hands. We knew this could happen when he went over there. I know…”

  He cut me off. “It should have been me,” he said softly, his voice cracking as if his throat were tight.

  “You’re wrong. Lee would have wanted you to be the one to live.” My own voice shook with the effort to hold back tears.

  “I keep trying to remember why we went in the house. If I was team leader and I got the word to stand down…if I knew it wasn’t safe…I wouldn’t have…” he shook his head, his hands covering his face to hide his tears.

  I laid a hand on his shoulder. “I know, Coop.”

  He pulled away and leaned his head on the window, his shoulders shaking as he cried. Tears streamed down my own cheeks and I brushed them away, not willing to give in to my own grief while his seemed so raw. He needed me to be strong. A few minutes later, I pulled into a dirt parking lot and turned off the car. We sat quietly for a long time, both of us unable to find any more words, his tears finally drying up.

  “Let’s take a walk,” I said. I felt like we both needed to be close to Levi. I hadn’t known I was even coming here, but now I knew we had landed right where we needed to be. A wooden sign at the edge of a trail read, Wolf Den Falls. One of Levi’s favorite places.

  Alex looked up and a sad smile curved his lips. “We used to come here all the time. I haven’t been here since…” he swallowed the rest of the sentence. “Let’s do it,” he said, clearing his throat. We hiked down the trail in silence, the sense that we weren’t alone buzzing in the air between us.

  I could hear Levi’s laugh, his dark sense of humor a source of constant strain between us. He used to say I was the angel and he was the devil in our family. He believed I was the one who kept the balance between good and evil. He said I had the strength to keep the scales tipped in the right direction, and if I didn’t, it would be the end of civilization as we knew it. A part of me had always felt like the fate of the universe rested on my shoulders, thanks to him. Now I knew it was true—maybe not the universe, but something very important hung in the balance and the weight of it rested on me. I didn’t want to let my brother—or Alex—down.

  Dappled sunlight spread through the trees as we made our way up and down the rolling trail. I felt Alex watching my back and listened for signs that he was having difficulty with the terrain. Even with his prosthetic limb and a few too many beers, he kept pace with me. We walked about a half a mile when the sound of rushing water reached my ears. A few minutes later the tree line broke and we stood below the falls, the thirty-foot cascade tumbling over rocks and ledge on its way to the deep pool below. The sun sparkled on the water and created a rainbow effect through the fine mist before us.

  “Wow. I forgot how beautiful this place was.” Alex settled himself down on a boulder and I sat beside him. I took in the view and was grateful for the cool air rising off the water as it rushed past us over mossy rocks.

  “I don’t think we ever appreciated nature’s beauty when we were younger. It was all about the fun and seeing what we could get away with,” I said smiling. I remembered scaling the cliff up to the falls, Levi taunting me the whole time. He was the first to jump and then Alex would follow, leaving me standing at the top with my heart in my throat, terrified and exhilarated at the very idea of dropping into unknown depths. Levi would call up from below, ‘Just jump!’

  Some part of me knew I could trust them—if not Levi, then Alex. So I jumped—my arms and legs flailing to keep me upright. I c
opied them and crossed my arms at my chest and kept my feet together so I would hit the water in a streamlined position and then push off from the twelve-foot-deep bottom and torpedo to the top, gasping for breath—amazed I was still alive. I knew Levi and Alex wouldn’t have let anything bad happen to me. My heart ached for missing my brother and I felt my eyes watering again. As if he’d read my mind, Alex wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer.

  I rested my head on his chest and let the tears fall. “What are we going to do without him?”

  “I ask myself the same question every day,” he whispered.

  After a minute, I sat up straight, remembering why I had gone looking for Alex in the first place. “I have an idea.” I wiped my cheeks with the backs of my hands and sniffled.

  Alex looked serious. “This is going to be bad, isn’t it?”

  I ignored his teasing. “If we could get hold of the military’s investigative file, it might help you to remember or give you a clue as to what really happened that night.”

  “I tried. They said it was classified.” He pulled back, his gaze studying the falls.

  “There has to be a way you can get a look at the file.”

  He eyed me dubiously. “What do you suggest I do, hack into the Pentagon?”

  “Wasn’t it you who hacked into the high school computer and changed Lee’s grades so he could pass junior year?”

  “Right. And I got caught—and expelled, I might add.” He climbed to his feet, pulling himself up by the limb of a small tree growing out of the rocks. “Besides, the Pentagon is a little more complicated than Somerville High School.”

  I waved off a bee. “But you are so much better at it now with all of your military training. Wasn’t it your specialty or something? You can do this. C’mon, what have you got to lose?”

  “Um…my freedom?” He frowned and raised a brow. “This is the Pentagon we’re talking about. I could go to prison.”

  My idea suddenly sounded stupid. What was I thinking? I sighed and climbed to my feet beside him. “You’re right. It would be crazy to try something so stupid. Besides, you probably couldn’t do it, anyway.”

  “I didn’t say I couldn’t do it. I just said it would be taking a huge risk.”

  “You’re right. It was a dumb idea.”

  We both looked up at the falls and then down at the deep pool of water beneath. I heard the mischief in his voice, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  Chapter 15

  “You cannot be a part of this, Jordie,” Alex argued as he closed the door to his room. We had been arguing for the better part of an hour, standing on the porch until the darkness and the bugs drove us inside.

  “I’m already in this whether you like it or not. Besides, it was my idea.” I plunked down on his bed, crossed my legs and folded my arms, ready for whatever came next. I was prepared to argue all night if I had to.

  “It doesn’t matter. These are classified files. Do you understand what that means? If I get caught…”

  “If we get caught.”

  “Fine,” he sniped, “if we get caught, we could both go to federal prison.”

  “Brig would never let that happen. Besides your mom is like the best lawyer around.” I was probably being naïve, but I was not letting Alex shut me out again.

  “That’s not the point…look…” he huffed out a breath, exasperated. I was clearly wearing him down. “If I get caught…”

  “We.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You need to be as far away as possible. The law calls it plausible deniability. If you are questioned, you can honestly say you had nothing to do with it.” Alex sat down at his computer.

  “I would already be lying. I’m staying. Now stop wasting time.” I got up and hovered over his shoulder. The computer screen kicked to life.

  “Man, you are as stubborn and thick headed as a…”

  “As every other Dunn you’ve ever met?” I smiled down at him, reveling in the smidgeon of a grin that crossed his lips.

  “At least sit across the room with your back to me while I’m subverting national security.” He glared at me and pecked away at the keyboard. He stopped, green eyes glancing up at me sternly. “Go. Sit. And be quiet.”

  Instead, I wandered around the room picking things up and putting them down. The ugly green ceramic box he’d made in eighth grade, the old brown insulator we found along the train tracks, now filled with screws, washers and loose change. A hundred memories of our years growing up together—all of them connected to Levi.

  I picked up a picture of Alex and my brother in Little League uniforms. I smiled sadly and set it down. I lifted the picture frame next to it. It was a shot of Alex and his dad on a fishing trip when Alex was about eight or nine. I recognized the Four County Fair tee shirt he wore from that year, thinking back to my first summer on Thompson Lake when we’d first met. He had picked me up off the ground after I’d fallen off my bike—my first excursion without training wheels.

  “Have you heard from him?” I asked, examining the picture, trying to remember a time when I hadn’t seen the hurt and haunted look behind those long lashed green eyes. I’m sure it didn’t help that he had grown to look very much like his father.

  Alex peered over his shoulder. “No. Why don’t you leave my stuff alone and chill?” The annoyance in his voice was understandable. He hadn’t heard from his dad since the day the guy walked out when Alex was twelve. He didn’t like to talk about it, but I knew it still bothered him that his dad lived out there somewhere but didn’t care enough to make a phone call. My stomach turned at the hurt his father’s neglect must have caused Alex over the years. How could a father abandon his only child? Knowing how the absence of my own father left a gaping empty space behind, my heart ached for him.

  “How’s it coming?” I asked, setting the picture down and running a finger along the titles on his bookshelf. There was a row of sci-fi paperbacks, gothic novels, and manga, along with a tall stack of collectible old Marvel comics Brig would have killed to get his hands on.

  “This is going to take some time. Why don’t you run down to the kitchen and fix us some sandwiches or something?” We’d made it past his mother who was steamed about him disappearing with the car, but looked immensely relieved when we came in. Until Alex announced we were going to his room, at which her mouth dropped open and nothing came out. I didn’t really want to face her again, and I resented being sent to the kitchen.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I said stubbornly. “I’ll be quiet, I promise.” A small black box on the shelf caught my eye. I couldn’t resist opening it and taking a peek inside. A Purple Heart medallion rested on a bed of deep blue velvet, meager acknowledgement for all that Alex had sacrificed. I snapped the box shut as Alex peered over his shoulder at me and frowned. I smiled awkwardly, but kept my mouth shut. I proceeded to pace and fidget for another twenty minutes before cracking. “Tell me what you’re doing.” I leaned over his shoulder, our heads side by side looking at the screen.

  He let out a deflated sigh, his fingers dancing over the keyboard. “You are such a pain.”

  “I consider that my best quality, thank you.” We glanced at each other, smiling, a moment passing between us, warm and comfortable like fuzzy slippers and hot chocolate.

  “I’ve made it through the firewall. I had to rerout my connection through several bogus servers so they won’t be able to identify my IP address. But I won’t have long once I’m in. It’ll take me a couple of minutes to run my decryption software, but I should be able to download the file to the flash drive before they catch on.” The screen blinked, new pages popping up one after another as he tapped the keys furiously.

  “May I ask where you got hold of decryption software?”

  “I could tell you, but then I’d have to…well, you know.” His lips curved into a small smile.

  “Seriously, Coop? I think we’re past the ‘I’d have to kill you’ stage. I already know way too much. Spill.”

/>   “I helped write it,” he said absently. “As long as the government hasn’t changed it in the last six months…hey, I’m in!”

  I leaned over to read the pages that zipped past, lists of files flashing and winking, all marked CLASSIFIED.

  “I’ve got it. I found the file. Be quiet and let me concentrate.” Taptaptaptaptap. The whir of files downloading and then Alex hammering away again until the screen went blank and he pushed away from the desk in triumph. “The boys at Langley will be scratching their heads after that ride.” His grin widened as he pulled the flash drive and stuck it in his pocket.

  “What! You’re not going to let me see it?” I popped up straight, arms crossed and ready to pester him until I got my way.

  He stood and faced me, a good four inches taller than my 5’10” and looking down at me with a smirk and a stubborn set to his bruised jaw. The green in his eyes sparkled and I felt myself caving already. As soon as he put his hands on my shoulders I knew I was doomed. “I need you to go home and give me a day. Just a day,” he added before I could cut him off with an argument. “I need to do this alone. Let me look over the file and see if it clears up any questions. I promise I’ll call you tomorrow and tell you what I find.”

  The unexpected power of his proximity and strength of his hands on my arms made me weak-kneed and unable to stand my ground. And if I wasn’t dissuaded already, I all but swooned when he leaned in and laid a gentle kiss on my forehead. He was fighting dirty and I didn’t care. I soaked in the sensation of his soft lips and the tingle that shimmied all the way to my toes. When he looked down into my eyes, the expression on his face rendered me speechless. All those sharp angles disappeared in a softness that reminded me of warm summer days when he was just a boy, of climbing trees, swimming in the lake and racing to the dock. I could swim in those eyes and never come up for air.