Point of Departure Page 16
Remington leaned back and crossed his legs nonchalantly. “I like them.”
The pilots snickered, and two of the board members smiled. Ty glared at the tribunal and then at the pilots. Instantly, two of the three members on the board stopped smiling, their faces falling somber again. It was a telling reaction and his heart sank.
“Can you be more specific?”
With an expansive shrug, Remington said, “I’m a man, and a woman’s a woman. I’m strong and powerful—women are beautiful and sexy.”
“What do you mean by powerful?”
“I’m stronger.”
“Stronger in a physical sense or in being able to dominate them?”
“Both.”
“You believe men should dominate women?”
“They have since caveman days. What’s so different now?”
Ty glanced up to see Callie’s expression, which was one of utter fury. He saw the board’s reaction, too: one of silent agreement with Remington’s views.
“How do you see yourself as a man?”
“I’m a fighter pilot. A Top Gun. I’m the best there is.”
“And before you were married, how did you see yourself in relation to the women you liked?”
Remington smiled a little, a gloating smile. “Listen, it was open season. I was the hunter, they were the quarry. They’re to be enjoyed. If I set my gun sites on one, I chased her until I caught her. She was mine, and she knew it. I scored on her.”
“How did you do this?”
Remington laughed. “Now, Commander, I wouldn’t want to give away any of my trade secrets to you.”
The polite laughter that followed made Ty’s blood boil. Remington was enjoying this line of questioning, not realizing how it made him out to be a harasser. “Humor me,” Ty said, “and try.”
“Fine. I never had fewer than ten women at any time who wanted me. They liked sex and so did I. There are a lot of pilots who are jealous of my ability to pick up the groupies at the bar, but I do something they don’t.”
“And that is?”
“Most of the pilots can’t even get a woman to talk to them. I just march right up and show them how it’s done.”
“How is it ‘done?’”
“I throw my arm around her, bring her up against me, smile a big smile that tells her I want her body and I ask her for a date. A real man doesn’t mess around. He gets straight to the point, if you know what I mean.” Remington smiled hugely at his fellow pilots, who were all grinning like a cheerleading section.
“So, you hustle a woman?”
“Call it what you want. I know how to move into their territory and stake my claim on ’em.”
“What if the woman doesn’t want your kind of attention?”
“No woman can resist my tactics.”
“But if she did?”
Remington scowled. “I told you—I always score.”
“You ever get physical with your ladies?”
“My women enjoy having sex with me, and if it gets a little rough, they like it that way. They like being tamed. It’s part of the old psychology of ‘me caveman, you woman,’ you know?”
“I see.” Ty brought out several documents and walked over to the board, placing them before the officers to view. “I’d like to submit for the record a document that I got from the legal department. Six months ago, Commander Remington was charged with assault on a civilian woman called Cindy Laker.” Ty looked grimly at Remington, whose mouth had dropped opened, and then up at the board members, who were studying the copies. “Cindy Laker was eighteen years old and had come to the O Club with a friend who was twenty. What the board should know—”
“Objection!” Lewis said. “This hearing is about the incident that took place last week, not six months ago.”
“On the contrary,” Ty growled, “this document should be considered as evidence because it shows a past history of Commander Remington physically assaulting another woman in the same setting and circumstances.”
Remington sat stiffly, suddenly alert, his eyes flashing with rage. “That chick deserved it! She was a tease! She flaunted herself at me and when I gave her the attention she wanted, she went whining and crying to the shore patrol.”
Ty smiled a little as the board continued to read the charges. “The attention you gave her was similar to the attention you just gave Lieutenant Donovan, Commander.”
Callie sat there, stunned. She hadn’t realized Ty had carried out such a thorough investigation on her behalf. Tears flooded into her eyes as she began to understand how much Ty did care for her. She remained very still, absorbing the truth of him fully—for the first time totally separating him from her past negative experiences with pilots. In that moment, she saw him in an entirely different light. A kinder one, filled with promise and, for the first time in her life, a burning hope.
“That little bitch asked for it!” Remington thundered angrily, and he shook his index finger at Ty. “She wore this tight little leather miniskirt and see-through blouse. What was I to do? To think?”
“Again,” Ty said in a stern voice, “a harasser sees an invitation no matter what a woman is wearing. In this country, a woman has the right to wear whatever she wants, and a man shouldn’t automatically think she’s a piece of meat up on the selling block, a sexual object to be ‘owned’ by some male.” He moved quickly from the dais to stand behind Remington, who’d been glaring at him. “I want to tell the board what Dr. Johnson has found about sexual harassers and their psychological profiles. One type, known as the ‘Gunfighter’ personality, feels he’s the ultimate macho man. He views women as a challenge to be met, overcome and conquered—whether she wants him or not. Further, this psychological profile thinks women are to be enjoyed and cannot see them as human beings, only as objects to be possessed by him. He’s into power and control over a woman. He can talk about them only in sexual terminology because that’s the only way he perceives them. He describes himself as ‘a stud’ or manly, and he is aggressive in his pursuit of his target.”
Ty turned and nailed Remington directly as he went on, his voice rolling through the room. “A woman is seen as a score—nothing more. She isn’t seen as a human being who has a heart, who has feelings, because this type of man invalidates her human qualities with his own projections of himself. He chases for the fever of the hunt. Once he ‘catches’ his quarry, he takes what he wants from her and walks away. That is the psychological profile on this kind of harasser. And I believe you can see by Commander Remington’s own words—his view of himself and how he perceives women—that he fits this profile.”
Ty stood there savoring the small victory for Callie. He knew that at Lewis’s objections, the board would throw out the document proving Remington had been charged with the assault of Cindy Laker. The charges had later been dropped because Cindy hadn’t wanted to be put on the stand and grilled—just as Callie was now being grilled. Still, it allowed Ty to plant the seeds in the board’s mind, and to give him the opportunity to use Dr. Johnson’s considerable weight as an expert in the field to make them look differently at Remington—even if the four pilots continued to lie about the incident to protect themselves and their careers.
As he waited, he glanced in Callie’s direction. He saw such hope in her face that his heart raced momentarily. There were tears in her blue eyes, too, but not out of sorrow. Ty literally felt her admiration for him, felt the feelings she’d been hiding from him and it left him reeling with discovery. For a brief moment, he smiled at her—a smile that said so much—man to woman, not counsel to client.
To Ty’s disappointment, if not his surprise, the board did not accept the document into evidence. He saw Remington smile hugely, as if he’d won the round. Moving toward the pilot, Ty changed his line of questioning.
“Commander, are you married?”
“You know I am.”
“How long have you been married?”
“Two years.”
“First marriage?”
“No, my third.”
“I see.”
“Yours didn’t stay together, either,” Remington shot back.
Ty held on to his anger. “My marriage is not up for discussion at this hearing, Commander.”
“Well, neither is mine.”
“You’re wrong,” Ty breathed softly. “Tell me what your third wife is like, Commander.”
Relaxing, Remington grinned. “She’s a nice little woman. She stays home, fixes my meals and makes sure my needs are met.”
“Does you present wife hold an outside job?”
“Hell, no!”
“Why not?”
“I won’t let her, that’s why. I damn well make enough money that she doesn’t have to go galavanting off and be like all the rest of these women.”
“What do you mean by that comment, Commander?”
Remington snorted. “There isn’t a man alive who likes feminists. They’re a bunch of dykes wanting to control us men, that’s all.”
“I believe,” Ty said mildly, “that when Lieutenant Donovan pushed you away and told you she didn’t want your advances, you called her a lesbian.”
Flashing a look of hatred, Remington snarled, “Most of the women in the military are lesbian.”
“Perhaps just the ones that say no to your advances?”
“Look,” Remington growled, “these women think they can replace us men in the navy. Well, they’re wrong! They aren’t strong enough physically, and they ain’t got the brains it takes. I don’t have a problem with enlisted women, they’re the same as the enlisted men, but I don’t like women officers who think they’re as good as I am, because they aren’t.”
“Commander, I’m sure you’re aware that the navy doesn’t tolerate homosexuals. So, are you charging Lieutenant Donovan?” Ty smiled to himself, knowing he’d caught Remington.
“Of course not!”
“But you accused her of being a dyke and a lesbian.”
“I did not!”
“Then Lieutenant Donovan is lying again, and you’re telling the truth?”
Breathing hard, Remington gripped the arms of the chairs. “Yes!”
Satisfied that the pilot had placed doubt on his testimony, Ty didn’t pursue it. “I have no more questions. You may step down, Commander Remington.”
Lieutenant Neil Thorson came to the stand. Ty sat next to Callie making notes about his testimony—which paralleled Remington’s perfectly. When it was his turn to cross-examine, he glanced at Callie. He could see the tension in her face and the darkness in her eyes. Giving her a slight smile, he rose, legal pad in hand as he made his way to where Thorson sat.
“Lieutenant Thorson, are you married?”
“Yes, I am.”
Ty nodded. The black-haired pilot was lean, his eyes snapping with alertness. “Had you met Lieutenant Donovan before the night of the incident?”
Thorson smiled over at the cadre of pilots before answering. “Let’s put it this way, Commander—Ms. Donovan’s reputation preceded her to the station.”
Frowning, Ty felt uneasy. He saw a glitter in Thorson’s eyes that he didn’t like. Had Lewis or one of the other counsels uncovered something from Callie’s past?
“Would you care to elaborate?” Ty demanded.
“Be glad to. I have a friend, Lieutenant Jerry Ivers—”
Ty heard Callie gasp and snapped his head in her direction. He saw her start to launch herself out of the chair. Holding up his hand in a silent plea for her to sit down and remain quiet, he zeroed in on Thorson. “Go on.”
“Ivers went through Annapolis with her,” Thorson said, savoring every word as if it were dessert, “and he told me about her reputation of being a big-time tease to her fellow plebes.”
“That’s a lie!” Callie cried, coming to her feet. Fists knotted at her side, she said, “A lie!”
Ty winced outwardly at her cry of absolute pain riddled with fury. Instantly, he turned to the board. “I request a thirty-minute recess to confer with my client.”
Commander Newton nodded. “A thirty-minute recess,” he boomed, striking the gavel.
Without a word, Ty turned on his heel, gripped Callie by the elbow and guided her out of the room. There was an office across the passageway and he took her in there. Shutting the door, he stood near it and watched her contorted features.
“What’s going on?” he demanded. “Who’s Ivers?”
Callie’s hands were shaking as she brought them to her face. She tried to stop the scream that was unwinding deep in her gut, and she couldn’t stop breathing in ragged gasps. Hearing Ty’s voice, she was unable to respond. Tears flooded into her eyes.
Concerned, Ty moved to her side and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. She was trembling. “Callie? Please…what’s going on? Talk to me.”
Just the caress of his hands on her shoulders gave her the courage to lift her head and meet his stormy eyes. Tears coursed down her cheeks and she opened her mouth to speak, but only a croak came out.
“It’s okay,” he soothed thickly, and briefly touched her hair. Ty wanted so badly to continue to touch her, to help her, but they didn’t have that kind of time. “Take it from the beginning,” he told her. “What happened at Annapolis, Callie? Every time I’ve mentioned that word, I’ve seen you blanch.”
Shutting her eyes and choking back a sob, she whispered brokenly, “Ivers hated me. He hated any woman who dared to think she could make it through the academy. He was an upperclassman, two years ahead of me. Wh-when I was a plebe in my first year, he and his gang started harassing me in every way possible.” The pain rose as she relived the memories. Opening her eyes, she saw the blurred outline of Ty’s grim features through her tears. His hands closed more firmly around her shoulders and she placed hers against his chest. The hardness in his face melted and she saw only worry and care there instead. It gave her the impetus to go on, no matter how humiliating, how shamed she felt.
“I—I tried to avoid Ivers and his gang of six friends, but it was impossible. Maggie was in her last year there, and Alanna was a year behind her. They couldn’t help me—they didn’t dare. There was such awful harassment toward us, Ty. The men hated us being there, and they showed it in so many ways. I felt cut off, helpless. Alanna and Maggie had warned me it would be tough, but I had no idea how bad it was going to be.”
Ty nodded. He knew the first-year plebe at Annapolis took a horrendous amount of badgering from upperclassmen. He’d gone through that hellish first year himself, but he’d been a male, so he knew it hadn’t been as hard as it had been on Callie and her sisters. “Okay, so far, so good. Ivers had it in for you.”
“Y-yes. Oh, God, this is so hard to tell, Ty. I—I’ve never told anyone about it. Not even my sisters. Or,” she added with a sob, “my folks—my mother….”
His gut twisting in pain for her, Ty gripped her by the shoulders. “You can tell me, Callie. I promise you, it’s safe with me. If you don’t, Lewis and those other counsels are going to use it against you in some way to sway the board’s view of you. Come on, tell me the rest of it.”
Taking a ragged breath, Callie stared up at him. The burning intensity of his eyes sent a ray of stability through her—enough, at least, to confide the rest of the incident. Her fingers dug briefly into the white cotton of his shirt and she felt the strength of his chest beneath it. Ty was so strong, so self-assured, when she felt none of those things. “One night at 0300, after I got off guard duty, I went back to my room at the dorm. My roommate had guard duty that shift and I was alone. Ivers and his gang burst through the door.” Swallowing hard, Callie whispered, “None of the doors are ever locked, and they were supposed to knock and announce themselves, but they didn’t.” She bowed her head, ashamed. “They shut the door behind them, and they began to call me horrible names and push me around. They hated me because I was a woman on their male territory. That’s what it boiled down to. They were intimidating me in every way to get me to quit the academy.
“My, God,” Ty breathed, touching her cheeks with his hands, “did you report them? Did you tell your sisters?”
Choking on a sob, Callie said, “Report them? Seven of them against me? Who would the authorities believe? I was afraid to tell my sisters, because I knew both of them would move heaven and hell to get even with Ivers and his gang. If they did that, they’d both be kicked out, and I knew how much graduating and becoming navy officers meant to them. So I never told them. I sat on the floor, my back to the door, crying and shaking.”
Cold-blooded anger moved through Ty. Without a word, he opened his arms and pulled Callie against him. He held her tightly, his head resting against her own as she began to weep in earnest. No safe place. There had never been a safe place for her. All thought of the board hearing melted away, and Ty focused on Callie’s strength, her warmth. She had stood fast against such brutal treatment! Unconsciously, he rubbed her back with his hand and tried to soothe away some of her pain. Pressing against her hair small kisses meant to help, he inhaled her special feminine scent.
“It’s going to be okay,” he heard himself rasp. Would it be? No. Gently, he eased Callie away just enough to take his handkerchief and blot the tears from her face. She took the proffered cloth with a broken smile and dabbed her reddened eyes.