Read Online Things Lost In The Fire by Katie Jennings - Free Book Online Page A

Other celebrities would be weighing in on Twitter, both in favor and against. It was very possible he’d initiated one of the sauciest scandals of the year.
    Oh, how proud his father must be.
    At that very moment the old man was likely getting a dinner-interrupting phone call from Hugh-the-adulterer-Lovett, demanding a solution. There was none, though. The damage was done and Lovett could kiss his reputation goodbye.
    Funny how easy it all was. Those who live in the public eye are often ruined by the very press that made them stars. They’re only human, after all. They make mistakes—they cheat or get drunk or start bar fights. And all of it can break them if caught in the flash of a camera.
    It was a vicious circle he knew all too well. Though his mistake had been more than just a poorly timed adulterous kiss. He’d gotten men killed. And not just men, but warriors. Honorable, well-intentioned patriots.
    His heart panged at the memory, souring his mood. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back, losing himself in the past.
    It’d been a Tuesday. Not really a day he’d ever thought his life would change. The temperature neared one hundred degrees in the Helmand river valley of Afghanistan. He distinctly remembered wondering how the soldiers could stand wearing so much clothing. He’d taken to wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a bullet proof vest, and even then sweat cloaked his entire body.
    He’d been sent to photograph the realities of life in Afghanistan in the midst of the war against the Taliban. The mortar shells buried in the sides of buildings, the poor state of the civilians, the courageous efforts of the American soldiers.
    It wasn’t the first time he’d been sent to a hostile location by his then employer. As a photojournalist, he’d been all over the world. But there was something particularly dangerous about this assignment. Not that he’d realized it at the time. He had a tendency to skim over the fine print and throw himself into the fray with no regard for his safety. It was what made him such a successful photographer. He captured images most others wouldn’t dare attempt.
    But in this case, he should have prepared himself.
    The day was spent following a group of Marines patrolling the dusty streets of Sangin. After a few days in the town, he’d started to get loose about the whole idea of danger. So far he hadn’t seen much worth taking a picture of. In fact, in all honesty he was getting downright bored.
    Perhaps it was boredom that had him hunting for danger. Something, anything, to drum up a little action and make the trip worthwhile. Unfortunately, he was about to get exactly that.
    While the Marines stopped briefly in the middle of a busy marketplace, Brody hung around on the sidelines, camera hanging from a strap around his neck. He peered through his aviator shades at everyone who passed by, looking for trouble. When he saw a suspicious looking man with a bulky pato shawl wrapped over his body in the middle of summer, his heart began to race.
    First he took a series of photographs of the man, who was walking discreetly in the direction of the platoon and the Humvee they rode in on. Then when he realized the guy might actually mean business—suicide bombers were commonplace in the area—he shouted the word “bomb” to the soldiers and pointed.
    Maybe it was careless. Hell, it had been damn careless. But at the time all he’d been able to think about was protecting the guys he’d come to know as friends. When they turned on the man and pointed their rifles at him, the man dropped to his knees, his shawl falling open to reveal nothing but fruit he’d just stolen from the market. Brody then spotted two men surface from the crowd with AK-47s, and realized his mistake.
    They fired on the soldiers and chaos exploded in the marketplace. Women and children ran screaming as gunfire rang out into the thick afternoon air. Brody dove behind a nearby cart and cowered, mortified at what he’d