Betrayal (36 page)

“Alex, please….”

“Cass, no please. I said no secrets. I have to tell you…”

Cassidy shook her head and put her hands on Alex’s chest. “No. I need you to listen to me, please?” Alex licked her lips and nodded as the knot in her stomach and the ache in her heart began to outweigh the soreness in her body. Cassidy turned away to gather herself. “When I got that message and I was waiting,” she paused and took a deep breath. “Jane came and we were in the car, she took my hand…”

“Cassi….”

“Alex, please, let me get this out. I didn’t know….what I would find. Where you were,” she stopped and stilled herself.
“I sat with Jane. I thought about Dylan, and you and me; everything my life has become.” Cassidy exhaled and nodded, taking a pause to calm herself. “I love you, in a way that I don’t even understand some days, Alex. I didn’t think it was possible to love someone like this….to…”

Alex reached out again and touched Cassidy’s shoulder. “Cass,” she whispered.

Cassidy finally turned to face the agent. “I can’t lose you, Alex.” Alex searched the eyes before her. “I can’t do this anymore,” Cassidy said softly. Alex let out a heavy sigh and nodded, closing her eyes. She suddenly felt the warmth of Cassidy’s palm on her cheek. “You are my family, Alex, you and Dylan. I have to tell him.” Alex opened her eyes in confusion and looked at her lover. “I’m not sure how we tell Dylan, he’s seven.” Cassidy trembled as she continued, but the resolve in her voice was clear. “I don’t know what Chris will do, Alex. Dylan…Dylan is not his. I looked at Dylan tonight. I could see John. I could see
you
. I could see my mother, but Chris?” Cassidy shook her head. “He may have been a part of Dylan’s life, even though Dylan thinks Chris is his father….Somehow, he just never made it to Dylan’s heart.”

Alex sighed in relief and kissed Cassidy’s forehead. “Are you sure?” she asked. Cassidy nodded.

“Alex, I’m not going to lie to you. Sometimes I hate what you do, the danger. It scares me. Only because I don’t want to lose you.” Alex understood. “But, I made my choice to be with you. All the things we’ve said to one another, this family…We can’t move forward with that secret. It’s not fair, not to you, not to Dylan, not to Jane or me.” She chuckled sarcastically, “not even to Chris.” Her voice dropped and Alex heard the unusual contempt in it, “and I don’t want him in our family.” Cassidy looked up at Alex and smiled softly. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Cassidy. More than you know.” She paused and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“What is it?” Cassidy asked.

“I’m glad you want to tell him. There’s something I have to tell you.”

“Alex?”

“Cass, you are not going to like this. Let’s go back to bed, okay?”

“Alex, you are scaring me.”

“No more fear, Cassidy, just the truth. I promised no secrets. I meant it. Please?” Cassidy nodded. “No matter what, you need to know that nothing is more important to me than you and Dylan. Nothing.”

“I have a feeling I might need some of that anxiety medication,” Cassidy offered with a deep breath as she followed the agent back to their room.

“What are you telling me?” Jane Merrow asked pointedly. Jon Krause sighed deeply and looked to her with heavy eyes. “Are you telling me that Congressman O’Brien shot Alex? Is that what you are telling me, Jon?” The fury in her voice seemed to increase with every syllable. “Just what the hell is going on here? What does this have to do with John?”

“Jane,” he began carefully as he slowly bridged the distance between them. “I did what I could where John was concerned. This isn’t about John. It’s Claire and it’s O’Brien.”

The former first lady closed her eyes tightly and grabbed onto the agent’s arms. “I know you did what you could.”

He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. “I have to see Toles.”

She pulled away abruptly and questioned him fearfully, “Jon…I don’t…”

“I have to. I need you to work with Matt…”

“Jon….”

“Listen to me,” he said softly as he pulled her closer again. “Claire killed Elliot.”

“What?” her voice echoed her disbelief.

“This is spiraling, all of it. I need Toles. Ian and I….”

Jane shook her head and turned, covering her eyes in frustration. “Jon, what the hell was he into? This isn’t simply…”

“Jane, John was trying, trying to change things…I don’t know…that is not what my role is. You know that. I know enough, enough to…”

Jane Merrow looked up into her friend’s eyes. “You’re afraid for them, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I am.”

She nodded and covered her eyes again. “O’Brien…he’s not part of the…”

“He is self-serving, Janie…if I could…” She looked at him conveying her concern. “I won’t, but I’d like to,” he told her.

“You need to be careful,” she warned him.

“This is who I am.”

“You should tell her, Jon.”

“Tell who, what?” Krause asked.

“Tell Cassidy about O’Brien.”

He chuckled. “No….Toles will tell her.”

“Alex knows?”

“I’m sure your good agent has put the pieces together by now about O’Brien. I need her. She and Matthews are tight. She can get closer…”

“I can’t lose you, not any of you…not after…”

Krause heard the panic in Jane’s voice. “Call Matt. Tell him I am in.”

“You know once you cross this line…”

“I’m already over it, Jane. Mitchell and I are in. I will find out what John was doing, why the Russians were so…where SPHINX leads.”

“Just promise me, Jon…no matter what, I promised him….”

“Jane, I will do whatever I have to. I won’t let anything happen to Dylan or Cassidy,” he said emphatically. “I’ll do whatever I can to protect Agent Toles, but I can’t keep her out of
this. That is not who she is. You know that too. This is what we do, Jane. It’s what we were built for. Brackett and O’Brien have to be controlled and there are…well, I have to see her. She’ll have questions.”

He turned to leave and Jane grabbed his arm. “If you did,” Krause stopped, searching her eyes for her meaning. “I mean… if the congressman were to….well, I would not shed any tears.” He nodded. “If you are going to see Alex, I am going with you.”

“Jane, you risk compromising…”

“Jon, they both deserve to know what we are headed into.”

“Cassidy is not in….”

Jane took his strong face in her hands with a deep understanding. She leaned into him and spoke softly, “we don’t choose who to love, Jon. We both know that. But, who we love….This effects them both. Dylan…and Alex is her…”

He closed his eyes and leaned into the gentleness of her touch. “I know.”

She pulled back and looked at him as her tears glistened. “You are good man, Jonathan.”

“I wish that were true.”

“It is,” she said quietly as she turned to leave.

“Brady?”

“Sir,” Steven Brady answered.

“Where the hell have you been?” Taylor blared through the phone.

“I was detained.”

“By what?”

“Not by what, by whom.” Taylor rubbed his hand across his forehead and prepared himself for the coming conversation as Brady continued. “Toles, how is…”

“Agent Toles is already home, Brady. Seems she has some very unlikely friends.”

“Seems we all do, Sir.”

“Explain,” Taylor said pointedly.

“I will when I get back. What I do know…well,” he paused. “O’Brien shot…”

“I’m aware,” the director said. “He and Brackett arrived back in D.C. late this evening.”

“Does Alex know?”

“I haven’t spoken to her yet. How did you get…”

“Seems the Brackett clan has made more enemies than friends,” Brady explained.

“And this new ally you’ve found?”

Brady took a deep breath. He anticipated Taylor’s skepticism. He still had a fair degree of his own. “He has his reasons.”

“I see.”

“Sir, I need Toles.”

“She has been ordered home for two weeks,” Taylor responded.

“I don’t need her in the field. I need her eyes.”

Taylor sighed. “For?”

“Russia, ASA, Nigeria, U.S. Congressional Campaigns. Even my source isn’t completely sure how they all…”

Michael Taylor understood. “I have some ideas. I’ll see you in New York Wednesday morning. Just get home Agent Brady, with everything you have. I’ll be certain Agent Toles gets the pieces.”

Tuesday, April 29th

“What in the hell were you thinking, Claire?”

“Oh please….”

Admiral William Brackett’s cool exterior had long since vanished. “You…you stepped so far over the line…”

The tall redhead smirked. “Oh, now Daddy, watch your heart.” She leisurely took a seat on the sofa in his private office and reclined. “We were never there.”

“You know as well as I do that everyone who matters knows exactly…”

She shrugged. “What is it that bothers you, Daddy? Are you that afraid of Agent Toles? Or is it Jon?” His face tightened further and began to flush. “Or is it Edmond? No? Maybe it’s the idea that
you
are not in control anymore.” He shook his head. “You set me up, tried to back me into a corner. You taught me better than that.” She paused again and gloated. “Never corner a cobra,” she offered smugly.

The admiral shook his head. “Claire, you are more naïve than you are brash. A cobra?” She tipped her head and smiled with satisfaction. “A sparrow is more dangerous than a cobra, Claire.” She looked at him quizzically. “Not as smart as I thought you were. I spent a fair amount of time in Southeast Asia… if you recall. Cobras, they are not the dangerous animal you portray. They are large and easily visible. And, unless provoked they do very little harm. Corner them, they hiss. They are solitary animals; unlikely to get close enough to do any harm to anyone. Even when cornered they prefer escape.” The admiral looked at his daughter as her expression gradually became uneasy. “Sparrows, sparrows are small and unassuming. They are social animals. They can easily get close. They don’t need venom. They are charming and appear innocent. They can win over a human heart. They can listen silently or sing their tune.”

He moved toward a bookcase in his office and turned to her. “A sparrow or a snake, Claire?” She stared at him blankly. “I see. So then,
you
are the cobra.” He chuckled. “The Russians? Dimitri? That’s where you went?” She continued to stare at the older man as he reached for a tattered book on the shelf. “I used to read this to you when you were small. You may not remember.” His hand affectionately caressed the binding and he smiled at the cover. “Rudyard Kipling. I think you should revisit it.” He handed her the worn copy of
The Jungle Book
. “Dimitri, Claire; do you know his handle?” She looked at the
book in her hands and back to her father. “Mongoose.” He smiled at his daughter and pointed to the book in her hands. “Rikki Tikki Tavi, it’s in there.” He shook his head. “Read it.”