Intersection (4 page)

“Hey,” Cassidy greeted the agent’s return. “Have a seat.” Alex smiled. “Help yourself… Crazy I know, but we don’t stand on any ceremony here.”

“Works for me,” the agent said.

The dinner conversation was surprisingly easy for Alex. Dylan had a bunch of stories about field day and the agent found him amusing. She watched him and listened intently, laughing as he acted out the day physically with his tacos. “Did you ever run a race?” He asked the agent.

Alex took a sip of her iced tea and answered. “I have, actually. I was on the track team at West Point. I ran hurdles.”

“What are those?” He asked.

“Those are things you have to jump over while you run,” Cassidy explained and looked at the agent. Alex had the most stunning blue eyes she had ever seen. She found herself drawn to them somehow. The agent held the woman’s gaze for a minute and felt her heart begin to quicken as they exchanged a smile.

“West Point?” Rose said. “Wow, not a lot of women still.”

“No,” Alex conceded breaking the exchanged glance with Cassidy and turning toward the woman’s mother.

“Did you ever win a ribbon?” Dylan asked now.

“A few,” Alex said modestly. “But none as nice as that one,” she gestured to the ribbon now attached to the large refrigerator. The boy beamed with pride and his eyes flew open wide at her compliment. Cassidy was surprised when she felt her heart skip at the agent’s interaction with her son.

“Well,” Rose said, beginning to collect the empty plates, “I am going to get going after I clean this up so you can all get settled.”

“Let me give you a hand,” Alex offered.

“No, no…You go get your things. Sun is setting…next time.” Alex nodded her appreciation.

“Do you need some help?” Cassidy asked the agent.

“No, I’ve got it.”

“Well, Dylan…Why don’t you and I get you washed up?”

The boy moaned and Alex smiled. “I’m going to do the same thing,” the agent winked.

He pondered her statement. “Will you teach me to jump over hoidles?”

“Hurdles,” Cassidy corrected with a slight snicker at his mispronunciation.

“We’ll see,” the agent said pretending to think carefully about the request.

“Okay,” he said running for the stairs.

The two women reached the foyer as Dylan half ran, half crawled up the stairs. “If you need anything,” Cassidy offered.

“Thanks,” Alex said turning to head out the door to retrieve her luggage. “I promise I will do my best not to interrupt your life too much.”

Cassidy stopped on the bottom stair and looked at Alex. “Well, if any of those many talents you mentioned include fixing clogged sinks from action figures or clogged vacuums from Play-doh…it will be a welcome interruption,” she jested.

“Mmmm. Agent Fix-it at your service,” Alex joked.

Cassidy sighed with a smile as Dylan screamed for her, “MOM!”

“Duty calls,” Cassidy said. “Hold your horses…I am coming.”

“Yes it does,” Alex said to herself. “Yes it does.”

The door to the apartment opened slowly and the man threw the newspaper on a small card table at the center of his living space. He silently walked to a large roll top desk and picked up a pair of scissors. Then he made his way to the kitchen and poured himself a small glass of whiskey, straight up. Walking back to the table he spun the scissors around his finger while he sipped his drink. The folding chair at the table had bent legs, but he seemed unconcerned about its ability to support his weight. He set the whiskey down and spun the scissors one final time. Unexpectedly, the blade slipped and poked his palm. A small trickle of blood fell onto the paper. He frantically grabbed a napkin and wiped the blood from his hand while swiftly turning to find the photo that commanded his interest. There was a tiny, barely visible drop of blood on its corner. His face grew flushed and he pulled at the very short hairs on his head as though his world were ending. He took a deep breath, licked the napkin and dabbed the spot on the picture.

The spot became slightly darker, but in his mind it seemed to erase the evidence of any transgression. He traced the outline of the face in the picture with his finger and his breath quickened. He picked the scissors back up scolding them with his eyes. Deliberately, he looked back at the face on the paper and inhaled, closing his eyes to calm himself. His hands shook but he remained determined to cut the picture out with perfect symmetry. He slowed his pace and methodically removed the photo from the page before walking to the large wall across
from him. He stood and studied his work, found the perfect place and put a small tack in either corner to secure it.

Alex paced across the living room and looked at the photos displayed on the tables and mantle in frames. There were photos everywhere. Most were photos of Dylan; Dylan with Cassidy, Dylan with Rose, Dylan with the congressman, Dylan. Alex stopped and looked at one that sat on the mantle. It was Cassidy. She was younger in the photo, Alex thought perhaps 18 or 19. She was smiling and holding a Stanford banner. Cassidy reached the large doorway to the room and stopped, taking a moment to watch the agent as she studied her new surroundings. “Yeah… hard to believe I was ever THAT young,” she acknowledged.

Alex turned and looked at the woman as Cassidy made her way into the room and plopped onto the couch. “Stanford?” The agent questioned.

“I guess I figured you would already know that,” Cassidy said.

Alex shrugged, “I did…I just wondered.”

“How a Stanford grad ends up teaching school in Harlem to at risk teenagers?” She laughed. “Well,” she said kicking the shoes off her feet and heaving them onto the coffee table. “I always hoped to write a novel, but I also wanted to teach. When we moved here…well…”

Alex sat down on a chair. “What did the congressman think?”

“Of me teaching or of me teaching in Harlem?”

“Either.”

Cassidy laughed. “We may need wine for this conversation.” Alex smirked. “Ohhh… well, as long as it worked for his image, I guess. He’s always worried about how people perceive him… you know, his ‘image’.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex said unsure of what else to say.

Cassidy chuckled. “Don’t be. It goes with the territory and that is just Chris. He’s like that guy who admires anyone who can do anything better than everyone else. Like, for example, he loves that movie
The Italian Job
– you know the prefect heist? That’s just the way he’s always been. Bigger is better and if you give him a lot of attention along the way, well, that’s heaven.”

Alex knew the type well. Her career had been littered with men who craved more attention, more power, more everything. “So, anyone come to mind at all?” Alex asked. “You know, that might be out of place?”

“You really think this might be something, don’t you?” Cassidy asked looking at the agent for some reassurance.

“I’ve learned to be careful, Cassidy. Some people might accuse me of being too careful.”

“Well, I just can’t understand why anyone would want to hurt Chris…or us.”

Alex looked at the woman and shrugged slightly. “Unfortunately, there are some people in this world that just… well they can be dangerous. You are all in the public eye. That increases your risk.”

“Yeah…great,” Cassidy chimed.

“You didn’t want a public life?” The agent inquired.

Cassidy rubbed her face and then answered. “Well, it’s not that so much, but I don’t want to change who I am for that life.” Alex looked at the woman intently as she continued. “You know, I just am not good at pretending to… Saying one thing and thinking another… or…if you ask Chris, saying nothing at all. Be ‘seen not heard’. I don’t want Dylan growing up with that model of his mother.”

“Sounds like the military a bit,” Alex said in jest.

“Maybe,” Cassidy confessed. “What about you? West Point, runner, Iraq…FBI? No one special in your life?” Cassidy choked slightly at her need to ask the last question. She was curious about this woman, and it was certainly personal.

“No…not really.”

“Never?” Cassidy asked curiously.

Alex shrugged, “I lead kind of a fast paced life… always have.”

“So,” Cassidy asked now, “did you like the military?”

“I liked the challenge. Just like the FBI….And I liked the travel.”

“Nomad, huh?”

Alex laughed at the analogy. “A bit, I suppose.”

“So then this must be culture shock,” Cassidy looked around the room.

“Well, let’s just say it’s a lot bigger than what I am used to.”

Cassidy shook her head with obvious agreement. “It’s too big for two people… it’s too big for 5 people, who am I kidding?”

“It’s nice,” Alex complimented.

“It’s ginormous,” Cassidy conceded with a giggle. “Seriously, it’s ridiculous. I work with kids who are lucky if they have a bed to sleep in some nights. I come home to THIS. Not me.”

“Do you think you’ll stay here…I mean for a long time, then?”

“It works for right now,” Cassidy said. “Another argument for us. Chris wants Dylan to have
everything
. I guess we have different ideas about what that word means.” Alex watched as the woman pulled herself off the couch and gathered her shoes. She was amazed by Cassidy. She expected a privileged snob. Cassidy was the opposite. It was refreshing to Alex. “I’m going to turn in,” Cassidy smiled. “5:30 am comes quickly. You help yourself to whatever you need,” she offered as she started out of the room.

“Cassidy?”

“Yes?” The woman turned back.

“I will figure out what this is.”

Cassidy squinted and curled her lip into the hint of the smile. “I know you will,” she said.

Alex watched the woman walk away. She looked around the room and took a deep breath. Somehow she would put
these pieces together. It had been years since she had felt so at ease with another person so quickly. And, she was determined that she would protect this family no matter who sought to do them harm. Whatever the reason, Cassidy O’Brien seemed to stir something within the agent. “What is it about you, Cassidy O’Brien?” She asked herself out loud.

assidy stood at the kitchen island sipping a coffee and leafing through the morning paper. The sky was still dark, just beginning to transition from black to indigo as the sun started its journey back to light another day. She heard the door close and looked up, “Mom?”