Chapter Thirteen
Christmas, 8:30 a.m.—Outside Seattle
When Sean and Cassie emerged the next morning, Detective Traynor was waiting in the kitchen. It soon became apparent she had used her evening doing research on both Fergusons since their last meeting. Cassie poured them all large mugs of coffee as Traynor began her questioning.
“So, who are you really? Sean and Cassandra Ferguson, as the names show on the deed to that apartment. Or Robert and Laurie Harris who flew into Seattle from Tennessee yesterday morning and look suspiciously like the both of you? I’ve had very little sleep people, so let’s cut out all the bullshit and start with the truth.” Her face was taut and the eyes were filled with the frost of mistrust.
Sean took the lead. “Sean and Cassie are the right names but the last few weeks have been the wrong time to use them publicly, as was the flight from the East coast. So we borrowed one of our alias ids to put some space between us and those names. Apparently though we have a leak in our organization. Someone knew we were coming into town.”
Traynor nodded. “Tell me about the problems with Greg Devlyn.”
Sean took Cassie’s hand, looking for her approval. With a nod, she looked away as he began to speak. “Cassie is the youngest of her family. Greg is next oldest. All her brothers picked on their sister while they were children, but he is the one who continued the torment into their teen years and beyond. Torment that bordered on abuse more than once. Martin never stepped in, even though he knew about it. In fact, he shut down a police investigation when she was eighteen because he knew Greg was guilty.”
“How did you get involved with the family Mr. Ferguson? How did you meet your wife?”
“I met the eldest son, Kevin Devlyn about eight years ago, through mutual connections in the military. We worked on a project with the Pentagon together. During that project I attended a party in Florida with Kevin and met Cassandra there. We married shortly thereafter and have been together off and on ever since.”
The detective picked up on the terminology. “What do you mean off and on? You mentioned something last night about spending a lot of time apart. That seems a strange way to describe a marriage.”
Surprisingly, it was Cassie who responded. “Both of us have unique careers Detective Traynor. Sean has his work with the government and I am working on the dissertation for my second PhD, this one in global systems. Each has required us to spend a good deal of time apart. It wasn’t by choice, but when you marry a person, you marry their work as well.”
“I had an interesting email from the Atlanta Police today about your crazy brother and some of his dealings. Sounds like a real prince of a guy.” Traynor narrowed her gaze onto Cassie, realizing she was the weaker link in the team. “They have a list of complaints on him several pages long, dating back to his juvenile days.”
Cassie stiffened. “If you mean Greg, then you’re right. He’s a real piece of work.”
“Who else would I mean?”
“My brother Matthew is a high functioning Autistic. You could have been speaking about him.”
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. I didn’t know you had another brother.”
“I’m sure you did Detective Traynor, you have my file open in front of you. But I’m particularly sensitive to how people react to my brother’s uniqueness. You still phrased your question as an insult, especially since you know Kevin and he is nothing like Greg, nothing. Are you always so insulting when questioning the victims?” Cassie was in full defensive mode, and Sean used his hand on the shoulder to settle her down.
“Again, I’m so sorry Mrs. Ferguson. I only know in-depth information about Greg. He’s been arrested several times for assault. Not just against you but other women as well. However, since college he’s shown a distinct pattern—all these victims look like you.” She lay out pictures of five Asian-looking women, all with extreme damage to their faces. “Were you aware of that?” The sharp eyed detective noticed Cassie’s hands were shaking as she fingered the photos.
“No, I didn’t know. Once Greg moved to Seattle our lives have been completely separate.”
Sean stepped in, ever the ready protector. “Is there a reason for upsetting my wife with this strange line of questioning? She’s just been through a kidnapping, a bombing, and reconstructive surgery on her face. Cassie has a dysfunctional family. Big deal, we’ve worked very hard to separate our lives from the rest of the Devlyns. It isn’t our fault her brother decided to flip out. We didn’t even know he was in town. We certainly don’t know how he knew we were home. I’m hoping it was a fluke. But right now I’m more interested in the men who are after my wife.”
“I understand, but Mr. Ferguson, please look at this from my position. I have a burned out yacht, with a dead body and my prime suspect decides to take a shit in your bed while the two of you eat dinner. Something is up with all of you, and I intend to find out what.” Traynor fired back, working hard to get under the cool Irishman’s skin. “It’s obvious there is some history between the siblings, and if it solves my problems and gets Greg Devlyn in my hands, I’ll continue beating on her until I get what I need—the truth.”
“His personal problems are just that Detective, his own problems. Again, the truth is my wife was kidnapped, beaten, and blown up Thanksgiving weekend. We fly out here hoping to find a little peace and quiet and suddenly we’re in the middle of another Devlyn mess. Trust me, we’re just as much a victim in this as anyone.” Sean countered, his position firm.
“Tell me more about your relationship with your brother, please Mrs. Ferguson. Why would Greg break into your apartment?” The detective returned to Cassie, knowing she was emotionally the weak one.
Cassie stared with venom in her eyes at the other woman. “You want to know what kind of relationship we had? When I was six years old, he beat my legs with a willow tree branch so severely I couldn’t walk for a week. Does that tell you what you need to know? The man is a first class psycho. I don’t know why he does anything.” She fell silent, her fingers clenched so tight, the skin over her knuckles was white and lifeless.
Sean interrupted, anger blazing. “That’s enough for right now. I must say I dislike your bully tactics Detective Traynor. Perhaps you might install a sensitivity patch before you speak with us again. The damage Greg has inflicted on Cassie her whole life is horrible, the worst imaginable, and visiting all that pain again isn’t what my wife needs right now.”
Cassie laid her hand on Sean’s arm. “I’m all right. Let her do her job sweetheart.”
“You’re very protective of her, aren’t you Sean?”
He glared at the policewoman. “I’m her husband. That’s my job.”
Traynor shook her head, thinking out loud as she paced around them. “No, it’s more than just a spousal commitment. My husband’s a cop too, and he isn’t nearly as aware of my needs as you are to Cassie’s. It’s like watching two planets revolving around each other.”
Neither one spoke a word, ice flowing from each, their united front shoring up her assessment of the couple. Traynor tried another angle.
“What did you really come to Seattle for, Sean? Were you meeting Greg Devlyn here for any reason?”
He was saved from an answer by the chime of Cassie’s cell phone. It was an unfamiliar number. Sean clicked it on, placing it on speaker as he did. “Hello?”
Pieter Tsichevna answered at once, “Sean, tell your bloodhounds to back off and I’ll tell you who the traitor is within Devlyn Industries.”
“Back off who, Pieter? I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“Oh you know, the tail that’s been on me since Thanksgiving. I’m sorry for that incident by the way, it’s just business. Sending info to Joe was a small gesture of my sincerity.”
“So you said,” Cassie snarled. “But I’ve got a plastic surgery bill I’d like to speak with you about.”
“I will happily pay for your surgery Cassandra, if I’m still alive. So glad both of you are together. I’ll only have to tell this story once.” It was easy to hear the laughter in the Ukrainian’s tone. “And once you hear what I have to say, Cassie, you might change your opinion of me.”
“Why should we listen to anything you have to say? You’re a dead man as far as I’m concerned.” Sean’s head was beginning to throb from the effort of remaining calm. “What could you possibly say to change my mind?”
Tsichevna responded, “I have been doing some politicking behind the scenes, telling Cassie’s side of the story. Now the same people who were chasing Cassie want to make amends. If Martin and Greg can be deposed, they want you, Sean to head the new company with Kevin and Cassie, and they’re willing to pay an extreme amount of money to make it happen. Sean, I need you to meet up with me as soon as possible. Detective Traynor can stay with Cassie to protect her against a double cross, even though I swear on the graves of my family, I am on your side.”
Neither Sean nor Cassie were excited about being apart, but this offer was too important for them to ignore. While Traynor set up transportation and bugging for Sean, they took the moment of solitude to say goodbye.
****
Sean tried to make her smile. “I needed to do some Christmas shopping for you anyway. This way I can keep them secret from you.”
“No fair,” Cassie griped. “When do I get to shop for you?”
“No problem, I’ll just give your credit card to the nice people at the gun store and pick me self up a little surprise from you. I promise I won’t open or look at them until Christmas.”
“Jerk,” she muttered, taking a newspaper off the pile of groceries and flopping onto the sofa. “Bye, have fun out in the real world,” she said, pretending to be seriously pissed.
Sean leaned over and kissed her upside down, causing them both to giggle. “I will,” he promised, heading out. He was to meet with Pieter’s driver at the main road, about five miles away, for a ride to their meeting. One of Detective Traynor’s people was tagging along to keep an eye on Sean.
After he left, Cassie quickly grew bored with watching television. Detective Traynor took random paths around the property, patrolling in case anyone decided to start a surprise attack during the white flag parlay. With nothing else to do, she took some pain meds and settled in for a nap. To fall asleep, she thought back to the first time she hid away in the mountains, and Sean came to find her, only then it was the forests closer around Mt. Rainier.
****
When Cassie’s mother attempted suicide, her grandfather, Tano Nishamora took Martin to court to fight for custody of Cassie. The boys didn’t interest him, they all looked too much like their father. But with her black hair and almond shaped eyes, the girl could be accepted in Japanese society if raised appropriately. Once Cassie became his heir, the Japanese engineer wanted her raised according to their strict family traditions. However, Tano forgot one very important obstacle—Martin Devlyn was in no way inclined to allow his only daughter to be taken away to live permanently in Hokkaido.
Throughout her life, Cassie spent summers in Japan with her mother’s family, learning their heritage and meeting cousins. At twenty-one she’d taken a seat on the board of directors of Nishamora Global, the family business. Nishamora Global developed water purification systems. Many of their customers were the same war lords and despots who used MM Air for nefarious reasons. Much to her grandfather’s dismay, Cassie developed her own style of management and he grew frustrated with her independent thinking. Soon he began using intimidation through his connection to the Yakuza in Hokkaido to pull her into line.
But for all their bickering, Cassie loved the grumpy old man. The stately Japanese businessman and the quiet granddaughter with blue eyes would spend the summers making model rockets, working on chemical formulas and mixtures, talking for hours about the work they could accomplish together. Then Obi Tano, as Cassie called her grandfather, betrayed her again through an attempt to gain control of Cassie and her work. He challenged her patent filing on a drill bit she designed for well drilling, claiming design rights for himself.
However, Cassie knew something Obi Tano did not—she was no weak, sheltered, preppy rich girl like she portrayed when in Japan. That was a mask, a farce she created to adhere to the ideas of femininity in Asia. Since she’d been old enough to walk, life with three older brothers served as training camp, harsh as anything Sean might have endured in the British education system, or even the military. Experience had toughened up the family baby in many ways. She could hunt, she could fight, she could fish, she could track, she could shoot at moving targets without a flinch, and she could disappear off the grid. Even most of her own brothers were in the dark as to the extent of her capabilities.
They certainly hadn’t known about the cabin Ryn Devlyn bought when the family still lived in Seattle, a place to run away from Martin, but Cassie did and use it she had in order to escape Tano’s prying eyes. The designs and patents for her prototype water system were all filed appropriately, and verified in court, and it became time to reappear in Seattle. The research was to be published in five different scientific papers and her grandfather would lose his shot at a monopoly on her work.
For almost five months Cassie had sequestered herself at the small primitive cabin in the wilderness surrounding Mt. Rainier, receiving paper mail and supplies every three weeks via ATV, snow mobile or horseback, sending and receiving e-mail by climbing forest fire towers in different locations to connect her cell phone to civilization and the fleeting sound of familiar voices. But it was worth it, the culmination of years of work in engineering, and interconnective systems brought together in using solar and wind power to work pumping fresh water for towns from ten to ten thousand.
The last day a vague sense of something wrong built within her. So much so that Cassie strapped on the holster and Glock .45 ACP pistol brothers Kevin and Matthew gave her for Christmas the previous year. Over the holster she put on a wool jacket, left hanging open for easy access. In all her time alone in this remote cabin Cassie feared neither man nor beast, until now. All the training and games her brothers played with her as a child more than prepared Cassie to be alone. Until recently it had been her preferred lifestyle. Out here, there were a lot of predators in the area: wolves, mountain lions, bears, humans. Nothing that she couldn’t address.
But now that she was about to leave, for the first time Cassie knew for certain someone watched her movements. She felt compelled to search again to see if anything looked out of place. Seeing a glass on the bedroom counter that belonged in the kitchen Cassie bent to pick it up. As she straightened, all the hair on the back of her neck stood up. There was another person in the cabin.
Closing her eyes, Cassie could hear the boards in the living room floor creak ever so gently. Listening to the pattern, she anticipated the moment her intruder would leap around the corner of the door and come up right behind her. Counting backward from three, she slipped her hand onto the grip of the small handgun and spun around just in time for the greenest eyes she had ever seen to end up nose to barrel with the firearm, mad as hell and flashing fire in her direction. Only experience kept both from jumping back in surprise or accidentally shooting each other.
“Sean, what are you doing here?” she asked, lowering her gun.
His eyes were hard, wary as he watched her grip. “That my darlin’, is a confidential business matter between Kevin and myself. A lady should never interject herself in gentlemen’s business.”
The heavy Irish brogue surprised Cassie, as evidenced by a slight waver in the end of the gun. Sean’s accent only came forward when he was truly pissed. She stared into his eyes for a long moment before answering. “‘The gentlemen’s business’, as you so eloquently put it, involves me. That makes it my business as well.”
Ferguson took a step closer but Cassie did not tighten up on the grip. Her eyes never wavered from his, but she asked him again, this time in a quiet plea. “Please, tell me.”
She watched as he argued within himself on how to answer her question. But there was more than one motive behind what she was asking. As she held her finger steady on the trigger waiting, Cassie couldn’t help but be drawn to him. Five months alone made her hormones trigger happy, and soon the musky scent of him curled in her nostrils, pulling her in without an overt manner. Though Ferguson couldn’t tell, every hair on her body was tingling with an overwhelming and long neglected sensation—desire.
Apparently amused at Cassie’s discomfort, Sean had actually laughed under his breath. He’d grasp her left hand, removed the weapon while pulling Cassie closer to his chest. Into her ear he’d gently whispered for her benefit only, “I’ll tell you, after you sleep with me.” The laughter in his green eyes mocked her, the odor of her own musk, tinged with the faint smell of roses from her favorite perfume, swirled around them both. “Still want to know?”
“Why did he send you?”
Raising his eyebrows with a mocking glint, Sean moved his hand away and took an exaggerated step backward. With his hands raised in the air, he turned in a large slow circle in front of Cassie. Returning to his starting position, he winked at her and bowed in a courtly manner. Laughter marked his gaze.
“Because he’s sure you would shoot anyone else.”
Sean spun her around and into his arms, her face burned flush with desire and adrenaline. He pulled her in close and stroked her hair. “It’s all right, I’ve got you. It’s ok. Everything is going to be ok.”
Cassie reacted instinctively and tightened her arms around his shoulders. The fragrance of his skin, the warmth of him so close was more intoxicating than any fine whiskey she could purchase. His lips brushed the top of her head. Her slim frame was shaking, but she was unsure if it was shock or tears.
Sean swept her up and carried her to the small double bed that filled the cabin’s only bedroom. Stripping off his clothes along with hers, they fell upon each other with heat borne of the dry season both were forced to endure. For an entire day they pushed themselves to a sexual apotheosis to remove the memory of the previous separations. When at last they slept, the aftershocks of their orgasms still rippled through Cassie’s body.
The next morning had come much too soon. As soon as her eyes opened, she’d known something was wrong. Abruptly Cassie tore out of his arms.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” she moaned, running across the cabin and into the small bathroom. Sean reached the door just in time to hold her hair back as she vomited into the commode. He grabbed a small hand towel from below the sink and wet it under the faucet. Gently he began cleaning gore from her clothes and hair.
At last, Cassie leaned back, resting her head against Sean’s leg. He felt her forehead with the back of his hand. No fever but she was definitely in shock. Taking an assessment of the situation, Ferguson picked her up by the elbows and walked her to the bed.
Rubbing her face, Cassie stared out into the trees. It had been obvious she was processing all the things which happened here. There was a faraway look in her eyes, mixed with mild nausea. “I thought it had been a bad dream, but I think I’m pregnant.”
Taking one of her hands, Sean gently turned her head to look at him. “Yes, I think you are.”
****
Waking up, Cassie remembered the media circus surrounding them when they returned to Seattle. Since Cassie hadn’t been in touch with her family, the news outlets got wind of her disappearance and her sudden emergence from the woods was front page news for several days. The lawsuit with Nishamora Global was settled and Cassie won. The event sealed their marriage air tight and permanent, but more important it won them freedom from Martin’s zealous oversight. Once Sean realized he could depend on Cassie in a tight spot, he felt better about the times he had to be away. She knew it was okay for him to leave, because he always came back. It served both their needs by solving each of their individual neurosis.
That was the glue which held them together, the promise they made that day in a small port in Colombia as part of their wedding vows. The thing no one could understand about their strange relationship. The promise both clung to when the odds seemed determined to pull them apart forever.
My heart is within yours, Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.
I will always be there for you.