Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
The summons to Washington came two weeks later. Diana’s wrist would still be in a cast for another month at least, but her ribs had only been bruised and her black eye was now an alarming shade of green. In other words, she was doing better.
So much so that she insisted on going to Washington with him. He dreaded the flight, waiting in the airport, standing in security lines, and all the other mess that went along with travel. He dreaded it even worse with Diana not being completely healed yet.
But he needn’t have worried. A government jet picked them up at Huntsville and delivered them to Reagan National a couple of hours later.
A car waited for them. Ghost wasn’t sure where they were going—the Pentagon, HOT HQ, the FBI, the White House—but instead the car took them north and west, to Langley.
Diana’s expression was carefully controlled, the cool mask once more in place.
The only heat came from her hand on his.
They said little because they weren’t alone.
They’d spent the past two weeks together, quietly going about their lives. Diana hadn’t wanted to go out in public, so they hadn’t. He cooked or ordered in, and they watched television or talked. He went to the range during the day, but he returned to the farmhouse often to check on her.
They slept in his bed, tangled in each other, and they’d even managed a little bit of gentle lovemaking as her injuries healed. She wanted more, but he was the one who’d been refusing to take it up a level. For now.
The women had waited precisely three days before they started asking to see her.
She’d seemed surprised, but she’d agreed with a quiet eagerness that made his heart glad.
Seeing her surrounded by those five ladies, fussing over her, talking about books and the gossip from Sutton’s Creek, had soothed a worry he hadn’t realized he’d been holding onto.
Because she had friends who cared about her.
It wasn’t just him who saw beneath the reserve and the caution to the woman beneath.
Diana was herself with them. Maybe not as much herself as she was with him, but she was getting there.
Emma, Rory, Callie, Daphne, and Paisley would never desert her.
She would realize it for herself as time went by.
“I guess we’re seeing Uncle Stephen,” she said when the car approached a gate leading to the Central Intelligence Agency Headquarters.
They were taken through several layers of security and then shown into a small conference room with a large screen at one end.
A few moments later the door opened, and the Deputy Director walked in.
He was accompanied by the FBI Director, the Secretary of the Air Force, Major Sharpe, and General John “Viper” Mendez.
Stephen Adler took one look at his niece and shot Ghost a look that would have flayed him alive if it were a weapon. Diana wound her fingers with his and stepped closer. Adler noted their body language and sighed.
“I’m happy you’re well, Diana.”
“Getting there,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Have you seen your parents yet?”
“I thought it best if they didn’t see me like this.”
He nodded. “Probably right. Perhaps some heavy makeup at Thanksgiving or your mother will have a heart attack.”
“Not coming but thank you.”
The CIA Director entered the room then, accompanied by the Vice President. “Everyone’s here. Excellent.”
Introductions were made all around and then they were asked to sit. Ghost pulled out the chair for Diana before sitting beside her. She reached for his hand under the table, and they locked fingers.
The briefing that took place then was something Ghost would never forget as long as he lived. Judging by Mendez’s granite expression, he wasn’t pleased with what he was hearing, either.
“So let me get this straight,” Ghost said when the Director finally stopped speaking.
“Athena is a boondoggle at best and an outright fabrication at worst. For the purpose of finding traitors in our own government and bringing them to justice. My team and I volunteered to give up our careers in the Army and move to Alabama to protect the project. But it was never real. There is no shield that will protect this country from nuclear or EMP attacks. We just pretended there was so the cockroaches would come out of the woodwork.”
“At this time, there is no viable shield,” Vice President McEwen confirmed, much too cheerfully for Ghost’s liking.
“But Athena is real. It’s something that’s been under development for years, yet it’s never left the development phase.
We’re decades away from such a thing. The best we have is GMD, and that’s imperfect, but we won’t stop trying.
Your country thanks you for all you’ve done to find and stop the threat to our security.
You also have the president’s personal gratitude. And you, Major Sharpe.”
Ghost was unable to speak he was so pissed.
Months spent protecting a project that wasn’t ever going to fall into enemy hands and be a potential world ender.
Months being told he was on the most important mission of his life, trying to protect this nation and worrying about his friends.
And the families they’d been forming against orders.
Orders that should have never been given in the first place. What did it matter if Blaze or Chance married the women carrying their children? If any of them married the women they loved? It should have never mattered, and yet these people had thought it acceptable to toy with all their lives.
He gritted his teeth, his jaw aching with the pressure of not saying what he really wanted to say to these men. These puppet masters.
Taking orders was part of being a soldier. And yet this entire mission was an outrageous presumption on their part. He could see from the looks on Mendez and Sharpe’s faces that they were as shocked as he was. As angry.
Diana must have sensed his mood because she squeezed his hand beneath the table. “I assume Viktor Dashevsky will remain in custody?” she asked, chin notched high, voice set to cool command. A freaking princess in a roomful of peasants. God, he loved her.
“He will,” Don Lewis said. “And those who were protecting him, feeding him information, are being dealt with. You will see some resignations from Congress in the next few weeks. Some CEOs from defense companies will no doubt be replaced as well. Make of it what you will, but that’s all I’m authorized to say. ”
“Why did you move the investigation to Washington?”
Lewis exchanged a look with her uncle. It was Adler who spoke.
“I asked him to. We were hearing alarming things about Dashevsky’s activities in Alabama through Sharpe.
He had his eye on you, Diana. After the botched Stinger acquisition this summer, he turned his attention to finding information about who had interfered.
It naturally led him to you, and Colonel Bishop and his team. ”
Her nostrils flared but that was the only sign of irritation. “Thank you for telling me. Though it would have been nice if you’d told me then. I’m not a child, and my job isn’t a hobby. The same as yours isn’t.”
He inclined his head. “You’re correct. I apologize.”
“Was Joel Newman your idea as well?”
Adler’s mouth flattened. Lewis cleared his throat. “I needed to know you were safe. I assigned Joel to get close to you.”
“Well,” Diana said, sounding queenly, “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“He’s been reassigned. The threat to your identity isn’t something you need worry about.”
“I’m not worried. I’m an Adler and I don’t much care who knows it anymore. It doesn’t define me. Only I do that.”
Ghost leaned toward her because he didn’t give a good goddamn what these men thought. “I love you,” he whispered.
She turned her smile on him. “I love you, too.”
“My men’s military records,” Mendez said. “How did that breach happen?”
The CIA Director looked pained. “An insider in the Pentagon who supplied information to Trey McCann. That person is being prosecuted for the dissemination of classified information.”
“It should never have happened,” Mendez growled.
“Agreed,” the Director said. “We’re working to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”
“Your records will be restored,” McEwen added.
“We can’t acknowledge this mission, of course, but you’ll all be given promotions on paper and paid your full retirement accordingly.
Anyone who wants to return to active duty—including you, Colonel Bishop—will be welcomed back and given new assignments. ”
Ghost didn’t even have to think about it. “Thank you, sir, but I’m going to enjoy my retirement. Believe my men feel the same, but I’ll inform them of your offer.”
Mendez nodded, and Ghost knew his friend understood. What had been intended before was no longer what Ghost wanted. The offer to return wasn’t going to restore what he’d given up—and he just didn’t want it anymore. He wanted Sutton’s Creek, Diana, his friends, and the life they’d built there.
The meeting ended shortly thereafter. The VP left accompanied by Sharpe and the Secretary of the Air Force.
Don Lewis had his own car waiting. He chatted briefly with Diana, alone, and then she talked to her uncle before she returned to Ghost’s side.
They joined Mendez in his staff car and were ferried into Washington, to a swank restaurant in Georgetown where Kat Mendez waited for them.
She kissed her husband and then flung her arms around Ghost, telling him how happy she was to see him after so many months.
“You’re looking gorgeous as usual,” he told her.
She arched her eyebrows. “You mean I don’t look like the harried mother of an elementary school child? Bless you.”
Ghost introduced Diana, and Kat immediately hugged her. “Oh my, you are even more lovely than he led us to believe. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
“Thank you. It’s nice to meet you as well. I know that Alex thinks of you both as dear friends.”