Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
C assidy sipped the champagne and laughed with her friends and family. She also noticed the very high number of women not drinking. They hid it with cranberry juice and grape juice, but she knew there wasn’t alcohol in those drinks. There was a baby boom coming to Keeneston and once again she was left out. Not that she wanted a baby any time soon, but she and her little sister were now the only unmarried Davies and it showed in how her family treated her.
They all kept throwing men at her. It was like there would be a prize for the person who got a man to stick. So far, none of them had. Knox Everett had moved on and was “dating” a string of women. Holt was too busy with his touring to care about dating her anymore. Then there were random men they threw at her to see if there was a spark. There had been with the prince who had groped her ass. He’d sure gotten a spark to the balls courtesy of Sophie’s fart taser. There were diplomats, security, and even some distant cousins of Draven’s.
None of them made her feel as alive as her mystery man had. None. And now she was very worried he’d ruined her for all other men, and she didn’t even know his name.
Cassidy had been thinking about him for longer than she realized. When she next looked around, she noticed that many of her uncles and aunts had already left. Her cousins and siblings were standing at the tables they’d been talking at.
“I’m beat,” Stella, Jace’s wife, said with a yawn.
“Me too,” Ari, one of her royal friends, said as her husband, Jameson, held out his hand to help his wife up.
“We’ll see you all tomorrow for breakfast,” Aiden, her brother-in-law, said as he escorted Piper inside.
In less than a minute, Cassidy was left all alone at the table. With a deep breath, she stood up and followed behind the happy couples. They wound their way into the palace and up to their rooms. The Keeneston crew was large and the cousins were in one wing, royalty in another, and parents and other Keenestonites in another. The palace was full. Not an empty bedroom to be found.
Cassidy headed for her room and pushed the door open. She knew instantly that he was there. The lights were off when she’d left a bedside lamp on. She smiled as she walked into the room, closing the door, and locking it behind her. “Hello, snookums. I’ve missed you.” She not only heard, but felt his chuckle. It did things to her that left her hot and flustered. “I didn’t think I’d see you here.”
“I was invited,” the deep voice that had been living rent free in her mind, heart, and other places, said from the depths of the room.
That was news to her. Was he royalty? She knew he wasn’t from Keeneston and that left only royalty or diplomats. She heard him shift and knew he was on the bed. The room was pitch black. He’d closed the curtains and not a single lamp was on.
His footfalls were muffled by the thick carpet, but then she felt his hand on her arm. He took her hand in his and held it to his chest as he slipped his other arm around her waist. With a gentle nudge, he pulled her close as he began to sway. “I watched you dancing all night and wanted to take you in my arms so badly.”
Her breath caught as they danced to the sound of their breaths. Her hand traced his chest and she felt a bow tie hanging loosely around his neck. He had been at the party. He was wearing a tuxedo and she wished she could see him in it. “Why didn’t you just ask me to dance, snuggle bug?”
She felt his smirk as they continued to dance. “I was busy talking to people. Besides, we need to talk first.”
Her heart sank. That didn’t sound promising. Could he even break up with her when they weren’t dating? “What about?”
“Me. I need you to understand why I am the way I am before you know who I am.”
He held Cassidy close to him, breathing her in. Were these the last moments he’d ever have with her? What would she do when she learned the truth? Would she fight with him, stand by him, love him? Or would she leave him?
“Why do you need me to understand? Do you think I’ll arrest you, pumpkin?”
He chuckled, pulling her tighter against his chest. “I hope not, sweetheart. I need to tell you because, despite having a mission I must fulfill, you’re all I think about. I don’t want to lose you, but I worry I will when you find out the truth.”
“Have you killed someone?”
“Yes.”
“Were they good or bad?”
“Bad, very bad,” he answered instantly.
“Would you ever hurt me or someone I love?” Cassidy asked in her rapid-fire questioning.
“No.”
“Will you tell me your mission?”
“Yes,” he replied instantly. Cassidy stopped swaying when he did. It was time to bare his soul. Something he’d never done. No one knew the truth of who and what he was. “Come. Let’s sit down.”
The room was dark, but it didn’t stop him from easily making his way to the large, silk covered bed. He felt Cassidy crawl onto the bed and his mind went to other things besides confessions. He was so distracted by the thoughts of her naked on the bed beneath him, that when he reached out to set his gun on the bedside table, it fell to the floor with a barely audible thud .
He lay back against the pillows and headboard and took a deep breath. Cassidy moved in the darkness until her head rested on his chest and he instantly wrapped his arms around her, hoping to hold on to her forever. “Okay, schmoopy, spill.”
He chuckled but then all laughter stopped as his mind went back to that night. “My father was an ambassador to Crusina a decade ago. I grew up in embassies all over the world. We started low on the pole, Iran. Then we made it to Iraq, Jordan, and then Crusina when I was fifteen.” He felt her hand freeze on his chest. She was getting an idea as to who he was. “My father had stayed in touch with the diplomats in that area. One of them had been sent into Syria with some SEALs and CIA SOGs to turn an ISIS asset. It had been an ambush and my dad’s friend had almost died. Some Air Force PJs saved his life performing field surgery in a helicopter.”
“PJs are badass. They’re the last line of defense,” Cassidy said as if they were in a briefing. “What happened next?”
“My father made a stink about putting his friend in that position. Especially, since he was getting orders that didn’t sit right with him either. Orders that had him colluding with Deming’s father, Viktor, to hurt the citizens of Crusina by gathering even more power for the government. The last straw was when my father got a call from Thurmond Culpepper. Thurmond was the assistant to Secretary of State Sandra Cummings. He wanted my father to pass along classified information on a weapons shipment to Deming’s father. Information that would lead to the death of hundreds of people whose only crime was trying to stand up to Viktor in order to gain some basic human rights. Information that could have only come from the CIA. My father was positive there was a traitor in the CIA who was being paid by these leaders for advance warnings on coups, arms shipments, or information that could help them.
“Thurmond called and ordered my father to be the messenger between the arms dealer and Viktor. My father refused. He knew there was not only a traitor in the CIA, but in the secretary of state’s office. It also explained how his friend almost died in Syria. They’d been sold out by a traitor or a group of traitors.”
“I remember what happened to your father. But I also remember what was said to have happened to you,” Cassidy whispered into the dark.
“You know what they told you. You don’t know the truth,” he said, bitterness lacing his voice.
“Then tell me what really happened that night.”
He took a deep breath, trying to hold himself as an observer, but the memories were already pulling him in too deep. “It was the middle of the night. I had just graduated from college and I’d snuck out with my DS guard to a nightclub. My parents had asked me to stay home. My guard was a couple of years older than me and we were friends. We came inside, thinking everyone was asleep, but I heard my mother and father in the living room pacing and talking loudly. My father was claiming my mother needed to take me and leave immediately. He’d called U.S. President Mitchell to report Thurmond Culpepper, possibly the secretary of state herself, and some unknown CIA operative as traitors. He said he could tell by Mitchell’s tone that Mitchell was trying to placate him. I remember my father saying to my mother, ‘This runs so much deeper than one or even two traitors. We can’t trust anyone but ourselves.’
“I looked to Brady, my protection agent. He shook his head and told me not to worry. We were safe in the embassy. There was only one way in and DS had it locked down. I reminded him about us sneaking in and out, but he swore only DS knew of that way. My father must have heard us, because he was suddenly there, yanking me into the living room and slamming the door on Brady. My father told me that my mother and I were leaving immediately. That we would hide in Norway, where my father’s family was from. Some distant cousins still lived there. That’s when I heard the first round of gunfire. Grenades, smoke bombs, and machine guns suddenly exploded all around us. I froze,” he admitted to Cassidy.
“But not my father, he ran to a bookcase and opened this long drawer under it. It was used to store decorative pillows and blankets for the living room so it was longer and deeper than your average drawer but not by much. He and my mother yanked the pillows and blankets out. I’ll never forget the look on their faces. They knew they were going to die. ‘Get in, son. And don’t come out until it’s all quiet. Then run. You need to disappear forever.’ I cried as my mother hugged me tight. ‘You survive. We’ll be with you every time you look at the stars. We love you, our sweet boy,’ she told me.
“My father hugged me tight and then he shoved me into the drawer against my protests. I wanted to help fight. But my mom shook her head and smiled at me before telling me she loved me one more time. My mother covered me in blankets and then they closed the drawer. It didn’t take long for the gunfire to draw closer. I heard the shattering of windows and smelled the smoke. Then I heard the splintering of the living room door. Someone shouted to find out where I was. My father told them I was at a club. He’d known I’d snuck out every time, but he’d let me. There was an order to go find me. Someone told my father he’d been asking too many questions and if he wasn’t with them, he was against them. He was offered the chance to join ‘those seeking to lead the world out of the darkness and into the light. That, when the world is in chaos, people will run to the strong and gladly give their power to them to lead them to the safety of the light.’ But my father refused. He said the people would be smarter than that. That’s when my father was shot. I heard my mother scream his name. I endured hiding as I heard my father being killed and then the things they threatened my mother with to give up my location and what she knew. The only thing that kept me hidden was that during the threats of rape and torture, my mother told them that their son would avenge them by living. They shot her a moment later.”
“You’re Ambassador Hawkins’s son. But they reported that you’d been killed,” Cassidy said, her hand finding his in the dark and squeezing it.
“I did. I died that night as I lay there listening to my parents being assassinated. When it was quiet, I got out and found Brady. He’d been shot in the face as he had tried to protect the door and was unrecognizable. I knew I had to run, but not if they thought I was still alive. I heard shouts outside as the remaining DS agents battled the retreating assassins. I took off my watch and necklace. I put them on Brady’s body. I switched our IDs too. We were similar in age, height, and weight. With the damage to his face, no one would question that it was me, not with my personal effects on him. Then I ran.”
“Where did you go?”
“To Norway. My father had a third cousin there who had been Forsvarets Spesialkommando . It’s the Norwegian special forces. He got me a new ID and set me up as his stepson. His American wife had recently passed and we both filled the voids from loss with each other. We trained relentlessly while I got my Master’s in computer science online. After two years, I moved to America and joined the American Special Forces.”
“All the while seeking revenge on whoever had turned your parents in to this group,” Cassidy said with understanding.
“That’s right. I’ve worked from the top down. I started with Thurmond and President Mitchell. I found out Secretary of State Sandra Cummings had been using Thurmond to do her dirty work for her. So, when my father called President Mitchell, he’d called Secretary Cummings, and told her to deal with it. The reason our DS agents were slow to respond to the attack on the embassy was that Thurmond had called the CIA director to get dirt on them. The night I met you in France, I was there to talk to Percy. He told me an Agent Naylor collected information on all the DS agents at the embassy. Who could be bribed and so on. I think that’s why the embassy wasn’t very well guarded that night. I got the list from Percy and have been working my way through it.”
“Naylor,” Cassidy gasped. “I guess you know I busted him, right?”
Hawkins nodded in the darkness. “That was when I really knew I could trust you. I was following you beforehand, trying to figure out if you worked for him or not.”
“I didn’t work for him. Why didn’t you go to President Stratton after President Mitchell died?” Cassidy asked.
“Mitchell died while I was in training for Special Forces in America. I used my position as a soldier to gain access to his funeral and pissed on Mitchell’s grave. Literally. Petty but so satisfying. President Stratton was installed, but how could I trust him? He’d worked with Mitchell. So, I focused on the chain of command I had put together. My father called Mitchell, who called Cummings, who told Culpepper to deal with it. He dealt with it by calling CIA Director Milward who ordered Agent Naylor to get the dirt on DS, which he did from Percy, who must have gotten it from a DS agent. I followed Naylor, hoping to find his contact at DS, but nothing. It was clear to me that Naylor was on the outs at the CIA. However, his criminal contacts were top notch. I moved to the DS agents on the list. Several had been killed in the embassy attack. Then others had retired, moved positions, or been fired. I looked at those who’d been fired and carried the brunt of the blame for the failure of the embassy security. They were the ones who were not listed as blackmailable, so they’d been set up as scapegoats. I’m stuck now, trying to find out who the DS agent was that sold out everyone to Naylor.”
“We can ask him,” Cassidy said into the quiet of the night.
“I can’t track him down. He’s either dead or hidden away forever at a black site.”
“I know where he is. I can take you to him.” Cassidy dropped that bombshell and he almost stopped breathing.
“No. You’re already in too much danger. That’s the second thing. I thought Mollia Domini was over. I thought they’d all been quietly taken out, but what that man said to you in the alley... it’s not over.”
“It was over,” Cassidy said, positive in the eradication of Mollia Domini. Mollia Domini had been a secret global group of powerful people who had tried to rule the world from the shadows. They gained power through manipulations, coups, and getting the right people into the right political positions while simultaneously getting the worst of the worst into military or law enforcement positions, all to gain more power and money. They’d created a web of lies, pulling strings in the financial, political, and entertainment worlds. It ranged from lowly drug runners to high-profile bankers. From rookie FBI agents right up to the former president. From local reporters and reality stars to owners of movie studios. They sat in the shadows, pulling strings to make people do their bidding. They liked to think they were the puppeteers of the world, but they really were no more than greedy men and women trying to become rich and powerful. Most were killed. Then those who weren’t were brought to trial. Thurmond Culpepper was one of the primary witnesses, having turned against them to save his own ass. “By all accounts, Mollia Domini was eradicated.”
“I don’t think it is. How can you explain the alley?” Hawkins asked.
“You have to trust me. Mollia Domini was eradicated. But that doesn’t mean a new group couldn’t have formed. There will always be a fight for power. We see it in the news every day. In every country. In every political election. Mollia Domini might be over, but the quest for money and power never will be.”
Hawkins thought about what she said, and she could be right. But he wanted to know more about how she was positive Mollia Domini was over. “There could have been some leftovers from Mollia Domini who survived and started this new threat. The one where they wanted to overthrow Deming. The one where they got their knowledge, money, and weapons from the Panther. They could be all linked.”
Hawkins felt Cassidy brush her hand up to his face and cup his cheek. “You’re right. It could be. I want to help you, Hawkins. Let me help you.”
He shook his head. “Here’s the other thing I’ve kept secret.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve studied you. I’ve researched you. I’ve followed you.” He felt her stiffen, but she didn’t stop brushing her thumb along his jaw. “I know you’re a good person who can be trusted because, as strange as it is to hear and for me to admit, I’ve developed feelings for you over the past three years. I can’t lose someone else I love, Cassidy. I’m a broken man bent on revenge for the murder of my family. I’ll never be whole again. Even with you filling my heart.”