Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
C assidy lit the candles as soon as Landon left. She’d tried to make a romantic dinner and failed miserably. Like, so badly that Colton showed up with the fire truck thanks to the smoke alarm going off.
Thank goodness Warrick had been busy.
DeAndre has an idea. Meet at Mo’s, then I promise we’ll get to dinner and dessert .
Cassidy looked down at the peach emoji and grinned. Sure, some women might get upset about this, but not her. She ran out of events without so much as a goodbye too many times to count. What had her hurrying to put the food back in the oven on warm and blowing out the candles was the fact that DeAndre had an idea. He and John Wolfe, Miss Lily’s husband, might actually commune with aliens or they might not. But if either of them had a feeling or an idea, it was usually a good one.
Cassidy yanked open the door and was startled when she found her grandfather standing there with his hand raised about to knock.
“Hello, cupcake. Do you have a moment for your old grandpa?”
“I do if my old grandpa is driving me to the main house. DeAndre has an idea.”
Her grandfather chuckled as he used his cane to turn around and head to the old pickup truck he liked to use around the farm. “Is that why John ran out of our poker game?”
Cassidy smiled at that. She loved that her grandfather, John, Charlie, and Anton, the husbands of the Rose sisters, all played poker every week. “Probably. He and DeAndre are always in competition over their feelings. So, what brought you to see me?”
“It’s about that young man of yours.”
“He’s not my anything, Grandpa.”
“I may be old, but I’m not blind, cupcake. That man is crazy for you. And I’m going to do something I’ve never done before.”
Cassidy looked over at her grandfather as he drove them slowly through the farm. “What’s that? Warn me not to date him because he’s dangerous and bent on avenging his family’s murders?”
Her grandfather stopped the truck and looked at her as if she were one of John and DeAndre’s aliens. “Why would I do that? Dangerous and standing up for family is practically our family’s motto. No, what I’m going to say is... I think Warrick and you are perfect for each other. I’m too old to fart around by using reverse psychology. Besides, you’re smarter than Colton.”
Cassidy was confused. What did Colton have to do with this?
“You and Warrick are perfect. Don’t let your cousins muck this up for you. I’m not getting any younger, cupcake. You catch my drift?”
“Are you seriously pulling a grandma right now? You can’t die happy until I’m married?”
Her grandfather winked at her and started driving again. “I never said that.”
“You didn’t need to.” Cassidy paused and looked over at her grandfather. His hair was white. His skin had age marks. Wrinkles showed that he liked to smile and laugh. “Are you really serious about Warrick and me?”
“I’ve never interfered with your love life, cupcake. But I know how important true love is for a happy life. Can you tell me your heart won’t shatter if he’s not in your life?”
“Just thinking about it hurts,” Cassidy admitted.
“Has it ever felt that way? Did Cody make you feel that way?”
Cassidy couldn’t hide her surprise. “You know about Cody?”
Her grandfather nodded. “And that fella in Lexington. And the one in Nicholasville.”
Cassidy felt her face flush with embarrassment. How did her grandfather know about her romantic life?
“Did those fellas make your heart break when you left them? Did they make you think about wedding bells and lifelong vows and babies?” Her grandfather was really cutting right to the heart of the matter.
“No. Not once. I didn’t care if I saw them again or not. Except for Cody, but that’s only because he’s a friend.”
Her grandfather nodded. “A good friend with benefits never hurt anyone as long as both people know when it’s over. I figure if Cody doesn’t know, he’ll know real fast when he flirts with you and Warrick punches him out.”
“You know about friends with benefits?” Cassidy blurted, horrified. This was truly the strangest conversation she’d ever had.
“Cupcake,” her grandfather said as if she’d done something wrong, “do you honestly think your generation invented friends with benefits? Now, let’s see what DeAndre and John came up with so we can get Warrick his revenge and you two married and I can die happy.”
“That’s a low blow, Grandpa,” Cassidy said as she got out of the truck when they stopped in front of Mo’s.
Her grandfather shrugged. “Works for your grandma.” Her grandfather slung an arm around her shoulder, pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “I couldn’t have made a better match for you if I tried. The question is if you’re brave enough to be vulnerable. To open your heart to love and happiness? Speaking of being happy. Have you thought about relocating to Keeneston full time? Greer needs some help running her little secret group.” Her grandfather looked up and smiled. “Hello, sonny.”
Cassidy looked up and saw Warrick approaching them. He smiled at her grandfather before reaching out his hand and patting him on the shoulder.
“Mr. Davies! It’s nice to see you.”
Her grandfather totally ditched her and started walking with Warrick. “Call me Grandpa Jake, sonny. Now, I’m here because my beautiful bride wants to make sure you’re coming to dinner Saturday night.”
“I wouldn’t miss it. It sounds like it’ll be a lot of... fun.” Warrick looked over his shoulder and winked at her.
Her grandfather chuckled. “See, that right there is why you’re perfect for not only our Cassidy but for our family. You will find it fun. I will too, getting to watch some of my grandsons get put in their place. Porter got way too cocky after joining the CIA for all of a week.”
Cassidy watched as Warrick and her grandfather talked the entire length of the hall. Her heart filled to near bursting. She’d never thought about marriage until Warrick. Her grandfather was right. She could see it all—the wedding, the marriage, the life they could share together, the love, the family. It was all within her reach if she was brave enough to be completely honest with herself and with Warrick.
But first . . .
“Thanks for coming,” DeAndre told the group in the conference room. “I had an idea.”
The sound of thumping, huffing, and puffing, echoed down the hallway. Everyone turned to look at the door as John Wolf burst inside. “It was my idea first!” he said, shaking his cane at DeAndre. “You can just move faster.”
“Gentleman, you both brought an idea to us. What is it and how can I help?” Mo asked where he sat next to his children, Zain, Gabe, Ari, and his wife, Dani.
“We need to bring President Stratton in on this, but we need a way to control the environment,” John said.
“And we need a way to bring together all the suspects,” DeAndre added.
“How?” Cassidy asked. “The one suspect we have is a ghost.”
“Going off the idea that they want to gain power and control on a global level, we give them a global event,” John told her as DeAndre nodded.
“I don’t follow,” Warrick said, making Cassidy feel better that she wasn’t seeing the plan either.
“Mo and his family need to host an international conference. Invite all the leaders and all those up-and-comers in politics and the military. Where you and Cassidy will be very present. If this person wants you to join them, this will be the best time for them to reach out to you again. Plus, make sure Deming is there too, just in case they want to take another shot at him. Either way, this would be too much for our mystery man to ignore. He’ll make a move, and when he does, we’ll catch him.”
“While that’s a good idea, it will take years to set up,” Warrick said with a frown.
Veronica made a snort of amusement. Mo nodded. “No problem. We will host it next week,” Mo said.
“A global summit?” Warrick asked, clearly not believing him.
“The benefit of being a well-respected royal. Rahmi is becoming a key ally and countries will fight to get an invite, especially if Birch and Deming are very vocal about their attendance. Make whatever kind of summit you want, Veronica.”
Veronica stood up, already typing on a tablet. “I’ll send out the invites now. I’ll invite the various directors, high-ranking officials, up-and-coming congressional reps, and all the cabinet positions as well as some generals. I’ll do the same for various parliaments and royal families. Shall we keep it to one to two hundred guests?”
“Yes, enough for someone to feel safe in the crowd, but small enough that we can keep eyes on everyone. More Americans than any other country since we know this Nicholas worked for the DS so he must be American. Tell Greer that her group will be undercover as conference staff. Bring in Rahmi military to assist with protection,” Mo instructed.
“I’ll have everything confirmed by tonight,” Veronica said, walking out of the room.
“No way will she—” Warrick whispered until Cassidy cut him off by shaking her head.
“Oh, she will, and then some. Veronica is a force of nature. No one, and I repeat no one , says no to her. She made a king cry once for not RSVPing in a timely manner. He begged to be allowed to come,” Cassidy told him.
“Thanks everyone,” Warrick told the group. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Cassidy.”
“Gabe,” Ari hissed, smacking her brother.
“I’ve got something!”
Cassidy, and everyone else, turned to the door as they heard Kale bellow from somewhere in the house. A minute later he and Delaney came running into the room.
“Well, I found it, but his voice carries better,” Delaney said with a wink to Cassidy.
“I went down the rabbit hole of the dark web while Delaney went through every name mentioned in Percy’s file that he passed along to Naylor. Tell them what you found.” Kale beamed with pride at his wife and Cassidy wondered if that was the way she looked at Warrick.
“Well, there were thirty names on the file that Percy collected about DS agents who worked at the embassy. However, looking at security camera footage of the embassy’s staff entrance and exit, thirty-one people entered that night,” Delaney explained, pulling up the video and putting it on the conference room screen. “I was able to identify everyone, except for this man.”
Cassidy looked to where a young man was walking in next to another DS agent. Her stomach fluttered as if she were going to throw up. “Do you have a better picture of his face?”
“I have one better. To enter you have to scan your government ID.” Delaney pushed a button and a government ID filled the screen.
“Damn,” Warrick muttered. The image was grainy, but it was very clearly Nicholas Houser’s government ID. “How did I not see this?”
“Because, this file was deleted. Or so they thought. I’m very good at recovering what people try to delete,” Delaney told him.
“You are so sexy when you find scrubbed files.” Kale kissed his wife and it was clear they temporarily forgot everyone was there until Ari threw a pen at Kale.
“Nicholas Houser definitely had a hand in killing my parents. There’s no other reason for him to be there and then hide it.” Warrick turned to the royal family. “Invite anyone you can think of who would have contact with this man either then or now. He’s clearly good at re-inventing himself, and it’s clear he wants to be near power to have a hand in manipulating it.”
“Thank you for finding that. I wonder if we find Nicholas and take him down, if that’s cutting the head from the snake.” Cassidy frowned. “I wish I could put the force of the CIA behind it, but I can’t be sure that Beaumont or someone in my office isn’t involved. However, I’ll work with Greer on a plan when she gets back. Bring in Nash, Nabi, Ahmed, Dylan, Abby, and Matt too.”
“As if you’ll be able to keep any of Keeneston from helping,” DeAndre told her. “Pam is already getting itchy. She was cleaning her attachments and trying to figure out if she could load one of Sophie’s acid guns of death onto her Hummer, along with her flame thrower.”
Cassidy smiled. “You’re right. Let’s keep trying to learn as much as we can. Then we’ll have a town meeting to set out our plan. Thanks everyone.”
Cassidy could always tell when time was ticking. And it was ticking now. For her. For Warrick. For them. For their love. For their lives. And she wasn’t going to just sit there waiting for the timer to go off.