Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
W arrick had so much fun at family dinner that he forgot all about the case. He forgot all about the summit coming up. He forgot all about the sadness and the anger. Instead, his lips were on Cassidy’s, one hand was on her ass, and the other was punching in the code to unlock the cottage door.
Family dinner hadn’t scared him away. It had done the opposite. He found a place to belong. He felt a camaraderie with Cassidy’s uncles and cousins. He felt like a big brother to Cricket. He felt as if he had grandparents with Jake and Marcy. He felt as if Tammy and Pierce had welcomed him with open arms. He felt as if his heart was bursting full with love for Cassidy. She was his other half—his better half. Now he understood that saying as they staggered into the cottage, their lips never breaking apart as shoes were kicked off.
“I love you so much,” Warrick told her as he reached down to strip her top from her.
“I love you too.” Cassidy jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist as she speared his hair with her fingers and kissed him.
“Aww, love is such a gift.”
Warrick flung Cassidy aside only to have her pulling a gun at the same time he did. A little man had been lying on the couch, in the dark, completely invisible until he sat up. A small amount of moonlight glinted off his wire-rimmed glasses as he used his index finger to push them back up his nose.
“Jesus,” Cassidy gasped.
“I’m Jewish. Please don’t tell me you’re trying to convert me.”
“I’m not trying to convert you. You scared the crap out of me and I’m just thankful we didn’t shoot the president’s chief of staff,” Cassidy said, letting out a breath and putting her gun back into the holster at the small of her back. “Didn’t anyone tell you it could be dangerous sneaking into houses at night?”
“You wouldn’t have shot me.”
“She might not have, but I’m still undecided.” Warrick hadn’t put his gun away as he kept an arm on Cassidy in case she was in danger.
“Bah,” Humphrey Orville said, discounting him with a flick of his wrist. “But I am intrigued to find out who you are and how you survived a Davies’ family dinner.” Humphrey leaned over and turned on the light. “Now, sit down. I hear we have a lot to talk about.”
“What are you doing here?” Warrick asked, not putting his gun away, but moving into the living room and turning on more lights as Cassidy tugged her shirt back on.
Humphrey shrugged. “I figured Cassidy would tell me when she’s ready. Greer told Birch she had something top secret to discuss and to get his ass to Keeneston since it couldn’t be said over the phone. So, he sent me. It’s easier for me to sneak out.”
A knock on the door had Warrick keeping his gun aimed at the little man.
“It’s Delaney!” a voice called from the other side of the door. “And Greer.”
Cassidy walked to the door and opened it. The two women rushed in, letting Warrick know they’d found something.
Greer drew up short and then smiled. “Humphrey. What a pleasant surprise. Did Birch send you?”
The little man stood up and hugged Greer. “You know it’s easier for me to sneak out than it is for him. I’m to get the full scoop and report back on whatever you couldn’t say over the phone. Now, we need to get back to business. I have an appearance to make tomorrow morning in D.C. Why am I here?”
Greer looked at Warrick and then back to Humphrey. “He hasn’t introduced himself yet?”
“I take it from the heavy petting I witnessed that he’s Cassidy’s boyfriend. But I doubt you called the president to tell him your cousin finally had a man,” Humphrey said with a little chuckle.
“That is exactly why I called the president,” Greer said with a smirk. It appeared as if the two of them loved to one-up each other. “This is Warrick Vidar. He’s Cassidy’s partner at the CIA.” Humphrey gave Greer a “so-what” look. “But his real name is Warren Hawkins.”
“That’s nice and all—” Warrick saw the moment the name registered with Humphrey. His head whipped to look at him with surprise. “The murdered ambassador’s son who was also supposed to be dead? You can put away the gun, young man.”
“Not dead and I don’t think I will put my gun away just yet. People aren’t happy I’m alive and I know someone in the president’s inner circle ordered my parents’ murder. So, excuse me if I don’t instantly trust you.”
Humphrey nodded, leaned back and crossed his loafer-clad foot over his knee. “I understand, but that was the former president. President Stratton and I have worked together for almost two terms, plus the one year the 25 th Amendment made him president, cleaning up our political system as best we can. What happened to you?”
Warrick didn’t know how much to trust him with, but as he was deciding what to tell him, Cassidy stepped up and gave a short and to the point summary of the events over the past decade, especially the events from the past couple of weeks.
“Thurmond Culpepper,” Humphrey spat, “is a cockroach.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Delaney said, speaking for the first time. “Warrick put a video dot on him. It’s paid off. I was watching the footage from yesterday to see what he was up to. I know he hasn’t sent any emails or made any calls, because I am monitoring those. I didn’t think I’d find anything, until this.” She pulled out her computer and pressed play. “Thurmond signed online as his cellmate and left a message on a private message board.”
Warrick leaned forward as Delaney pressed a couple of buttons to enlarge the message.
Warren Hawkins is alive. Will be with president at next summit. He’s ripe for the plucking.
A second later, a message was retrieved. Alive? Is he fresh or rotten fruit?
Thurmond wrote back and Delaney enlarged it again. Fresh. Doesn’t even know he’s a fruit about to be picked. Dumb, immature, and ready to follow since he can’t lead. He could be an asset to our organization.
Humphrey gasped and Warrick saw him turn ashen in shock. “They’re bringing Mollia Domini back?”
“I don’t think so,” Warrick told him. “I think it’s a new group with a new potential leader. We thought it might be Thurmond leading it though, and this appears to confirm his involvement.”
Greer nodded. “Add this information together with the threats to certain probable presidential candidates and you see they’re trying to form a new group by getting the right players into positions of power.”
“We have to stop them.” Humphrey jumped up and began to pace before looking over to where Warrick was still holding his gun, although now it rested on his knee. “Thank you for coming forward. I understand the danger you’re putting yourself in. You will have the entire protection of the United States behind you.”
Warrick shook his head. “No offense, but I don’t really trust them. I rather have the entire protection of Keeneston.”
Humphrey ran a hand over his face. “Yes, yes. I see what you mean. Okay, no one will know about you. We will invite anyone you need from Keeneston to be there during the summit and have President Stratton announce you and your fake story.” Humphrey paused and looked at Warrick with amusement. “I can’t believe that bullshit story of amnesia actually worked.”
“We need you to make sure all potential candidates come to this summit. I want to see who has a reaction when Warren Hawkins comes back from the dead,” Cassidy told Humphrey. “Also, no one but Thurmond knows about Warren being alive right now. So, pay attention to the chatter. See if anyone starts asking about Hawkins around the Hill.”
“Will do,” Humphrey told them before turning to Warrick. “I know President Stratton will want to apologize himself, but I am sorry for what happened to you and your family. We will do everything we can to get your parents the justice they deserve. It will be hard to trust us, and I understand your reservations about trusting anyone, but you made a good call trusting Cassidy and Keeneston. We won’t let you down. I need to get back to D.C. and update the president. We’ll contact Greer or Sebastian if we need to pass any information along.”
“Thank you, Humphrey,” Cassidy told him, holding out her hand for him to shake.
Warrick couldn’t trust Humphrey enough to thank him yet, but he did hold out his hand to shake. Delaney and Greer left with Humphrey, leaving Warrick and Cassidy alone.
“We need a game plan.”
Warrick turned to where he saw Cassidy’s mind working. She was incredible at planning ops. “We do, but I believe we need something else more right now.”
“What?” Cassidy asked.
“Each other.” Warrick held out his hand and Cassidy placed hers in his. He led her to the bedroom where all thoughts of revenge were left at the door.
Cassidy had decided not to go to the training center with Warrick. They’d made it sound like a guys’ day. However, she was antsy. When Aunt Annie, Aunt Paige, and Ahmed’s wife, Bridget, along with their daughter, Abby, pulled up to the house, things changed.
“Get in, badass. Guys vs. girls,” Abby, Cassidy’s sister-in-law, said with a smirk as she leaned out the window.
“Do they know that?” Cassidy asked, jumping in without being asked twice.
“Nope,” Blythe said, leaning forward from the back of the minivan.
“They think everyone is pregnant so they didn’t bother to invite those of us who aren’t,” Aunt Annie said with a roll of her eyes.
“This will be so much fun.” Cassidy was correct in assuming it was a guys’ day. When they pulled up to the training center, the guys all gawked at them.
“We’re doing rookies vs. veterans,” Cade told them.
“How about girls vs. boys?” Paige suggested to her brothers. The cousins knew better than to say anything.
Ahmed crossed his arms. “But I wanted to go head-to-head with Warrick. A new me, ha!” Ahmed complained.
“Babe, you can take him on after we have a go at you all,” Bridget said, placating her husband.
“This won’t be much of a challenge,” Warrick said to the women. At Cassidy’s expression he started to backpedal. “I mean, because there’re six of you all and, well, fifteen of us.”
“That’s not a problem,” Aunt Annie said, cracking her fingers. “We brought reinforcements.”
Elizabeth and Val joined them with large grins on their faces. “I have been feeling pent-up,” Val said, looking around and stopping at Cy. “Let’s have some fun, Baldy.”
“I’m not bald. I shave my head,” Cy said incredulously as Val winked at him.
Cassidy fought back the chuckle. Oh, this was going to be so much fun.
“Let’s do six stations, girls vs. boys, so we’ll even give you the advantage by having twice as many as us. We’ll just count the top eight placements in each event. Eight points for first on down to one point for eighth place. We pick three stations. You pick three stations. Gentleman first, then we’ll pick ours, and so on.” Annie said. “And then we’ll let you all teach the kids a thing or two while we go to brunch.”
“How will you do hand-to-hand?” Marshall asked, “Because you know we’re picking it.”
“How about we pick one woman and you pick one man and it’ll be an all-or-nothing event?” Annie suggested.
“Okay, your loss,” Ryan said with a shrug.
“Let’s do it. There are guns in the training center if anyone wants a shooting event,” Miles told them.
“Thanks, but we brought our own,” Elizabeth said, reaching into her car and pulling out multiple cases.
“I don’t mean to sound sexist,” Warrick whispered, and Cassidy just held her finger to her lips and shook her head.
“Trust me, you don’t want to finish that thought. Come on, snookums. Let’s see what you really have.”
“I thought I already did that when I passed family dinner,” Warrick grumbled.
“You had it easy. You didn’t have to go against us girls.”
Warrick followed behind the group of guys as they reached the first station. He’d seen Cassidy in action, but this was Special Forces type training. And well, Special Forces was hard to get into for a reason.
“Okay, first station,” Miles said, stopping at the muddy pit filled with razor-blade sharp barbed wire before he handed out rubber wristbands to everyone. “Under the barbed wire race. Let’s get muddy.”
Warrick didn’t like the way the women looked at each other with pure glee. Was he missing something? Yes, this was basic, but it was always included in training for a reason. It was hard. You crawled, then had to leap up, race fifty yards, and hit the timing pad. The wristband would log your times and display it on screens around the obstacle course. He was really impressed with the setup at the center. It was way more advanced than what the Army had.
The women pulled hats over their hair and got ready. Everyone lined up about fifteen yards back at the starting line.
“Go!” Annie yelled.
Warrick took off. He kept his head down and dove for the mud. He slid under the wire and was halfway through when he saw Cassidy and Blythe flying by him on each side. What the hell? Warrick pushed himself until his body felt on fire. He felt the wire catch his shoulders, but he pushed through it. He saw the end of the wire, leaped up, and sprinted as fast as he could, completely covered in mud that was weighing them down. He slammed his hand onto the timer pad.
He looked around and saw that Cassidy and Blythe had finished ahead of him. Of the top eight positions, five were women. Abby, Val, and Elizabeth had finished fifth, seventh, and eighth. Warrick, Ahmed, and Dylan finished in the top eight for the guys.
Damn, for a man in his sixties, Warrick was more impressed with Ahmed’s finish than the fact Cassidy and Blythe beat him. They were small and quick and had no problem fitting under that wire. But Ahmed was a grandfather and had finished right behind Warrick.
“Next up,” Bridget said, getting everyone’s attention, “is the mile run.”
Some of the guys groaned. The women all smiled. There was a reason for it. The women apparently didn’t miss cardio day. Sure, Aiden won, but second through fifth were Cassidy, Elizabeth, Abby, and Val. They ran like a pack, pushing the men out of the way. Warrick and Cade finished sixth and seventh while Bridget pulled in eighth.
The guys talked in a huddle, most of them breathing heavily. “Look, they have Abby and Cassidy, but we have all of us. We’re all trained in this one. Urban handguns,” Ryan suggested.
“What’s that?” Warrick asked.
“Obstacle course where targets pop up and you have to make a split decision to shoot or not. They’re either terrorists or civilians. It’s scored on how fast you can complete it, the number of bullets used since it’s actually a laser gun that logs the info into the computer to help tabulate the results, and how many you get correct as they pop up. You gain points for shooting a terrorist, lose them for shooting a civilian.”
“Gotcha,” Warrick said, glancing back at them. “Elizabeth and Val should be hard too, but you’re right. We’re all trained for this.”
“Next, urban handgun,” Miles called out. Warrick didn’t like the way with women smiled yet again. This was going to be harder than they all thought.
“Ready to go, hot shot?” Cassidy asked him as they watched Porter and Parker go down the course first.
“You’re freaky good at these courses,” Warrick told her as Aiden and Walker went down the course next.
“You’ve seen me in the field. Did you think I wouldn’t be good at this?” Cassidy asked sweetly as brothers, Ryan and Jackson, faced off against each other.
“Battle of the sheriffs,” Marshall said, pointing at Matt as they picked up the tech powered laser gun to begin their run.
“We’re up, hubby,” Paige said, winking at Cole.
“What did your Uncle Cole do? He’s good,” Warrick asked.
“FBI,” Cassidy answered as Annie challenged Cade. “Annie was DEA and Cade Special Forces. However, I think Aunt Annie is still somewhat active in the DEA. You can tell by her shooting she hasn’t gotten rusty.”
Warrick nodded. Annie kicked her husband’s ass.
“Come on, Baldy,” Val challenged. “Let’s see what you got.”
“Damn, they’re almost identical,” Warrick said, watching the two make their way through the course.
“Ma’am?” Miles asked, looking at Elizabeth. “Care to have a go at it?”
Elizabeth grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Warrick watched as Elizabeth and Miles went shot for shot. In the end, Miles edged her out by one point.
“Nash. You and me,” Blythe called out.
Nash took his position. Watching him was fluid art. Nash might win the whole thing.
“Come on wifey,” Dylan chuckled, giving his wife a wink. Where Nash was smooth and efficient, Dylan and Abby were aggressive and determined. They were complete opposites, but just as effective.
“Let’s go, honey.” Bridget got into position with Ahmed, then they were off.
“That’s couple goals,” Cassidy said to him as they watched Bridget and Ahmed move through the course flawlessly. Ahmed never fired more than one shot at his target. Each one was a kill shot. “Let’s go show them we can be couple goals too.”
While they were going against each other, it was as if they were a team, working their way through the course. Cassidy was smooth like Nash, while he realized he was like Dylan and the other elite soldiers in their aggressiveness to take out a target.
The result was Ahmed in first, Nash in second, Cy was third, Annie was fourth, Abby was fifth, Dylan was sixth, Warrick was seventh, and Miles was eighth. That exercise had given the boys a 55 to 52 lead.
“Balance course race,” Bridget declared as the next stop. It was made of single logs set up as ramps going up, over a creek, and down before hitting a rope bridge course.
Warrick thought they had it in the bag. He was wrong. The women flew over the course as if they were all prima ballerinas. In the end, they were now leading by eight points.
“Hand-to-hand for the final men’s choice,” Miles announced. “We select Ahmed.”
“We select Blythe,” Abby announced, surprising everyone.
There was a reason for the surprise selection. While Ahmed won, it wasn’t the way he’d wanted. It wasn’t a quick and clean win. Blythe was like a spider monkey. She could dart around, jump, and do crazy takedowns with her legs which surprised everyone but the women.
“Okay, ladies. It’s all tied up,” Miles announced. “You have the last selection.”
“Long range rifle,” Paige grinned. The women looked thrilled. The men looked defeated.
“Isn’t this good?” Warrick asked the men as they grumbled and selected their rifles.
“You’ll never find a better shot than my wife,” Cole muttered.
“Same,” Ahmed admitted.
“I claim a lot of Cassidy’s training, but rifle shooting,” Cy said in a whisper, “was all Paige.”
“Well, don’t worry,” Warrick said with a grin. “I’m no slouch.” Fifteen minutes later, Warrick sat back on his heels. “I was wrong. I am a slouch.”
“Hey, good job. You at least finished eighth,” Cassidy said, patting his back. She’d finished third.
Paige took first, Bridget second, Cassidy third, Annie fourth, Abby fifth, Parker sixth, Ahmed seventh, and Warrick eight. The girls won.
“Well, now you all have a fun rest of the day. Mimosas?” Annie asked the women.
“Sounds great,” they answered, all of them standing up, covered in mud, and smiling victoriously. They walked off with a sway to their hips that left Warrick and the other husbands slack-jawed and staring.
“We might have lost this morning,” Cole said with a smile, “but we’ll be the real winners when we get home.”
“Yes, yes we will,” Ahmed grinned.
“Happy wife, happy life,” Dylan added.
“Am I missing something?” Warrick whispered to Cade.
“You obviously haven’t run enough ops with Cassidy. After a victory, let’s just say, there’s a nice reward.” Cade winked and then frowned. “Now, let’s see how you do against Ahmed.”
Warrick sure hoped he’d get a reward from Cassidy, because Ahmed kicked his ass. “Not bad for a grandpa, huh?” was what Ahmed said as he walked by Warrick at the end of the day. Warrick knew better than to let the opportunity go. He ran after Ahmed, begging him to teach Warrick all his tricks. Ahmed graciously agreed after some major groveling. Now Warrick needed Cassidy to lick his wounded pride.