by Trish Loye
Walker grunted. “I kinda thought you would.” He closed up the file in front of him. “I’ll want a copy of your final report, Colonel. My office will be in touch.”
Derrick nodded. “I have to make arrangements for my team now.”
Walker stood. “That’s fine then.” He waved Derrick away and spoke to a seaman standing guard by the door. “Bring in the woman.”
“Wait,” Derrick said. “I want to be present when you question her.”
Walker shook his head. “Not an option. You know that.”
The guard opened the door and Sarah walked in, followed by Cassie. She was back in Navy sweats again, looking like a teenager.
Walker went to her and shook her hand. “Ms. Kwon, please have a seat. We have just a few questions for you.”
Cassie’s eyes were swollen, as if she’d been crying, and the naked hurt in them when she glanced his way broke something in him. He stepped toward her and she turned back to Walker.
She didn’t want his help. He’d have to live with that and hope he could change her mind later.
“Okay,” she said. “But then can I go home? My daughter is very…anxious to see me.”
And vice versa, he thought.
“We’ll be quick.” Walker looked at Derrick and nodded at the door.
“I’ll be outside if you need me, Cassie.”
“I won’t,” she said.
The words struck him like a whip, with a sharp, cracking pain across his chest.
Walker raised his eyebrows at him, but the man was smart enough not to say anything.
Sarah followed him into the hallway. “She’ll be fine,” she said.
Derrick crossed his arms. “I know.”
Sarah snorted. “Leave her to me. I’ll stay by her side while you go do what you have to, to get us off this boat.”
He trusted Sarah implicitly, so he nodded and didn’t say thanks. He didn’t have to.
Thirty minutes later, Derrick came back to the conference room to find Cassie and Sarah gone.
Dammit, he’d wanted to be there when she got out. Hopefully she’d be happy that he’d gotten them on an early flight. The helicopter would fly them out in an hour.
He found Cassie in the mess, sipping coffee with Sarah. Her face lit with hope when she saw him and for a moment he thought she’d forgiven him until he heard her question.
“Are we leaving?”
Of course. She wanted to get home.
“Within the hour.” He slid into a seat across from her. Sarah stood and said something about having other places to be. He nodded his thanks.
The smile on Cassie’s face tugged at him. She sat in the too-big borrowed sweats with no makeup and her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked like the girl he’d met fourteen years ago. So much time wasted between them. “I have to talk to you about something.”
Her smile disappeared and she studied him. “Are you also going to advise me to not publish my story?” Her voice held a low edge that threatened to cut him if he didn’t step carefully.
“No,” he said.
“What do you think about me publishing this story?”
He didn’t bother to censor his words; he just spoke what he believed. “If you think this story will help people, then you should print it.”
She frowned and sat back. It obviously wasn’t the answer she’d expected. He was going to have to change the way she viewed him. He needed to earn her trust back, but right now their priority was keeping her alive.
“I want you safe,” he continued, “but the DPRK doesn’t take kindly to anyone criticizing their country. You will be in danger once they realize you’re alive.”
“I know. They told me at my debriefing.”
“I want to organize a security detail for you.”
“A detail?” She sipped her coffee, letting the topic of the story drop. “What would that entail?”
“At least two guards. One in the house and one outside. And an extra one on Rose if she leaves the house.”
She sat silent for a moment. “For how long?”
“Until the threat is gone.”
She set her cup down. “How long?”
Her words challenged him and he wasn’t used to being challenged, or he hadn’t been until he’d run into her again. He wanted to repeat his words. Instead, he used his calm voice, the one that worked on scared soldiers. “Most likely, the time it takes for you to write and air your story.”
And then they’d reevaluate, to see whether there was a price on her head because the DPRK wanted revenge.
“Would you be part of the security?”
“Yes.” And he wasn’t going to compromise on that.
She nodded and he wasn’t sure whether it was because she was happy or resigned to have him protect her. Cassie released a long breath. “Thank you.”
He waited a moment but she didn’t seem inclined to speak. “Silence isn’t like you.”
“I’m tired…and there’s nothing more to say between us.”
He wanted to grab her and pull her close, forcing her to acknowledge what was between them, but he stayed seated and kept his tone even. “I fucked up,” he said. “I’m sorry. I do trust you. Give me a chance, Cassie. I want to try.”
“So you can break my heart again? I’d have to be a complete idiot.”
“I wouldn’t. I—”
She held up a hand. “Don’t make any promises you can’t keep.”
“What can I do to convince you to try?”
“Do I have a choice about who is on my security detail?” she asked.
“I’m in charge. I’ll take your wishes into advisement,” he said carefully. “But I have final say.”
Her chin lifted. That wasn’t a good sign. The woman was more stubborn than stone.
“I don’t want you on the detail,” she said.
He’d rather take a round from an AK-47 than hear those words. “That’s not possible,” he said gruffly. “But I can stay out of your hair while we’re there. I’ll assign another operator to be inside the house and I’ll oversee from outside.”
She nodded and he stood, waiting a beat to see whether she would say anything. When she didn’t, he left. He’d really fucked it up between them and he needed to figure out how to fix this because he didn’t want this woman to leave his life a third time.
23
Cassie opened the front door of her brownstone feeling as though she’d been away for a hundred years and yet the past week had the surreal feel of a dream. Had all of that really happened? Then she moved. Her body protested and memories surged back with full clarity. Oh, it had damn well happened.
“Mom?” Rose’s voice held hope. Her footsteps thundered down the stairs.
Cassie could only stand in the open doorway and watch her daughter hurtle toward her. Her emotions churned and built inside her, freezing her, constricting her throat.
“Mom!” Rose slammed into her.
It was the catalyst, releasing her, opening the dam, flooding her. She squeezed Rose to her, blinking back tears.
“I missed you, sweetie.” Her voice was hoarse, as if she hadn’t used it for months, or she’d been screaming. She pushed away visions of what had made her scream.
“Don’t ever do that again, Mom,” Rose said. “Ever!”
“I won’t, honey. I promise if I follow a story again that I’ll take every precaution I can.” She kissed the top of her daughter’s head. “I will always do anything and everything to get back to you.”
Her daughter pushed her back, a fierce anger in her eyes. “Take Derrick with you the next time you go somewhere like that.”
She blinked. “Your father?” Rose couldn’t know about what was going on between them, or rather, what wasn’t.
“Yes. He’s a super soldier or something, right? He got you back, didn’t he?”
She sighed. “Yes, he did.”
Her daughter snuggled back in her arms. “Then he has to go with you next time,” she m
umbled.
Cassie didn’t have the heart to tell Rose that Derrick wouldn’t be a big part of their lives. But she’d become firm in her decision to stay away from him. Her heart couldn’t take it. She couldn’t be with a man who didn’t trust her.
And now she was alone.
Well, not really alone.
With her daughter’s arms tight around her, she admitted the truth: that for Rose’s sake, she would be seeing Derrick in the future. But she vowed to keep her distance.
Though now wasn’t the time to think about that. Sarah waited in a rented car parked on the street. She’d told Cassie that she’d give the family thirty minutes together alone before she came inside to set up security. Two other operators waited in an SUV just down the street, but they would stay outside for now.
Her mother stepped into the hallway. Cassie didn’t release her daughter, but lifted one arm to hug her mother into her circle. This was her family. She had to stay focused on them. If she let Derrick shatter her heart again, she wasn’t sure she’d be strong enough to pick up the pieces and her family needed her whole.
She stepped back and smiled at the two females in her life. “I’m starving. Please tell me there’s something to eat.”
Her mother laughed and began chattering as Cassie had hoped she would. Her daughter never let go of her, even as she shut the front door and steered them toward the kitchen.
Exactly thirty minutes after she’d walked in the house, the doorbell rang. Rose ran to the door before Cassie could stop her. “Check first. It should be Sarah,” she called out to Rose. “The one who’ll be staying with us for a while.”
The door unlatched and she stepped into the hall just as Rose opened it.
“Derrick!” She hugged him hard. “Thank you for bringing her home.”
Derrick stood there with his hands open and outstretched for a moment before he wrapped them gently around Rose’s shoulders. “Anything for you.”
Rose stepped back and brushed her hair from her face. “Are you staying to make sure Mom is safe?”
Derrick nodded. “I’ll be right outside.”
Rose frowned and looked at Cassie. “Outside?”
“My team will be watching over the house and all of you. We’ll be putting in cameras to cover the front and rear of the house and an alarm system.”
“But you won’t be in here with us?”
“One of my best operators will be staying inside with you.”
Cassie almost relented and asked Derrick to stay but knew she wasn’t strong enough to handle that. She would make sure Rose and Derrick had time together, but right now Cassie was too tired, too vulnerable to resist Derrick like she should.
“Any word on the threat?” she asked to distract Rose from where Derrick would be staying.
“What exactly is this threat?” her mother stepped up beside her and asked Derrick. “My daughter has been very vague about it.”
Derrick glanced at her and then at Rose, who immediately bristled. “I can take it,” she said. “You don’t have to hide the truth from me.”
Derrick looked to Cassie and she liked him for that, liked that he waited on her decision about what to tell Rose. She nodded.
“We believe North Korea will send an assassin after your mother,” he said.
Rose and Cassie’s mother both gasped.
“An assassin?” Rose whispered.
“Here?” her mother said.
He held up both hands in a calming gesture. “My team is here to protect Cassie and the both of you.”
Rose took a step back. “Why aren’t they putting you in a safe house?”
“I wanted to be home,” Cassie said. “So we have a security detail instead.”
“For how long?” Rose asked.
“We believe the assassin is already on his way,” Derrick said, “if not already in Canada. He won’t stop until he’s caught. The best way to eliminate him is to have them come to us.”
“By using my mother as bait,” Rose said in a hard voice, years beyond her age.
Derrick hesitated and then nodded. “Yes.”
And again Cassie respected the way he was dealing with Rose, truthfully and yet carefully, and not stepping on Cassie’s toes as he did so. The way she’d always imagined he’d be with his daughter.
Stop it. Don’t start caring for him again.
Too late. Her inner voice laughed.
“We want this to be over as quickly as possible,” Derrick continued.
Rose looked at her grandmother, who nodded back. “Okay,” she said. “But I want you to be in the house with my mom too.”
To Derrick’s credit, he didn’t smile at the demand, but he did respond quickly and firmly. “Done.”
Cassie blinked. “Wait. What?” She shook her head. “He can’t…” Rose and her mother both stared at her. “Fine. He can stay inside.”
“And follow you if you go out,” her mother said.
She frowned. When had her mother been on Derrick’s side? “Fine,” she said with gritted teeth. She could do this. Just because she loved him once and he’d rescued her from hell and he wanted a relationship with her didn’t mean she had to fall in love with him again.
Oh Lord, she was in trouble.
The next morning, Derrick scrounged through Cassie’s kitchen, looking for coffee. It wasn’t one of those white-on-white kitchens where he’d be afraid of making a mess. The cupboards were a warm wood color and the walls a pale yellow, cheery but not too bright first thing in the morning.
It was too early for the family to be up, but he wanted to make coffee for his team. They’d all had a long night, setting up the security and alarm systems and taking watch in shifts. Hot coffee would be a nice reward this morning. He’d also introduced his team members to the family so they’d know to trust any of them if they came up to them. Rose had taken a shine to Sarah and seemed interested in meeting Dani, one of Edge’s best computer techs.
It was strange to him how much he cared about the girl when he’d only met her last week. What would he feel like if she’d been part of his life from the beginning? A subliminal panic rose at the thought of losing someone who would be so close to him. He’d definitely be losing his shit right now.
“Top cupboard to the right of the sink,” Mrs. Kwon said. Cassie’s mother stood behind him in a blue robe cinched tight and black slippers. Her hair was in a long braid down her back.
He opened the cupboard she’d indicated and found the coffee. “Thanks.”
She sat at the kitchen table and watched him make coffee. It wasn’t awkward and he was content with the silence. When he had the coffee percolating, he turned to her. “Are you okay with me being in charge of your daughter’s protection?”
She didn’t answer for a moment, only studied him. “Did you know about Rose?”
He stiffened, surprised with her directness, but he shouldn’t be really. She’d raised Cassie and she was one of the most direct women he’d met.
“No,” he said calmly, sitting in a chair opposite her. “I thought Rose belonged to Cassandra and her ex-husband. You must believe me. I had no idea she was mine.” He laid his hands flat on the table. “If I’d known, then there would have been no way this family could have gotten rid of me.”
Mrs. Kwon smiled at him. “I like you.”
He breathed out a small sigh, not really sure why he cared so much.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you,” she said. “You broke my daughter’s heart. More than once.”
He winced internally. This woman wasn’t pulling any punches. So he would be just as open and honest with her. “I know, ma’am. And I vow never to do it again.”
“That’s a pretty big promise to make.”
“That’s an easy promise to make.” And it was, though he’d prefer to be making it directly to Cassie rather than her mother. “One I intend to keep.”
She stood. “It’s Saturday. Rose loves pancakes for breakfast on the weekends. Yo
u’ll find everything in there.” She pointed to a door that led to a pantry.
“Copy that, ma’am. Pancakes coming up.”
She finally cracked a smile. “Rose is one of those rare teenagers who wakes up early. She’ll be down by eight if she smells breakfast.” She took a mug from one of the cupboards and poured herself some coffee, stirred in some sugar, and walked to the hall. She turned back and gave him a steely glare. “Don’t screw this up.”
“No, ma’am.”
He grinned at the woman’s retreating back as he poured coffee into mugs to take to his team. What a character. But a nice woman to give him hints about Rose.
Rose.
His daughter.
Holy crap, that thought still scared him. He scrubbed a hand over his face. What if he and Cassie had never connected? He’d have never known about his daughter. He sank into a chair at the table. He was going to make breakfast for his daughter.
Holy shit. He’d better get started.
Cassie came downstairs that morning to the heavenly smell of bacon and….pancakes? Her mother didn’t make pancakes, though they were Rose’s favorites. She padded to the kitchen in her fleecy pants, a baggy sweatshirt, and fuzzy slippers. She’d purposefully picked out the least attractive pajamas she had to prove she didn’t care what she looked like. They were comfortable and warm. Just what she needed, even if she looked as dowdy as her own mother.
Stop that. It didn’t matter what she looked like. She wasn’t trying to attract Derrick. Not anymore.
She froze at the door to the kitchen. Her heart wrenched at the sight of Derrick and Rose at the table, laughing about something. She stayed silent and watched them. Rose had some of Derrick’s mannerisms. How was that even possible? But she quirked her eyebrow in the same way, and her smile…it was his smile. How had she not known that?
She wasn’t sure whether she should back away or interrupt. So she continued to watch them together. Derrick’s eyes lit up when Rose made a joke and he wore an easy smile as their daughter told him about her school. She knew then that Derrick would continue to be a part of their lives. He wouldn’t disappear on them and there’d be no way to get rid of him, so she needed to find a way to see him without falling in love again.
