Cyrus, however, was less optimistic about the ‘amateurish’ behavior of the night’s events. If the gunmen had been there to rob the store, they would’ve shown at least some interest in the cash register. But the surveillance video had clearly shown the men walking through the front door and striking the clerk before making a beeline straight for them. There’d been no one else in the store, Cyrus knew. Those men hadn’t been there to rob the place—they were there for Gertrude and Gertrude only. Such a brazen, public attack was unsettling, and it left Cyrus to question what might come next.
The sound of footsteps across the hardwood floor drew Cyrus’s attention. He looked up as Ashley Waterford entered the room. Though he had read her file and already knew a great deal about her, he was still unprepared for the striking young woman who virtually glided across the room on bare feet. She was dressed simply in a dark blue sweater and jeans, but the way her pale porcelain skin was contrasted against soft layers of ruby red hair…well, the effect made his heart beat just a little bit faster. The welcoming smile on her face was amplified by the warm, accepting glint in her eyes. There was something truly remarkable about her, Cyrus realized. She had a presence that brought warmth to the room.
Stepping through the doorway of the kitchen, Cyrus walked slowly into the sitting room. Gertrude pulled herself to her feet, leveraging her cane to pull Ashley into a weary, yet tight, embrace.
“Oh, my dear. You’re a sight for tired eyes,” Gertrude said in a voice more tender than Cyrus had ever heard from the woman.
“Gram,” Ashley said in a near whisper. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Just fine—just fine. Let me introduce you to my new assistant, Cyrus Cooper.”
Stepping forward, Cyrus extended his hand. She smiled as she shook it. “Gram said you were her guardian angel tonight,” she said. “I can’t tell you how pleased I am to meet you.”
When her eyes met his, Cyrus was struck by their iridescent quality and the way they shimmered when they fell on him. Even in the dimly lit room, they seemed to radiate the most striking green he’d ever seen. He became suddenly very aware of the unusual warmth of her small hand in his and felt his own smile brightening.
Cyrus knew that Gertrude had made a call from the convenience store while he was being questioned by detectives. Apparently that call had been to Ashley.
“Not at all,” he said, more quietly than he intended. He was still taken aback by her presence. “Actually, she wouldn’t have been there at all if I knew a damn thing about wine.”
That brought a genuine laugh from Gertrude, one that was shared by Ashley. “I’m sure you’re exaggerating,” Ashley said.
“In point of fact, no, he’s not,” Gertrude interjected. “He’s being entirely honest. He doesn’t know a damn thing about wine. Of that, you can be sure. But there’s hope for him. From what I’ve seen over the last week, he’s a quick study. I’m sure he could pick it up if he puts his mind to it.”
Gertrude looked at her granddaughter. “There’s a good chance that even you know more about wine than Cyrus,” she chided.
“Ashley’s not much of a drinker,” she said, sending an amused glance to Cyrus. “It’s probably for the better, too. Some of the worst mistakes of my life can be traced back to a bottle of this or that.”
There was a mischievous grin on Gertrude’s face that Cyrus had never seen before. He was surprised what a different person she had become in the presence of her granddaughter. It was as if she’d been infused with…he searched for the right term…
Personality.
Maybe he was seeing the real Gertrude Waterford for the first time.
“Oh, Gram. You make yourself out to be a lush. Is that the kind of impression you want to make on your new associate?”
Leaning her cane against the couch, Gertrude shrugged. “It’s true. It was a bottle of 1904 Dom Pérignon that led to the conception of your mother. But don’t you worry, dear, I moved the Dom to the ‘happy mistakes’ column the day you came into the world.”
Ashley laughed at her grandmother’s off-color remark. The iridescence of Ashley’s eyes was only amplified by her laugh, and Cyrus realized that if he wasn’t careful, he might be caught staring like some love-sick teenager. But there was a radiant quality that hadn’t been captured in the dossier provided by Coalition researchers. The paperwork had been stunningly antiseptic in its description of the young woman: five foot six, one hundred ten pounds, red hair and green eyes. That loose description had certainly failed to do her justice.
Knowing just the factual data about her, Cyrus suddenly wanted to know more. She had studied veterinary medicine and graduated with honors but had not yet taken up practice in her chosen field. It hadn’t been an issue before, but he was suddenly interested to know why. He wanted to know a lot more, he thought. And surprisingly, he was looking forward to a dinner that he’d previously only dreaded.
“Maybe we should eat,” Ashley suggested. “Before Gram makes me blush some more. Plus, we don’t need the food getting cold for a second time.”
A few minutes later the trio settled around the small dining room table. Reheating the dinner hadn’t been a major affair. Ashley was a vegetarian and had prepared a vegetable lasagna for the three of them. While not a vegetarian himself, Cyrus could appreciate the dish, and as far as he could tell, it hadn’t suffered a bit for having been put on hold.
The conversation over dinner wasn’t unusual given the circumstances. There were questions about where Cyrus went to school and what he’d majored in; talk about what sort of work he’d done after graduation—the various nuts and bolts that were covered in his resume, and the security clearance that Gertrude had no doubt already studied. Still, Cyrus got the distinct impression that his cover story was being fact checked as he spoke. It wasn’t anything that would’ve been obvious to most people, but some areas of conversation felt like a heavily veiled debrief. Nothing as invasive as an interrogation, but there was something going on, Cyrus was sure of it.
At multiple points in the conversation, he found Ashley’s eyes on him while he spoke. And while most times her gaze was warm and pleasant, there were also times when he would meet her eye and, just for a second, catch a flash of something…different. It happened often enough that he started to watch for it. Partially to convince himself that he was seeing something different in her persona, partially to understand what was happening in front of him. But each time he caught that look—no…it was more of a feeling that he got from her, it was gone just as quick as it had arrived. It was impossible to nail down, and he questioned whether his mind was playing tricks on him.
He might have written it off as a product of his exhausted mind had it not been for the unusual interest that Gertrude was paying to her granddaughter at certain points during their friendly banter. While he didn’t understand what was happening, the times he felt a strange vibe coming off Ashley coincided perfectly with the glare Gertrude was giving the girl.
As odd as it seemed, Cyrus had the strange feeling that Ashley was trying to look deep inside of him in some way. And at those times, Gertrude was extremely interested in what Ashley was seeing.
While he couldn’t make sense of any of it, the strange glimpses from Ashley were fleeting. And as disconcerting as those brief moments were, Cyrus still found himself strongly drawn to the young woman. It was an indulgence he didn’t often allow himself for a number of reasons. But each time he looked into those emerald eyes and saw the corners of her mouth tuck into a pert little smile, those reasons seemed to fade away into nothingness.
* * *
Pushing the last bites of lasagna around her empty plate, Ashley listened to the conversation. She was surprised and impressed with the way the evening had gone. She’d been dreading the dinner in a way that very few would understand, but it had been a rare exception to past experiences. An extremely rare exception, she thought to herself.
Strangely, no matter how hard she focused, she wasn’t ge
tting anything from Cyrus. It was a one-of-a-kind experience. She couldn’t remember the last time she opened her mind to someone’s thoughts and heard nothing at all. On any given day it was all she could do to block out the voices of the world around her, but when she centered herself and focused on one person, she could at least push the cacophony of faceless voices living in the city into a hushed white noise that, although was ever present in the background, could allow her to hear the foremost thoughts of her chosen subject.
Except for Cyrus. Definitely a one-in-a-million experience, but Ashley loved the idea. The uniqueness of it all, and the mystery of such a singular encounter, was intriguing.
But it wouldn’t make Gram happy. She was counting on her to tell her what she needed to know about her new assistant. Ashley was her human lie detector, and until that moment, infallible. But it didn’t matter how hard she tried; Cyrus was a blank slate. She could talk to him and listen to him, but without hearing his inner voice, it was like she was missing an entire dimension of his personality.
Everyone had that secret additional dimension, Ashley knew. There were the things that people said and did, and then there were the things they thought. Their thoughts were secrets kept to themselves—the things that went through their minds, but they never acted upon. It was a dimension that made some people frightening. It was also a dimension that made most people impossible for her to tolerate.
It was the reason she’d struggled to make it through veterinary school. And when she finally graduated, she’d been unable to bring herself to take a job in the field. Working with animals had been her passion. They were her refuge and saving grace, because they had no separate voice to share. They didn’t think one thing, only to do another. She would’ve been ideally suited for veterinary work, if not for the pet owners. Dealing with the owners had been nearly unbearable.
And so she held up in her apartment most days, content to stay behind locked doors. The further she could stay away from large groups of people, the better. It might be enough to drive a normal person insane, but her sanctuary was what kept her stable. It was her safe haven from the rest of the world.
“Have you heard anything new from William?” Ashley asked, eager to change the subject.
Gertrude shook her head. “Not a word. But I’m not surprised. You know how those people can be. They don’t like their members speaking with the outside world.”
Seeing Cyrus’s quizzical glance at her grandmother’s venomous use of the word members, coupled with the dramatic rolling of her eyes, Ashley decided that she should explain for his benefit. It wasn’t a matter she cared to discuss in front of a stranger, but she wasn’t feeling her normal, sheepish self in front of him. Plus, Cyrus would be working closely with her grandmother so the subject was bound to come up sooner or later.
“My brother, William, is part of a…church,” Ashley explained. “We don’t—”
Gertrude interrupted, her irritation evident. “Calling that group a ‘church’ does disservice to organized religion as a whole,” she grumbled. “And when I say that, bear in mind that I’m a lifelong atheist and no fan of organized religion of any kind. The Order of Origin? Please! They attempt to propagate their nonsense by claiming that it’s science. It galls me that the federal government recognizes them as a legitimate church at all!”
It was Ashley’s turn to roll her eyes. She felt her face warming with embarrassment and wished she could turn back the clock and prevent herself from opening the door to the subject. Against her better judgment, she decided to forge ahead and attempt to salvage her family’s dignity in the eyes of their guest.
“My brother joined the church some time back,” Ashley went on. “Since then, we’ve seen less and less of him. It’s been over a year since I last spoke with him, actually. At least Gram heard from him a few months back. We know he’s alright, even if we don’t know where he is or what he’s doing.”
“The whole thing’s an embarrassment,” Gertrude persisted.
Ashley shrugged. “He’s my twin brother,” she said with a smile. “Older only by minutes, but I love him no matter what he’s doing. I just want to know that he’s alright.”
Gertrude cleared her throat. “It seems we’ve forgotten the wine. After all the trouble we went through to get it, we shouldn’t let it go to waste. Cyrus, would you mind getting the bottle and some glasses from the kitchen?”
It was a blatant attempt to change the subject, and Ashley was happy for it. She and her grandmother had never disagreed on any subject the way they did about William, though they both loved him. Once more, Ashley reminded herself that her grandmother just had more trouble showing affection.
Ashley offered to help with the wine, but Gertrude stopped her.
“Why don’t we clear the table for dessert?” Gertrude suggested.
As soon as Cyrus was out of the room, her grandmother turned to her with an expectant gaze. Ashley felt like car stalled on the tracks of a runaway train. While she knew what her grandmother wanted, she didn’t know what to tell her. She’d never experienced anything like this before. There was no precedent.
“Well?” Gertrude finally urged when Ashley offered nothing. “What’s the verdict? Is he on the level?”
Her heart beating faster, Ashley felt the blood drain from her face. She didn’t know what to say or do. Her eyes flicked to the door frame leading to the kitchen and thought about what little she knew about Cyrus. She couldn’t Read him the way she could others, but she had a sense of him. It wasn’t what her grandmother was asking, but it did have value. She liked his smile, and the way he looked at her. She enjoyed hearing him speak and the way he met her eye and really listened when she spoke. Her pulse quickened each time his gaze lingered an extra moment or two, entangled with hers.
Was that enough to make the decision that her grandmother needed?
“I haven’t sensed a single lie from him,” Ashley finally admitted. It wasn’t the analysis that her grandmother was expecting, but the implication was there just the same.
The old woman took a moment to consider the response. In that time, Ashley felt suddenly terrified that her grandmother would ask her to elaborate. Then what would she say? But when Gertrude sighed and offered a satisfied nod, it seemed good enough for both of them. …At least, for the moment.
Ashley quickly went about stacking the empty plates, then hoisted the pile and headed for the kitchen. Cyrus had found the appropriate glasses and collected the bottle of wine just in time to meet her in the doorway. Setting the wine aside, he took the stack of dishware from her hands.
“What can I do with this?” he asked.
“Just set everything in the sink,” she said with a smile. “I’ll take care of it in the morning. It’s nothing that can’t wait.”
“You’re sure? I’m fairly skilled with a dish towel, and I’m not afraid to prove it,” he joked.
Taking the bottle of wine from the end of the counter, Ashley tipped her head in the direction of the dining room. “Thanks, but I’m far more interested in hearing exactly what happened at the market. Don’t think I didn’t notice how you both avoided that subject entirely.”
Cyrus followed her back to the table. Ashley set about removing the cork from the wine bottle, as he passed around the glasses.
“Oh, just the two glasses, Cyrus,” Gertrude said solemnly.
“That’s alright, Gram,” Ashley smiled. She popped the cork and set the corkscrew aside. “Normally I wouldn’t. But given what you went through to get this bottle, I can’t pass up the opportunity.” She continued, “From what you said on the phone, it sounded like a true close call. You could’ve been killed. And all for a simple bottle of wine?”
Though she waited patiently, it became apparent to Ashley that neither of them was in a hurry to recount the earlier events of the evening. But when Cyrus made a point of deferring the story to Gertrude, her grandmother finally had no choice.
It took less than ten minutes for Gertrude to expla
in all that had happened, starting with the moment they walked into the corner market and concluding with the final questions asked by police detectives before they were dismissed for the night.
Ashley paid attention to every detail, afraid to interrupt for fear of missing something. The entire story sounded like something out of a spy novel or an action movie. Still, something didn’t sit right with her. She wasn’t sure what she was missing, but it felt like a vital part of the story.
Sipping her wine, she considered the sequence of events. If she’d interpreted everything correctly, it seemed that the masked gunmen were more interested in targeting her grandmother and Cyrus than they were in the store’s cash register. It was a paranoid concern, but given the death of her grandmother’s last assistant, she was even more suspicious.
She decided to speak with her grandmother about the idea later, in private. There was no need to worry Cyrus with the matter. He wasn’t even two weeks into his new job, for goodness sake.
“So neither of the robbers survived?” She settled for asking.
Cyrus offered only a sad shake of his head.
“And the world is a better place for it,” Gertrude grumbled. “Cyrus saved our lives. There isn’t a doubt in my mind.”
Ashley smiled. She could see a twinge of regret in Cyrus’s eyes and realized for the first time that he had killed two men that very night. How does someone cope with an experience like that, she wondered?
“If you don’t mind me asking,” she said in an awkward, tentative voice. “How did you do it, Cyrus?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry?”
“Well, to hear Gram tell the story, it sounds like you managed some pretty quick thinking and some even faster footwork. You saved her life, and likely your own in the process. That’s not exactly something they teach you in the secretarial pool, is it?”
The words had no sooner left her mouth when Ashley realize how they might be construed as derogatory, or insulting. “I’m sorry,” she quickly sputtered. “I mean no offense. It’s just very…unusual.”
Dangerous Minds: A Cyrus Cooper Thriller: Book One Page 8
