Welcome to the Family

by Nancy S. Reece

  Sean peered over the top of his reading glasses. “I can only imagine after the things Tsichevna said to Cassie.”

  “Yeah man, how’s she doing?” Joe tried to look uninterested, but Sean knew he was dying to know what was going on between them. Callahan was married with four kids and seemed determined for his partner to have a similar brood. As he said, someone needed to bend and Joe thought it should be Sean. Matter of fact, most of their friends thought it should be Sean. That was another thing that raised his ire—people needed to know she was the runner, not him.

  “She’s sleeping, which is probably best anyway. Pieter got in her head, brought some of the old nightmares back again. Now she’s back to flinching when I touch her. When we make plans for the next safe house, don’t be offended if we split up. She and I need some time to see if this new paradigm will work.”

  Joe nodded. “How long did you two stay together the first time?”

  Sean leaned back. “Three years. Then two years apart, followed by the past two years where we’ve met up when our schedules meshed.”

  “Are you ready to slow down?” Joe pressed. “There’s a lot of money out there waiting to be deposited into our account as soon as you pick a contract, and none of them are located in the U.S.”

  “Maybe Cassie could help us? Her specialty is interconnected global geothermal systems. I’m sure we could find a spot in the office for her?”

  “Sean, she needs to decompress, not get thrown full-time into the one business she’s been running from since childhood. Playing mercenary with those sadists she calls brothers is what got her into this state.” Joe leaned back and stared at his boss.

  Sean leaned forward, putting his arms on the table. “Did I tell you about the dinner I had with Kevin, about two years ago? We were both in Atlanta, and he invited me to meet up with him at Chops up in Buckhead. I agreed and we made reservations for eight.”

  “Not that I remember.” Joe settled onto the couch, sipping his coffee while Sean paced.

  “Never mind. He was late and he was distracted, two characteristics not often associated with Kevin Devlyn, let me tell you. As soon as we were seated, he ordered a bottle of bourbon and a pitcher of water. Before we ordered dinner, three double shots had already found their way into his system, so I knew something big was on his mind. When I asked about Cassie, tears began to stream out of his eyes. Like a man with a secret too big to keep inside any longer. ‘Can I tell you something in complete confidence as a friend?’ he asked.

  “‘Of course’,” I responded, wondering. Then he began a tale that rocked my soul and stripped bare the illusion that anyone in this world is above reproach. He told me about the strange relationship between the brothers and their sister. And it was a story rough to tell and to hear.

  “Apparently Cassie was their personal prisoner for any game the brothers wanted to play. Most were harsh but fair. Kev told me that his favorite was ninja assassins chasing an unknown warrior through the woods. The only fighting could be with martial arts, no modern weapons. But he also acknowledged that more than once Cassie had been on the receiving end of tough beatings, with staffs and kendo sticks. Worse than the physical abuse were the mind games designed to send her screaming.

  “Matthew was the only brother who did not openly fight with his sister, due to his autism. While he is very high functioning, some things just don’t make sense in his world and so he dismisses them from his bubble. Violence is one of those things. The worst of the mental and physical abuse came from Greg. Throughout childhood he broke her arm, which healed wrong and had to be re-broken, and gave her countless black eyes and bruised ribs. Then when all was said and done, he broke her spirit.

  “It was Cassie’s eighteenth birthday party when everything boiled over. He had a real problem with alcohol and more than once Martin talked the sheriff out of arresting him for DUI.”

  Neither man noticed Cassie awake and in the shadows, listening quietly to the tale.

  Sean continued, unaware of her growing distress. “Kevin always told me that it was a good thing Greg didn’t have boxing skills along with his rage. Even Martin’s been on the receiving end of Greg’s wrath on more than one occasion. Well, on that night Greg was drunk, and the girls went down to the lake to swim. Greg ‘volunteered’ to pick them up.”

  With Sean behind her, reliving that night of terror, Cassie’s conscious transported her back to that moment when everything crashed and burned, proving to her that only complete separation from that house would ever guarantee her sanity, her ability to have a life outside of MM Air and the family.

  Greg’s slurred speech had chilled her blood when she questioned him that night, wondering why he’d come down to the lake to pick them up when their own cars were there as well. As she saw the night again in her mind, Cassie registered Sean saying the words to Joe, describing the blackness. “Kevin said he never should have let Greg drive to the lake. He knew before Greg left he was too drunk to be let on the road.” Then Cassie fell into the pit in her stomach, back to her birthday and horror.

  ****

  When her memories came upon her this vivid, it became hard to remember it was over ten years since that night. The pain still burned as fresh as if it happened yesterday.

  “Greg, why are you looking at me like that?” Cassie remembered backing away from him as calmly as she could, without alarming him. He was unstable when sober, but drinking made him rash and unpredictable. “What’s wrong?” Sarah Weston, her closest friend since moving to Atlanta, hugged her as she slid behind Cassie. She was no fighter; Cassie knew their survival probably depended on her alone.

  Her brother was completely drunk, it was obvious to all her friends gathered at the lake house to celebrate her eighteen birthday and one last night together before college. They were down at the Devlyn’s private beach, shooting off fireworks and listening to music when Greg appeared around the corner, leaning against the pavilion frame to keep from falling down. The smell of sake and pot rolled around him as a personal aura. His eyes caught hers, and an evil grin split his drunken countenance.

  “Little sister, it is I who have done you a great wrong. I didn’t get you a birthday present. That’s why I came to drive you back home. I’m being a gentleman. We’re going to get you a present, right now.”

  “You don’t have to get me anything Greg. We don’t exchange gifts, remember? Why don’t you let me drive back to the house, or let Sarah drive? We can come get my car tomorrow.” Fear took hold of her heart as Cassie inched her way to the phone that would ring the house and bring a protector. Something was different about Greg this time. He was so drunk his eyes would occasionally cross out of focus, yet the mean streak she knew he had was finally showing up in front of someone outside the family. Greg had beaten her more than once, especially before she started taking self-defense classes. But while his beatings always verged on abuse, this encounter was tinged with something scarier. There was an air of hunger around her brother.

  “Martin can’t help you this time Cassie, nor Kevin. You see, they don’t realize like I do, that you’re the fly in the ointment. You’re the one who’s wrong, you just don’t fit here. If they knew what I knew, everything would be different.” In a flash he was at her side, pulling her too close, fingering her hair as he talked. “Get in the car Cassandra, now.”

  He wrapped his fist in her hair and pulled her toward the open air Jeep, Sarah running alongside trying to free Cassie’s hair. The others present began screaming and she saw more than one person dialing ‘911’ on their cells. Greg pulled open the Jeep door and shoved her in as she fought to keep her body at a distance.

  Stiff with anxiety, and shaking like a leaf, the two girls climbed into the back seat of the open air Jeep to make Greg happy. Sarah had already called 911, and was quietly texting Kevin, letting him know of their predicament. Neither expected what ended up happening.

  Cassie’s vision was blurred from tears and her head was aflame from the abuse. She saw fe
ar on the faces of her friends as they tried to stop Greg from getting back behind the wheel. The old Jeep was a bone rattler, used only to shuttle people and things between the lake side beach and the main house. While it had a tag and ran, that was about all that could be said about it.

  The driver’s door flung open, and Greg stuck his head inside. “Are you scared of me Cassie? You shouldn’t be.” Before Cassie could answer Greg grabbed her hair again and pulled her into the front passenger seat as Sarah screamed and tried to free her. Goosebumps ran up and down Cassie’s body both from cold and fear. “My God Cassie, quit acting like a bitch! You’re going to let me give you a birthday present.” He laughed at his own private joke as the girls clung to the vehicle’s frame to stay put.

  At that moment, as the Jeep hit the main highway toward home, Greg pulled out in front of the county police car, on its way to investigate a disturbance at the lake. He loosed her hair to place both hands on the wheel, but it was too late, and the car clipped the front bumper of the patrol cruiser, the momentum sending them spinning out of control, headed into a ravine. After leaving the pavement, the Jeep rolled several times. Cassie, still halfway between the front and back seats, was ejected near the road and Greg went out over the windshield. Sarah, the only one who actually was wearing her seatbelt, was decapitated and died instantly at the scene. Right in front of Cassie.

  For a long time afterward, all Cassie could remember was screaming.

  ****

  Through the haze of memory Cassie heard Joe and Sean still discussing her, unaware she was listening to them and dying a little more with each word.

  Joe’s deep baritone drew her back to the conversation. “That son of a bitch better hope I never see him alone in the dark. I might have to cut off his dick and feed it to him for lunch!” he growled.

  Sean’s voice was full of torment and contained violence. “She was catatonic and incoherent by the time they got to the emergency room, and had lost a lot of blood. At first Greg tried to pin the entire wreck on Cassie. Then Martin arrived, saw Greg and spoke to him at length behind a locked door, and the Devlyn’s conspiracy of silence was launched. Somehow the investigation by the county sheriff was stonewalled by both Martin and the Weston family.

  Soon after the funeral, Sarah’s father received a big promotion and moved to London. Martin transferred Greg to the West Coast and put him under a microscope in terms of his personal behavior. Cassie was sent to a lavish sanatorium for three months then moved into Kevin’s house where she stayed until we purchased a Midtown property two years ago. And Sarah Weston became another casualty of the Devlyn machine.”

  Running his fingers through his hair, Sean took a deep breath. “Martin never admitted to any of the family that Greg was wrong and should have been prosecuted. That caused Cassie and the other brothers to have a major falling out with their father. He didn’t protect her, wouldn’t even admit to himself much less her that what Greg did was criminal, after all people die from drunk drivers every day. The world was told she had a broken arm. What she really had was a broken soul. Kevin poured all this onto me that night in Buckhead and by the time he was finished the two of us were exhausted and entirely too sober.

  “I asked him why he dumped all this on me, why he didn’t wait and let her tell me. His answer was simply that she never will bring it up. If anything is to change, it’ll have to come from me. Then he made me promise to keep her safe no matter what. Once I assured him that was what I intended to do, he shook my hand and we hailed a cab. Neither of us has mentioned that night since, nor do I think we ever will. It was a momentary break in the Devlyn wall, and I fear the only one I’ll ever see.”

  Both men sat for a moment in the gathering silence. Cassie stood still, while more silent tears rolled down her cheeks. She was crying from relief more than exhaustion or fear, because she loved Sean, and for him to believe Greg’s lies would have made her a victim anew.

  Sean noticed her standing in the bedroom doorway, a deer poised for flight. “How long have you been listening?” he quietly asked.

  “Long enough.” She managed to choke the words out between the knots in her throat. “Were you ever going to tell me you knew?”

  A long silence passed before he answered. “Not once I realized it didn’t matter to me, that I cared enough about you that what happened didn’t change my feelings. When Kevin told me what he was so upset about that night, it enraged me. I have two sisters myself. I would slay anyone who laid an improper hand on them. Then I started thinking how my anger could help you.”

  Cassie crossed the room and put her arms around Sean’s waist. “Thank you for being willing to put up with my insanity all these years.”

  Sean grinned. “Ah woman, if I had known what a high maintenance lady you were going to be, I’d left you at the barbeque seven years ago.”

  Both laughed, which made Sean grab his ribs and moan, while Cassie’s nose ached all over again. Joe shook his head, then went into the small kitchenette to make coffee. Smelling it brewing reminded Sean they hadn’t eaten in quite a while.

  “Joe, is that quaint bakery still open down the street?” He started opening drawers looking for a menu.

  “I think so boss. What do you want?” Joe pulled out his smart phone to jot down the order.

  “Let me have a blueberry scone if they have any, cheese Danish if not. Sweetheart?”

  Cassie answered as her stomach growled in agreement, “I’d love a banana nut muffin or poppy seed, either one.”

  “I’ll be back in a flash.” Joe waved bye, then closed the door, leaving them alone again. This time Sean intended to take advantage of the situation and begin working his way through her self-imposed defenses.

  Taking Cassie by the hand, Sean led her to the bedroom. “We don’t have time for this,” she protested. “Joe’s only going to be gone about fifteen minutes.”

  “That’s not what I was thinking about. You have a one track mind,” he teased.

  Seating her on the bed, he went into the bathroom and grabbed her hair brush. Kneeling on the bed behind her, he began brushing her black mane. Softly, remembering her tender scalp, he ran through again and again, humming some half-forgotten tune his mother sang during his childhood.

  “Mm,” she moaned. “You remembered how much I love it when you brush my hair.”

  “I’ve never forgotten anything you’ve ever told me,” Sean replied honestly.

  “I believe it.”

  For a moment both were silent, enjoying the peace. Sean at last blurted, “I thought this time you were really gone. That phone call from Kevin was the worst moment in my life.”

  “I just knew it was all over when I met Tsichevna. Until that point I really thought this was just a random kidnapping.”

  “Exactly as we feared would happen.”

  Cassie sighed. “I guess we didn’t have every possibility covered.”

  Sean smiled. “I think I want to microchip us both so we can be tracked by GPS. Then I would have known you were in trouble hours before Kevin called me in London. I could have saved you from Tsichevna before the beatings.”

  “It’s all right.”

  “No Cassie, it isn’t all right. Look at you, they beat you within an inch of your life and then tried to blow us up. It might be time to face the fact we have some work to do if we’re going to make this marriage successful. I have to know love, are you ready to forgive me and forgive yourself, so we can stay alive and fight against these threats together, or are you just here until it gets tough again?”

  “Ouch,” she whispered, pain mirrored on her face, “going for the jugular from the beginning? You sure know how to hurt a girl.”

  “No, I just know how to hurt you.” Sean stood up and faced Cassie. “You’ve never forgiven me for being on assignment when you lost our baby. Trust me love, no one hates themselves more than I do but it won’t change the facts. We lost that babe, not just you—WE. But you wouldn’t let me in so we could grieve together. You le
ft me hanging out in the wind while you retreated into your books and papers. So I threw myself into the job and I ended up getting shot and almost dying.”

  “Sean…please, not yet. Do I not get time to heal up before we start?”

  “No love, we face this now or when Joe returns I walk out that door and send you off with those signed papers your family drew up. Which is it going to be? Are you as tough as those bastards made you, or will you run away like a sniveling brat?”

  Her eyes took on a hard, pained edge. “When I was a little girl, my brothers locked me in a closet. It was an exercise in prisoner treatment. One of the many ‘games’ we played as three against one. But this day, my brothers forgot they had ball practice and left. Two hours later everyone got home but I couldn’t be found. Not a one of them would crack, not even Matthew. The police were called, the F.B.I., everyone searched for me. It took until midnight before they finally opened the closet door. I had been in there ten hours and never made a sound. Because that’s what they told me to do. Because I was so scared of making one of them mad.”

  Sean took a deep breath, running his fingers through the fine silky strands as she laid her head against his chest. From there she mumbled, “I just need to know you’ll be there to own up to the locked door.”

  “Oh Cassie,” the torment in his heart plain to hear, “what have they done to your soul? Baby love, I’ll always be there for you. Don’t doubt that at all. But right now I want you to sleep. It’s been a long day, and you did just have surgery. Rest and let someone else do the thinking for a while, okay?”

  “That sounds like a really good idea. I need a chance to get my head around everything that’s happened so far. It still doesn’t seem real people are out there who want to kill me. Stuff like this happens to other people, not me. How do you live like this every day?”

  Laughing as he swept her off her feet and carried her to the couch, Sean answered, “Until I met you I didn’t have things like this. I only had to deal with terrorists and dissident factions in hostile countries. Now, as your husband, I order you to rest. I’ll check on you later.” Then he kissed her gently on the forehead.