Shadows Amongst Light (The Spy Who Loves Me)

by Eason, Mary

  “Shut up, Davis.” I said past him when he reached for my hand and stopped me.

  “Cameron, I kind of need something to change into. Can I at least have my clothes?”

  I left him standing in the doorway while I went upstairs to my room. I dumped the contents of his bag onto my bed. I searched everything for anything that could be used as a weapon or any pertinent information but there was none.

  I threw the clothes back into the bag and took it down to him.

  “It’s clean. But you’re not getting the computer back yet.”

  “Cameron, what’s in there is classified. You don’t need to be seeing it as a civilian.”

  “Shut up, Davis. I’m nothing close to being a civilian and you know it. Your stinking Agency put me in the middle of this game you and your friends are playing. Whatever’s on that computer that you don’t want me to see is just too damn bad.”

  “Cameron, you know I’m authorized to kill you for that don’t you?”

  “Then do it, otherwise shut up and get dressed and make it quick. Ben will be up and second now.”

  I left Davis fuming at men and went to put coffee on before going to my son’s room.

  Ben was still sleeping quietly in his bed, which was strange because my son very rarely slept this late.

  I felt his forehead--he was burning up. I shook him gently and was finally able to rouse up.

  “Honey, are you okay?” I asked only to see him shake his head.

  “Momma, my throat hurts.”

  I found the baby thermometer. Ben’s temperature was way too high. I forgot all about Davis and what I was going to tell Ben about his presence there. I called Ben’s doctor who told me to bring him as soon as possible. It was no doubt the same summer flu-like symptoms that several folks around town were having. But we should play it safe.

  “Baby, Doctor Simpson wants you to come in so that he can examine you. I’m going to start the car. You wait here. You can go as you are, okay?”

  “Momma, do I have to?” Ben asked close to tears.

  “Yes, baby just to be safe. I’ll bring you a Popsicle up in a second.”

  I grabbed my purse and Davis’s computer along with Noah’s and took them both downstairs with me. In the guestroom, I listened to the sound of water splashing in the shower before taking the stuff out to the car where I put them in the trunk. Then I went back inside. I could still hear Davis in the shower.

  I opened the door just enough to tell him what was happening while keeping my eyes anywhere but on the man in my shower.

  “I’m taking Ben into town to see the doctor. Don’t bother searching for your computer because it isn’t here. I’ll be back as soon as I can. While I’m out, I’ll explain everything to Ben.”

  I didn’t wait to hear Davis’s response, I simply left him grabbed Ben’s favorite Popsicle and went upstairs to get my son.

  “Come on baby, let’s go.” Ben was so weak that he actually let me carry him downstairs without a fuss, which only make me that much more afraid. Ben never like to be carried anywhere anymore. He believed he was too big for such things.

  He sat beside me as I drove into town and carried him into the doctor’s office.

  Doctor Simpson confirmed that Ben had the summer flu bug. He gave him a shot and some medicine and sent us on our way with instructions that Ben should drink lots of fluids and rest.

  It wasn’t long before the shot perked Ben up enough that he wanted ice cream. I was only too happy to agree. While we ate our ice cream, I told Ben that we had a guest.

  “Momma, does this mean Daddy’s never coming back?”

  “Oh no, baby. Why would you think that? No, of course not. Davis’s just here to keep us company, at your father’s request until he returns. You see honey the job is taking longer than your daddy thought and he figured we might be lonely. That’s why he sent his...friend.”

  By the time we reached the house, Ben had fallen back asleep. I took him upstairs to bed ignoring Davis’s offer to help.

  “No thanks. I can take care of my son Davis.”

  “I know that Cameron. I’m not trying to interfere. I just wanted to...help.”

  When I returned, I watched Davis as he stood looking out the window. Davis hadn’t changed all that much through the years. Unlike myself. I felt older than ever before and completely unattractive. I’d stopped caring about my looks pretty much after Noah left. What was the point of putting make up on each day for my son who didn’t know I even that wore it?

  Unfortunately, as much as I might have tried to forget the past and what almost happened between myself and Davis, I couldn’t. The fact that he was here with me now, was proof that there was unfinished business between us.

  Davis was here to protect me. However much I didn’t want to admit I needed his or anyone else’s help the truth was, I was almost glad he was here.

  I’d been so lonely for so long, missing Noah and needing some confirmation that my husband loved me. That Noah would come back to us someday. Davis had given me all of that.

  “What? Why exactly are you looking at me like that Cameron?”

  “No reason,” I told him opening the refrigerator door. Trying to distract myself. Davis was right. I had lost my edge. I’d given away all sorts of emotions just by looking into his eyes right now.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked looking back over my shoulder at him to see that he was smiling. I wasn’t fooling Davis for a moment. He knew exactly what I’d been thinking.

  “Yes, I’m hungry, but you’d better let me do the cooking. As I remember it, that wasn’t exactly what you were good at.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Over the next couple of days, Davis and I called a truce to our anger. I was forced to accept that he wasn’t leaving me alone no matter how much I might want him to.

  We fell into the routine of Davis fixing most of our meals, while I spent as much time as possible with Ben.

  Those days were filled with a tension that was almost excruciating. The longer that Ben and I stayed here, the greater chance we had that whoever was spying on us would make his move. Ben was far much too weak to think about moving him just yet. And I still needed to find time search Davis’s computer.

  And so I waited. I watched as my son slowly grew stronger and I tried to be strong for him.

  There was no way I could let myself believe that Noah had changed sides, which left only one logical explanation. Davis and Noah were both working on our side like Davis had alluded to but I found that as hard to believe as any of it.

  Did my brother know which side Davis’s was truly working for? Would it make a difference to Judah I couldn’t—wouldn’t accept any of those terrible things I’d seen written about my brother as true.

  Growing up, Judah had been my idol. After I’d found him again in Washington, the quiet man that he’d become didn’t send any warnings out to me at all. Surely that meant Judah wasn’t a threat to me.

  That sense of knowing the good guys from the bad had certainly let me down with Davis. I believed him to be bad and yet I was wrong? Had the lines in this new war on terrorism become so grayed that I as an outsider now could no longer tell who the players were?

  I sat quietly beside my son while he slept and prayed that wasn’t the case. There wasn’t room for error in judgment anymore. I couldn’t afford to be wrong.

  “Cameron, why don’t you let me sit with him for a while and you try and sleep. You’ve barely gotten more than a couple of hours sleep in days.

  “No. No, I’m okay Davis. I need to be with him.”

  “Cameron, we need to talk,” Davis told me and pretty much pulled me from the chair.

  “Why?” I turned angrily to face him.

  Davis didn’t stop there. He walked past me out into the hall and down the stairs forcing me to follow.

  From the doorway of the kitchen, we faced each other. Those beautiful eyes going over me were filled with tender concern.

  There was still feeling
between us, but Davis had accepted that I would never act upon those feelings.

  “Cameron, sit down. I need to talk to you.”

  I did what he asked because the look in his eyes frightened me.

  “Cameron, I’ve just received some new intelligence that’s disturbing. We need to leave here as soon as possible...tonight. Ben is well enough to travel now. I want to get you two out of here tonight.”

  “No. No, I told you Davis. I’m not leaving with you. What do you mean you’ve gotten new intelligence? How?”

  I remembered that I’d left his computer along with Noah’s locked away in the truck of my car.

  Davis held up the cell phone that he carried and added. “We’re leaving tonight whether you like it or not. I’m no longer asking Cameron.”

  “You’re going to make me, is that it?”

  “You know that I can.” He added quietly.

  I was forced to accept the truth. Davis was right. He could make me do anything he wanted.

  “I’m going back to Ben,” I told him standing and walking to the door.

  “Cameron, I need the computer. Where is it?”

  For a second, I thought about refusing to give it to him but in the end, I knew Davis had our safety in mind.

  “It’s in the trunk of my car, along with Noah’s. Just take it. The keys are on the table.”

  I walked away from Davis to my son‘s side. Ben was only concern.

  By later that morning, Ben was ready to get out of bed. He wanted to go outside and play but couldn’t let him out of my sight.

  “Momma, why can’t I sit outside with Bo?”

  “No, honey you need to stay in the house for a while. Why don’t you and Bo go to the great room and play?”

  Ben wasn’t happy with that but he didn’t argue. I think he too was beginning to realize something else was going on here.

  It was a little surprising, at first how easily Ben adjusted to Davis. My son accepted my story about Davis’s presence there without question. I think he was just happy to have someone who knew his father to talk to.

  It was almost three months since Noah left. I never told Ben about the night Noah came to us in Washington, even though he’d believed that he’d seen his father there.

  While Ben and Bo sat playing with the Lego set Davis had bought for Ben, I decided it was time to get some answers. After all, both my son and I were caught up in whatever struggle was going on within The Organization. Surely, I needed to know what I was up against.

  “What? You going to refuse to come with me? Is that what that determined look is all about?”

  “No,” I told Davis reluctantly. “But I do want some answers, Davis and that’s my demand for cooperating. Otherwise, you can forget it. You’ll have to force me to go with you.”

  “Cameron.”

  “That’s it, Davis. That’s the way it has to be. If you want my help, then you’ll agree.”

  “All right. I guess I don’t have a choice now do I?”

  “Not really, I told him as he followed me to the kitchen.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “I want to know how you know my husband.”

  “Not going to happen, Cameron. I can’t tell you that.”

  “Oh yes, you can and keep your voice down. I don’t want Ben to hear us talking.”

  Davis didn’t say anything for such a long time and I held my breath. I still wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t tell me the truth.

  “Alright, but I have to tell you Cameron if this becomes an issue...”

  “Yes, I know. You’ll take care of me. I know that Davis, but you’re not scaring me. You’d never hurt me.”

  “Sometimes, I wish that weren’t the truth. Because all that’s going to happen here is I’m going to get in deeper trouble with you than I already am.”

  “The truth, Davis. We’re running out of time here and I need to know some answers. For myself and for Ben.”

  “All right. I take it you found all the bugs?” he asked smiling as my shocked expression confirmed the truth.

  “You? You put them there?”

  “What do you think?”

  “You were sent here to spy on me? You thought that I was the mole?” I added incredulously.

  “No, yes...Adam believed that for a while Cameron I never thought of you as the mole and neither did Noah. We knew where your loyalties lay, but Adam needed proof. After all Judah is your brother. I was sent to confirm your loyalty and your innocence.”

  “So Adam knows about my family ties? Is that why you came here in the first place?”

  “Oh Cameron, how can you even ask me that. That’s not it at all. Yes, I was sent here to prove your loyalties, but I came willingly because I’d fallen in love with you from the start.”

  I looked into his eyes and knew that Davis meant those words. I only wished that I could return his feelings.

  “You still haven’t told me how you and Noah know each other.”

  “I was hoping you’d forgotten about that,” he said and caught my determination. “Okay, okay, here it is. Noah and I went through training at the academy together. Adam was the person who trained us both--along with the rest of the team that he handpicked for the special anti-terrorist task force. At the time, we were just beginning to understand the importance of keeping track of these guys’ movements.

  “We were the top of our group. Noah and then me. It was always a competition between us, even though we were, are good friend. Unfortunately, it was never much of a competition. Noah was always first. That’s why Adam took him under his wing. He was grooming Noah to take over his position one day.”

  I was shocked by that. I’d thought Noah was out of the game altogether. I’d actually believed our little fairy tale life here was real. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  “I’m sorry, you didn’t know did you? You thought Noah was retired. I’m sorry, but you have to know how hard it is for someone like Noah. He’s used to the thrill of the game.”

  “So he lied to me about being out. He deliberately let me think he was finished with it. That we were going to be just another happy normal middle class family. He never intended to stick around for good, did he Davis.”

  “I can’t answer that, Cameron. Only Noah can. But I can tell you this. He loved you from the second he met you. He talked about nothing else. I was so sick of hearing about you and so jealous once I’d met you. I would have given anything to be Noah at that moment.”

  “Sorry Davis, but if that’s supposed to impress me it’s not working. I’m not flattered. Tell me how you two ended up where you are?”

  “As I’ve said, Adam was grooming Noah for his job and me being of Arab background, well it seemed fitting that I would be more usual stationed over there.”

  “So how did you end up here in the states again? In Washington, in the same place as Noah?”

  “As much as I’d like to say, I’d planned it so that I could meet you, that’s not the case. I was undercover.”

  “Undercover? Where?”

  “Cameron...”

  “You were following my brother? How did you get that close to him?”

  “Cameron, I know you want to believe that person you met in Washington is the same person you knew as a child, but you’re wrong. Judah is a cold-blooded killer.”

  “Kind of like you and Noah...and myself.”

  “No, not like that at all. You’ve seen the reports. Don’t try to deny it. I know you read Noah’s files. Judah is dangerous. He’s not the person you thought he was.”

  “I don’t’ believe you.”

  “It’s true, honey. He’s responsible for all those things and quite possible much more that we don’t even know about yet. He’s not the person you want him to be.”

  And then something else occurred to me that sent chills through my body. “Davis, I’ve talked to him since leaving Washington. He knows where I live. He’s called me here...”

  “I know,” he told me quietly. “
I know all about it, Cameron. We’ve been monitoring you’re every move, remember?”

  “Is he coming here Davis? Is Judah coming here for me and my son?”

  “I don’t know. All I know is Judah isn’t who you think he is. There’s a very real chance that you and Ben could be in danger the longer we stay here. That’s why you have to help me. And you have to cooperate with me. I think he’s trying to flush Noah out by coming after you and Ben.”

  “Why does he want Noah?”

  “Noah has been tracking his activity for years. Noah has been responsible for stopping so many of Judah’s planned attacks before they could ever get off the ground. It’s become a personal vendetta for Judah.”

  “So when I met you in Washington you knew about my brother?”

  “No, I’d been working undercover in the Red Jihad for years. I watched Judah came in and out of that training camp. But we never understood his identity until just before I met you. You see, the guy that we believed to be the real person in charge proved to be only a decoy. One of Judah’s cronies set up to fool any intelligence that might be watching.

  “I managed to work my way close to Judah after a while. He trusted me. When I came to Washington with him it was there that I begin to realize that we’d been chasing the wrong guy all those years.

  “We had no idea until it was too late just how far-reaching the Red Jihad’s power really was.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Cameron, they have people working for them that you can’t imagine.” Davis whispered. “High up people in critical government roles. The mole in The Organization ranks is only one small part of it. This is a serious threat. You remember before you left the document that you decode?” I nodded and he continued. “I believe that was just a ruse planned by Judah to try and flush out the person within the ranks that was feeding Noah the information. It worked, because after you told Judah about that document my cover was blown and I was brought in.”

  “Oh, Davis. I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

  “I know,” he said quietly. “But you know some of that stuff was true. The part about the major terrorist cells uniting. It’s happened. All under Judah’s leadership. Something’s about to break. And soon.”