by Donna Hill
Walking slowly through the terminal, her thoughts were focused on her life and where it would take her. She didn’t see the Special Forces agent until he was right next to her, clasping her elbow.
“Come with me, Ms. Davenport, the general would like to speak with you. There’s a car outside waiting to take us to Chevy Chase.”
Not again, she prayed silently. Not again.
On the far side of the terminal a second agent walked casually to a pay phone and dialed the designated number. The phone was answered on the first ring.
“Yes.”
“Davenport was just picked up at the airport.”
“Keep her close. I’m sure they’re bringing her in.”
James Knight hung up the phone. He leaned back in his seat. “What will you try to do to my son this time?” he asked aloud.
“Have a seat, Victoria. Make yourself comfortable,” said General Murphy. “I do apologize for getting you out so late, but we have pressing matters to discuss.”
Victoria took a seat and folded her hands in front of her. It had been over three years since she’d been in these rooms bartering with the devil. She looked around. Nothing had changed. “Why am I here, Uncle Frank? I would have thought I paid my dues in full by now.”
Murphy gave her a sardonic smile. “Interest, my dear. Interest.” He turned away from her and took a seat. “You’ve been in contact with Knight again, Vicky, after being given specific instructions to stay away from him—for good. Why?”
Victoria swallowed. They’d been following her. What else did they know about her life? “We had things to discuss,” she said in a tight voice.
“It’s my business to know what things.”
“Believe me, general, our conversation had nothing to do with anything that would interest you.”
He leaned forward, his cool green eyes burning through her. “Everything you do interests me. The only reason why you’ve reached the level that you have in the Force is because of my benevolence! And don’t you ever forget it,” he seethed. When he looked at Victoria Davenport he could see the face of her mother as surely as if she stood in front of him. Guilt and something much deeper twisted into a painful knot in his belly. He reached into his pocket, extracted a packet of antacids, and popped two in his mouth.
He was one of two people who knew of Victoria’s unsavory beginnings. He and Victoria’s mother. For a man of Hamilton Delaware’s stature, that type of scandal would have ruined his career. They’d been the closest of friends since their early days in training. They were brothers at heart, even though their race denied it. And Murphy had sworn he’d help keep his secret, even though it tore at his heart to do so. Hamilton was totally unaware of just how much they shared. They would have still been friends if Hamilton hadn’t discovered the experiments that the Force was running, with Frank Murphy as head of operations. Hamilton decided to turn his findings over to the Senate. Frank’s career would have been over. He’d worked too hard. He couldn’t allow that to happen. Hamilton had betrayed him. He betrayed their friendship and all that he’d done on Hamilton’s behalf. He couldn’t let him get away with that. Yet even after it was over, he never broke his promise to maintain Hamilton’s secret. He kept the money flowing into the accounts Hamilton had set up for Victoria as well as Reese.
He blinked back the memories and focused on Victoria. She was a casualty of internal warfare. She and her half sister. What was done was necessary. There was no turning back. And he couldn’t let family ties interfere with what he had to do.
“I want to know everything you discussed with Maxwell Knight. And I want to know how much information Reese Delaware has about his life.”
James paced the small space that he used as his office. He didn’t like what was happening. The fact that the general had taken Victoria in was reason to believe that the general was getting leery. And when he did, people were eliminated. Victoria had probably been working with him all along. But why did she suddenly go to see Max after all this time? He was sure it had something to do with the interview.
They couldn’t take a chance on approaching Reese for fear that any reappearance of the military in her life would trigger her memory. That was the last thing they needed.
He lit a cigarette and watched the smoke trail upward and cloud the room. So much could have been different if only Hamilton had elected not to take his entire family to the hearings that morning. Things would have been different if there were no communications breakdown that day. He shut his eyes against the images.
There was nothing he could do about the past. All he could do was try to protect his son. He knew he’d never been much of a father, but he did what was necessary for the life he led. And Max must never find out, especially now.
A soft tap on the door interrupted his musings.
Claudia stepped into the room. “Aren’t you coming to bed, James? It’s almost one o’clock in the morning.”
James smiled absently. “I’ll be up in a minute.”
Claudia crossed the room to stand in front of him. She looked up into her husband’s eyes. “What is it James? Something’s wrong. I’ve known it for days.”
He searched her smooth cocoa face. This woman, his wife, had stood by him unquestioningly for thirty-five years. She withstood the humiliation that he brought on their home. She cared for and nurtured a son that was not hers. She endured a loveless marriage and never flinched, never once complained.
His heart filled with regret—for all the things he could have been to his wife and his son and he wasn’t. There wasn’t enough time in his life to make up for what he hadn’t done.
Slowly he put his arm around her slender shoulders and pulled her gently against his hard-packed frame. “Oh, Claudia,” he hummed against her soft auburn curls. “I wish I knew where to begin. There’s such a long bridge between us and it’s my fault.” He shook his head woefully. “I don’t even know how to get back across—to you.”
“I’m here to cross it with you, James. If you’ll only let me.” She reached up and cupped his beardless cheeks. “I’ve always been here. Meet me halfway?”
James looked down into her eyes, so full of hope and expectation. Just as they’d looked thirty-five years ago…
“Claudia, you know the kind of life I live.” He sat down on the bench and stared down at his hands. Claudia took the small space next to him, her clean fresh scent wrapping around him.
“James. I love you and I know you love me. That’s what’s important. I know that your devotion to the service is important to you also. I can live with that, but not without you. We can work it out.”
He turned to her and when he did, the magic in her eyes made him believe that anything was possible. “I’m only twenty-one years old. You’re barely nineteen, your parents will have a fit.”
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with my parents, James. I want to spend it with you.” She pressed her warm lips to his. “They’ll just have to understand.”
James heaved a sigh. “You know I joined the Special Forces unit.”
Claudia nodded and took his hand.
“That means I’m going to be traveling a lot. We’re going to spend a lot of time away from each other. There will be aspects of my assignments that I’ll never be able to discuss with you. We may even have to move around…”
She put her finger to his lips to still him. “Shh. I know, sweetheart. I know. And I can deal with it, so long as you can.”
“You’re sure?”
She smiled, her heart ready to burst with joy. “Yes, James, I’m sure.”
He took her in his arms. “Then I guess I’d better have a talk with your parents. I’m scheduled to be shipped out to the Philippines within the next six months. You think you can pull a wedding together in that amount of time?” he grinned.
Claudia whooped with joy and wrapped her arms around his neck, planting countless kisses across his face. “I’ll make you happy, James, I swear I will,” she cried, burying
her face against his chest. “I’ll make a home for us and our family no matter where we are. Just meet me halfway…”
“Come on sweetheart, let’s go to bed. We’ll talk in the morning,” James said, pushing back the memories. He switched of the light and walked toward the door. “It’s about time you understood everything. I owe you that much.” He put his arm around his wife and walked with her upstairs.
Claudia sat across from her husband at the breakfast table. For the past thirty-five years of their marriage, she’d believed that she knew her husband, even if she didn’t always understand him. Looking at him now and trying to comprehend the enormity of what he’d revealed, she realized she didn’t know this man at all or of what he was capable.
“How could you have lived with this for the past fifteen years, James?” she asked, bewilderment stretching across her smooth features. “What about Maxwell, now that he’s…involved with this Reese Delaware? Where does that leave him—you?”
James placed his elbows on the table and braced his chin with his fists. “I don’t know Claudia. I just know that I have to protect him. Frank Murphy will do whatever is necessary to ensure that what happened that day and all that went before it and since, is never discovered.”
Claudia jumped up from the table. “Then you have to go to your superiors, his superiors, and tell them.” Her heart raced with fear.
“Don’t be naive, Claudia,” he spouted. “Who would believe me? I would disappear faster than I could get the words out. Do you honestly believe the United States government would readily admit to what they’d done for three decades to their own troops?” He hung his head and shook it in defeat. “Hamilton Delaware thought he could make a difference…” his voice drifted off.
Claudia wrapped her hands around her waist as a shiver ran up her spine. “In other words, we’re at their mercy?”
“Pretty much.”
“What about Max?”
“I debated with myself all night about what to do. There’s no way I can tell him anything. I’ve had Larry trailing him. He’s been keeping me informed of everything that’s been going on. But he needs to be warned about Victoria.”
“And what about that poor girl, Reese? What about her?”
Chapter 13
Carmen had just sat down at her desk when Maxwell strode in.
“Good morning, Carmen,” he greeted a smile brightening his warm bronze features. “How are you today?”
Carmen raised an inquisitive brow. “Just fine and you?”
“Couldn’t be better. Is Reese around yet?”
“No,” she said slowly. “She came in yesterday, but she didn’t mention if or when she’d be here today.”
Maxwell frowned. “She was here yesterday?”
“Yes. For about two hours, late in the afternoon.”
“Hmm. I see. No. I don’t see. What was she doing here? She told me… I mean, I thought she would have been at the hotel working on the article.”
“She said she needed some background information on you. We talked for a long time,” she added coyly.
He braced his palms against her desk and leaned forward. His dark eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What exactly did you tell her?”
Carmen avoided his steady stare. “I started off by telling her what a wonderful man you are,” she said, paving the way for the fallout.
He arched an eyebrow. “And?”
“And…well…she asked me some questions about…”
“About what?”
“About Victoria Davenport,” she blurted out. “And I told her what a witch that woman was and that she had nothing to worry about, you were through with her.” She folded her arms beneath her ample bosom in defiance.
Maxwell lowered his head and began to chuckle. He looked up at Carmen. “You’re a real piece of work, Carmen. I have to give you that.” He moved away from her desk, stopped and turned back with a soft smile on his face. “Thanks. She needed to hear that from someone other than me.”
He hadn’t been at his desk for more than five minutes, when the intercom buzzed.
“Yes, Carmen?”
“Max. Your father is on line one.”
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“T…thanks. I’ll take it.” He couldn’t remember the last time his father had called him at the office, and to track him to L.A. immediately had him worrying. Something had to be wrong. His father was never one for chitchat.
He pressed the steady red light. “Dad? How are you?”
“I’m fine, son.”
Claudia stood close, stroking his back, encouraging him to go on.
“I know this can’t be a social call, so tell me what’s wrong. Is it mom? Did something happen?”
“Your mother is fine. That’s not the reason for the call…”
Maxwell sat at his desk, staring at the panorama outside his window. His gut instinct told him to stay clear of Victoria and, fool that he was, he let his emotions overrule his head once again. She came to see him for one reason and one reason alone, to find out what she could about Reese. But why? Why was Air Force intelligence interested in Reese Delaware, a woman with no past to speak of?
His father had cleverly avoided any mention of Reese, but it was clear to him, based on Victoria’s questions, that it was her only reason for seeing him. There was nothing else they’d discussed that would be of interest to anyone.
His suspicions and his fears mounted. Reese was a target for something and he felt certain it had to do with the past she’d forgotten. But there was no way he could protect her if neither of them knew what was sealed behind the closed doors of her memory.
Reese barely slept the night before. Her dreams were plagued by the dark images and muted voices of her past. But now, for the first time, she could remember fragments of her dream.
She tried to concentrate on putting her thoughts down on paper, but she couldn’t stay focused. Everything kept coming back to visions of her walking out of her house and seeing a figure near her family’s car. She couldn’t make out the face. But the frightening thing was that when she did try to force an image, the face was always Maxwell’s.
“That’s ridiculous,” she said aloud, getting up from the couch. “If what I’m seeing has any validity, Maxwell couldn’t have been more than seventeen or eighteen at the time.”
Her head began to pound, and she knew by the symptoms that it was the onset of one of those mind-searing headaches. She went into the bathroom and took a pill.
“What could Max have to do with the deaths of my family? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You’re grasping at straws, and you’re talking to yourself.”
The phone rang. She picked up the phone in the bedroom. “Hello?”
“Hey, girl, it’s me Lynn. My interview with ‘Q’ was slammin’! The man is gorgeous. You hear me—gorgeous!”
“Better than he looks on those videos?”
“Trust me, pictures and film do the man no justice whatsoever. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
“That’s all good, Lynn, but did you get a story, or just get your panties twisted in a knot?”
“I should be so lucky,” she said drolly. “Yeah, I got the interview. But I’m too pumped up to even think about writing. I thought I’d drop in and we could talk. I’m heading out tomorrow.”
“Sure, come on up. There are some things I need to run by you anyway.”
“Everything okay?”
“Not really, but we’ll talk when you get here.”
“Sure. See you in a few.”
Victoria’s nerves were strung to the breaking point. Her uncle was crystal clear about his instructions. “If you value your job, you won’t breathe a word of this meeting to Maxwell Knight. I expect to hear from you immediately if you hear from him and if he relays any information about Reese Delaware you are to contact me no matter what time of day or night.”
She rubbed her hands together as she carved a trail in the cream-colored carpet of h
er bedroom. Her slender body, sheathed in a bold red rayon suit, cut a brilliant figure against the cool tones of the opulent room. She should have been in her office more than an hour earlier. She was working on refining the tracking systems in the fighter jet’s computer systems. The deadline for completion was barreling down on her, but she had to make a call and her office was already tapped. She couldn’t be sure about her apartment, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
Snatching up her purse, she headed outside. The instant she stepped out of doors she felt as if she were under a microscope. She had no idea who was watching or from where. But she knew they were out there. Waiting.
Taking her usual route to work, she continued to take furtive glances in the rearview mirror. At the first gas station she pulled in and up to a vacant gas pump. Casually she looked around and seeing nothing untoward, she went straight for the pay phone.
Dialing Maxwell’s office number she thought of all the reasons why she shouldn’t. But the reason why she should overruled. If he would only listen to her, this might be her one way to make up for all the damage she’d done in the past.
The phone rang twice before it was picked up.
“M.K. Enterprises. Good morning.”
“Good morning. I’d like to speak with Mr. Knight please.”
The hairs on the back of Carmen’s neck bristled at the sound of Victoria’s voice.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Knight is busy. I’ll have to take a message.”