Inwardly I groaned. I didn’t want to hurt her, but this was best. She needed to become disenchanted with me; she needed to get off the island and forget that I existed. Vague thoughts played in my mind of Anabel at the White House; seeing her when I saw Sam. No—that would be ridiculous. I supposed it would be inevitable that our paths would cross; yet if I kept this up, it would be unpleasant.
She was folding up her towel. She yanked the little dress over her head and sent me an icy glare. “Well, I’m going inside now. You know where to find me.”
I watched her walk back. I think she was trying to stomp but the sand wouldn’t let her. I chuckled a little to myself. Maybe, I told myself, once I got her off of the island and she saw me as a hero, we would be able to really get to know each other and be friends.
Until then, it would have to be this way. I wanted to get off of Caereon alive, and I had a feeling Jonathan would kill me otherwise. Also, if Sam got wind of me kissing his sister, I would probably get fired.
I sat and watched the waves roll in. Out of nowhere, guilt hit me. I should just talk to her and explain. Anabel was rational, after all. She would understand.
Then, Charlie appeared. “Hi there,” he greeted me. “Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all,” I lied.
He sat down next to me. For an older man, Charlie seemed remarkably fit and energetic, the opposite of Jonathan. “Are you enjoying your stay?”
I shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s a job.”
“And Anabel?” He was staring at me.
“I think she has a crush on me, and I’m doing my best to dissuade her from it,” I assured him.
“Good,” Charlie affirmed. “It doesn’t do her any good, you know. Gets her hopes up and all, you being here. She thinks her brother will get her off of the island.” He offered me a bottle of water.
I took it and swallowed. “You don’t think he will?”
Charlie laughed. “He’s been promising her he’d get her out of here for a very long time. She just thinks it’s a matter of funding; but I know better.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It will cause a lot of uproar when she appears. Let me be frank here. It’s easy to explain away a lot of things, Jared, but a nineteen-year-old girl?” He squinted into the sun. “Besides, she’s been living here for years without a security clearance, and a lot of questions are going to arise.”
“Well, surely some story will be invented?”
“Yes, but who’s to say she can stick to it? Say she goes to college and winds up at a party. She has a little too much to drink and starts sharing all sorts of details about her life here and what we protect. She’s very young and doesn’t really understand a lot of the things that go on.” Charlie sighed. “Besides, it’s not like Jonathan would ever let her go.”
“He can’t keep her prisoner here forever.”
“No,” Charlie prodded. “But what if Jonathan gets reassigned?”
I laughed at that thought. “That’s doubtful. Sam feels that Jonathan does an excellent job running Caereon.”
Charlie considered this. “Yes, but who is he getting this information from?”
“Jonathan, I suppose.” I hadn’t really thought about it.
“Precisely!” he said. “Jared, most of us are fed up with the way he runs this place. We are required to work ridiculous hours. He enacts severe punishments for anyone who comes within twenty feet of his daughter. I know you heard about Kevin Miller.”
“I asked Anabel about it the other day. Do you have any more information on it?”
“I think Jonathan is becoming unhinged,” he confided. “He took special pains to get Kevin flown out here so he could keep any eye on him.”
“Why was Kevin hanging out with Anabel anyway? I’m surprised Jonathan allowed it in the first place.”
“Well, they get good behavior privileges sometimes. Depending on the inmate, of course. We obviously do not allow terrorists on the premises unattended.” Charlie frowned. “It was really an oversight on all of our parts. According to Annie, she was reading one day in the public library when Kevin came upon her. She doesn’t normally go there, and no one had bothered to follow up on her.” He sighed. “You see, she used to have someone who—who watched over her, but her father—”
“Miss Jessmyn,” I acknowledged. “I heard about what happened between the two of you.”
He nodded angrily. “Yes, Marilyn did an excellent job preventing Anabel from consorting with the inmates, but now there isn’t any such oversight. I admit I looked the other way. I thought it would do the poor girl some good to have a friend.”
“Do the criminals talk to her often?” That thought bothered me.
“No, the rules are if you see Anabel, you keep walking. They all know it—but Kevin didn’t. Or perhaps he did and chose to ignore it. He had only been here a brief amount of time when they met each other, and as I mentioned, none of us said anything to Jonathan at first because we thought the companionship did her good. She’s very lonely,” he stated, and I knew that was a jab at me.
Ignoring that, I pressed him. “So what happened when Jonathan found out?”
“He went ballistic,” Charlie said. “He screamed at the guy, threw him off the island, and made sure he went somewhere—well. Anabel was so angry, and I think she still blames herself.”
“Where is he now?”
“ADX Florence.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Where they housed the Unabomber? Is he in solitary?”
“Yes.” Charlie watched for my reaction.
I shook my head in disgust. “That’s ridiculous. ADX is for terrorists and traitors. Why on earth is he there?”
“Because he knows we’re here. He was supposed to stay here, Jared. You don’t get to just leave. None of the people here are ever going to leave.” He put major emphasis on that last statement. “If word gets out about us, well, you can imagine the implications.”
“So you’re telling me people are sent here to die?”
“Well, you know the kind of people they send here. We have quite a few members of Al-Qaeda. Everyone here is presumed dead. So it really doesn’t matter whether they live or die here.” He sounded bitter and angry.
“So how did you handle Kevin’s return to the States?”
“It was very quiet. No questions have been asked, thank God,” he replied. “But that doesn’t mean that will happen with Anabel.”
“Why are you telling me this, Charlie?”
“I’m telling you this,” he stressed, “because you alone have the power to make this okay for her. You can tell her brother she’s best off where she is.”
“But she’s not,” I protested.
“I care about Anabel very much, and I don’t want to see her hurt,” he shared. “You must realize that it would not be easy to assimilate her into society. Think about it. What is she going to do if she winds up in DC? She’d probably get hit by a car because she wouldn’t know any better. No one ever taught her to look both ways before crossing the street. So you see, Jared,” he continued, “you have to tell Sam that she needs to stay here. You have to do this to protect Anabel. Despite what you say, I can tell that you care about her, and this is best for her.”
“I see,” I said. I didn’t see. I wondered if Jonathan had persuaded Charlie to come and talk to me, and that’s what this was all about. Jonathan wished me as far away as possible from his little girl. He didn’t want to lose her. While I could appreciate that, the look of desperation in Anabel’s eyes haunted me when she talked about how she needed out. It was stifling her; it was killing her. But I didn’t want to stir the pot with Charlie. It was best to play his game, at least for now. “I appreciate you talking to me—it sheds a light on things I hadn’t even considered.”
Charlie nodded. “You and me, Sorensen—we’re men of business. We understand how things have to run. Sam will let his emotions cloud his judgment when it comes to her. But we all know that she needs to st
ay here. I mean, if she came back and it destroyed Sam, you would be out of a job.”
“Thanks, Charlie.” He clapped his hand on my shoulder and left.
He left me to my thoughts, which were growing more and more turbulent. She needed off of the island, period. It bothered me that Jonathan had sent Charlie to do his dirty work. It bothered me that Anabel was probably locked in her room crying. Despite Charlie’s flimsy reasons, I knew she would be fine.
Maybe for once, I wouldn’t be the bad guy, the guy lurking in the shadows, the guy doing what needed to be done. Maybe for once I would be the hero.
I just had to lie.
I wanted to tell her. So she wouldn’t hate me. Which set me face-to-face with another ugly fact: Anabel’s opinion actually mattered to me. For lack of a better word, Anabel . . . suited me. She was easy to talk to. Her self-deprecating manner and ready sarcasm made me laugh, and she could be laughing and full of vitality in a way that would catch any man’s attention.
Except.
Except when she was sharing her fears about being trapped on the island. That transformed her into someone completely different, and her eyes looked haunted.
If I didn’t get her out, I would be followed by those eyes for the rest of my life.
I brushed myself off and prepared to tell her everything, when another thought attacked me. What if I told her . . . and she lost her temper and blabbed it to her father? Or Charlie? That could have dire consequences as well. Charlie did have a point; she was a bit of a risk sometimes, as manifested by her screaming matches with Jonathan.
I wanted her to think well of me. I sighed. That was selfish. I should just keep it to myself, and then when we got off of the island, I could be Knight in Shining Armor.
Perfect.
Chapter 18—Jared
“Stop,” Anabel said.
I looked at her. She was shaking her head. “I can’t take this. I can’t take hearing about you caring about me. I mean,” she said, choking back her tears, “you couldn’t tell me you loved me the other day, and now you’re saying you looked at me like I was your sister, and then when you called me I thought . . . I thought . . .”
“What did you think?” I asked her.
She swallowed. “What does it matter? We can’t have a sensible conversation without having a fight.”
“Maybe it’s because we’ve never tried.”
“What’s the point?”
“Look, I’ve been going crazy. I can’t stop thinking about you.” I may as well be honest.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry. Am I supposed to pity you? Aside from the fact that I’m pregnant with your child, you have no other reason to want to be with me. You don’t even love me.”
“Of course I do,” I protested. “Anabel, don’t you see? I was just fighting my feelings. I just didn’t want to believe that I felt that way about you. Sort of like how you feel now.”
She looked up at me and frowned. Meghan was shaking her head, but I stood up and continued. “You don’t want to admit to yourself that you have feelings for me, do you?”
Anabel’s cheeks were flushed, her eyes darkened. “This isn’t the time or the place.”
“I’m done with the games, Anabel. You need to knock this off. Look, I don’t blame you. I understand that you’re confused, and you’re pregnant, for crying out loud. But I know you love me. It was in your every look, every touch, every smile, and every kiss. Even when you look at me now your eyes give you away. So don’t act all high and mighty and pretend like there isn’t something there, because there is. I’ve apologized to you. I’ve begged for mercy. But you can’t keep stringing me along, because I won’t tolerate it from you.”
She rose and walked over to me, hands on her hips, glaring. “You won’t tolerate it from me? So what are you saying? Are you giving me an ultimatum?”
“Yes, I am.”
She slapped me then. I didn’t know she had it in her. I don’t think she knew it, either. She froze and stared at me, shocked at what she’d done. I rubbed my face. “Ouch, woman. If you wanted to play rough, all you had to do was say so.”
“I can’t take you anymore! You know your sister’s sitting right there.” She waved her arms toward Meghan, who had her head in her hands.
I paused and stared at her. Anabel was radiant in her anger, with her eyes flashing, her cheeks flushed. She was absolutely beautiful, from her scowling face to her rounded belly. I couldn’t help myself, she just looked too good. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her.
She resisted at first, but then kissed me back passionately. My hands ran through her hair, and she wrapped her arms around my neck. Then she pulled herself away and attempted to glare at me. “What was that?” she asked, half angry, half amused.
“What you wanted.”
Meghan cleared her throat. “You guys,” she began.
But Anabel was inches away from me again. “I am so sick of you thinking that every woman on the planet wants you.”
“No, honey. But I know you do.”
“Jared!” hissed Meghan. I looked at her, and she pointed. Sam and Alexis were staring at us, dressed in their Sunday finest. I could tell from their faces that they had seen everything.
“Sam,” said Anabel, moving toward her brother “don’t get upset. This was my fault.”
“You can’t keep taking responsibility for his actions, Annie,” he seethed.
“Well in this case, it is my fault,” she said. She looked from me, to my sister, to her brother and his wife, and then her gaze switched back to me. “I can’t do this here,” she said.
“We can go somewhere. Anywhere,” I told her.
She eyed my sister. “We can’t. We have to go through everything for tomorrow.”
“Hi Sam,” my sister managed. “Remember me?”
“Of course, Meghan,” he said, exasperated. Then he turned to his sister. “Anabel, I need to see you alone.”
“No,” she said, as if in a daze, her eyes locked on mine.
“I’m sorry, did you just say no to me?” Alexis put her hand on his arm.
“I’m not your child, Sam.” She closed her eyes. “Please come in here. Please, let’s just finish this, because otherwise we’ll be going in unrehearsed.”
“What is there to rehearse? You tell the truth, he tells the truth, we’re done.” Sam came and stood next to her. “Stop trying to protect him.”
“It’s my decision, whether you like it or not. It’s not like you want me here anyway,” she spat.
“Anabel, what are you talking about? Where is this coming from?” Sam gestured at me. “Did he say something to you?”
She turned and looked at him, troubled. “What would you have done with me once I was off the island? If Jonathan hadn’t died and everything hadn’t come out?”
He was perplexed. “What do you mean?”
“Jared told me,” she stopped, and frowned. “He told me that Charlie tried to dissuade him from telling you I needed off of Caereon.” She hunched over her belly and crossed her arms as she looked at her brother like she didn’t know who he was. “Charlie said that I would have been a problem.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “Anabel, you would never have been a problem, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t lie to her, Sam,” snapped Alexis. We all turned to look at her. “You know as well as I do that there were all sorts of problems.” She turned to Anabel. “When some Cabinet members found out the connection between you and Sam, we had to admit everything to them, but we had kept you a secret. You were a need-to-know. So we didn’t want it to get out, it would have caused a scandal.”
“I see,” she whispered.
“You need to give your brother credit, though,” Alexis continued. “He did fight for you, but we both knew it couldn’t be, Anabel! And then, what we all feared happened: you emerged, Caereon’s cover was blown, and Sam lost his political career. You can’t really do anything else after resigning from t
he presidency!”
Anabel looked at her brother. “I thought you didn’t blame me.”
“Sam doesn’t. I do,” she spat. “Do you think this is the life we wanted? Sam could have been president for at least another term. He was doing wonderful things for this country, and you ruined it!”
“That’s enough, Alexis!” Sam turned to her.
“No. No, you know what? Your spoiled brat sister needs to understand the repercussions of her actions!”
“It’s not my fault Jonathan was murdered!”
“I disagree,” snapped Alexis. Her heels clacked as she walked closer to Anabel. “Now, I have tolerated your presence. I have bent over backwards for you. I understood, Anabel, that it was a shock to have your father murdered and your life in danger—yes, I get it. But don’t you dare act like we haven’t been there for you. I sent my kids away for you. I have done everything I could for you. What kind of a life do you think I have now?” Her voice was filled with hysteria. “It revolves around you—and for what? Sam and I are young, what are we going to do for the rest of our lives? Play golf?”
“I said that is enough, Alexis!” Sam roared. “How dare you talk to my sister this way?”
“HALF! HALF-SISTER! WHOM YOU BARELY KNOW!” Alexis began striking at Sam. “I supported you! I helped you win your seat in the House! I used my connections to help propel you to the Presidency! And now look at you,” she sneered. “You threw it all away—and for what? For her?” She gestured in Anabel’s direction. “Do you think she’s grateful? She might be at first, but the fact of the matter is, as soon as she gets Jonathan’s will money, she’ll want nothing to do with her washed up brother!”
“Oh please,” scoffed Anabel. “Sam’s the only family I have. I would never cut him out. You’re just trying to stir up trouble.”
She lunged at Anabel, who shrieked and jumped back. “ALEXIS! I am pregnant, for crying out loud!”
“Oh, that’s another thing. I’m pretty sure you did that on purpose.” She pulled away from Sam and stamped up the stairs. We all heard the door slam.
Anabel and Sam looked at each other. Neither of them spoke for a moment.
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