Welcome to the Family

by Nancy S. Reece

  All this remembering the past cast her emotional walls down, that must be the problem. More than one high dollar shrink told Cassie it did no good to wander into her demons too frequently. It broke walls that had taken most of her adult life to build. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks. He softly wiped them away.

  “What’s wrong now?” he whispered.

  “Everything just hurts.” Cassie hoped he would mistake emotional pain for physical trauma. That gave her time to work on resetting those walls before having to face her brothers. Before the work of winning freedom began in earnest.

  “Tell me about your relationship with Kevin,” Sean urged. “Now is as good a time as any.”

  She fell silent. At last she stirred and murmured. “You know I was in a car wreck with Greg, on my eighteenth birthday? He was drunk and ran off the road, killing Sarah Weston, my best friend since kindergarten.”

  “Yes,” his answer was low, free of rage though it simmered just below his heart.

  “Kevin is the one who found me, crawling from the wreckage in a ravine near our Blairsville property. He gave a complete report to the police, and redeemed himself for anything he did when we were younger. He’s the one who held me in the dark of the nights, when I screamed and cried and shook with rage and fear. When I pulled my hair and rocked with catatonia, his is the voice I clung to like a rope that must be climbed to reach sanity. Without him, I would have been lost.”

  Sean lay silent, his thoughts swimming with waves of hatred for Greg and a grudging new respect for Kevin. This revelation put all the pieces into their correct position. Kevin loved Cassie with an abiding brotherly devotion that would resist detaching. No wonder Kevin always seemed to shove the two of them together. Sean truly was the best candidate for her partner, the only other person who could be her knight in shining armor against the demons of her past. He was strong enough to be the protector Kevin couldn’t.

  Sean measured his words carefully. “Are we going to try this? Leave everyone and everything behind and be a family? Because if you’re serious, I might have an idea of how this can work.”

  Her smile was fantastic.

  Chapter Six

  Thanksgiving, 8: 00 p.m.—Red Oak, GA

  In all it took more than four hours to stabilize the building and extricate Sean and Cassie out from the basement wreckage. The first thing Cassie saw when the beam above their heads moved away was Kevin’s anxiety wracked visage. Cassie had a head injury with a possible concussion, and if Sean hadn’t argued with the paramedics about moving them both, Kevin would have reached into the basement and pulled her out himself. As it was she listened to his mother hen brooding all the way to the hospital in the ambulance. Sean and Joe Callahan were following the ambulance driving Kevin’s Lexus.

  Cassie wondered if she looked as horrible as she felt. The paramedics inserted tubes into both nostrils for oxygen. She knew her eyes were swollen but they were somewhat improved with the removal of the dust and debris in them. Deep bruises seemed to spring forth on all her limbs and forehead. With every fiber of her being, Cassie wished Sean was the one holding her hand instead of Kevin. Only her deep love for her eldest brother kept her from snapping his head off.

  “Dad will be at the hospital and it looks like there might be reporters from the local news stations. The news of your kidnapping and then the explosion made the evening headlines. We can avoid them completely if you want.” Kevin held her hand, texting and double checking everything the paramedics were doing. He was also beginning to get on everyone’s nerves.

  “I don’t care. Just let me get some sleep and I’ll feel better. You deal with the press and with Dad.”

  “Don’t be rude.” Kevin stuck his tongue out at her.

  “When have you ever known me to be rude to strangers?”

  Kevin snorted. “Strangers never; family you are rude to on a daily basis. Including me and it is starting to annoy.”

  “Kev, you hover too much.”

  “What?”

  “Sean is my husband, and you’re the only one in the family who recognizes that fact. Help keep Martin from running him over while I’m in surgery.” Cassie’s head was beginning to pound in rhythm to the pulse in her temples. She wondered how long before they would be at the hospital. Her thoughts continued to run in random patterns as they raced up the Downtown Connector toward Grady Hospital’s trauma center.

  From the moment the ambulance arrived at the emergency room entrance the media circus began. Flash bulbs and shouts from reporters lit the night sky as Sean magically reappeared at Cassie’s hand and helped rush the stretcher into the building. Kevin and Joe Callahan were left outside to answer such questions as they could.

  “Hang on love, don’t go to sleep on me yet.” Sean’s quiet voice gave Cassie reassurance in a way no one else had; his accent became more pronounced under the stress, adding to the allure he held over her. When the EMT placed the gurney in a cubicle they turned to ask Sean to leave, but she wouldn’t let go of his hand. The doctors shrugged and decided to work on both at the same time.

  While they washed her face and prepared Cassie for surgery on her shattered nose, she watched as Sean stripped off his shirt and t-shirt for his own examination. Muscles rippled under the skin, giving Cassie ample fodder for her drugged up dreams. Seeing no new scars added to his collection, she lifted her eyes to the one they both avoided.

  There on his chest, two inches above his heart was the wicked red scar. The shot that ended his military career left a brutal visual reminder of the dangers of his work. For her it represented how close she came to losing him forever. A permanent souvenir of everything wrong in their marriage.

  Past the scar was a physically impressive man, his broad shoulders tapered to his waist in long, lean lines. Sean swam miles in his free time to maintain that swimmer’s body. Lightly tan, he had freckles on his chest to match the ones on his nose. The tattoo of a dragon wound around his right arm and below his left nipple was one word in Gaelic—Misneach. It meant courage. Sean got inked after being shot.

  She was on her way to surgery the next time the two of them found a moment together alone. Again he took her hand, though this time he brought it to his lips and pressed a light kiss against her palm. Cassie smiled a goofy grin. The Halcyon was quickly sending her into la-la-land. “Don’t leave me again Sean, promise?”

  He followed them down the hall but had to stop at the operating room door. Bending down he kissed her lips every so lightly, the promise of emotion he was afraid to express for fear of being wrong. “I will be right there when you wake up. I promise.”

  ****

  The next thing Cassie knew, she was in a recovery unit and her father was seated beside the bed, waiting for her to open her eyes. “Sean?” Cassie croaked through parched lips and throat.

  Martin Devlyn frowned ever so slightly. “No, Cassandra, it’s me. Not Ferguson.”

  “Sorry, I was expecting him to be here.”

  “How we feeling?” He was angry at the oversight to him, she heard it in his tone.

  “Well sir, I don’t know about you but I feel like crap. My head is pounding louder than a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade band. But the plastic surgeon promised there shouldn’t be any scars on my face. Where is Sean?”

  “He’s in the waiting room. He wouldn’t let the doctors finish treating him until he knew you were all right. He certainly saved your life.” The look in Martin’s eyes told her how he hated speaking positively about Sean. Inside she crowed in triumph.

  “Would you ask him to come talk with me?” It was easy to keep emotions off her face, it was still immobile from the surgery.

  “I think you should see your brothers first.”

  “I don’t care what you think.” Cassie smiled inside as she took a stand against Martin Devlyn for the first time in seven years. It apparently shocked him as well.

  “Cassandra, how dare you speak to me like that?”

  “Martin, I’m twenty-eight years old
, when are you going to realize you can’t order me to behave the way you did when I was twelve. That man saved my life—you just admitted that yourself. He’s helped me come to terms with my past and he’s my husband. After what I learned from Tsichevna, I don’t care if I ever speak with you or Greg again!” Cassie channeled her pain into anger against the chief of her tormentors.

  At that her father had no additional comment. He stood up, walked to the door, jerked it open and spoke one word, “Sean.” The disapproval in his tone was ice in Cassie’s ears but she didn’t care. It was worth it to see Martin Devlyn unsure of what happened between the two. Even if Cassie didn’t outright leave she might be able to win some space from the Devlyn stranglehold, just to maintain her sanity.

  When Sean walked through the door, he was dressed in surgical scrubs in place of the nice slacks and button down shirt he had worn on the kidnapping, and a bandage was on his forehead. It only served to increase his good looks. When his eyes met Cassie’s he smiled like a child on Christmas morning. He crossed quickly to the bed and grabbed her hand.

  “Hi there.” His smile was balm to Cassie’s soul. His eyes twinkled with delight in simply being in her company. “Sorry I couldn’t keep my promise. Your father sort of pushed me out of the way to get in here.”

  Cassie laid her hand against his cheek and felt the tension in his jaw line drain away.

  “That’s all right, you’re here now. Are you okay?” She motioned to the bandage on his forehead.

  “Just a flesh wound, no stiches or anything interesting like a nose job.”

  “Do I look hideous?”

  He bent down and kissed her very carefully. His lips were warm and soft and a small thrill ran up and down her spine with the contact. “You couldn’t be hideous if you tried. You’re beautiful.”

  Sitting on the edge of the bed and holding her hand Sean continued. “I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the offer you presented while we were in the basement. If you want to be free of your family and build a life together, I’ll help with whatever it is you decide to do. Your brothers are odd and Martin Devlyn is grieving for a woman he drove to attempt suicide. I’m ready to live a normal life with my wife for a few years. We’ll be our own family, no relatives to haunt us.”

  Cassie evaluated the expression on his face. He was serious. “Thank you Sean, that means the world to me.”

  She sat up a little higher on the bed as the anesthesia wore off further. He saw her struggling and grabbed an arm to help resituate her position on the bed. Once she was settled against the pillows, Sean leaned in and kissed Cassie again, this time with a little more enthusiasm. It was painful with the nose job still throbbing, but she wouldn’t have stopped him for a limb removal. It was too delicious. She knotted her fingers in his hair and kissed him back best she could. It was a thoroughly wonderful kiss, not too forward but full of the promise of more to come. Cassie wanted it to last forever, so it was entirely too soon when he pulled away, laughing at the pout on her face.

  “I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to stay alone with you much longer Cassie.” Sean ran his fingers through her hair, smoothing it away from her face. She wanted to purr under his caresses.

  “Why not?”

  He leaned into her ear and boldly whispered, “Because the first time in ten months I make love to you isn’t going to be in a hospital bed with your brothers and your father sitting on the other side of the door not five feet from where we are. And you need to rest.” He spoke with a seriousness that took her breath away. “Besides I think Kevin might have a stroke if he doesn’t get to see you soon. Now then, ready for some family time?” He kissed her hand and opened the door. The Devlyn men minus Greg piled into the room, Kevin first. He stared at Sean with mixed emotions then rushed to give his sister a hug.

  “Baby girl I am so glad to see you!” Enthusiasm was always Kevin’s best emotion. “And to see your eyes open makes me even happier. Of course you currently resemble a raccoon, but it’s a really cute raccoon.”

  Cassie knew she had to get the ball rolling in setting boundaries with her family. “Pieter Tsichevna sent messages he wanted me to pass along to everyone.”

  The conversation in the room stopped in a heartbeat, with all eyes on Cassie. Sean squeezed her hand briefly. He already knew everything she was about to say, they’d discussed it during those long hours trapped under the house. Once Cassie was sure everyone was paying attention she took a deep breath and began an overdue conversation.

  “You have all been lying to me, and it stops now. I’ve fought for a very long time to keep my private and professional lives from coming into conflict and this little incident shows me that will always be impossible. How are all of you making decisions that affect me without giving me the opportunity to be included, to take steps to protect myself from your mistakes?”

  Kevin answered, just as he always did when the family needed a spokesman. “We had no idea…”

  “Don’t give me any excuses Kevin! I’m maddest at you for not letting me know about this,” she fired back. “You of all people should know what MM Air does, who you sell to or for whom. Tell me this—did none of you think that, sooner or later, somewhere along the line, somebody might not come back to even out the score? Do you even have a guess as to how many people there are that would like to kick every one of your sorry assholes into tomorrow?” Cassie’s anger was rising and her head was pounding even harder from the increased blood pressure to the sutures in her face.

  Martin tried to intervene. “Cassie, don’t get so worked up, you just got out of surgery. We can wait and talk about this tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow almost didn’t happen for me Martin, don’t you understand that? You are the chief architect of my kidnapping and you can’t even bring yourself to admit this to me. You killed that poor man’s wife and daughter; killing me in exchange would have only been a half repayment according to his creed. Each bruise on my body, each broken bone can be traced back to your greed and lack of honor.

  “You know, Tsichevna’s original plan was to kidnap me, and if you didn’t pony up the money, kill me and mutilate the body. He would send you directions on where to find the parts, for a price. But he discovered you boys were playing a long game with double selling black market freight shipments, along with other transactions I knew nothing about. So Pieter came up with a new plan: tell me every flawed deal MM Air is involved with and names of the men coming to get me for the various problems you caused. At current tally, Joe Callahan confirmed twelve terrorist families that are known to have an interesting story to tell me regarding the things in which MM Air participated. Each irate customer has been given my name and contact information.”

  “One last thing, Tsichevna also told me that Kwan Tsi has a contract out on Greg, for his failures. Apparently you’ve been lining your pockets on every side, and Greg’s been selling everyone out to the highest bidders. You might want to hire a security detail for him, not that I personally think any of you deserve one. I don’t care what each of you do, so long as you leave me out of it. It’s cost me, and I’m pissed.

  “I don’t mind being on the chopping block for things I knew or approved and I know about a lot of things, but I never heard about these black market MM Air projects. My work requires travel and now every corner of the world just become ground zero for danger. My life is more insane that it was before I was kidnapped and I’m not going to stand around and just wait for the next crazy person to come after me.”

  Cassie fell silent, but the tension in the room was sharper than knives. Martin’s face was a mixture of white hot anger and green bile. She knew he was taking this hard; he’d spent millions to keep her safe, cocooned away from the truth. For him to hear that more problems were coming must be the cliff at the edge of his feet. All her life spent living by his rules, playing by his games and none of it had mattered. Death stalked Cassie anyway. This sounded the death knell for whatever shred of relationship they once maintained.


  The easiest face to understand was Matthew. With his mild autism, he understood the danger in which she had been found, it just didn’t register with him how anyone might use her against the family. But Cassie appreciated he was working to make things better by using his technological skills to listen in on satellite communications and cell chatter to determine if he could find Pieter Tsichevna or any of these new incoming assassins. Matthew was sweet, when you got him away from Greg. Greg tainted everyone and everything.

  Thank goodness Greg wasn’t there, or she might have come off the bed to shred him apart. Everything in her gut told her he was involved in this kidnapping somehow. Tsichevna had to get his information on her from somewhere, perhaps her childhood nemesis was also a traitor to their family and business?

  Then her eyes drifted to the storm cloud that was Sean. He had problems handling several things, the first of which was her brothers and their past treatment of her. The second was the knowledge more terrorists might make the same poor choice as Tsichevna, whose life was now forfeit as far as he was concerned. Their eyes met and both acknowledged things might be changing soon. The harder question was—were they ready to alter the partnership that had sustained and protected them for years?

  Cassie cleared her throat and spoke again, while the time was right. “When I’m released I am leaving this hospital with Sean and Joe Callahan. The company will pay their expenses as my security detail until this nightmare is resolved. I want my life back gentlemen. Where I do that is not going to be open for public record. You owe me that. I’m taking my life in my own hands and getting away from your poison once and for all.”

  Kevin could be restrained no longer. “Cassie, what the hell are you thinking? You just admitted more people are motivated to come after you and you want to take off into the wilderness with only two men? Nothing against Sean, we’ve all known him for years, but if there was ever a time to retreat to the family compound and tighten up on property we can control this is it. No, I won’t let you go!”