Alex And Cassidy: Betrayal Part 1

Alex and Ca.s.sidy.

Betrayal.

Nancy Ann Healy.

For my Mom and my Nana.

The two most influential women in my life he Alex and Ca.s.sidy series is more than simply a set of books filled with colorful characters and chaotic events. Traveling with these characters is part of a journey that continues to amaze me. It would not be possible without the love and support of my wife, Melissa, my friends, and the many readers who continue to support not only Alex and Ca.s.sidy's adventure, but mine. A special of note of thanks to my friends Natalya and Marie who so graciously and enthusiastically offered to a.s.sist with the French and Russian verbiage in Betrayal.

Throughout the Alex and Ca.s.sidy series references are occasionally made to books, films, television shows, music and actual historic events. There is so much to explore and experience in life. I am grateful to the many authors, filmmakers, playwrights, performers, musicians, leaders, journalists, teachers and friends that have sparked my curiosity and touched my heart. The influence of these wonderful people, whether from a distance or in my daily life, is something I regard as a gift. It enriches not only what I create, but the experience of creating itself. Life is a journey, not a destination. We create it every day.

*he popping sounded almost like firecrackers. The president turned slightly and smiled at the Secret Service agent beside him. "Get down!" the agent screamed. He shoved the president to his left and felt the man's body collapse into his arms. "No! Phoenix is down! Repeat, Phoenix is down! Can you hear me? Mr. President?"

"Where is that IV? Now! Hurry it up! Mr. President!" President John Merrow's eyes rolled back as a searing pain that ripped through his chest overtook his strength. He could taste the blood in his throat and his gut burned as if flames were raging within it. The voice called again, "Mr. President, open your eyes, stay with me. GET THAT d.a.m.n LINE IN!"

"Alex...you need to tell," the president barely opened his eyes. "Didn't know that street...Mutanabbi..."

"Okay, don't try to talk. Just look at me. Look right here." The paramedic pointed two fingers toward his own eyes.

President John Merrow shook his head and let out an unearthly groan. "Tell her.....Care...Take care of..." He struggled to speak but gave over to the pain before he could finish his thought.

"Que voulez-vous dire, il est vivant (what do you mean he is alive)?" Edmond Callier screamed through the phone.

CIA agent Jonathan Krause answered deliberately as a wide sense of satisfaction gripped him. "John Merrow is a hard man to kill, Edmond."

"This is..."

"Relax," Krause responded. "He is out of commission for the foreseeable future."

"They expect him to be dead," the voice answered.

"Well, Strickland has control just as you wished. Admiral Brackett is with him now. And who knows?" he continued with contempt, "Vous pouvez toujours obtenir votre souhait, l ami (you may still get your wish, friend)." Krause looked at a photo of John Merrow, his best friend, the only man he had ever truly considered a brother, laughing beside him.

"I understand, Jonathan. These are the risks we all accept," Callier said.

"Yes, I suppose they are."

"You will keep me apprised?"

"Of course."

"Good. Prenez soin de vous, mon ami. Cela pa.s.sera eventuellement (Be well, my friend. This will also pa.s.s)."

Jonathan Krause dropped the call and looked at the phone. The disgust on his face was unmistakable. He threw the phone at the wall with such brutal force that it shattered. "Il n'y a pasd'amitie (there is no friends.h.i.+p)!" he lamented. "Pas de loyaute (no loyalty)."

a.s.sidy O'Brien stood looking quietly out of her kitchen window. She smiled as she watched the woman she had unexpectedly fallen in love with chase her six year old son, Dylan, across the yard. Just a few weeks ago her morning was spent preparing for the arrival of an FBI agent after her ex-husband began receiving threats. The agent, she was told, would protect her and ascertain who might want to do her family harm. After years of being married to a politician she was relis.h.i.+ng a degree of privacy in her life and the idea had both frustrated and unsettled her. When Alex Toles walked through her door that day everything changed. The FBI agent challenged all of Ca.s.sidy's preconceptions about people, love, relations.h.i.+ps and life. In what seemed like an instant, Alex had transformed the school teacher's understanding of what truly mattered. Since that day, Ca.s.sidy had watched her ex-husband fight for his life, been held hostage by a s.a.d.i.s.tic stalker, left her job, moved her home, and all of that paled in comparison to the greatest change of all; she fell in love.

Alex Toles had stolen her heart. Alex was strong and beautiful, intelligent and compa.s.sionate. Ca.s.sidy admired her strength and her tenacity. She respected all that Alex had endured in her past, serving in Iraq, confronting war, facing danger, but in the end it was the agent's gentleness that had captured her heart. It was the way Alex's eyes danced when she looked at Ca.s.sidy and the way they softened when she looked at Dylan. It was the tenor in her voice when she spoke of those she loved; her captain and her colonel, her brother, even Ca.s.sidy's mother Rose. And, it was the agent's playfulness and sincerity that seemed to always captivate Ca.s.sidy. It was Alex Toles' devotion and honesty that reminded Ca.s.sidy in every moment that no matter where life's path might lead, she would walk the rest of hers beside Alex Toles.

The smile on Alex's face as she chased Dylan nearly brought Ca.s.sidy to tears. The truth was that getting Alex inside would be nearly as difficult as wrangling the boy running away from her. Ca.s.sidy laughed at the thought. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Waking up here, heading down the stairs, brewing the coffee, watching Alex fix Dylan's cereal; these were life's simple moments and Ca.s.sidy knew they were also life's most important memories. The sudden sound of the doorbell snapped Ca.s.sidy from her private world. "Can I help you?" she asked the man standing before her.

"Mrs. O'Brien, sorry to disturb you," he smiled. He was not quite Alex's height and he had a few extra pounds. Ca.s.sidy's eyes sparkled with her question and the man smiled. He shook his head. "We haven't met....Michael, Michael Taylor." The teacher's surprise was evident. She had never met the NSA director, but as far as she knew Michael Taylor lived and worked in Was.h.i.+ngton. She couldn't imagine what would bring Alex's former captain and friend here now. She noted that the man looked exceptionally tired. "Is Alex here?"

"Yes...I'm sorry, of course...come in."

"I've been trying to reach her all night," he explained.

Ca.s.sidy sighed. "Oh, yeah...sorry, she shut off her phone." Taylor smirked a bit. "She's out back with Dylan. Is everything all right?"

"You haven't heard," he said flatly.

"Heard?"

The sliding gla.s.s door opened and a smiling Alex stepped through. "HAH...I win!"

"Alex," Ca.s.sidy's voice had a heavy tone and Alex looked up to catch sight of her friend.

"Taylor? What are you doing here? Is Ca.s.s..."

"No," he immediately interrupted her with an understanding of where his friend's fears would travel. "Your family is safe, Alex. It's not that." Alex looked at Ca.s.sidy and then back to her friend.

Taylor looked Alex squarely in the eye, summoning his strength. "It's the colonel."

"What?" Alex asked.

"You really did shut everything off," he noted. "Alex, someone shot the president last night."

Ca.s.sidy nearly fell over and put both her hands on the counter to steady herself. Alex flew to her side, pulling the teacher to her and holding her shoulders firmly. "Ca.s.s," she whispered and then looked at Taylor who was puzzled by the younger woman's reaction. "Is he..."

"No," Taylor answered. "He's alive, but it isn't good. Strickland has the reins. We need to talk, Alex." Alex nodded and gestured toward the outside. Taylor understood and headed out the back door to wait.

"Ca.s.s." Ca.s.sidy could not move. She covered her face with her hands.

"Why does this keep happening?" she asked the agent, thinking back to her ex-husband's recent car accident.

"I don't know," Alex confessed, guiding Ca.s.sidy's face upward.

"Alex...Chris and now John. I...."

"I know," Alex said as she pulled Ca.s.sidy into a hug. "I have to go talk to Taylor. Ca.s.sidy, listen to me, John is tough."

"What have I done, Alex?"

"Nothing. Why don't you take Dylan down by the stream," Alex suggested wiping a tear from her lover's eye.

"Alex...If he..."

"Stop. You need to stop. You did what you had to do, so did he. I love you, Ca.s.s." Ca.s.sidy drank in the agent's embrace. "We're okay. Dylan is okay. That's all that matters."

Green eyes met blue and Ca.s.sidy had to momentarily close hers to calm herself. "I love you, Alex."

"I know. Go...get Dylan." Ca.s.sidy nodded and swallowed hard, heading for the door.

Two Days Earlier "I'm glad you told me," Alex said softly. Ca.s.sidy sat with her face in her hands, finding it impossible to breathe. "No secrets. Not between us. Ca.s.s..."

The teacher looked up with tear stained cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Alex."

"Ca.s.sidy, this has nothing to do with us. You made a mistake. To be honest I'm not sure I'd even say that."

"You must think...."

"What? I must think what?" Alex asked, guiding Ca.s.sidy's face to her own.

"Alex, I never..."

"Ca.s.s," Alex let out a heavy sigh. "I love you. I love you more than anything. We all have a past...so do I..."

"I should have told you."

"Probably," Alex chuckled. "But, when would you have done that? John could have told me. Ca.s.sidy, listen to me," Alex paused afraid to continue.

"Alex, please tell me what you are thinking," Ca.s.sidy pleaded.

"Honestly?" Alex sighed and finished her thought. "I think Christopher O'Brien is a selfish a.s.shole who never deserved you or Dylan in the first place. I'm actually surprised you never did have a real affair. G.o.d knows he did."

"I don't know what I did to deserve you."

Alex shook her head. "Ca.s.sidy, you really do have that backwards."

Ca.s.sidy rested her head on the agent's strong shoulder. "I couldn't keep it a secret, not from you. To me...Dylan is your son now. I wish he was."

Alex smiled. "Well, it's a new start for us all. I have to ask you, Ca.s.s; does he know?"

Ca.s.sidy t.i.tled her head in question. "Chris? No." Alex shook her head. Ca.s.sidy had never discussed the truth of her son's paternity with anyone. She suddenly realized Alex was referring to the president. "Oh. We never talked about it. It was just that one night. He had too much to drink. I was lonely. It was before Chris ran for congress. It was at a fundraiser for the party. I saw him go off in the corner with one of John's aides. We both left feeling regretful. Never spoke of it again. At first I didn't want to think it, but Chris and I never could seem to," Ca.s.sidy paused and gathered her thoughts. "But, yes...Alex, he knows. I am sure. He has always taken an interest in Dylan. Look at him."

"That explains a lot," Alex mused.

"What do you mean?"

The agent looked deeply into her lover's eyes. "It explains why he wanted me to protect you. I wondered why he would do that. Presidents don't generally a.s.sign FBI agents to cases. He is always deliberate in what he does. I just figured it had something to do with the congressman and he needed someone he knew he could trust."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Ca.s.sidy apologized.

Again the agent shook her head. "No, you couldn't. He wouldn't. But, if he knows Dylan is his son, he would go to the ends of the earth to protect him."

"You love him," Ca.s.sidy observed.

"Not like he wanted me to, no. We went through a lot together, Ca.s.s. Seeing death, it makes you...well, yes...in my own way I love him."

"I can't imagine how this must make you feel."

"What? That you slept with my friend before I knew you? Ca.s.sidy, I slept with Agent Brackett for G.o.d's sake."

"That's not what I meant."

"That you reached for comfort in a horrible relations.h.i.+p or that John is Dylan's real father? Ca.s.s, it doesn't matter. It doesn't change anything."

Ca.s.sidy sighed. "There were times I wanted to tell him, tell Chris; but he would use it as a weapon. I know he would. It would destroy John's presidency. It would devastate Dylan."

Alex considered the statement. "Ca.s.sidy, sometimes truth is not the best medicine. I know that's what they say. It isn't always the case. All I ask is that we don't keep secrets. I promise you there is nothing that could make me love you less or walk away."

"Well, this is it."

"Well, then tomorrow we leave Nicky's and we go home. Our home, and we start with a clean slate. Ca.s.s, when Carl Fisher had you, I thought I might never see you again. Being here with Nick and Barb, with you and Dylan, well...I just want us to be together. It's time we both think about our future more than our past. Okay?"

"You amaze me, Alex."

Alex smiled. "I love you, Ca.s.sidy."

"So..." Alex began as she walked beside her friend.

"Toles..."

"What the h.e.l.l, Taylor? Who shot him?"

"I don't have that answer. Jordan is the last name. My best? Deep cover, military."

Alex rubbed her temple as she watched Ca.s.sidy head down the slight hill at the back of the yard with Dylan. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Alex, I don't know much. What I do know, I don't like." Alex looked at her friend. "He's into something."

"What does that mean?"

"I mean I have been looking into Congressman O'Brien's accident, Ca.s.sidy's abduction, all of it. The dots; connecting them; our old colonel is at the head of every line."

Alex shook her head. "You know there has to be an explanation."

"Well, let's hope he lives to give it to us," Taylor said.

"What connections?" Alex asked now.

"Brackett, Fisher, Krause, and Merrow, all their fathers worked on the same project." He watched as Alex pinched the bridge of her nose. "There's more." Alex nodded and licked her lips. "The president sent Agent Brackett to Congressman O'Brien. Brady picked that up in some chatter. Claire Brackett is not very quiet; about anything."