Page 5 of Daniel Watson

After that, it was her husband. She’d met Albert on a job, and he had been killed as well. He’d been out of the country working on a project that she’d still never found out what it had been. His body was shipped home to her on the day of their wedding anniversary. Five years to the day, she’d had to put him to rest. She had a nervous breakdown that night, having to be hospitalized for six months until she was ready to face the world again. Now she’s lost Bradley.

Bradley had been the only person in the world that had made her feel like living again. With his sense of humor and his ability to find something positive in every circumstance, she missed him more than anyone that she’d ever missed. She wished daily that she could lie down beside him and end her life to join all her family in the afterlife. If there was one. But people with more pull than she had had made it so that she had lived while everyone around her was gone. It broke her in ways that she didn’t think she could stand.

The phone was ringing when she went into the little room she’d been using the most. There were no computers nor televisions in the place, not much in the way of furniture either. Just a couch in the living room that had a full-sized refrigerator stocked full of water and sodas. A bed with a matching dresser in her bedroom. There was no kitchen, not that she would have used it anyway nor was there anything that would help her connect with the outside world. And she liked it like that. Right up until she didn’t. And the last two days had proven to her that she’s not all that good with her own company.

Picking up the phone, she waited for the person on the other end to speak. When they said the code for the day, Harvey the Rabbit, she said her name. The man on the other end of the line was laughing, and she knew who it was immediately.

“You can’t tell me that you’re tired of the walls already, Major Blake. I had a hand in decorating them just for you.” She told the president that it was the ugliest rooms that she’d ever been in. “Yes, well, we needed to act quickly. But I am sorry, honey. Connie said that you wanted to go to the grave site. I can’t allow you to do that just yet, either. We’re using every man that we have now in trying to find the person or persons that shot at you and Bradley. As soon as we have him, I’ll personally take you there.”

“I miss him.” She sobbed a little, having a rough morning already, and now this. “I miss him so much, you can’t imagine. I have no one left. No one to hold me when I’m down. Nothing.”

“Oh, Cassie, honey, I’m so sorry. My heart hurts for you and all that you’ve lost. Let me do some things on this end, and I’ll get back to you. I’m not saying that it will be able to go through, but I’ll see what I can do for you.” She cried more, thanking him for putting up with her. “You are the one that I should be thanking. Without your help, even as hurt as you were, we wouldn’t be as far as we are now in finding the persons responsible. We’ll get them. Sooner rather than later. I’m not going to allow two of my best agents to be shot at and one of them killed without using all the power that I have to find them. Let me call you back.”

Cassie laid down on her bed and cried herself to sleep. She’d been doing that so much since she woke up here that she was sure that she had shed enough tears that she could fill a bathtub. She hurt. Not just from the injuries from being shot, but her entire body ached all the time because of how lonely she was.

Waking up to her phone ringing again, she didn’t say anything again until Wilhelm Davis, the president, did. He told her that he had a plan, but she’d have to do exactly what she was told, or the mission would be aborted. He asked her if she could do that.

“Yes. Will I get to go to the grave?” He said so long as she listened to the people she’d be staying with. “I just don’t know what to say. Of course, I’ll listen. And I promise that I’ll do what I’m told. Just to be able to get out and about for a minute would be more than I could have hoped for today.”

By the time her dinner was brought to her, she was ready to go. Wilhelm told her that once things were set into motion—he’d been the one that briefed her on what was to happen—and it would need to happen quickly. As soon as the agents showed up at the place she’d been staying, they handed her a bag. Inside of it were clothing and a wig, plus a pair of glasses. Not for the sun, she’d been told, but for her to look like someone else. She was nearly giddy with excitement.

After getting dressed, she was ready to go to the airport. She hadn’t realized how far she’d come when they moved her out of Caleb Anderson’s home until just then. Taking a commercial flight had her seated next to one of the agents who was dressed similarly to how she was. Jeans and a nice shirt that he was wearing with a plaid shirt over it. Even his boots looked like he’d been shit-kicking, something that Bradley said a lot and didn’t look shiny and new. For that matter, her clothing and boots didn’t either.

The agent, Jim, handed her a small box and she was asked to wear the ring inside. She put it on and was surprised that it was a college ring. She’d been told that it had a tracker in it and that she was never to take it off.

Cassie had one of her own at home, but this one was for Brown, and she’d gone to Harvard. Slipping it on, she put her wedding rings that she still wore in the box as well and handed it back to him. It was the first time she’d removed her wedding rings since her husband had put them on her fingers all those years ago.

The trip wasn’t all that long. Even before they landed, she could see the airport and some of the smaller planes that were there. She knew where she was, but keeping her excitement from alerting people around her that she was not a normal passenger, she continued to watch the goings on around her.

“See the family ahead of you? The women and the man?” She nodded at the whispered question in her ear. Another thing that she’d been given on the plane was an earphone. “The man is Daniel Watson. He actually was the one that saved your life. Those are his housemates. Cling to them like they’re family. You’re going to be the long-lost sister to them all. The youngest is Luke. He’ll be accepting if the others are.”

She had all their names ready when she came up to them, glad that she’d been given pictures and briefed on them as well. Doctor Watson simply shook her hand when introduced to him, but the women, five of them, were excited to see her. She had never been so wrapped up in hugs as she was from them. Even Luke acted like he’d not seen her in a while by hugging her tightly to his small frame. It was Serenity, Sen for short, who filled her in on things.

“Dad is in jail still. He won’t be getting out until the judge comes to see him. Maybe another week, they said.” She’d been prepared on that as well. Burt Branch had been beating on his children since they’d been born. And perhaps was indirectly responsible for the expedited death of his wife, Olivia. “We’re going to be getting something to eat. I’m so glad that you’re home finally.”

They treated her like their long-lost sister. Not once did anyone give them a sideways glance unless they were marveling at the beauty of the women. Cassie knew that she was all right looking, but these women were amazing, beautiful women who were helping her get to see her brother’s grave.

She was surprised that Doctor…she supposed she should call him Daniel like the others did, paid for lunch. She’d not been sure if she would have to pay for her own, but he treated her like he did the others. They all seemed to have a good relationship, and she hoped that she was fitting in. This was important to all of them. If she was caught, they’d all pay the price. It was why she was glad to see several of the secret service men and women lingering around the airport and restaurant, too.

They made two stops on the way home. The first one was to the grocery store, and she went in with them like part of the family. She couldn’t believe how frugal they were about food. Even Luke, when told he could pick out any cereal that he wanted weighed his options like he was thinking how he’d win the lottery. He ended up getting a box of plain cornflakes that he knew everyone would share with him. She fell in love with him right then and there.

Cassie didn’t have any money, she realized, when she got up to the counter with a basket of personal items. Daniel slipped her some cash, fifty dollars, just as she was thinking that she should have just stayed where she’d been and not embarrassing this little family. But he didn’t make a big deal out of it, just handing her the money and walking away. She was able to purchase some flowers, just as the others had, with enough money left over to treat herself to a candy bar and share it with Luke.

The cemetery was next on their list of places to visit. She’d not realized that the children had lost their mother recently, and that was where they were headed. When Daniel held back, asking her to follow him but to keep moving, he took her right by her brother’s gravesite.

She wanted to lay herself down on the grave and cry, she was so happy to see the marker with his name on it. Daniel stopped her, leaning over to take her foot up to his waist, and pretended to look at her ankle. Her hand was resting on the stone. Cassie knew that this was going to be as close as she was going to be able to get to his grave until the people were caught that had killed her hero.

“Thank you.” He told her that it was his pleasure and that her ankle looked like it was going to be all right. Nodding, not sure that she could speak to him right then, she reached for his hand, and he took it. “I’m a little emotional right now. I guess I missed him…them more than I thought that I would.”

“Understandable. When we get back to the house, I have some photographs for you to look over. Nothing big, just some people that I was asked to ask you about. Also, there will be a cell phone for you to use as well.” She nodded, and then he explained to the kids there, that Sen and Ava were about her age, so she had to stop calling them kids, that their aunt was coming in today. They all groaned. “Come on, guys. She came all this way. We can make her welcome, can’t we?”

“Yeah, we’re having all kinds of food too. Ms. Tabby is having all kinds of catering things brought to the house. We don’t even have to clean up.” She laughed. It felt good. Something that she’d not done in a very long time. “You need to laugh more, sis. It sure is a pretty sound coming from you.”

“Thank you.” They all touched the headstone of their mom as they left the flowers for her. The other flowers that had been there were taken away, and the ones that were still good were put on the graves of some of the others around the cemetery. Cassie put her hand on the headstone as well but said nothing out loud. Her heart was breaking again, but for the family that the woman had left behind.

As they were leaving the cemetery, going the same way that they’d come in, she watched as Luke, putting flowers on some of the graves that they passed put one on her brothers. She barely made it to the car before she broke down. Once in the limo, she leaned on Daniel and sobbed her heart out. The others hugged her, too, and it was the first time in longer than she could remember that Cassie felt like she could go on in the world.

They were all seated in the living room when the front doorbell rang. There was staff in the home, but it was Daniel who got up to answer the door. As soon as she heard the woman’s voice, bitching about the right to the house, she got up and left the room as quickly and as quietly as she could. Once outside, she made her way to the butler’s home, the one that Daniel was living in, and entered with the key that he’d given her. As soon as she was settled in with the television on, someone knocked on the door. It was a man in a nice suit coat, and he had some of the food that they were fixing in the big house next door. Thanking him, she put it all in the kitchen and sampled the cake first. It was just as delicious as it looked.