Heroes Never Die (32 page)

“
There’s also a new assignment in Kosovo.  I expect you to volunteer.  I’ll have your orders drawn up.  Be ready to ship out in a week.”  Then Robert showed himself out.  As he reached the front door, he heard the sound of a beer bottle being smashed to pieces against the fireplace.  Maybe Brian had come to his senses after all.

Chapter Thirty-Five:

The bassinet
tes were lined up in full view behind the nursery window.  Brian looked through the window and instantly knew his own son from all of the other babies before he read the patient name ‘Fairchild’ on the bassinette.  His son was his perfect image, and as soon as he saw him, he was overwhelmed with a deep sense of pride.  He opened the nursery door and walked inside.

“There you are, Dr. Fairchild,” Marsha greeted him.  “Congratulations on your son!  He looks just like you, doctor.  And you’ll be happy to know that he’s
already eating like a horse.”

Brian only smiled.  He just wanted to be left alone so that he could spend time with his baby.
  He reached into the bassinette for his infant and held him against his chest, dwarfing him next to his powerful frame.  He carried him to a rocking chair and sat down.  Then he gazed into his son’s face, feeling more responsibility than ever before, wondering what kind of man his son would grow up to be, and longing to be the father who helped him grow up tall and strong and honorable.  He held the tiny fingers, amazed that he was part of his own flesh, knowing the baby was everything he and Stephanie had dreamed of, and wanting to make his world as painless as possible.  The longer Brian held his son, the more he wanted to cry.

Brian swallowed the lump in his throat, then he stood to his feet, cradling his baby in his arms, gazing into his innocent face, and then he kissed him goodbye. 
He laid him down in the bassinette and walked out of the nursery shaken, broken, and knowing that he had made a terrible mistake.  He looked down the hall toward Stephanie’s room, missing her, needing her, and wanting to make things right.  He turned and headed toward her room, and then his steps came to a sudden halt.  Everything he had ever wanted was gone.  He turned around and headed for the exit.  He knew exactly what he had to do.

***

Brian drove to Kyle’s condo and pounded on his door.  He stepped to the side so that Kyle couldn’t see him through the peephole.  As soon as the latch clicked, he kicked the door open, rushed inside, and jammed a pistol in the side of Kyle’s head.  Then he kicked the door closed behind him.

“Don’t shoot, Brian,” Kyle ordered.

Brian clenched his jaw.  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t drop you right now?”

“Stephanie will die if you do.”

Brian pushed him toward the sofa and knocked him down onto it.  Then he took a seat in front of him and pointed the pistol between his eyes.  “The first time you give me an answer I don’t like, I’m pulling the trigger.  Start talking.”

“What do you want to know?”  It wasn’t easy talking to a damned pistol.

“I want to know why you tried to kill my wife.”

“You only know what Stephanie was told.  There’s a whole lot more.  I never intended to hurt her.”

“You’re a lying sack of shit.  You used her to do your dirty work and then you set her up to die.”

“Believe it or not, I’m on your side.”

He shoved the pistol in his throat.  “Hold your damn braggadocio.  I want some straight answers – now!”

“All right,” Kyle conceded.  “I’ll tell you everything.  Just put the gun down.”

Brian jammed the pistol deeper into Kyle’s throat.  “Start talking!”

“I drafted a plan to eliminate King Hamid.  I had an old picture of Stephanie in my drawer and I pulled it out and used her for my prototype.  I left my office for a few minutes, and when I came back the draft was gone.  Barry Braxton had come in, read it, and then he took it to the President.  The next think I knew, I was standing in the Oval Office.  The President said
that Stephanie would be forced to cooperate regardless of my decision.  From that point on, I played both sides of the fence.”

“I revised the plan to give Stephanie every possible advantage.  I reduced the number of days she had to spend in Saudi Arabia to three.  And
she was to return to the United States for a weapon.  I was never going to allow her to go to George Town.  I had planned to drug her.  She would have been too sick to continue on.  But then everything fell apart.  I never dreamed that Hamid would marry her.  And then he took her to George Town himself.”

“By then I knew the President wanted her dead.  We all knew she couldn’t make it past Hamid’s guards.  But just in case she surprised us and made it to the beach, no helicopter was ever going to rescue her.  The Saudis found her on the beac
h the next morning barely alive.”

“Once she was back in Saudi Arabia, I had one of my contacts inside Russia place a call to Tareef.  My contact claimed he belonged to a Russian terrorist group that was responsible for the assassination.  Tareef believed the story, but now that Stephanie has escaped, he’s looking for her.  I think she’s safe, but if you pull that trigger, I won’t be able to monitor any new developments.”

“You think she’s safe,” Brian mimicked, his insides raging.  “That’s not good enough!  What the hell were you going to do anyway, let the General and me come back home to a Jane Doe in a closed casket?”

“Try to understand, Brian.  The CIA doesn’t give orders – we take them.  I was just another pawn in the President’s game.  We all were.”

“You left out one important detail.  Who killed King Hamid?”  Brian could see the uneasiness in Kyle’s face.  It seemed to be the one question he didn’t want to answer.  Brian jabbed him with the pistol.  “Who killed him?”

Kyle finally answered.  “I did.  I killed him.  It was the only way to get Stephanie out of there alive.  But she wasn’t in the room that night.  I went to the beach and searched for her, and when I didn’t find her, I thought she had found another way out.  Later, I learned she was outside on the terrace.  I missed her by a few seconds.  I tried, Brian.  I honestly tried.”

Brian suddenly saw a side of Kyle he had never expected to see.  He was full of regret and willing to commit high treason to protect Stephanie.  Brian slowly released the hammer.  Whether he liked it or not, and he didn’t, he needed Kyle’s help.  “Does the President still want Stephanie dead?”

Kyle let out a puff of strangled air.  The crisis seemed to be over.  “When Stephanie returned to the United States, the President ordered Barry and me to kill her.  Barry threatened to expose something out of
the President’s past, and the President backed off.  Barry has something incriminating on him, but he’s not talking, and I can’t figure it out.”

Brian remembered what Robert had told him, and he quickly put it together.  “Wasn’t McCarthy a senator from Virginia before he became President?”

“Yeah, so what?”

“Stephanie’s mother had an affair with a senator.  She threatened to publicly expose him so she could end it.”

“Not big enough.  Scandals like that go on in Washington all the time.”

“But what if she had told the senator that he was Stephanie’s father?”

The thought was jolting.  Brian watched as Kyle turned away as though he were analyzing the new information.  “Bingo,” he fired with precision.

“Which means Susannah’s car crash was no accident.  And I’d be willing to bet that Barry played a role in rigging her car.  That’s why the President appointed him Director of the CIA
.  He was returning the favor.  I’ll be damned.  It fits.  It finally fits.”

Brian was more than sickened.  He was outraged.  “The President murdered an innocent woman, and all you care about is whether it fits?”

“You’re in my world now, Brian.  Welcome to politics.  I need to know everyone Stephanie talked to?”

“Stephanie never talked,” he said, instinctively trying to protect her.  “Rudy Lukens showed up at my door.”

Kyle stood to his feet.  “I don’t like this,” he admitted as though disaster was imminent.  “Lukens handed Stephanie a lethal drug so that she wouldn’t have to face being executed.  Hamid’s press attaché walked into the room just in time to see the pass.  If the Saudis thought Lukens was trying to help her, they might approach him to find out what else he knows.  Lukens might have led them straight to your door.  I’ll check it out.”

At first Brian was stunned.  Then he flew into a violent rage, wanting to kill Kyle with his bare hands.  He grabbed him by the throat, slammed him against the wall, and twisted his arm behind his back.  It was Brian’s turn to do the talking.  “You took complete and total advantage of my wife while I was gone, and now she could die thanks to you.”

Brian was crushing his throat.  “Her life is not in any immediate danger.  I swear. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

Brian slammed Kyle’s head into the wall.  “Those are mighty big words coming from a man who tried to rape her.”

Talking to a pistol was less threatening.  “It was a scare tactic.  I was only trying to intimidate her into cooperating.”

Brian squeezed Kyle’s throat even harder, wanting to choke the life out of him.  “You had no right to help yourself to my wife.  You grossly misused your power to bully her, you filled her head with lies, and you did everything you could
do to wear her down so that you could take her away from me.  And you didn’t even have the balls to do it when I was around.  You had to get rid of me first,” he seethed as he slammed his head into the wall.  “I don’t trust you.  I like you a whole lot less, and I’m not afraid of you.  I don’t give a damn who you work for.  I’m putting you on notice right now.  If any harm ever comes to my wife, I’ll shoot you first and ask questions later.  You got all that?”

“Yeah, I got it,” his voice throttled.

Brian refused to release his stranglehold.  “I want my letters you stole from my wife.”

“Over in my desk drawer.”

“Get them,” Brian ordered as he shoved him toward the desk.  “And don’t try reaching for your hardware.”

Kyle gasped for air and then he rubbed his neck with his hand.  He stumbled over to his desk and opened a drawer.  He pulled out a stack of letters and handed them over.  “I was ordered to take them.”

Brian stuffed the letters into his pocket.  “You’re a liar,” he accused.  “You deliberately took the letters so Stephanie would think that I didn’t love her anymore.  And just in case you haven’t figured it out, nothing could be further from the truth.”  Brian pulled back his arm and swung his fist as hard as he could, knocking Kyle across the room.  “That’s for Stephanie.”

Brian watched as Kyle cupped his hand to catch the blood that was spewing out of his mouth.  “I had that coming,” Kyle said, proudly.

“No,” Brian corrected.  “You got off real easy this time.  Don’t ever go near my wife again.  If anything develops, you come and see me.”  Then Brian left.

Chapter Thirty-Six:

Stephanie stood in her hospital room and stared out
of the window.  Her face was soaked with tears.  She had been abandoned by the man she loved more than anything else in the world, and she was devastated.  And as brave as she was trying to be, she was overwhelmed by the thought of raising a child alone.  She heard the door open behind her and saw Brian’s reflection in the window.  He was holding a bouquet of roses.  It’s way too late for hearts and flowers.

“I don’t want you here,” she said, continuing to stare out
of the window.  “So just turn around and leave.  And take your flowers with you.”

Brian put the flowers on the table beside her.  “I don’t blame you for not wanting me here, Stephanie.  I really blew it this time.  I’m sorry for hurting you.  And I’m sorry I wouldn’t listen.  I’m sorry for a lot of things.  Your dad told me what happened, and I…”

“Oh, I get it,” she interrupted as she angrily swung around to face him.  “Dad went to see you, after all.  Is that why you’re here, because he made you come?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head.  “I’m here because I want to be here.  I’m here because I love you more than anything else in the world and I want to work this out.”

“Forget it, Brian.  You’ve already hurt me enough.  It’s over, and I want a divorce.”

“Stephanie – please.  Don’t throw our love away.  Give me another chance.  We can work this out.”

“You already had your share of chances.  I begged you to listen to me, and all you did was mock me.  But I could have forgiven you for that.  You called me a whore, you even treated me like one, but I understood why you were so angry, and I could have forgiven you for that, too.  But when you refused to come to the hospital when I was having our baby, that…that I can’t forgive.  Do you have any idea how much you hurt me?  You not only rejected me, but you rejected the most precious gift I could ever give you – our baby.”

“I’m so sorry,” he earnestly apologized.  “My God, I’m so sorry.  I never meant to hurt you or our baby.  I saw him, Stephanie.  He’s everything we hoped for and more.  And I want to be a part of his life.”

“That’s called visitation.  You can see him whenever you want.  My baby deserves to have a father in his life.”  Tears began to stream down her face.  Divorce suddenly seemed so permanent.