Kim Baldwin - The Gemini Deception

Although his relationship with her was based on frustration, mostly on Jaclyn’s side, Monty was happy enough to share any moments he could with her. Joanne insisted they have a good talk, and although he was tempted after Jaclyn found her mother in France, he frankly wouldn’t know where to start or how to end a truthful conversation without another blowup between them. Some things were better left unsaid, he insisted, especially since Jaclyn had very little tolerance and understanding for anything that had to do with him.

The phone rang once, jarring him from his reverie.

“Monty, it’s Cassady.” Joanne came out of the bedroom and handed him the phone. “She sounds worried.”

Ops never called his private number unless it was a dire situation. “Cassady?”

“Sorry to bother you at home, but I’m worried about Jack.”

Monty sat up straight. “Is she all right?”

“I don’t know. I’m in Boston preparing for the concert, and Jack hasn’t called me once in three days.”

“Maybe—”

“Monty, three days. She normally calls me several times a day. She didn’t even want me to go to Boston alone. I had to convince her to stay home.” Cassady spoke unusually fast, and Monty could hear the anxiety in her voice. She’d been through a lot of stress in recent months, but Cassady Monroe was a top operative and not one to raise an alarm without good reason.

“I see.”

“The performance is tomorrow, and if she doesn’t show up then, either, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how I’m supposed to sit there and perform if—”

“Cassady, I know you’re worried, but try not to jump to conclusions.” Only when Joanne touched his hand did he realize how hard he was squeezing the armrest.

“I don’t know what to do,” Cassady repeated. “I’m coming back tonight. Screw the concert.”

“There’s probably a good explanation. Stay where you are and I’ll look into it.” He turned to Joanne. “Get David.”

“What are you going to do?” Cassady asked.

“Check your place.” Monty glanced at his watch. Cassady’s house near Colorado Springs was about three hours by car.

“She’d answer the phone if she were home.”

“Maybe—”

“Oh, my God. You don’t think she fell in the shower or something. Or… She’s dangerous in the kitchen, you know.” Cassady was rambling now. “Maybe she blew the place up, but…no, that can’t be. They would’ve called me if the house had gone up in flames.”

“Get a hold of yourself. Why didn’t you call me sooner?”

“Really, Monty, do you think I didn’t want to? Jack would have killed me if I told you I was worried about her, let alone ask you to check on her.”

“Why didn’t you ask a friend?”

“She doesn’t have any, except for Landis. I tried her, but she’s away on a job.”

Monty covered the receiver. “Why is David taking so long?” he asked Joanne.

“He’ll be here any moment, honey.”

“Part of me hopes she’s passed out on the floor,” he said into the phone to lighten Cassady’s worry. “Who knows what she’ll do if she sees me there.”

“Deal with it,” Cassady replied seriously. “She’d be a lot less messed up if you were honest with her.”

“Honest with her?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t.”

Cassady sighed. “Stubbornness, like denial, is hereditary, after all. It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots, you know. She may look like her mother, but the rest is all you.”

Just then, David Arthur walked into the living room. Cassady’s statements had shocked and appalled Monty so completely, he hadn’t heard the doorbell. “You haven’t told her,” he said, gripping the phone tightly.

“I haven’t told anyone,” Cassady replied. “It’s not my place, and I’m not about to make your life easier by being the one to tell her.”

“How would the truth make a difference?”

“Jack has more trust issues and disregard for her well-being than the rest of us put together.”

“Why?”

“Maybe because on some instinctual and very deep subconscious level, she knows. And I gotta tell ya, the realization that the man you’re supposed to trust blindly turned an indifferent eye to the fact that you were practically beaten and raped to death is a pretty damn hard fact to forgive.”

“I’m not…wasn’t…indifferent to what happened,” he said. “I was devastated but couldn’t show it. I didn’t know how to. If I could—”

“Don’t tell me, tell her. Because if something happens to Jack because of how she is, who she’s become because of you,” Cassady paused for emphasis, her voice like ice, “I am going to personally kill you.”

“Do not threaten me, young lady, and do not forget who I am.”

Cassady was apparently too worked up for his rebuke to affect her. “Where the hell is Arthur coming from, Siberia?”

“He just walked in. We’re leaving now.”

“Call me ASAP.”

“Of course.”

“And, Monty?”

“Yes?”

“Grow a pair,” Cassady said, and hung up.

“What was that about?” Joanne asked, clearly having guessed the gist of the conversation.

“You heard. Cassady knows.”

“And Jaclyn?”

Monty shook his head. “Maybe Cassady is right. Maybe I—”

“Yes, you do, Monty, but first things first.”

“What’s going on?” Arthur asked.

“Jaclyn’s missing.” Monty got his Glock and shoulder holster from the bedroom and put them on. “We’re checking their house.”

“Let’s go,” Arthur said immediately.

“Joanne, call whoever we have in the New York area and send them to Jaclyn’s address.” Monty gave her a quick kiss good-bye.

She nodded as she handed him his car keys and coat. “Your cell and lock-pick kit are in the pocket. Call me as soon as you know something.”

Monty made the normally three-hour drive to Colorado Springs in two hours and fifteen minutes. He told Arthur about his conversation with Cassady, and Arthur listened without interruption.

“She’s right, Monty. You need to tell Jack.”

“I do. It’s the least I can do.”

“It’s also the most. We all know what it’s like to grow up without a family,” Arthur said as they neared Cassady’s street. “The same way we all know what it’s like to want and need one. Jack has Cass now, but take it from an old bastard like me. Jack needs a family more than any op we’ve ever had.”

“But I was there all along.”

“You weren’t there, you were around. You never made her feel anything other than necessary for the organization—an operative.”

Monty gripped the wheel tighter as the two-story adobe-style home came into view. David was right. “She never knew how necessary she was to me.”

“You’re the lucky one, Monty. You had what the rest of us only dreamed of—a family—and you never acknowledged her.”

“I screwed up.”

“Sure did.”

“How do you think she’ll take it?”

“How would you, if your father was under your nose the whole time and never told you?”

“I should probably wear a vest.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Arthur replied seriously.

He thought about what Cassady had said. “Time I grew a pair.”

They pulled into the driveway and Arthur put his hand on Monty’s arm. “Life is getting shorter by the second, and we’re getting too old to wait for right moments. At our age, buddy, every moment is the right one.”

They went to the front door, and Arthur knocked loudly several times. When no one answered, Monty pulled out his lock pick and opened the door.

“We’ve made these kids too arrogant to realize an alarm system is not useless,” Arthur said when they entered the house a second later.