Intersection Read online

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Alex tried to sound convincing.

  Cassidy put her arms around the agent’s neck. “Terrible liar.”

  “I am, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Mmm…maybe I just missed you today,” Alex flirted.

  “No. You’re worried. You rubbed your temples for the entire ride home.”

  “I am worried about you. I hated leaving you this morning when you were so upset.” Alex knew this would be believable because it was true.

  “Well, I’m okay. I don’t want to talk about any of that tonight, okay? Maybe not tomorrow either. You do what you need to. I just want to enjoy a couple of days at home, not think about it….If that’s okay?”

  Alex felt a weight lift from her. Cassidy needed space from the case and Alex needed to keep Cassidy out of it as much as possible. The teacher’s request meant that the agent did not have to feel she was being secretive or worse, that she was lying. “I think,” Alex said looking into the woman’s eyes, “that sounds perfect. In fact, I have some things to do in the morning at the field office, but after that I am free. I was thinking…A Batman marathon and tacos?”

  “You were, were you?”

  “Well, yes. I was.”

  “Mmhmm. I don’t suppose a little Speed Racer put you up to that?” Cassidy raised an eyebrow.

  “No, actually. I like Batman and I like tacos.”

  Cassidy smiled. “Yes, I remember that, Alfred.” Alex laughed the pet name.

  “Ummm… children?” Rose called from the kitchen. “I made tea.”

  “Oh, look at that,” Cassidy said. “My mother must have known we had an English butler stopping by.” She kissed the agent gently and stepped off the stair. Alex stood still, breathless as this woman always seemed to leave her, watching as Cassidy walked down the hall.

  “Hum,” the agent raised an eyebrow. “I wonder if the lady will require the butler’s service,” she laughed.

  “She might,” Cassidy called from the kitchen doorway. “There will be dishes to do.”

  “Goodnight, Alex,” Rose said heading to one of the spare bedrooms for the night.

  “Night, Rose.” Alex walked into the bedroom to see Cassidy already under the covers.

  “Tired?” The agent asked.

  “Yeah, I am,” Cassidy said fighting a yawn.

  Alex went to the side of the bed and sat on the edge. “Cass…”

  “Hmmm?” The woman’s eyes were already closing.

  “Never mind,” Alex started to get up and Cassidy quickly pulled her back down.

  “No you don’t…I’m not asleep…what is it?”

  “It’s nothing. Go to sleep, sweetheart.” A wide smile crept onto Cassidy’s face and her grip tightened on the agent’s arm. “What’s that about?” Alex asked.

  “What?” Cassidy asked.

  “That,” Alex traced the smile on the woman’s lips with her finger.

  “You called me ‘sweetheart’.”

  “I guess I did.” Alex ran her hand through the woman’s hair.

  “What were you going to ask me?” Cassidy opened her eyes.

  “Nothing. Really….go to sleep,” Alex kissed Cassidy’s forehead. This time the agent made it to her feet and to the bathroom. She washed up, brushed her teeth, put on her oversized, gray ARMY T-shirt and climbed in behind the sleeping woman. She kissed the soft blonde head next to her. “I love you so much, Cass. I wish you knew.” The agent rolled onto her back and put her hands behind her head, staring at the ceiling as though it were a starry night sky.

  Cassidy rolled over and put her arm over the agent’s middle. “I do know,” she said softly.

  “I thought you were asleep.”

  Cassidy let out a sleepy groan. “Alex, what’s bothering you?”

  “I told you,” she kissed the woman’s head again, “nothing. I just…”

  “Alex…”

  “Cass…I just don’t want disappoint you.”

  Those words woke Cassidy completely and she propped herself up to look into the face of the woman she loved. “Where is that coming from?” Alex shrugged. “Uh-uh…you promised.”

  “What?” Alex asked.

  “No running...spill.”

  Alex took a deep breath. “What if I screw up, Cassidy?”

  “What do you mean by ‘screw up’? Like cheat?”

  “What? No! God. That would NEVER happen.”

  “Okay? Lie?” Cassidy asked.

  “No.”

  “Alex…I’m at a loss here.”

  “What if I screw up with Dylan?”

  “What? You’re great with Dylan.” Cassidy took a deep breath. She thought for a minute and she suddenly wondered something. Things were moving fast for the pair. Maybe it was too much for Alex, a six year old always around. “Alex, if you need to slow this down…”

  Now Alex shot up from her position to face Cassidy fully. “What?”

  “Well, I guess I didn’t really think…I mean…Dylan is here 24/7. That’s a lot, for anyone.”

  Alex laughed. “Cassidy, that’s not at all what I meant.” Cassidy took a deep breath and searched the agent’s eyes for her meaning. “I just don’t want to overstep my bounds…like last night.”

  “Alex, if it wasn’t for you last night would have been a disaster, for both me and Dylan.”

  “It’s not my place, Cass… to tell you where he should sleep…stuff like that.” Cassidy kissed Alex. “What was that for?” The agent asked.

  “I had to check if you were real,” Cassidy traced Alex’s lips with her finger.

  “What; am I trading in Alfred for Pinocchio now?”

  “Maybe,” Cassidy smiled. “Dylan loves you. My mother loves you. I love you….and it is your place.” The woman let out a nervous chuckle.

  “What?” Alex asked.

  “I forget sometimes that we really have all just met,” Cassidy admitted.

  “I know. Me too.”

  “I need to tell you something,” the teacher began tentatively. “And I don’t want you to get scared off.”

  “Cass…seriously?” Alex chuckled.

  “I am serious.”

  “I’m sorry. Tell me,” Alex pulled Cassidy into her arms. “It’s all right, whatever it is.”

  Cassidy let out a long breath. “All the things I imagined when I married Chris,” she hesitated.

  “Yes…” the agent encouraged her lover to continue.

  “They never happened, not really. I thought when Dylan came…but…and then he wanted to have another baby…conveniently, when he decided to run for office.”

  “You didn’t?” Alex was surprised. Cassidy was a wonderful mother and Alex knew already how much she loved children.

  “I did, but not like…not with Chris. I guess that’s when I really knew it was over.”

  “Cass? Why would that scare me off?”

  Cassidy swallowed hard. “Because I don’t feel that way with you. When I see you with Dylan…”

  Alex chuckled. “You think because you want to have more children one day the big goofy agent is gonna’ turn tail and run.” Cassidy shrugged. “Cassidy, look… if you had asked me a few weeks ago if I would EVER settle down, fall in love, I would have said no. That’s the truth.” Alex felt a tear through her shirt and lifted the smaller woman in her embrace so that she could look in her eyes. “I love you, Cass, and right now I want to get through all of this mess…but there isn’t anything you could ever ask of me that would make me walk away from you, or Dylan for that matter….and truthfully? It scares the hell out of me sometimes, but it doesn’t scare me half as much as the thought of losing you.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cassidy said.

  “For what?” Alex laughed a bit.

  “I just, well…it’s a crazy thing to say to someone you’ve known a week.”

  “No…it’s not. No crazier than the fact that we’re together,” the agent said. “Actually, it makes me feel a little better.”

 
; “It does?” Cassidy asked with surprise.

  “Yeah. It does.”

  “I love you, Alex.”

  “I know…go to sleep, Cass.” Cassidy let out a happy, audible sigh. “I love you too. More than you could ever know,” Alex said as she silently thanked the stars she couldn’t actually see for being happier than she ever thought possible.

  hristopher O’Brien sat up slightly in his hospital bed and took his first sip of water. His throat felt as if it were burning in the desert with no moisture to sooth it, making his voice raspy. “I don’t understand,” he swallowed more water and strained to finish his thought, “why Cassie isn’t here.”

  “Congressman,” Agent Fallon began, “it is safer for both Mrs. O’Brien and your son in New York right now. Agent Toles is there.” Brian Fallon had spoken at length with his partner that morning. He was now aware that the congressman had met with Fisher and who Fisher was and was not. She had also filled him in on the fact that his original ‘feeling’ regarding money laundering and arms might not only be a reality, but that the congressman might be both privy to it and worse still, involved in something of that nature. Fallon liked and respected Cassidy, and although he sometimes resented Alex for not sharing much of her past, he both trusted and loved his partner. His once amicable feelings toward the politician in the bed were less than charitable this morning.

  “Danger? The Letters?” Was all the congressman could force from his lips.

  Fallon tried to calm his inner anger. “What do you know about Carl Fisher?” He asked pointedly.

  The congressman avoided the agent’s eyes,” photographer.”

  “I see. On your campaign?” Fallon went along. The congressman nodded. “You released him?” The congressman nodded again. “Why?”

  “Cassie…” the congressman wheezed, “asked me…”

  “I see. Why was that?” The congressman shook his head as if not really knowing.

  “Hmm…Were you aware that Mr. Fisher worked for the government when you hired him?” The congressman did not answer. “I see. Were you aware that Mr. Fisher was an intelligence agent when you released him?” The congressman threw the agent a visual dagger. Fallon was unimpressed and unfazed. “You met with Mr. Fisher recently.” The congressman stared. “Well, Mr. O’Brien,” the agent deliberately stripped the man of his respectful title. “It appears that your friend, Mr. Fisher, has a thing for your ex-wife. That is why she is not here.” Fallon hoped his firm questioning and deliberate assessment would at the very least give the congressman some things to ‘chew’ on. “You need your rest,” Agent Fallon tipped his head. “I’ll be in touch when you are feeling more talkative.”

  Agent Claire Brackett picked up her phone. “He’s awake. I’m not certain when they arrived but the wife said she was returning to New York on Friday… I need to know what Toles is doing. Who she’s seeing… I can’t go to New York…she already is suspicious of me….. I have to go.” The tall redheaded agent walked to the water cooler, grabbed a cup and sat back down at her desk.

  “Brackett,” Assistant Director Tate called from the door. “My office.”

  “Sir,” the young agent opened the door.

  “Sit down, Brackett.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Brackett, this was on my desk this morning.” He passed her an envelope. She opened it and pulled out the photo. “Why were you outside Congressman O’Brien’s room yesterday?”

  “Sir, I was just checking on Agent Toles.” Tate folded his arms. “As you know…Agent Toles and I…”

  “What I know, Agent Brackett, is that the O’Brien case belongs to Agent Toles and Agent Fallon. They were assigned by me; you were not. Now…I have not spoken to Agent Toles since early this morning and I imagine you would prefer she did not know you were watching Mrs. O’Brien and her son.”

  “Assistant Director, I understand…Agent Toles and I had a disagreement…I simply…”

  “Brackett, here’s a piece of advice, Toles is Toles. Work is Work. Your cases are your cases and her cases are her cases. Are we clear?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Good. Now go deal with your case.”

  Agent Fallon peered in the door as Agent Brackett left. “Sir? A word?’

  “What is it, Agent Fallon?”

  “I’d like to request some undercover protection for Mrs. O’Brien,” Fallon explained.

  “Well, you could do that Agent Fallon but Agent Toles already took care of that this morning. Is that all?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fine.” Fallon turned to leave. “Next time you want to know what my conversation with another agent is regarding,” Tate said shuffling papers on his desk, “ask me.”

  “Sir…” Agent Fallon left the office to apprise his partner of all he’d learned in Washington.

  “Fallon…..What do you mean she was watching Cassidy?” Alex was burning. “When yesterday? What did she say to him?... Tate said what?...Great…..No….I’m in the car. Fallon…. I don’t know yet….. What did O’Brien say?......Really? He played dumb?...He definitely met with Fisher….P.D. might be better on this than the bureau. Fisher’s gotta’ have someplace close by here. You have any N.Y. contacts?...Okay…. Trust him?... Okay….Yeah…Set it up…I’ll meet him tomorrow…. Yeah… you too,” she hung up the phone. “Shit.” Alex Toles pulled over and opened the glove box. She pulled out a small black flip phone. “Taylor?”

  “Toles?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s going on?” Michael Taylor asked.

  “You find anything on Brackett yet?” Alex’s voice gave away her concern.

  “No. You want me to keep digging, don’t you?”

  Alex took a deep breath. “She’s not FBI.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Pretty sure, yeah,” she answered.

  “A feeling?”

  “No, remember that bookstore on Mutanabbi Street? The shopkeeper?”

  “Of course,” he answered.

  “Remember that conversation, on our weekly sweep?”

  “I do.”

  Alex pressed her thumb into her temple. “Just happened with the Assistant Director.”

  “Toles…”

  “Taylor…I speak seven languages and this smells like shit in all of them.”

  “Understood,” he said. “Toles…just be careful. I found out what Fisher did in the Marines.”

  “Yeah?” Alex Toles asked nervously.

  “Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to cross paths with him.”

  “How bad?” Alex asked.

  “Toles, he makes that bookshop look like a birthday party. He’s a sociopath with an IQ of 189.” Alex closed her eyes and tried to breathe. This situation felt too familiar. Two of the most dangerous scenarios just became reality; someone on the inside was working against them and they had to deal with a genius who was a psychopath.

  “Taylor, Cassidy…..can you…” the agent began to ask for her friend’s assistance in protecting the woman she loved.

  “Already done,” he said plainly.

  “How do you know what I was going to say?”

  “Captain Toles, when you almost die next to someone… Well, I can hear it….you love her…I get it…I’ll have Brady sweep the house tomorrow.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it….. Really, don’t,” he laughed.

  Alex appreciated the needed levity. “Understood, Cap, understood.”

  Alex Toles drove down Cherry Circle remembering the first time she had arrived here. It was impossible for her to believe that it had only been a week ago. It felt like an eternity, an eternity that she had loved Cassidy O’Brien and an eternity that she had been struggling with this case. Her life was completely different now. The things that suddenly mattered most to her had changed in ways that the agent found incomprehensible in certain moments. They were moments like this. She pulled into the driveway and turned off the car feeling glad to be home. But, it wasn’t really her ho
me. Alex wondered what would happen when the case ended and there was no reason for her to be here with Cassidy. Reality was beginning to press in on Alex Toles. She looked through the windshield at the house in front of her and unconsciously pressed her thumb to her temple. After her conversation with her friend, Michael Taylor, she knew that her fears about a stalker were valid. Maybe Carl Fisher was a piece of a bigger puzzle but there was no doubt in Alex’s mind he had other plans for Cassidy. That should have been her greatest worry as she opened her car door, but something else had risen to the surface. It wasn’t about money laundering or even psychopathic stalkers. Where, Alex wondered, would she fit into the puzzle that was Cassidy’s everyday life? She grabbed her case off the passenger seat and headed for the front door. Cassidy was exactly where Alex knew she’d be. She was in the kitchen chopping up vegetables and sipping a glass of iced tea. Alex stopped in the doorway to silently observe. “Are you going to hold up that wall all afternoon?” Cassidy asked remaining focused on her chore.

  “I was just doing a little investigating,” Alex flirted.

  “I see. Don’t you usually have to get closer to things to investigate them?” Alex smiled and moved behind the smaller woman at the counter, wrapping her arms around the woman’s waist. Cassidy’s breath seemed to catch momentarily in her chest. The agent’s touch both calmed and excited the teacher at the same time. She shivered slightly in Alex’s arms, “discover anything?” Cassidy asked as she tried to concentrate on the pepper in front of her.

  Alex felt a grin creep across her face at Cassidy’s physical reaction to her presence. “I have to get closer to see clearly,” she whispered heavily in the blonde’s ear, reaching for a piece of the pepper on the cutting board and being quickly rewarded with a playful smack of her hand. Alex giggled and stepped back, chewing on the strip of pepper and pouting her innocence to the woman that had turned to face her.