Heroes Never Die (33 page)

Brian clenched his jaw.  “Don’t send me away, Stephanie.  I need you.”

“It’s too late, Brian.  There are some wounds that even you can’t heal.  I want you to leave – now.”  She turned her back to him and stared out of the window again.  She had nothing more to say.

Brian stepped up close behind her and rested his chin on top of her head.  “I’ll leave if that’s what you want,” he whispered, “but it’s not what I want.  I love you and I want to be with you for the rest of my life.  If you ever change your mind, just let me know.  I’ll take you back in a heartbeat.”  She shrugged her shoulders so he would move away.

“I brought something else for you.”  He reached for the letters and placed them on the table next to the flowers.  “The letters I wrote to you finally came.”  Stephanie’s vision jumped to the letters.  “You can read them, or you can throw them away.  But if you do read them, I think you’ll realize just how much I love you, I always have, and I always will.”  Then Brian left without saying another word.

Stephanie waited for him to close the door.  Then she hurried to the table to see his letters, sorting through each one, touching the postmark, reading her name, and loving his handwriting.  She pressed the letters close to her heart.  After all of this time, his letters had finally arrived.  He had written, he did love her, and she had sent him away.  “Brian,” she cried as she hurried to catch him.  “Brian, wait.”

Stephanie stepped outside of the door and looked down the empty hallway for Brian.  He was already gone.  Tears streamed down her face and she just stood there, her heart broken, wondering how she could ever live without him.  She slowly turned to go back inside her room.  Brian was leaning against the wall.

“What took you so long?” he asked, grinning the mischievous grin that melted her heart.  “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to chase after me.”

She stared at him, laughing and crying at the same time.  “Oh, Brian, I love you.”  She threw herself into his open arms, thrilled that he had refused to give up on their love.

“I was kind of hoping you
would say that because I sure do love you.”  He pressed her mouth with a kiss, wanting all of her back, all at once.

Marsha walked by and saw them embraced in a kiss.  “Ah, ah, ah, you two,” she playfully scolded as she pointed her finger at them.  “Don’t get that started.  Six weeks – you have to wait a full six weeks.”  Then she kept on walking, laughing the entire way down the hall.

“Six weeks?” Brian teased.

Stephanie thrashed him with a look of disapproval.  “Don’t even think about it.”  Then she took his hand and they walked back in
to her room.  She knew they still had painful issues to face, and she wondered whether their love was strong enough to overcome all of the obstacles.  “I’m scared, Brian.  Before I go and get my hopes up too high, I need to know that we can work this out.  I need to know that you won’t blame me for betraying you.  I need to know that you can forgive me.”

“We’re going to talk through this, Stephanie, but this time I’m going to listen.  This time, I won’t judge.  And I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”

Brian was so reassuring that Stephanie suddenly felt as though the past had melted away.  “There’s just one more thing,” she questioned.  “The mail doesn’t run on Sunday.  How did your letters come today?”  She sensed his hesitation.  Then she noticed his knuckle.  “Your knuckle is scraped.”  She quickly put it together.  “You went to see Kyle, didn’t you?  He had my letters all along, didn’t he?”  She began to cry.

“Don’t cry, Stephanie,” Brian said as he dried her tears with his hand.  “He’s not going to hurt you anymore
.  I promise.”

“Oh, Brian,” she whimpered, knowing that he had punched Kyle.  “I knew you wouldn’t let him get away with it.”

Stephanie heard the door open and watched her dad step inside.  She turned to face him.  She could see his brow twist with anger.  She smiled to let him know that they had agreed to work it out.  Then his anger eased, and he shook his head at them.  “You crazy lovebirds,” Robert groaned.  “I think I’ll go visit my grandson.  As you were.”

“How about if we join him?” Brian asked.  “I want to see our son.”

Stephanie’s face lit up with excitement.  “Together?”  It was all she ever wanted.  He wrapped his arm around her waist, and they walked to the nursery to see the baby their love had made.

With her dad on her right and Brian on her left, Stephanie looked through the nursery window and admired their baby.  The two men she loved with all
of her heart were there to share her joy, and now she had a third, little man in her life.

“You never did tell me what you named him,” Robert wanted to know.

Stephanie glanced at Brian.  He nodded for her to go ahead and tell him.  She was hoping that her dad would be pleased.  “As soon as Brian and I found out we were expecting, we decided that if we had a son we would name him after you.  Dad, his name is Robert Mitchell – Robert Mitchell Fairchild.”

For a moment, Robert couldn’t speak.  “I’ve never been so honored.  Thank you.”  His face filled with pride as he admired his grandson.  “I have a namesake,” he boasted.

Stephanie kissed her dad’s cheek, and then she smiled at Brian.  “And if no one minds,” she added, not wanting to forget the man who saved her life.  “I’d like to nickname him Bobby, after Dr. Bobby Young.”  Then she stepped up close to the glass and cooed at her baby.  Life was the most precious gift of all.

Chapter Thirty-Seven:

Kyle sat in his car in the parking lot at Walter Reed and waited for Brian.  It had been seven months since Brian had slammed his fist into his jaw.  Today’s meeting would be just as unpleasant.  As soon as Brian reached the parking lot, Kyle raced up beside him.  “Get in,” Kyle ordered.  Brian climbed into his car and they sped away.  Kyle knew he was the last person Brian had ever hoped to see again.  Stephanie’s life was in danger.

***

It was the sleaziest bar that Kyle knew.  A blue haze of cigarette smoke hung like a thick cloud over the shadowy room, and the few men who were there, intoxicated from watching the topless dancers, puffed on even more cigarettes, snorted cocaine, and whistled and begged to feel a handful of mama.

Kyle watched Brian take a swallow of beer.  Then he followed his focus to a dancer who was kneeling on top of the bar.  She was fondling her breasts, teasing the man standing in front of her to come even closer.  She pressed her chest into his head and moved her breasts in circles to keep him from latching on with his mouth.  He slowly slid his hand up the length of her thigh.  Brian looked away.

“Why the hell did you bring me here?” Brian steamed.

Kyle was amused.  He could see the beads of sweat on Brian’s forehead.  “No one will recognize us here,” he finally answered, knowing that Stephanie would kill Brian if she knew he was there.  “Take off your nameplate.”

“I’m listening,” he said as he removed the nameplate from his crisp uniform and stuck it into his pocket.

Kyle set his beer aside and leaned forward.  He needed Brian’s full attention.  “I saw Lukens.  He told the Saudis everything.  They paid him two million dollars for the information.  If Tareef was willing to put up that much money, the rest is easy to figure.”

“Good God!  I let the bastard in
side my house.”

“Lukens would have set her up regardless.  All he wanted was the money.  Too bad he won’t be spending it.”  Brian’s stare sharpened.  Kyle knew that Brian didn’t need to ask.  Lukens was dead.

“Now what?”

“Tareef will use a trained terrorist to get the job done right, which is to our benefit.  We know every terrorist out there.  We know their names, we know where and how they operate, and we know when they take a shit.  We monitor all incomings in case one of them tries to slip in.  When the terrorist arrives, we’ll know the minute his foot touches our soil, and we’ll take him down before he has a chance to reach Stephan
ie.  But that’s not the problem.”

“The CIA generates a report that the President reads before he crawls out of bed in the morning.  As soon as we identify the terrorist, the President will know.  And then he’ll order everyone to stand down.  If that happens, my hands are tied.  And by the way, the President is an expert at having others do his dirty work for him.  Guilt finally got the best of Barry Braxton.  Before he
retired, he told me everything.”

“You were right about Stephanie’s mother having an affair with McCarthy.  When Susannah threatened him, he asked Barry to cut the brake line in her car.  But Stephanie was supposed to be with her mother when the brakes failed.  The President is a dangerous man.  He won’t rest until Stephanie is dead.  There’s only one way to keep her alive
.  The President must die.  And that’s where you come in.”

“You want me to kill the President?  Are you out of your mind?”

Kyle knew exactly what he was doing.  “The President once gave Stephanie a choice.  It was either Hamid or you.  Now it’s your turn to choose.  Who’s it going to be, the President or Stephanie?”

Brian drew a deep breath and slowly exhaled.  “I suppose you have a plan?”

Crushing his enemy is what Kyle did best.  “The President has an ulcer that’s getting worse every day.  He’s holding off going for treatment because he doesn’t want to appear weak in the public eye, especially before the election.  But he can’t hold out much longer.  Sometimes he is doubled over in pain.  I’ll let you know when he’s on his way to Walter Reed.”

“That’s your plan?  The President comes in with an ulcer, and you want me to bag him?  Just how the hell am I supposed to do that?”

“You’re the doctor,” Kyle mocked.  “You figure it out.  I’ll cover you on the autopsy.”

“You already tried to get rid of me once before.  How do I know you’re not setting me up again?  I hardly want to spend the rest of my life behind bars while you’re free to chase after my wife.”

“Pleasant thought,” Kyle smiled.  “Except that Stephanie already made her choice clear.  But I still have feelings for her, and you can’t take that away because that’s all I have left.  You ended up with the rest.  As much as I’d like to see you wind up in prison, for her sake I won’t let you take the fall.”

Brian stared through him.  “Give it up, Kyle.  You were out of the picture when I met Stephanie.”

“Yeah, I messed up.  Otherwise, I’d be with her right now, and you’d be the one having to live without her.  Scary thought, isn’t it?”  Kyle took a long swallow of beer.  It was difficult to sit at the same table with the man who had taken everything he had ever wanted.  He finished his beer and smacked the bottle down on the table.  “You and Stephanie need to make plans to leave Washington.  When the terrorist shows, you need to be long gone.  I wired the two million dollars into an investment account under your name to get you going.”

“Keep it,” Brian protested.  “It’s blood money.”

“It will be Stephanie’s blood if you don’t take it.  Use it to start over.  You’ll need it, especially if you have all of those babies Stephanie talked about.”

“You’re a hard man to figure, Robertson.  I don’t know whether to tell you thanks or put a bullet through your head.”

“Me, either,” Kyle agreed.  “Let’s keep it that way.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight:

The world news was on, but Stephanie was more interested in playing with her baby.  She cuddled him in her arms and cooed at him, smiling as brightly as the sun whenever he responded with a gurgle or a grin.  She heard the newscaster announce the latest poll.  President McCarthy was favored to win the election by a landslide vote.  Stephanie winced with hostility.  “What a jackal,” she seethed.  Then she stood to her feet with the baby in her arms and turned off the TV.
  She checked her watch for the millionth time.  Brian was late and she wondered what emergency was keeping him at the hospital.  She heard his car pulling into the driveway.  It was her favorite sound in the whole world.  “Daddy’s home,” she cried, her eyes lighting up with excitement.  Then she hurried to the door to greet him.

She thought his brow was twisted with uneasiness, but as soon as he saw her, he put on a smile.  He greeted her with a kiss and then reached for Bobby.  “There’s my boy,” he said as he cuddled him in his arms.  “You’re getting so big.”  Bobby bounced up and down in his arms, elated to see his dad.

Stephanie noticed a faint smell of alcohol on Brian’s breath.  “Can I get you anything – perhaps another beer?”

Brian grinned.  “Busted, huh?  I should have called first.  I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t like Brian to stop after work for a drink.  She was concerned.  “Everything all right?”

“We need to talk, Stephanie.  Is Bobby ready for a nap?”

“He just woke up and he’s full of energy.  What’s wrong?”

“I met with Kyle.  We need to make plans to leave Washington.”

Stephanie instantly knew that her life was in danger.  “Tareef?”

Brian nodded.  “Lukens led him straight to our door.”

Stephanie’s knees began to wobble.  “No,” her voice trembled, unable to believe that she had trusted Lukens in the first place.  She went to the living room and collapsed in a chair.  Tareef is going to kill me.  Then her insides filled with horror.  “What about Bobby?  If anything happens to him!  Oh, Brian, what are we going to do?”