Ultimate Betrayal (35 page)

“Don’t give up, honey. You’re just what he needs.”

Peter’s words sounded to Jennifer like the plea of a desperate man. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that giving up was exactly what she planned to do. If her plans for this weekend failed. She honed her argument while she waited for David to pick up the phone.

“Hello, Jen,” David said in a desultory tone.

Afraid she’d lose her resolve if she got diverted into small talk, she blurted, “Are you going to New Jersey this weekend?”

“Yes, well I planned—”

“What time will you leave?”

“About four o’clock. Why?”

“Swing by my place and pick me up. I’ll go with you.”

“Whoa, Jen,” David said. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I mean—”

“One way or the other, I’m going to Cape May. You don’t pick me up, I’ll follow you in my own car. It’s about time I found out what’s so special about that place.”

Jennifer heard David sigh. Then a five-second silence.

“I’ll see you at four,” he said, and hung up.

JULY 17

CHAPTER 3

Thank God for the radio, Jennifer thought while David parked the car against the side of the elevated blacktop boardwalk that separated Beach Drive from the sand and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. She’d barely been able to get fifty words out of him on the two-hour drive and seventy-five-minute ferry ride. He was obviously angry she had insisted on joining him. Not an auspicious start to the weekend.

David fed the parking meter and hopped up on the boardwalk. He left her standing in the street beside the car. Well, this was my idea, she thought. She jumped up on the boardwalk and rushed to catch up with him.

The blacktop ribbon ended about fifty yards ahead where groups of people stood and looked at the setting sun. Thirty yards of sand continued from the end of the boardwalk to the shoreline and a huge black rock jetty. Across a shimmering bay, maybe a mile wide, stood a red-topped, white-walled lighthouse. The fiery setting sun seemed to lean on the shoulder of the lighthouse. Layers of pink radiated from the ball and cascaded into the sea.

David stepped off the walkway to the beach and set off diagonally toward the jetty that extended into the pounding surf.

Jennifer tried to keep up, but the deep sand sucked at her sandals. She stopped to kick them off and then hurried to the rocks. Wet from the surf and greasy with lichen, the rocks were treacherous. She placed a foot on one, only to skid off the surface. She fell between two giant, squared off boulders and skinned both shins and an elbow.

“Damn!” she shouted. She looked up at David, but he either hadn’t heard her or had ignored her. “You bastard!” she muttered. “If you think you can get the best of me . . . .”

Jennifer extricated herself from the space between the rocks, retreated to the sand, and walked away from the shore until she found a dry spot. She mounted the jetty, then, with mincing steps, wound her way to where David now sat, Atlantic Ocean to his left, the Delaware coastline in the distance.

The sun set, inch-by-inch, behind the lighthouse. Despite the drama of the enormous red globe as it descended toward the water, Jennifer couldn’t help but question why she had come here. She looked over at him and somehow knew his thoughts: How he used to come to this very spot at sunset with Carmela, Heather, and Kyle.

Tonight, while nature put on a spectacle, Jennifer came to the conclusion she had wasted her time. The longer she stayed around David, the worse her heart would break. She blew out a shuddering sigh and turned back toward the sunset. This was probably all she would get out of this weekend. What an idiot you are, Jennifer Ramsey, she thought, as tears streaked her cheeks.

The sun finally touched the horizon and seemed to dissolve in the water. Tears now flowed down her cheeks. Jennifer sat there, mesmerized by it all, yet bereft of spirit and hope. Then she spontaneously applauded nature’s show. While her tears flowed, she clapped in appreciation of the sunset.

“What!” David said.

Jennifer jerked around and stared at him. His face was a collage of confusion, anguish, and anger. Jennifer felt a shaft of sympathy pierce her heart. She sensed the emotion that coursed through him and was suddenly concerned she’d disturbed him. After all, this was the place he’d come with his family. Their place. A lump formed in her throat and she felt like an interloper. She should never have pushed herself on him. If he couldn’t love her, if he couldn’t see how much she loved him, that she’d risked her life for him, she would just butt out.

David saw the tears in Jennifer’s eyes; teardrops spilled down her cheeks. As though he’d been struck in the head, a flash of bright light seemed to go off behind his eyes. And in that instant, a thought penetrated his cocoon of self-pity. He’d become so absorbed with his memories, with himself, he hadn’t had room in his heart for anyone else. He and Jennifer had become friends. They’d had dinners together over the past year, and even talked occasionally on the phone. She’d been a wonderful listener. She’d invited herself along on this trip to Cape May on the spur of the moment and he’d treated her like an intruder. With overwhelming clarity, the thought hit him that he’d been a royal asshole. He’d treated this wonderful woman like her role in their relationship was to be a sponge that absorbed whatever he poured on her. He’d given her nothing over the past twelve months; only took.

David felt warmth envelop him. It was almost as though Tommy, Carmela, Heather, and Kyle had wrapped him in their arms. He smiled at Jennifer and saw her face suddenly metamorphose. Her wrinkled brow and trembling mouth were replaced by laughing eyes and a sparkling smile. A deadness he’d carried within him too long started to dissipate, like oppressive hands had suddenly released their grip on his heart.

“Pretty spectacular sunset, wasn’t it?” he said.

“What?” She daubed tears with her fingers.

David stood up and brushed the sand off his jeans. He reached out a hand to her and smiled. “You hungry?”

“Yes.” She took his hand and looked into his eyes as she stood up. They walked along the top of the jetty until they found a place no higher than three feet from the sand. And jumped down to the beach.

They meandered along the beach for a while, hand-in-hand, in a comfortable silence; listened to the waves break on the shore and gulls cry overhead.

“Are the sunrises as beautiful?” she asked.

David stopped, turned toward her, and gently swept back a few loose strands of her hair. Maybe there was good in the world, he thought. Good that eventually defeated evil.

“Jennifer, you’re going to love tomorrow’s sunrise.”

THE END

To My Readers:

Thank you for reading “Ultimate Betrayal,” my seventh novel. Writing this book was an adventure for me as it brought back memories of experiences I had in Vietnam and allowed me the opportunity to research a variety of subjects, including the War in Afghanistan, CIA organization, and narcotics trafficking. “Ultimate Betrayal” was inspired by both personal experiences and historical events.

If you enjoyed this novel, you might want to read my other books, including “The Pythagorean Solution” (my first novel, released in 2003), “Shell Game” (a financial thriller released in 2012), and the 4-book
Danforth Saga
(“Evil Deeds,” “Terror Cell,” “The Nostradamus Secret,” and “The Lone Wolf Agenda,” all released between 2004 and 2013).

I would appreciate you writing a brief review on Amazon.com of any of my books which you have read. I value your opinion. The link to that site is: www.amazon.com/author/josephbadal.

I am currently working on my first mystery novel, “Borderline,” and the fifth book in the
Danforth Saga
, “Death Ship.”

Thank you for your support of my work.

Joe Badal

http://www.josephbadalbooks.com

[email protected]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Prior to a long finance career, including serving as a senior executive and board member of a NYSE-listed company, Joseph Badal served for six years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army in critical, highly classified positions in the U.S. and overseas, including tours of duty in Greece and Vietnam. He earned numerous military decorations.

He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Finance (Temple University) and Business Administration (University of New Mexico). He graduated from the Defense Language Institute, West Coast, and from Stanford University Law School’s Director College.

Joe now serves on the boards of several companies.

He has had six suspense novels published, including “The Lone Wolf Agenda,” which was released in 2013, and which was named the top Mystery/Thriller novel in the 2013 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards competition. His next novel, “Ultimate Betrayal,” will be released in April 2014. He also writes a monthly blog titled
Everyday Heroes
, and has written short stories published in the “Uncommon Assassins” and “Someone Wicked” anthologies.

Joe has written dozens of articles that have been published in various business and trade journals and is a frequent speaker at business, civic, and writers’ events.

“EVIL DEEDS”

DANFORTH SAGA (#1)

“Evil Deeds” is the first book in the
Bob Danforth
series, which includes “Terror Cell” and “The Nostradamus Secret.” In this three book series, the reader can follow the lives of Bob & Liz Danforth, and of their son, Michael, from 1971 through 2011. “Evil Deeds” begins on a sunny spring day in 1971 in a quiet Athenian suburb. Bob & Liz Danforth’s morning begins just like every other morning: Breakfast together, Bob roughhousing with Michael. Then Bob leaves for his U.S. Army unit and the nightmare begins, two-year-old Michael is kidnapped.

So begins a decades-long journey that takes the Danforth family from Michael’s kidnapping and Bob and Liz’s efforts to rescue him, to Bob’s forced separation from the Army because of his unauthorized entry into Bulgaria, to his recruitment by the CIA, to Michael’s commissioning in the Army, to Michael’s capture by a Serb SPETSNAZ team in Macedonia, and to Michael’s eventual marriage to the daughter of the man who kidnapped him as a child. It is the stops along the journey that weave an intricate series of heart-stopping events built around complex, often diabolical characters. The reader experiences CIA espionage during the Balkans War, attempted assassinations in the United States, and the grisly exploits of a psychopathic killer.

“Evil Deeds” is an adrenaline-boosting story about revenge, love, and the triumph of good over evil.

“TERROR CELL”

DANFORTH SAGA (#2)

“Terror Cell” pits Bob Danforth, a CIA Special Ops Officer, against Greek Spring, a vicious terrorist group that has operated in Athens, Greece for three decades. Danforth’s mission in the summer of 2004 is to identify one or more of the members of the terrorists in order to bring them to justice for the assassination of the CIA’s Station Chief in Athens. What Danforth does not know is that Greek Spring plans a catastrophic attack against the 2004 Summer Olympic Games.

Danforth and his CIA team are hampered by years of Congressionally mandated rules that have weakened U.S. Intelligence gathering capabilities, and by indifference and obstructionism on the part of Greek authorities. His mission becomes even more difficult when he is targeted for assassination after an informant in the Greek government tells the terrorists of Danforth’s presence in Greece.

In “Terror Cell,” Badal weaves a tale of international intrigue, involving players from the CIA, the Greek government, and terrorists in Greece, Libya, and Iran—all within a historical context. Anyone who keeps up with current events about terrorist activities and security issues at the Athens Olympic Games will find the premise of this book gripping, terrifying, and, most of all, plausible.

“Joe Badal takes us into a tangled puzzle of intrigue and terrorism, giving readers a tense well-told tale and a page-turning mystery.”

—Tony Hillerman,
New York Times
bestselling author

“THE NOSTRADAMUS SECRET”

DANFORTH SAGA (#3)

This latest historical thriller in the
Bob Danforth
series builds on Nostradamus’s “lost” 58 quatrains and segues to present day. These lost quatrains have surfaced in the hands of a wealthy Iranian megalomaniac who believes his rise to world power was prophesied by Nostradamus. But he sees the United States as the principal obstacle to the achievement of his goals. So, the first step he takes is to attempt to destabilize the United States through a vicious series of terrorist attacks and assassinations.

Joseph Badal offers up another action-packed story loaded with intrigue, fascinating characters and geopolitical machinations that put the reader on the front line of present-day international conflict. You will be transported from a 16th century French monastery to the CIA, to crime scenes, to the Situation Room at the White House, to Middle Eastern battlefields.

“The Nostradamus Secret” presents non-stop action in a contemporary context that will make you wonder whether the story is fact or fiction, history or prophesy.