Into Dust

“No.” She took a step back. She wanted to run but there was nowhere to go. She was trapped because now she knew that all of it was true. The nightmares, the memories of a powerful automatic weapon bucking in her hands, the taste of vodka on her lips, that feeling of being so powerful that she believed she could conquer the world. “Why would Virginia do that?”

“You remember Virginia. She lived on your floor at college. She would have done anything back then to be in The Prophecy. She’s the one who took all of these photographs. But she was wrong for us. When we found her again after all these years, she jumped at the chance to protect you. Also, she is dying of cancer. By the time her trial date comes up, she’ll be gone.”

Sarah stumbled to a chair and sat down hard. With her head in her hands, she said, “John is dead and Warren...”

“He will gladly go to prison. Just as Wally McGill and Mason Green have served their time like a badge of honor. We swore an oath all those years ago to give our lives to the cause. No one has broken that oath.” There was a slight hesitation in his voice. “Except you.”

“Even after all these years?” she cried, thinking these people must be crazy fanatics and that she was once one of them.

“Of course, after all these years. The Prophecy has been working in other parts of the world, waiting to do something big here in the States. That’s why I’m here. It’s time to finish what we started all those years ago.”

While she had no idea what that was, she knew enough to fear it. She raised her head to look at him. He hadn’t lied. He knew her. She could see it in his eyes. It was almost as if he could read her mind, know what she was going to do even before she did. He knew about Russell and that she’d been ready to confide in him. He also knew how she felt about Buck.

Sarah saw what he’d done. He’d given her back these memories—only to stop her from telling anyone. She was a murderer—just like the rest of them. Maybe more so because she’d been the leader. Unless she went along with whatever the anarchist group still had planned...

“What are they planning?” she demanded, her voice hoarse from unshed tears.

“You will know when it’s time.”

* * *

CASSIDY FELT PANIC fill her as she listened to the footfalls growing nearer to the room where they were trapped. Whoever it was, he was headed right for this office.

“In here,” Jack whispered as he opened the door to the small closet and pulled her inside with him. The closet was tiny and lined with shelves filled with office supplies and papers.

There was little room to stand for the two of them and the metal container that he’d found in the bottom drawer. They pressed their bodies together in the cramped space as tightly as they could and yet he’d only been able to partially close the closet door.

She heard the outer door bang open and heavy footfalls as someone entered the room. Through the sliver of light from the partially open closet door, she caught a glimpse of a large man. She didn’t get a look at his face as he headed straight for the desk. A moment later she heard him let out an oath and begin opening and slamming the drawers.

When he suddenly stopped, Cassidy thought for sure that the next place he would look would be the closet. She held her breath. Jack seemed to be doing the same thing. Her heart jackhammered as the man started to turn toward their hiding place.

A phone rang. The man hesitated before pulling out his cell on the second ring. “Urdahl,” he said into it. He stood, apparently listening to whoever was on the other end of the line for a few moments before he said, “Well, I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, boss, but the package you asked me to pick up is gone.”

The man held the phone away from his ear until apparently the caller quit yelling. Cassidy couldn’t make out the words, but she heard enough to surmise that his boss was very angry. “Like I said, this wasn’t my fault. I have men at his house in case he comes back. He hasn’t been back since this morning and didn’t show for some appointment he had this evening. Just tell me how you want me to handle this.” He listened for a moment. “Right. I’ll let you know when I find her. But what do you want me to do about your son?”

* * *

“THERE’S ONE MORE thing I need to know,” Sarah said as she realized Dr. Venable planned to leave without answering any more of her questions.

“In good time,” Dr. Venable said.

“No,” she said, digging in her heels as she stepped past him to block the door. She crossed her arms and held her ground. “I want to know why all those years ago I drove into the Yellowstone River in the middle of winter in an attempt to kill myself. I need to know why I left six beautiful daughters. Why I left a husband I loved. I want to know now or I’m going to call the sheriff.”

Dr. Venable studied her openly for a moment. “You want to spend the rest of your life in prison? Once everyone knows you’re Red—”

“Now or I make that call.”

He sighed. “All right.” His face hardened along with his eyes. “You weren’t supposed to fall in love with Buckmaster Hamilton. You were supposed to blend in, like the sleeper spies the Russians sent over to assimilate into our communities. Having children was fine, though we questioned why you would have so many. Six?” He shook his head. “You were supposed to...blend in until it was time. Instead, you bought into that life. You wanted to forget the past. You wanted to forget about our plans. When Joe contacted you—”

“So that was it. I wanted out of The Prophecy,” she said, feeling as if things were finally making sense. “And I wanted out of whatever...plans you say I came up with.”

Doc nodded. “You’d lost that fire you’d had, that desire to change the world. All you cared about was your precious family. You bought into the bourgeoisie. You had everything you wanted and you were ready to sell the rest of us out.”

She frowned. “But you couldn’t let that happen.”

“Not me. Joe. After two of our members had spent years in prison for a cause that you said you believed in, he was determined you weren’t getting out. Not after the rest of us had done our part.”

Still, why would she leave her precious family and the people she loved? “You threatened me.” With a curse, she met his gaze. “No, you threatened to use my family to force me...” Her hands balled into fists. Had she held one of those automatic weapons she used to fire when she believed in the philosophy of The Prophecy, she would have turned it on him.

That bonfire he talked about, that need to “do” something, burned brighter than ever inside her. Only what she wanted to do was destroy The Prophecy. Which meant destroying not only herself, but also her family. Destroying Buck.

She looked at Dr. Venable and felt a bubble of bile rise as she realized she was still between the same rock and a hard place that she’d been more than twenty-three years before. The members of her old anarchist group would never let her quit.

Taking a moment to get control, she considered the precarious position she was in. She still didn’t have all the facts because she didn’t have all of her memory yet. She didn’t know what they had planned. But once she did...

She nodded as if coming to the decision he wanted her to. “So failing my attempt to...escape by killing myself, I called you.”

“I was the only one who could help you and you knew it.”

“I trusted you apparently. And your answer to my problem was to steal all memories of that life.”

“You begged me to. I erased it and then took you away from here as well. We were happy in Brazil. Oh, don’t look so horrified. We weren’t lovers. We were...associates. We talked a lot about changing things—just like we did during your college years.”

“I don’t understand how I came to be part of The Prophecy.” In high school, she’d been the perfect daughter, perfect student, perfect citizen. She’d gotten a scholarship to university. What had happened when she reached there? Had it been Dr. Venable who’d changed her? Or had it been—

“Joe brought you in.”

She nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. Of course she’d been a vulnerable, wide-eyed small-town girl at a big university and Joe was handsome, charming, sexy, intense, like no other man she’d ever met. He’d been her first lover. Memories flooded her. She shuddered at the thought that a part of her could still be vulnerable to him.

“It wasn’t an accident that you met and married Buckmaster Hamilton,” Dr. Venable said. “You chose him as part of a plan.”

She frowned in surprise. “But how could I have possibly known he would run for president, let alone that he might stand a chance of winning all those years ago?” The words were barely out when she realized her mistake. “Buck was just a way to get to Senator JD Hamilton. As his daughter-in-law, I would have influence over him. There was talk that he might run for president. I was to make sure that he did, right?”

Doc nodded. “It would have worked if he hadn’t fallen in love with the young girl who lived on the ranch next door.”

“We can’t help who we love,” she said, thinking of Buck.

“You and Joe seemed the perfect match.”

She shook her head. “Whatever Joe and I had, it wasn’t love. He indoctrinated me.”

Doc bristled. “I wouldn’t let him hear you say that. And you can say you were brainwashed, but you seemed more than willing to take up the cause. After all, you’re the one who came up with the plan to go after Senator JD Hamilton.”

“I was young and stupid.”

“Your plan almost worked.”

“What plan was that? The same one you have for Buck?” Sarah saw that he had no intention of telling her. “I need to know what you’re going to do to him.”

He quirked a brow. “What makes you think we’re going to do something to him? It will be up to you what happens. But first you have to convince him that you’re dying to live in the White House, dying being the key word.”

“You would kill me—”

“Why would we kill you?” Dr. Venable said as he handed her back her phone. “You and Joe are going to lead us. Just like you used to. When the time comes, you’ll know exactly what has to be done and you’ll do it.”

“Is that what you told JD Hamilton when he was ready to quit the race for president?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, JD disappointed us and had to be dealt with. You have too much to lose to let that happen.”

* * *

AS HE HEARD what Ed said into the phone, Jack no longer had to wonder if his father knew that he’d helped Cassidy escape. Nor did he have to speculate on whether his father would know that he was the one who’d broken into his desk and taken the metal box he now held under his arm in the dark of the closet.

He’d been seen. Shaken, he watched Ed Urdahl through the crack between the door and jamb. When he’d told Cassidy that Ed was looking for both of them, he’d been hoping it wasn’t true. But it was.

Had his father known already when Jack had called him? Had Tom Durand made up the story about being on his way to Catalina? Maybe the sound he’d heard in the background was his father’s private jet engine.

Which meant his father could be back in Houston. In fact, he could be looking for Jack at this moment. Apparently, there were already men out at the ranch waiting for him to return. There was no place safe. He and Cassidy were truly on their own.

“Okay, I’ll handle it,” Ed was saying into the phone. “I’ll let you know when I find them. I said I would find them. When I do, I’ll call and then you can tell me what you want me to do with them.” Ed held the phone away from his ear, but Jack could hear his father yelling, although he couldn’t make out the words.

What did his father plan to do with them? He still didn’t know why he had wanted to abduct Cassidy. What had he planned for Ed to do with her? And now the big question, what had his father just told Ed to do about him?

“Yes, I heard you. I’ll take care of it.” Ed finished the call without another word and pocketed his phone. He stood for a moment as if trying to remember what he’d been about to do before the call.

Jack didn’t dare breathe. Behind him he felt Cassidy’s hand rest on his back as if like him, she feared that the man would head for the closet next. He thought about pulling out the gun, but he feared he would give away their position. It was tight enough in the closet, especially with him holding the metal container.

Not only that, when Ed had reached to put his phone away, Jack had seen the gun in the man’s shoulder holster. Cassidy had, too, because he’d heard her startled intake of breath behind him.

Ed stood for a moment looking down at the desk before he walked around it and out of the office. Jack listened to his retreating footfalls, still holding his breath. If Ed suspected that Jack was hiding in the building, he would wait and catch him when he came out.

The sound of the old freight elevator clanked and groaned as if rattling the entire building as it descended. After a while, the night fell silent.

“Jack?” Cassidy whispered.

He shook his head, turning only slightly to motion for her to wait.

She nodded, but her blue eyes were huge and she still had her hand pressed to his back. He could feel her trembling. He was shaking just as wildly inside. What the hell was going on with his father?

Jack didn’t know how long they stood there. His mind was like a hamster on a wheel. What was his father involved in? Whatever it was, Jack and Cassidy were now up to their necks in it.

The building sounded as quiet as a tomb when he finally pushed the closet door open a little wider and looked out. Ed had left the office door open, but he’d turned out the light as he’d left. The hallway was empty.

Cautiously, he stepped out, motioning for Cassidy to stay where she was. If he got caught, he didn’t want her caught as well. He moved to the doorway and looked out. Nothing moved in the dim light of the hallway. No sound came up from the floors below.

Ed had taken the elevator. That meant he hadn’t expected anyone to be in the building, otherwise he would have sneaked in as they had. Jack felt a little better at that thought, which meant there was a good chance Ed wasn’t waiting outside for them. Jack had parked the truck away from the building and on a side street. Ed would have taken the main street to the office, so he wouldn’t have seen it.

At least that was Jack’s hope as he motioned that it was okay for Cassidy to come out now. He stepped close to her to whisper, “I think he’s gone, but we aren’t going to take any chances.” He held his finger to his lips and she nodded jerkily.

He could tell that she was scared. It had been a close call. Also, he was pretty sure that she’d heard what Ed had said. The big man was still looking for her. But now he was also looking for the boss of T.D. Enterprises’ son—Jack Durand.

From Cassidy’s expression, she hadn’t put that part together. At least not yet. He hoped she thought that the boss’s son was one of the men in the van.

“He had a gun and he knows we have the box,” Cassidy whispered, eyes big and round with fear. “What do you think is in it?”

He had no idea as he glanced at the battered and tarnished metal still tucked under his arm. It was a Pandora’s box. He feared what would come springing out the moment he opened it.

She still looked scared, but he was terrified of what his father had hidden inside an old locked metal container he’d kept for years inside a locked drawer. “Let’s get out of here.” Shifting the metal box to his hands, he heard that faint metallic rattle again from within.

Cassidy must have heard it as well. “Maybe we shouldn’t take it.”

Did he really believe the answer to why his father would have the probable future president’s daughter kidnapped was inside this box? But he now knew that his father had secrets—and some of them were apparently in this beat-up metal box.

Jack needed to know what he was dealing with—who he was dealing with.

CHAPTER SIX

“HOW IS SHE?”

“Sarah’s shocked and confused right now,” Dr. Ralph Venable said into the phone. “It’s to be expected.” He’d been regretting making this call, fearing the outcome, ever since he’d left Sarah. Buck would be home by now. At this point, Doc could only hope that she didn’t confess everything. “She’s having a tough time.”

Joe Landon sighed. “You know I never stopped loving her. When she went out to Montana to meet Buckmaster Hamilton and get close to his father, Senator JD Hamilton, I almost went after her, wanting to stop her. I was ready to run away with her and put The Prophecy behind us.”

He thought of the young Joe and Sarah as they had been at nineteen. Such a beautiful couple. Joe had brought Sarah into the anarchist group with his handsome face and his passion, as well as his radical ideas.

“Why didn’t you go after her?” Venable asked, thinking how different things would have been if Joe had.

“Because she didn’t love me enough. She wouldn’t have renounced The Prophecy for me.” Venable heard the sharp edge of bitterness in the man’s voice.

“You don’t know that.”

Joe laughed. “Actually, I do. The night before she left, I told her I was in love with her. It didn’t make a damned bit of difference. She was determined to start a revolution and that meant going after the Hamilton who everyone thought would be the next president. And yet, years later, she tries to kill herself rather than go through with her own plan all because she’s fallen in love. She had what she wanted so to hell with the rest of us.”

Venable said nothing. There was nothing to say since it was true. Sarah had fallen for Buck and adored the children they’d had together. She had wanted to wash her hands of The Prophecy and had refused to go through with the plan.

There’d been only one thing to do after she’d failed at suicide and called him. He had wiped away the years with Buck and her children and taken her to Brazil to keep Joe from killing her.

“So,” Joe said now. “Are you going to be able to control her like you said you could?”

“So far she has done exactly what you require. She’s gotten close to Senator Buckmaster Hamilton again, encouraging him in his race for president.”

“She was briefly engaged to some cowboy named Russell Murdock,” Joe said angrily. “That wasn’t exactly in the plan.”

“But we took care of that when we exterminated the senator’s wife, Angelina. Just as I predicted, Sarah broke her engagement and moved onto the ranch.”

“I want them married,” Joe said through gritted teeth.

“You also want him to win the election or all of this would be for nothing,” Venable pointed out. “You got me back to handle this, so let me.”

“Even if you can get the two of them married and Hamilton wins, I’m not convinced that you can make Sarah do what we need when the time comes. If she no longer believes in our cause...”

That was putting it mildly, Venable thought as he rubbed the gray stubble at his chin. There were days he felt just as she did. Like Sarah, he’d been on fire with fanaticism all those years ago. He’d believed that a handful of people could change the world. That they owed it to themselves and the world to make that change. He’d been full of confidence and brazen disregard for everything and everyone but the members of The Prophecy, the group he’d started since he was the oldest of them.

It was Joe, though, who not only adopted his radical views, but also pushed the others to do what they had to in order to get the attention they deserved.

When one of their bombs had killed innocent people and Mason Green and Wallace McGill had gone to prison, Venable had wanted to stop. This wasn’t what he envisioned.

It had been Sarah who had insisted they couldn’t quit. They owed it to Mason and Wally. They owed it to the lives they’d taken. They owed it to their country to try to change the things that were wrong with it but to do it peacefully.

That’s when she’d come up with the plan to make a real difference from the inside. Joe had been against it, but he’d gone along thinking Sarah would come back to him.

“From my source inside Hamilton’s campaign, I understand that Buckmaster is also having doubts,” Joe said. “We can’t let him do what his father did. He can’t pull out of the race.”

Venable thought of JD Hamilton. Sarah had done her part beautifully. No one could have predicted that JD would fall in love with some young girl and be willing to give it all up. Love, he thought with a curse.

“There are always variables that have to be considered. We can’t control everyone,” the doctor said.

“But we can control Sarah. That’s why I’ve taken things into my own hands to make sure she holds up her end of the bargain,” Joe said.

Fear wedged against his heart. Joe, bitter over how things had turned out with Sarah, had become a hothead who acted before he thought things out. “What have you done?”

“Taken necessary steps to see that Sarah doesn’t weaken. Otherwise, she is going to lose one of her daughters.”

“You kill one of the daughters and I can promise you Buckmaster will pull out of the race,” Venable said, furious with Joe. While the doctor had started The Prophecy, Joe, who was younger, stronger, more charismatic, had taken over. Joe hadn’t had the brains, but once he hooked up with Sarah, the two of them were a team and Venable had lost the anarchist group he’d founded—and any power he’d had. He had never been more aware of that than he was right now.

It made him question what he was still doing with them. He was an old man. He’d given his life to his research and The Prophecy. “You could destroy everything with this...maneuver,” he said, unable to hide his anger.

“No one said anything about killing her,” Joe assured him. “Unless it becomes necessary. Same with Sarah. You already protected her once. I suggest you not do that again.”

Venable swore. After Sarah had tried to kill herself all those years ago, and failing, had called him, he’d saved her by taking her to Brazil. Unfortunately, Joe had found out where they were and insisted Sarah be returned to Montana because Buck was talking about running for president.

He’d had no choice but to go along with it. Joe had made it clear that he would kill them both.

Now, though, he feared Joe was going to land them all in prison. “Joe, you can’t—”

“Don’t worry about it, Doc. You just do your part.”

He heard what Joe didn’t add. “Do your part—or else.” He hated the fear that crowded his lungs and made breathing next to impossible. He wasn’t sure how many days he had left.

But he knew one thing for sure. He didn’t want to die at Joe’s hands. If he couldn’t control Sarah, he knew Joe would. For her sake as well as his own, he had to get through to her. If he didn’t, her former lover would.

* * *

CASSIDY FLOPPED INTO the passenger seat of the pickup and closed her eyes. They’d run the last block in the darkness, the only sound the pounding of their soles on the pavement.

Now she tried to catch her breath. Her heart hurt it was thumping so hard. This was too real. She’d seen the man’s gun. She’d heard him on the phone. Jack was right. Nothing was going to stop them.

She opened her eyes and looked over at Jack as he started the engine and pulled away from the curb. “What do they want with me?”

“I would imagine money. But with your father apparently a shoo-in for the presidency...” He glanced over at her as he took a turn, then another through the empty industrial area.

There weren’t any other vehicles on the dark streets, making it seem even more sinister. Cassidy realized she was shaking. Nothing like this had ever happened—nothing even close. Maybe she should call her father. Or even the police.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the glint of the metal box Jack had found in the locked drawer. “You think the answer is in there?”

He shrugged as he took another turn. His gaze kept going to the rearview mirror.