Crash Into You (31 page)

She nodded.

Mark grabbed his suitcase.  

“Wait.”   Aimee grabbed his hand.

He turned and looked at her.  “I love you.”  She smiled, then.   Happy to say it.  Happy to know it was true.

“I love you too.  That’s why I know we can figure out this stuff together.”

She let his hand go, and watched him walk away.

“Hi, may I speak to Bryan please?”

             
“He’s not here right now,” a voice replied flatly.  “Can I take a message?”

             
“Is this Jake?”

             
“Who is this?”

             
“My name is Kimberly.   I believe you’re my sister Aimee’s next door neighbor?”

             
She heard the pause on the other end of the line, the cautious pause that always preceded a discussion about Aimee because one never knew when Seth was laying a trap.

             
“Yes, I’m her neighbor.”

             
“I need to know if you or Bryan know how to reach her.  She is in terrible danger.   Seth is driving to Montana and looking for her right now.”

             
“I have no idea where she is.  Bryan received an email from her and Seth found it.   Neither of us know what to do right now.”

             
Kimberly frowned, rubbing the spot between her eyebrows.  “Well, if you hear from her, tell her I’m desperate to reach her.”

             
“I will.  Good luck.”

             
Kimberly hung up and then turned to look at Rob.    “I’m going after him.”

             
“What do you mean?”

             
“I’m going to Montana.  I need to warn Aimee.”

             
“You don’t know where she is or for that matter, where Seth is.”

             
“I don’t care,” she said and headed for the stairs.   Rob followed. 

             
“Let’s call the police.”

             
“We can’t!” Kimberly spun around to face him below her on the steps.   “Seth is a cop.  He has made it clear that he can call any police force in the country and have Aimee picked up within an hour.   If we alert the police, we could be putting her in peril.”

             
Without waiting for an answer, she spun around and hurried up the rest of the stairs.   In the closet, she yanked out a suitcase and flung it on the bed.

             
“Kimberly, please stop for a second and think about what you’re doing.”             

             
“You’re either with me or against me.  If you’re with me, pack a change of clothes. If you’re against me, stay out of my way because this is one fight you can’t win.”

             
She’s startled him.  She could see it in his face.   But she didn’t spend any time trying to smooth it over.  She returned to her closet and grabbed some jeans.  She began to yank them on under her robe.

             
“Okay, okay,” Rob said softly.  “I’m with you.  I’m always with you.”

In the late afternoons, half past four or so, the light would slowly begin to lengthen over the valley, turning golden and washing the mountaintops with pink fire.     The air was absol
utely pure and somehow soft, smelling of the earth and residual sunshine.

             
As the air grew chilly, Mark would start a fire, and they would talk or make dinner, or sometimes take the horses out again for a meander.  The hours were somehow absorbed with the mundane little things that had become precious to her.               The world was slower out here, and kinder, more generous.   But without him here, she felt at loose ends.  Those generous hours seemed to stretch out into days.   The house was so quiet, emphasizing the physical and metaphorical space he occupied in her life.

             
She played with May outside, made some pasta for dinner, and wandered through the house with May following, a little confused by Aimee’s listlessness.

             
The vitality that was missing was simply Mark.

             
It was important to hold something back, she reminded herself.  To keep something pure and special so that when you meet the right person at the right time, you can give it purely, without any reservation.

             
Then today when he said the words: I love you.

             
Her heart had cracked in two.    The big thaw, she feared.  Pure dizzy joy was all that kept her standing.   She hadn’t had any reservation about saying the words because she meant them.

             
But even meaning them, she could succumb to the seduction of forever.  She wouldn’t halt her plans just because love kicked her in the ass, catching her totally unawares.

             
She missed him like a phantom limb.   Better get used to it, she told herself sternly.  This dull, gravel-flavored feeling would be the norm for a while.   She would have to acclimate to the missing so that she could live the life she intended.

Aimee adjusted the thick fleece blankets to cover her feet.   Mark was always trying to keep May off the furniture but she wanted the comfort of the dog on the sofa beside her.  She flipped listlessly through the channels and settled on the news.   She’d never been in the house alone before, and with all the glass of the living room, she had the weird impression that she was being watched.   After several more uncomfortable moments, she shut off the tv and started up the stairs, but May trotted to the door.

              “You need to go out?”  Aimee asked.

             
May wagged her tail.

             
Aimee put on her boots and coat and grabbed the flashlight Mark used to look for snakes.   Aimee opened the door.

             
It was so dark.   The crescent moon was rising, white as bone, veiled with thin cloud, just over the peaks of the Bitterroots.   The cold wind rustled the aspens. 

             
Even May seemed to detect something amiss.  Instead of running off as she normally did, she sniffed a bit nearby, then did her business.   As soon as she was finished, she ran back to Aimee.  Then just as she opened the door, May let out a howl that pierced the night sky and sent a boom of terror through Aimee’s shivering body.  Aimee scrambled in, May shooting through the door with a look of weird terror on her face.  Aimee locked the door, set the alarm, and just stood there for a moment with her heart pounding out of her chest, waiting.

             
Nothing happened. 

             
Perhaps May had seen another wild animal.  It wasn’t impossible; moose and elk, bobcats, and, of course, bears roamed the foothills with abandon.   Or maybe it was absolutely nothing and May, like Aimee, was just jittery since Mark wasn’t home.

             
Aimee shut off the downstairs lights and followed May upstairs.   Where did Mark keep his gun?

             
Clearly that was a crazy thought.  She didn’t even know how to use a gun.   The weird silence of the house was getting to her, that was all.  Being out here in the boonies was great when Mark was around, but alone, she kept thinking of some madman snarling, “scream all you want, there’s nobody around to hear ya.” 

             
She slid between the cool sheets of the bed and pat the place beside her so May would jump up.  May curled up on the pillow beside her.   Aimee stroked the soft fur.   “You sweet mutt,” she said.    “You’re not Mark, but I suppose you’re the next best thing.”

Seventeen

Mark had been to the Death Star, or the Langley headquarters of the CIA, only a handful of times.   His usual office was in a small blue skyscraper in Rosslyn.   From the outside it appeared to be an ordinary office complex, the kind that might contain law firms, real estate agents and financial firms.   But on closer inspection, the security apparatus in plain sight was not
de rigeur
.   The guards armed with MP-5s inside the parking garage and the thumbprint scanner at the doors were the first indication that there was something worth protecting in this hive of activity.

             
Mark didn’t make it to the thumbprint scanner.  He used the phone to dial the extension he’d been given.  “Mark Spanner to see Adam Fraller.”

             
A man appeared in the vestibule and escorted him upstairs to a small, empty conference room.    “Your party will be here shortly,” he said and left.

             
Mark waited, growing angrier by the minute.    He stood up and paced,  passing the windows, which were specially treated to block infra-red rays, omni-directional microphones, and optical receivers lest the bad guys attempt to capture the conversations within.

             
The CIA was great at playing defense.  But he was tired of it.  Exasperated by the games in which nobody really won, he felt only a great weariness settle over him.

Fall was setting in; a gray sky hung like a tent over the swerving grey-green ribbon of the Potomac.  Orange trees shook in the wind while the dead leaves skittered wildly across the street.

              He thought of the snows on Jubilee Mountain; he needed to hire an architect as soon as he got home, else he would have to wait until next Spring.  He was eager to get the resort going.  Eager to be home.

             
The door swung open and Adam Fraller preceded Joe Castanetta, a man Mark did not expect to see.   The Deputy National Intelligence Director wore an expression of amiable indifference, like it was completely normal for him to appear in a meeting in Rosslyn with a former employee.   Two other people followed, but Mark didn’t know them.   They were introduced by name, but no title.  Interesting.

             
Mark braced himself for the impact, his gut clenching around the fear that they were going to try and fuck his life up again.

             
They sat at the table, Mark staring stoically at Fraller.

             
“The agency is starting a new initiative,” Castanetta said.  “Your name has come up as a potential candidate for team lead.”

             
Mark exhaled audibly.  All this for a recruiting effort?  He could have saved them a lot of time, money and effort and given them an answer back in Spanner.   However, diplomacy was required.  Mark said, “Thank you for the vote of confidence.  However, I am not interested at all.”

             
“Perhaps you will be after we describe the initiative.”

             
Mark wanted to leave.   He wanted to protect himself from knowing whatever it was they were about to tell him.   But he forced himself to sit still, to pretend to consider the generous offer.

             
“Mr. Spanner, you have an intriguing background.   Your medical knowledge is very valuable, as you know.   In recent years, the agency has had less success than we would like with our medical programs.  Your ability and your rigor to the job are invaluable assets here.”

             
Rigor to the job?  Code for his willingness to go along with torture.  Well they were wrong about that.  Wrong about him.  But he said nothing.

             
“Your skills have saved lives.   And we’d like to put those skills to use again in a project that, I assure you, would get very high visibility inside the agency and even with the president.”

After a night of tossing and turning, Aimee was determined to not sit around marinating in her own scary thoughts and scenarios.  In the morning ,she drove to Glacier Outfitters, where she taught two yogalates classes.   As Larissa hung up her mat, sweaty and radiant, she turned to Aimee.   “The new neighbors have opened up their café,” Larissa said.  “Supposedly it is to die for.  So how about lunch with me and Sarah?”

             
“Sure,” Aimee said.   She didn’t want to go back to the ranch right now.  It was lonely out there without Mark, and she couldn’t shake a bad feeling she was getting, even with protective May on guard.

For the first time since she’d been in Montana, Aimee felt underdressed in her yoga pants and green anorak.  The café was lovely, with low lighting, white table clothes and the rustic sophisticated chic look that she’d envisioned for the Resort at Starlight Lake restaurant.  The fact that the dining room was empty didn’t quell her sudden apprehension.

Yet as soon as she spotted the hostess, she relaxed.  The young woman was wearing jeans and had her hair pulled back in a jaunty ponytail.  “Hi, table for three?”