Cross Fire (6 page)

“Not to worry,” I told her. “We’re just passing through. Come on.”

“Okay, Alex. I guess.”

The Romanesque-Byzantine architecture inside those walls is almost overwhelming, but it’s unbelievably peaceful in there, too. The soaring arches make you feel tiny, while the million little gold mosaic tiles in the artwork fill every corner with a kind of amber light I’ve never seen anywhere else.

I took Bree’s hand and walked her up one of the side aisles, through the transept, and into the wide area at the back. It’s enclosed from behind with a row of arched stained-glass windows, and open to the whole length of the cathedral at the front.

“Bree, can I see your ring?” I asked her.

“My ring?”

She smiled, a little puzzled, but gave it to me anyway. Then I got down on one knee, and I took her hand again.

“Is this a proposal?” she asked me. “Because I’ve got a little news for you, sweetie. I’m already there.”

“In front of God, then,” I said, and took a breath because I realized suddenly I was a little nervous.

“Bree, I didn’t need you before we met. I thought I was doing okay — I
was
doing okay. But now… here you are, and
I have to think that’s for a reason.” I hadn’t rehearsed any speech, and it felt like I was stumbling over my words, not to mention the lump in my throat. “You make me believe, Bree. I don’t know if I can explain what that means for someone like me, but I hope you’ll let me spend the rest of my life trying. Brianna Leigh Stone, will you marry me?”

She was still smiling, but I could see her fighting back tears now. Even here, Bree was trying to stay tough.

“You know you’re a little crazy, right?” she said. “You know that?”

“If lovin’ you is wrong,”
I whisper-crooned to her,
“I don’t want to be right.”

“Okay, okay, anything but the singing,” she said, and we both laughed like a couple of kids cutting up in the library. But it was laughter through tears, for both of us.

Bree knelt down with me, put her hand gently over mine, and slid the engagement ring back onto her finger. When she kissed me lightly on the lips, I felt the warmth, and a quiver, all the way down my spine.

“Alexander Joseph Cross, as many times as you want to ask me, the answer is
yes.
Always has been, always will be.”

ROMANTIC FOOL THAT I AM, I wasn’t done yet. From Immaculate Conception, I drove us back downtown, where we checked into the Park Hyatt for the night. I had told Nana we wouldn’t be home.

After the bellman left us to our suite, Bree looked around and asked, “Alex, how much is this costing?”

I had a chilled bottle of Prosecco waiting, and handed her a glass. “Well, I’m not sure we can still swing college for Damon after this, but the view’s great, isn’t it?”

Then I sat down at the baby grand — absolutely the reason I’d chosen this place — and started to play. I stuck to old standard love songs, things like “Night and Day” and “Someone to Watch Over Me,” each one with a little message for Bree. And, by request, I mostly stayed away from the singing.

She sat next to me on the piano bench, listening and
sipping the wine. “What did I do to deserve all this?” she asked finally.

“Oh, that part’s still coming up,” I said. “Something about taking off all your clothes. Slowly. Piece by piece.”

First, though, we had dinner sent up from Blue Duck Tavern and shared everything — orange and arugula salad, fresh ahi tuna, soft-shell crabs, and a warm-centered chocolate cake for two.

I opened a bottle of Cristal with dessert, and we finished it in the big limestone soaking tub afterward.

“I feel like we’re already on our honeymoon. First a church, and now this,” she said.

“Consider it a preview,” I told her, running a bar of lavender soap up and down her back, then her long legs. “Just a little taste of the future.”

“Mmm, I like the future.” She put her mouth on my shoulder and bit down softly when I abandoned the soap and started using my hands.

Eventually, we spilled right out of the tub and onto the floor. I made a makeshift bearskin rug out of two fluffy hotel robes, and we spent the next few hours trying to get enough of each other.

The first time I brought Bree to climax, her head tilted and her mouth opened soundlessly, while she held on to the small of my back with that amazing strength of hers.

“Closer, Alex. Oh God, closer. Closer!”

It was like nothing could come between us, literally or figuratively. I felt a million miles away from anything but her, and I never wanted that night to end.

But of course it would —
and all too soon.

THE HOTEL PHONE rang at almost exactly twelve o’clock. I’d realize later that it hadn’t been a coincidence. Midnight is also the start of a new day, and the caller meant that, literally.

“Alex Cross,” I answered.

“All this, and romance, too? Tell me, Detective Cross, how do you manage it?”

Kyle Craig’s voice registered like ice water — and just as fast as that, everything changed.

“Kyle,”
I said for Bree’s benefit. “How long have you been in Washington?”

She was already sitting up, but as soon as she heard the name, she grabbed her cell out of the nightstand and took it into the bathroom.

“What makes you think I’m in Washington?” Kyle asked me. “You know I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere. I don’t have to be there, to be there.”

“True,” I said, trying hard to keep my voice calm. “But I’m one of your favorite subjects.”

He laughed softly. “I’d like to say you’re flattering yourself, but I can’t. So tell me about the family. How’s Nana Mama doing? The kids?”

They weren’t questions. They were threats, and we both knew it. Families were Kyle’s thing, maybe because his own had been so messed up. In fact, he’d killed both of his parents, on separate occasions. It was everything I could do not to rise to the bait, but I held back my temper.

“Kyle, why are you calling? You never do anything without a good reason.”

“I haven’t seen Damon around,” he went on. “He must still be up at Cushing Academy, yes? That’s due west of Worcester, correct? But Ali! Now there is the definition of a growing boy.”

I gripped the edge of the mattress with my free hand. Having my kids in Kyle Craig’s thoughts was almost more than I could take.

But if there was one thing I knew, it was that idle threats and warnings only added fuel to his fire. He’d always been insanely competitive with me, and I mean that literally. It had been nearly impossible to bring him down the first time.

How in the hell was I going to do it again?

“Kyle,” I said as evenly as I could manage, “I’m not going to have this conversation if I don’t know where it’s going. So if you have something to tell me —”

“Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust,” he said. “It’s no big secret, Alex.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You asked where this is going. Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust — the same place everything goes. Of course, some of us get there faster than others, isn’t that right? Your first wife, for example, but I can’t take credit for that one.”

And then he got his wish — I snapped, lost it.

“Listen to me, you piece of shit! Stay away from us. I swear to God, if you ever —”

“If I
what?
” he fired back just as forcefully. “Hurt your ridiculous family? Take away your precious fiancée?” His tone had changed on a dime to pure rage. “How
dare
you talk to me about what’s been taken away. What you get to
keep!
Just how many lives have
you
taken, Alex? How many families have you shattered with that nine millimeter of yours? You don’t even know the meaning of loss — not yet,
you fucking hypocrite!
”

I’d never heard him go on like this before. In fact, Kyle rarely even cursed. Not the Kyle I’d known.

Was he devolving in some way? Or was this just another one of his carefully timed acts?

“Do you want to know the real difference between us, Alex?” he went on.

“I already know the difference,” I said. “I’m still sane and you’re not.”

“The difference is, I’m alive because none of you people have been able to bring me down, and you’re alive because I haven’t decided to kill you yet.
Please
tell me that obvious fact hasn’t escaped you.”

“I’m not going to kill you, Kyle.” The words were just spilling out of me now. “I’m going to make sure you rot to death, slowly, back in that cell in Colorado where you came from. You’re going back.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” he said — and then abruptly hung up. It was pure Kyle, just one more way of saying he’d started this thing and he was going to finish it, his way. Control was like oxygen to him.

Suddenly, Bree was right there, with her arms around me. “I spoke to Nana,” she said. “Everything’s fine, but she knows we’re coming home. And I’ve got a squad car headed over there right now.”

I got up and started dressing as fast as I could. My body was shaking with anger, and not just at Kyle.

“I messed up, Bree,” I said. “Bad. I can’t let him get to me like that. I can’t! It’s only going to make things worse.”

If that was possible.

GODDAMN HIM!
For everything.

Kyle had just accomplished exactly what he wanted, which was to inject himself into my life. He had my number, in more ways than one. Now I had no choice but to respond.

An MPD cruiser was in front of the house when we got there, with another uniformed officer in the back by the garage. Sampson was there, too; I’m not even sure who called him, but I was glad he came.

“All cool, sugar, we’re good here,” he said as we came in. He and Nana were hanging out in the kitchen. She’d even managed a ham sandwich and chips for him by then.

“This isn’t over,” I said. It was a struggle to keep my voice down while the kids slept upstairs. “We have to talk about moving the family.”

“Oh, is that so?” Nana said, and the temperature in the room dropped about twenty degrees.

“Nana —”

“Alex, no. Not again. You do what you need to with the children. I, for one, meant it the last time when I said it would
be
the last time. I’m not moving out of this house, and that’s my final word on the subject.”

Before I could even respond, she decided she wasn’t done after all.

“And another thing. If this Kyle Craig is as good as you say he is, then it doesn’t matter where you put the children. What matters, Detective Cross, is that you protect them where they are.” Her voice was shaking, but her finger was steady as she pointed it right at my face. “Defend your home, Alex. Make it happen! You’re supposed to be good at your job.”

She smacked the table twice with the flat of her hand and leaned back again. My move.

First, I took a breath and counted to ten. Then I asked Bree to start the APB process right away. “Get it out on WALES, all jurisdictions, and then NCIC at the Bureau as soon as we can.” For that, we’d need a warrant number, and Sampson got on the stick to track it down.

I put in my own call to the FBI field office in Denver. Technically, Kyle was their case, since he’d escaped from prison in Colorado.

Over the phone, an Agent Tremblay told me that they had nothing new to report but that he’d be in touch with all mid-Atlantic field offices right away. This was a priority case for them, too, and not just because of the damage Kyle had done to the Bureau’s reputation the first time around. I had a feeling I’d be hearing from Jim Heekin at the Directorate in Washington first thing in the morning.

Meanwhile, I made another call — and woke up my good buddy and sometimes sparring mate Rakeem Powell.

Rakeem had been with the force for fifteen years, and a detective with the 103 for eight. Then, in the same six-month period, he’d gotten married and shot, in that order, and ended up taking early retirement.

No one ever thought Rakeem would leave the department, but then again, no one thought he’d ever settle down either. Now he had his own close-security firm in Silver Spring, and I was about to become a client.

By seven that morning, we had a whole system in place. The kids were covered to and from school by me and Bree, with Sampson as backup. Rakeem’s firm would provide overnight security, front and back, with daytime coverage as needed. They’d also spend the first day working up an assessment of penetrable areas of the house and try to have them wired up before the kids got home.

Nana tried to put her foot down about FBI agents in the yard, but I came out on top of that one. As instructed by her, I was doing whatever I needed to do to make things happen. She and I were barely speaking at this point, and no one was happy about any of it, but this was our reality now.

Life under siege. Kyle Craig was back in our lives.

AND THEN LIFE does go on, ready or not.

Once I got the kids to school, I made it over to St. Anthony’s in time for my second appointment of the morning, after missing the first. I’d been doing pro bono counseling for the hospital ever since I shut my private practice. These were high-need folks who couldn’t afford even basic mental-health care, so I was glad to do my part. It also helped keep me sharp and on my toes.