Protecting Her(100)

Another hour passes and Garret falls asleep in my arms. He’s exhausted from crying so much. I kiss his forehead, then rest my head on his.

I think back to when we had him. Rachel almost died during the delivery. I was so scared I would lose her. I begged God not to take her. And now he has. He took her from me. But why? Am I being punished for all the bad things I’ve done? If so, it’s not fair. It’s not fair to my son. He did nothing wrong. He’s just a little boy. He needs his mother.

I hold him closer and lightly rock him, like I did when he was just a baby. He falls into a deeper sleep and I carry him upstairs to his room. I put him in his bed and pull the covers over him and kiss his head.

It’s still early, and I couldn’t sleep even if I tried, so I go back downstairs. I sit at the kitchen table. I remember when we bought this table. It was right before Rachel and I had our fake wedding. I worried the wedding would never happen. I thought for sure they’d stop it. Even though the organization agreed to it, and even planned it, I still didn’t trust that they’d let it happen. I thought that would be my punishment for my secret marriage to Rachel that had happened months earlier. I thought they’d let me think I could have her, but then they’d take her away. They’d stop the wedding and force me to divorce her.

But that never happened. And I still don’t know my punishment for marrying her.

I burst up from my chair. Is this it? Is this my punishment? Did they do this to Rachel? But they didn’t know she’d be on the plane. It was a last minute decision and nobody knew except Wingate and me.

And Dunamis wouldn’t kill Wingate. He’s too valuable, which is why they were going to make sure he was reelected. So if they wanted to kill Rachel, they’d find a different way. They have many ways to kill people. Easier ways. Less public ways.

It wasn’t them. It was an accident. A horrible tragic accident.

The phone rings again and I’m tempted to disconnect it from the wall. I don’t want to talk to anyone and I don’t want the loud ringing to wake up Garret.

It keeps ringing and I pick it up just to make it stop.

“Who is it?” I bark into the phone.

“It’s Jack.” I hear heavy breathing, like he’s out of breath.

“Jack, why are you calling me at home? You know we can’t—”

“They already know. Or at least one of them does. Someone found my phone. The one I’ve been using to call you. It’s missing, and I don’t know who has it.”

Shit. That’s bad. For both of us.

“I can’t deal with this now. Rachel—”

“Yes, I know,” he says. “I need you to meet me. Right now.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“This is urgent. Meet me at 225.”

That’s the number we assigned to the location we said we’d met at if we ever needed to talk in person without them finding out. We gave the location a number so if they were listening in, they wouldn’t know where Jack and I were meeting. We have several locations, each with a different number. Location 225 is five miles from here. It’s a scenic turnoff. A place tourists can stop and take photos of the leaves in the fall.

So Jack’s here in Connecticut. But he was just in DC. He was at Wingate’s fundraiser and I know he attended Wingate’s speech. How did he get here so fast? He must’ve taken his jet.

“Pearce! Meet me at 225. Leave right now.”

“I can’t! I can’t leave Garret here alone. And I can’t take him with me. He’s asleep. I can’t wake him up. He’s been crying for hours. He needs to sleep.”

“I need to talk to you. It can’t wait. Just leave Garret there and come meet me.”

“What is this about?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.”

“I can’t do this right now. I can’t even think straight. We’ll have to meet later.”

“Pearce! Listen to me! This is a goddamn emergency! I’m not joking around here. Get in your f*cking car right now and meet me at 225!” His voice is frantic. I’ve never heard him sound this way.

I hesitate. “Fine. But I can’t be gone long.” The phone is silent. “Jack?” He hung up.

This better be a matter of life or death or I am going to kill Jack. My wife just died and he wants to meet? Now? What the hell is wrong with him?

I go upstairs and check that Garret is asleep. He is, so I go back downstairs and out to my car. I speed down the road, turning down the side road that takes me to the location where I’m meeting Jack. It’s very dark and hard to see but I spot the large sign, alerting tourists that a scenic overlook is just up ahead.