Andreas didn’t speak for a moment, staring at Travis. “So it seems. I’ll have Danley arrange to bring you downstairs and put you on the helicopter.” He started to carry Cassie from the room.
Melissa breathed a profound sigh of relief. She didn’t even want to know how close Andreas had been to going the other way.
“Let me down, Daddy.” Cassie wriggled out of Andreas’s arms, ran back to Melissa and into her arms. “ I . . . love you,” she whispered. And then she said fiercely, “Don’t you forget me.”
Melissa hugged her tightly. “I could never forget you.” She swallowed hard. “’ll always be close to you, sweetheart.”
Cassie stepped back and nodded emphatically. “You bet you will.”
It sounded almost like a threat, Melissa thought with amusement. Cassie’s insecurities were rapidly vanishing.
Cassie gave her an impish grin and winked before marching over and taking her father’s hand. “I’m hungry. Can we have waffles for breakfast?”
“I believe that could be arranged,” her father said as he led her from the room.
Melissa chuckled. “Give Cassie another few months and she’ll be running the White House.”
“She’s not the only bulldozer around here,” Travis murmured.
“You and Andreas were both arching like tomcats. Someone had to step between you two and distract him.” She wheeled her chair toward the door. “I’ll be glad to get back to Juniper and away from all this—” She stopped as pain rippled through r. “ No, I won’t. Every inch of the place will remind me of Jessica.”
“After the funeral, maybe we’ll go away for a while.”
“Maybe.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “But Juniper will probably be safer until Karlstadt forgets about you.”
“You’re protecting me again.” He smiled. “m handling Karlstadt. I’ll send him the money and the disk as soon as we get to Juniper. I’ve already given him the diamond I gave to Thomas.”
“That should satisfy him, right? The only diamonds missing are the ones the CIA confiscated.”
He hesitated. “Well, not exactly.”
“What?”
“There are three good-sized ones I had to use to negotiate.”
“Negotiate with who?”
“Danley.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “Danley? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I made a deal with Danley the night he picked me up in Amsterdam. I thought I might need him.”
“Danley took a bribe?”
He smiled. “Most people have their price, and those diamonds would have made him a rich man. Though he was very cagey about the amount of help he’d give me. He agreed to help me escape only if I needed it.”
“And he actually knew you were going to take Cassie?”
“No, Galen and I took care of that. But after he learned I’d taken Cassie, he damn well knew he’d better make sure I wasn’t caught. I’d already told him that if I went down, I’d take him with me. There’s no way he wanted to be drawn in as an accomplice.”
“So he put stumbling blocks in Andreas’s way?”
“What do you think? Galen is good, but the odds were pretty much against us.”
“Are you going to tell Andreas about Danley?”
“Hell no, I might need him. You never compromise a source.”
She shook her head in amazement. “You’re incredible.”
“Well, Karlstadt might demand that I get him those diamonds locked in the CIA evidence room. Danley has access.”
“And what if Danley decides to sell those three diamonds you gave to him?”
“I’ll just drop him a word, tell him what Karlstadt will do to him if the diamonds surface.” He smiled. “So stop worrying. Like I said, I’m handling the problem. We don’t have to hide at Juniper. We have to think about you.”
“I am thinking about me.” She opened the door. “I’ll see you downstairs.”
26
“My God, what a pair of crocks.” Galen watched from the pilot’s seat as CIA agents lifted Travis’s stretcher into the helicopter. “It’s hard to believe that you—”
“Take off, Galen,” Travis said. “I’m not interested in your insults.”
“You should be. I do it so well.” He glanced at Melissa. “You should really watch who you hang out with. I’d have kept you from being hurt.”
“Hush,” Melissa said. “Go.”
A moment later the helicopter was rising and turning south.
Melissa looked down to see Andreas and Cassie coming down the steps. Cassie lifted her hand and waved. Melissa waved back.