21
Marcus was twenty minutes late.
As he drove past the Kennedy Center on his way to meet Annie for dinner, Marcus began having second thoughts. The last time he’d had plans to come to the Kennedy Center had been the night Elena and Lars were murdered. But Annie didn’t know that, and the restaurant she’d chosen had a spectacular view of the theater along the Potomac River.
Marcus parked his car, got out, and brushed some lint off his suit. Reaching the Sequoia restaurant, he found Annie sitting alone at their reserved table, sipping a glass of merlot, and decked out in an absolutely stunning emerald dress that matched her eyes.
“I’m so, so sorry,” Marcus said, breathless, as he took his seat across from her.
“Long day?”
“No comment.”
She smiled in the candlelight. “I went ahead and ordered for us both. Should be here soon. Wine?”
“Wow—sure, thanks. You look—”
When he stopped himself midsentence, she waited, then raised an eyebrow. “Ravishing? Spectacular? To die for?” She laughed.
“All of the above,” he said. “I guess I’m a smidge out of practice giving a beautiful woman a compliment.”
“Yeah, you might want to work on that, Ryker,” she teased as she poured him a glass of the merlot.
“I will,” he said. “I promise.”
“Fair enough. So, hey, that was so fun last night. Thanks for including me.”
“Of course.”
“I loved seeing your mom again.”
“She’s a big fan of yours.”
“She seemed a little surprised to see us together.”
“Yeah, well, right—I guess I hadn’t really said anything to her yet.”
“Apparently not.”
“But she was so happy to see you. She talked all about you this morning over breakfast and on the way to the airport.”
“Did she now?” Annie smiled.
“Scout’s honor.”
“Well, it was fun to catch up with her. She gave me a very detailed update on your sisters and their husbands and all your nieces.”
“I should have warned you. You get my mom talking and . . .”
“To be honest, I was a little jealous.”
“Of what?”
“You know, having family to visit and dote on and think about the sweetness and craziness and messiness of real life rather than all the darkness we deal with inside the Beltway, day in and day out. It’s nice. I miss that.”
Marcus was a little surprised to see her flush with embarrassment. He shouldn’t have been. He knew her story. Some of it, anyway. But it still caught him off guard.
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.”
Annie changed the subject. “I’m guessing your long day means you went to the office,” she said. “Don’t you need to recover, recuperate?”
“How can I with all the threats out there?”
“Good grief, Marcus, haven’t you earned a little R and R? I mean, look at you. You’re . . .”
“Frankenstein?”
“Well, I was going to say the creature from the black lagoon, but sure, go with that.”
Marcus took a sip of wine. “That’s not the way I’m wired,” he told her. “I can’t just lounge around when our enemies are on the move.”
“Marcus, you were captured by a Hezbollah special forces unit led by a commander loyal to Abu Nakba. You were drugged, knocked unconscious, dragged deep behind enemy lines, and tortured. Beaten. Burned. Electrocuted. No one would call taking the time to recover from all that ‘lounging around.’ You’re amazing at what you do. It’s one of the things that drew me to you. You have convictions. You have a deep sense of purpose and mission. But that’s not what this is. Something’s driving you. Something’s pushing you to keep going and going and going when you should rest, or better yet, stop.”
“You sound like Pete.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Stephens offered him a severance package, and he’s taking it.”
“Well, good for him.”
“Annie, this threat isn’t over. You know that.”
Just then, their waiter came back to the table, bringing Annie a Caesar salad and Marcus a bowl of clam chowder.
Marcus waited until he left, then continued. “I can’t just quit and ride off into the sunset when there are new threats—serious threats—forming against the country and friends I love.”
“Even after all that you’ve accomplished?” she pressed. “After all you’ve just been through?”
“Especially because of all I’ve just been through. You know what I saw in Lebanon? Monsters, Annie. I saw their rage. I saw the demons in their eyes. I saw how determined they are to rob, kill, and destroy everything you and I hold dear. And don’t forget something that almost no one else in the world knows—certainly not my mom or my sisters or their families. Tehran has put a $10 million bounty on my head. And you can be certain that Kairos wants that money. Especially now that I’ve captured their bagman in Doha and persuaded the president to take out their founder and dear leader. So even if I stop—even if I decide to hand in my notice and take a Disney cruise to Never-Never Land—that doesn’t mean it’s over. It just means I’m alone in the world as these monsters come to kill me.”