Into Dust. B.J. Daniels

group still had planned...

      “What are they planning?” she demanded, her voice hoarse from unshed tears.

      “You will know when it’s time.”

      * * *

      CASSIDY FELT PANIC fill her as she listened to the footfalls growing nearer to the room where they were trapped. Whoever it was, he was headed right for this office.

      “In here,” Jack whispered as he opened the door to the small closet and pulled her inside with him. The closet was tiny and lined with shelves filled with office supplies and papers.

      There was little room to stand for the two of them and the metal container that he’d found in the bottom drawer. They pressed their bodies together in the cramped space as tightly as they could and yet he’d only been able to partially close the closet door.

      She heard the outer door bang open and heavy footfalls as someone entered the room. Through the sliver of light from the partially open closet door, she caught a glimpse of a large man. She didn’t get a look at his face as he headed straight for the desk. A moment later she heard him let out an oath and begin opening and slamming the drawers.

      When he suddenly stopped, Cassidy thought for sure that the next place he would look would be the closet. She held her breath. Jack seemed to be doing the same thing. Her heart jackhammered as the man started to turn toward their hiding place.

      A phone rang. The man hesitated before pulling out his cell on the second ring. “Urdahl,” he said into it. He stood, apparently listening to whoever was on the other end of the line for a few moments before he said, “Well, I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, boss, but the package you asked me to pick up is gone.”

      The man held the phone away from his ear until apparently the caller quit yelling. Cassidy couldn’t make out the words, but she heard enough to surmise that his boss was very angry. “Like I said, this wasn’t my fault. I have men at his house in case he comes back. He hasn’t been back since this morning and didn’t show for some appointment he had this evening. Just tell me how you want me to handle this.” He listened for a moment. “Right. I’ll let you know when I find her. But what do you want me to do about your son?”

      * * *

      “THERE’S ONE MORE thing I need to know,” Sarah said as she realized Dr. Venable planned to leave without answering any more of her questions.

      “In good time,” Dr. Venable said.

      “No,” she said, digging in her heels as she stepped past him to block the door. She crossed her arms and held her ground. “I want to know why all those years ago I drove into the Yellowstone River in the middle of winter in an attempt to kill myself. I need to know why I left six beautiful daughters. Why I left a husband I loved. I want to know now or I’m going to call the sheriff.”

      Dr. Venable studied her openly for a moment. “You want to spend the rest of your life in prison? Once everyone knows you’re Red—”

      “Now or I make that call.”

      He sighed. “All right.” His face hardened along with his eyes. “You weren’t supposed to fall in love with Buckmaster Hamilton. You were supposed to blend in, like the sleeper spies the Russians sent over to assimilate into our communities. Having children was fine, though we questioned why you would have so many. Six?” He shook his head. “You were supposed to...blend in until it was time. Instead, you bought into that life. You wanted to forget the past. You wanted to forget about our plans. When Joe contacted you—”

      “So that was it. I wanted out of The Prophecy,” she said, feeling as if things were finally making sense. “And I wanted out of whatever...plans you say I came up with.”

      Doc nodded. “You’d lost that fire you’d had, that desire to change the world. All you cared about was your precious family. You bought into the bourgeoisie. You had everything you wanted and you were ready to sell the rest of us out.”

      She frowned. “But you couldn’t let that happen.”

      “Not me. Joe. After two of our members had spent years in prison for a cause that you said you believed in, he was determined you weren’t getting out. Not after the rest of us had done our part.”

      Still, why would she leave her precious family and the people she loved? “You threatened me.” With a curse, she met his gaze. “No, you threatened to use my family to force me...” Her hands balled into fists. Had she held one of those automatic weapons she used to fire when she believed in the philosophy of The Prophecy, she would have turned it on him.

      That bonfire he talked about, that need to “do” something, burned brighter than ever inside her. Only what she wanted to do was destroy The Prophecy. Which meant destroying not only herself, but also her family. Destroying Buck.

      She looked at Dr. Venable and felt a bubble of bile rise as she realized she was still between the same rock and a hard place that she’d been more than twenty-three years before. The members of her old anarchist group would never let her quit.

      Taking a moment to get control, she considered the precarious position she was in. She still didn’t have all the facts because she didn’t have all of her memory yet. She didn’t know what they had planned. But once she did...

      She nodded as if coming to the decision he wanted her to. “So failing my attempt to...escape by killing myself, I called you.”

      “I was the only one who could help you and you knew it.”

      “I trusted you apparently. And your answer to my problem was to steal all memories of that life.”

      “You begged me to. I erased it and then took you away from here as well. We were happy in Brazil. Oh, don’t look so horrified. We weren’t lovers. We were...associates. We talked a lot about changing things—just like we did during your college years.”

      “I don’t understand how I came to be part of The Prophecy.” In high school, she’d been the perfect daughter, perfect student, perfect citizen. She’d gotten a scholarship to university. What had happened when she reached there? Had it been Dr. Venable who’d changed her? Or had it been—

      “Joe brought you in.”

      She nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. Of course she’d been a vulnerable, wide-eyed small-town girl at a big university and Joe was handsome, charming, sexy, intense, like no other man she’d ever met. He’d been her first lover. Memories flooded her. She shuddered at the thought that a part of her could still be vulnerable to him.

      “It wasn’t an accident that you met and married Buckmaster Hamilton,” Dr. Venable said. “You chose him as part of a plan.”

      She frowned in surprise. “But how could I have possibly known he would run for president, let alone that he might stand a chance of winning all those years ago?” The words were barely out when she realized her mistake. “Buck was just a way to get to Senator JD Hamilton. As his daughter-in-law, I would have influence over him. There was talk that he might run for president. I was to make sure that he did, right?”

      Doc nodded. “It would have worked if he hadn’t fallen in love with the young girl who lived on the ranch next door.”

      “We can’t help who we love,” she said, thinking of Buck.

      “You and Joe seemed the perfect match.”

      She shook her head. “Whatever Joe and I had, it wasn’t love. He indoctrinated me.”

      Doc bristled. “I wouldn’t let him hear you say that. And you can say you were brainwashed, but you seemed more than willing to take up the cause. After all, you’re the one who came up with the plan to go after Senator JD Hamilton.”

      “I was young and stupid.”

      “Your plan almost worked.”

      “What plan was that? The same one you have for Buck?” Sarah saw that he had no intention