Braden...
Cressida sank to her knees next to him and pressed her mouth against his cold lips. A hand squeezed her shoulder, then cupped the back of her neck, pulling her closer.
“You’re alive,” she said against his lips.
“What, me? No. I couldn’t die before knowing what it would be like to kiss you.”
44
One Month Later
Braden’s arm had healed, but the pain throbbed through him again now and then. He had taken a medical leave from the Timberbrook County Sheriff’s Office, and considering Trent was incarcerated, that meant they were two men down. On this beautiful August day, Braden sat outside on the deck of the Cedar Trails cabin he’d rented for this special occasion. He would be picking Lauren and Elise up from the airport later this evening. The specialist had released his niece from treatment. She was in remission. Every time he thought about it, his heart almost burst with a mix of joy and relief.
Thank you, Lord.
He struggled to believe Elise was on the other side of this scare, and now the way had been paved for her to receive treatment without Octavia Dane pulling strings or manipulating clinicians, or Braden for that matter.
The woman herself stepped out onto the deck as if she’d read his thoughts, holding a glass of iced tea for him. Cressida followed her and shut the door, then took a seat nextto him. Octavia sat on the other side of her. He couldn’t be happier that Cressida had found a way to reach across the abyss that had separated her from her mother. But he’d prefer to spend time getting to know Cressida without Octavia hovering.
They sat in silence, taking in the smells and the sounds, and for him it was about being in this moment.
Octavia had privately briefed him regarding everything she could share, and some of it she shared even though she shouldn’t. Trent Riker was a former CIA agent who had been tasked in the past with recovering the K-482Voronthat sank in 1980 in the Pacific Ocean, too close to the US for comfort—and some believed it was Russia’s attempt to start a war between the US and China. But the Soviet nuclear submarine sank to a depth too deep for recovery until technological advancements made salvage attempts possible.
Then in 1995, the CIA’s deep-sea vessel, SSVAegis,had only partially recovered the submarine, unfortunately leaving behind one nuclear missile, which contained fissile material capable of being weaponized. A decade later, the CIA launched a second covert mission led by CIA officer Trent Riker on board the USSVanguardto retrieve the remaining missile. Once the missile was secured on the vessel, Trent departed theVanguard, believing the mission complete. But the ship never arrived at its destination. He was relieved of his position—unfairly, he believed—and determined to discover what happened to the missing vessel considered lost at sea. He quietly took up residence in Hidden Bay, biding his time, waiting for answers.
In 2010, Diggins had set out to find theVanguard—his son, Caleb, had been on that doomed mission—wanting to learn the truth about what happened. But the ocean took from him again when theEndeavor Spiritwas hijacked, andhe and his crew were taken by a group of militant Russians determined to prevent them from the recovery.
He alone escaped and settled in Hidden Bay, near the mother of his child and the woman he thought he’d lost forever. She hadn’t known he was alive or so close until recently.
With Evelyn Monroe’s arrival, Trent Riker suspected someone knew the location of theVanguard. He suspected that someone had survived theEndeavor Spirit’s tragedy. And with the possibility of the location of theVanguardwithin Trent’s reach, he began partnering with rogue players, offering to recover the rest and sell to the highest bidder. He used his team—which included Malloy—all while working as a local county sheriff’s deputy. He’d recruited Madeline and Collins in his search for the location and redirected the investigation to point at Octavia’s second set of eyes—Derek Harlan. Riker had also murdered Harlan—distracting Braden long enough to abduct Cressida right from under him. Things could have ended so differently.
As for Alaric Dane—the lost pages that he’d torn from his journal, he’d mailed ahead of his travel, fearing he would be targeted. Octavia hadn’t discovered the pages he’d sent in the mail until much later, but Alaric had detailed that he’d long known the location of the downedVanguardsince Octavia had also known the location, and Alaric secretly kept up with her dealings. His rush to DC from Washington state was to inform her of an impending scheme by rogue players to raise the volatile contents of the lost salvage ship and that the US needed to finish what they’d started, then declassify the information.
Cressida clinked her glass against Braden’s, drawing him to the moment where he had intended to be.
“You look like you’re a thousand miles away.”
“I don’t mean to be,” he said.
“It’s all right. It’ll take time for all of us to process everything that’s happened.”
“I can’t wait to see Diggins and Evelyn’s ceremony at Driftwood Manor tomorrow to renew their wedding vows,” Cressida said. “I’m still in shock that Diggins is the husband Evelyn thought was dead, or at least who she told us had died. After I finished reading her diary, I understand why she wanted me to keep it and finish it. She talked about him a lot, only his name was Nickolas Jonas Daggerty. After his ‘death,’ Evelyn went back to her maiden name, Monroe—but she kept ‘Mrs.’ out of respect for him. People assumed she was a widow, and she let them. It was safer that way. If I had read it, finished it that night, I would have known and understood so much more. I get that he needed to remain ‘dead’ for multiple reasons. First, her father tried to kill him, and if he knew he had survived, Diggins would always be looking over his shoulder. And then, with the role he played in theSpecter’s Bountyand the crew, someone would try to kill him if they knew. With the threats hovering so close, Evelyn and Diggins both kept their distance and for far too long.”
“Obviously Malloy suspected Diggins knew, but he was waiting for the moment when he would give up the truth,” Octavia said. “And that was to your father. If Diggins hadn’t...”
Braden kept his mouth shut. Octavia was spinning a tale now, which she must in her position. She couldn’t afford for anyone to know that she was the source of the leaked classified information. Diggins had shared he hadn’t known the location of theVanguard, and Braden believed him because Octavia was the one person in all of this who was in a position to know those long-buried secrets. Somehow Alaric had been able to discover that information from his ex-wife, perhaps in classified documents she’d inappropriatelykept in her closet before they separated, who knew? But that was the connection. Alaric had sent Evelyn the locket to give her the location of her son and provide closure while attempting to reach Octavia to declassify the information.
“You can’t think like that, Mom,” Cressida said. “I could blame myself for working on that article. You shut it down, and Dad must have understood something or seen a connection. He told Evelyn he was going to investigate things ‘for his daughter.’ He pursued this truth, I think for me—so I could finish that article despite you shutting me down. I could blame myself. There’s plenty of blame to go around. So let’s please not even go there.”
Octavia’s smile was forced. “Right. You’re right.” She blew out a sigh and forced an even bigger smile. “In the meantime, Braden, I couldn’t be more thrilled for you that Elise is in remission. Is there anything else I can do to help?”
You’ve done enough.“No, thanks.”
“I can have someone pick them up and deliver them, or go with you to the airport,” Octavia said.
“I’m good.” He wanted to see them in private. “But I’m sure Lauren will want to thank you personally. She knows the work you did behind the scenes to make this dream come true. I couldn’t be more grateful.”
She smiled and stirred her tea with the straw. “You’re off the hook forever, Braden. No hidden strings.”
