Chapter 9

Grace walked onto the high school field, looking around. There he was, by the basketball courts. “Gavin? Can I talk to you for a minute?” She asked, running up to him.

He nodded. “Yeah, sure thing. Come on, though, too many people.” He led her to a quieter spot nearby. “What’s up?”

“Well…I broke up with Aidan a few days ago, but he wasn’t getting it, so I lied and told him I had another boyfriend…..will you do me a favor?”

Gavin laughed a little bit. “If it’s gonna piss Aidan Callahan off, you’ve got it.”

“Really?” She practically squealed. “We don’t even have to actually go out or anything if you don’t want, I just…he wouldn’t leave my house unless he knew…and I panicked and sorta used your name.”

He was still smiling. “We can, as you put it, actually go out. Y’know, for appearances,” but the smile widened and he kissed her cheek.

“Thank you. I owe you so much.” She hugged him.

“Anytime.”

~*~*~*~

“So how long have our little siblings been going out?” Cass asked, holding the phone in one hand while actually doing homework with the other.

“I have no idea.” Garrett replied.

“It’s… cute… but kinda weird. What are you up to?”

“Homework.” Came the automatic response. Garrett glanced at the folders and papers spread out on his desk.

“So am I. It stinks. But at least the year’s almost over.”

“Mmhmm.” Garrett replied. “Next fall, I’ll be at Caltech.”

“I know… I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.” There was a pause. “Cass…is there any way you can come over here? I’ve gotta talk to you about something.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be right over.” This was decidedly new, she thought to herself. Not going to his house, but whatever it was sounded fairly serious. It wasn’t that they couldn’t have an actual conversation about something important – they could, and did – but… still. Strange. “Love you.”

“Love you too.” Garrett hung up the phone. It was time he’d told her what his family really did.

Shortly after that, Cassidy arrived. “Hi.”

“Come on.” Garrett grabbed her hand and they went into his dad’s ‘hunting room’. “I wanna tell you something kinda important about my family.”

“Should I sit down for this?”

“Sure. You see…Cass…we run a secret organization whose main objective is to take down the government.”

“So you’re working against the IMF.”

“Yes... wait. How do you know about the IMF?”

“My parents work – worked – my mother works for the IMF under Bryce Callahan.”

“Bryce Callahan is an idiot, and if a firing squad took him out, they’d be doing a favor to everyone.”

“Yeah, in case you missed it, the same goes for my mother.” Cassidy was suddenly aware of the dark bruise on her face that she’d tried desperately to hide that morning.

Garrett sat down across from Cassidy. “I think—I want you to work with us.”

“I want to.”

“It’s not going to be very easy, though, Cass, because you’re fifteen. We’ll have to wait until you turn eighteen before you get out of the house.”

Cassidy nodded. “Otherwise my mother actually cares for once and I’m declared either kidnapped or a runaway, and that brings the cops down on your family. But on my 18^th birthday so help me God I’m taking off with or without somewhere to go.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of that when the time comes. But for right now…we’re going to set you up with the materials to spy on your mother. Get anything you can about her missions, contacts, and even the IMF itself.”

Cassidy nodded once more. There was a pause. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”

“I trust you.” He told her.

“Which I have to imagine is something you can’t do very often.” She kissed his cheek.

Garrett kissed her. “I love you, Cass.”

“I love you too.”

~*~*~*~

Grace checked her reflection in the mirror for the third time. She didn’t know whether to be excited or dreading this meeting with her actual father. Either way, she had to find out for herself why he didn’t want her. She didn’t believe anything that came out of her mother’s mouth anymore, and she had to know.

The door opened, and a guard came out of the office. “You can go in,” he said curtly.

Grace nodded and hurried past the guard. She stood behind the chair, not quite sure what to say.

Bryce Callahan had been staring out the window, but he turned around and faced her from behind the desk. “You’re allowed to sit.”

“Oh, right.” Grace said, taking a seat. She paused, “You know why I’m here, don’t you?”

“I’d imagine it’s because Emily can’t keep her damned mouth shut.” He seemed entirely collected, completely in control of all that happened in this room. It was clear how he’d come to run the IMF.

“Why don’t you want me?”

“I’m sure you’re… as normal as it’s possible for you to be with how you grew up and all of that, but it looks bad. It looked bad from the moment your mother got pregnant, it looks bad now. I *am* a married man, and I *do* have a reputation to consider. You don’t stay at the top just by virtue of the fact that you made it there.” He shrugged.

“But you’re my father. You’re supposed to protect me and you let me be raised in that hellhole. You’re as bad as my mother, just standing by, when you *knew* how close he’d come to killing me more than once.” Grace stood.

“You’re alive, aren’t you? That’s no accident. It’s not an accident that David Kincaide found himself at the wrong end of a gun, either. But he had to stay alive until he was no longer useful. And I could only do so much for you if I wasn’t going to arouse suspicion. There was another child in that house too.”

“Two.” Grace replied. “There are two other children in the house. And you could’ve done *something*, anything that would’ve made him stop.”

Bryce half-smiled. “You don’t know David Kincaide’s nature very well. Nothing would have made him stop, not until one of you was dead. Much like your mother’s treatment of your older half-sister. Unfortunately for her, I don’t have as much interest in stopping that.” He paused. “Emily wasn’t pleased when I wasn’t ready to drop my wife and son to ‘save’ you two from David. That’s why she passed you off as his for as long as she could manage to do it. But my reputation simply wouldn’t allow it.” Another pause. “It was a shame, really. Maybe if things had been different… but then again, I had a son to consider, and you were only a girl.”

“He doesn’t know, does he? I had to break up with him because my mom told me the truth and he still has no idea.” She stated. “And as for her passing me off…she came right out and told him I was your daughter. That afternoon, he took me out to the shed and kicked the crap out of little six-year old me.” Grace said. “I had to hear why you didn’t want me for myself. I didn’t want to believe what mom was telling me, so I came. And I heard.”

“It wasn’t a case of not wanting you, or even of not caring for Emily, but it was inconvenient. Impossible. And no, Aidan does not know, and he will not know. That would involve telling my wife, and she’s quite possibly more vindictive than even your mother. And I assure you, I don’t want either of you dead.”

“Don’t give me that crap about how you wanted us and loved us. Because if you really felt that way, you would’ve done something. Anything. You’re a powerful man, Bryce Callahan, I know you could’ve if you wanted to.”

“You can call me Dad, if you wish. But only when the door’s closed.”

Grace glared at him. “Go to hell…Dad.” She spat, right before storming out of his office. She got to the corridor and started running.

Bryce Callahan simply turned around to face the window once more.

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