Chapter 3

“So he’s taking off for Spain. Right now it looks like he’s going to spend about six months there until things cool off. Which means there’s going to be a power struggle, since his son’s twelve and the other brother wants nothing to do with the group. But he’ll appoint someone to run the show until he gets back.”

“Get someone in to pose as the pilot and make sure that Spain is Spencer’s destination.” Dylan ordered. “And when our little friend gets to his safe house…he’ll be blown away.”

“And what happens with the organization then?” The spy asked.

“Well…while everyone’s busy mourning the dear departed bastard and fighting over the organization, I’ll step in and offer to take it off their hands.” Dylan replied.

“The Widow ain’t gonna be crazy about that idea.”

“The Widow will be taken care of.”

“And the kid, of course.”

“He’s young enough that we maybe can still turn him, but we’ll never leave those resources in his control.”

“What about the girls?”

Dylan smiled cruelly. “Well, I’ll be selling them off to the highest bidder of course. I’ve got some very, very rich overseas contacts.”

“They ain’t gonna know what hit them.”

“Good job. Get back to work.”

~*~*~*~

Garrett kissed Cassidy firmly. “I love you.”

“It’s only six months…” She trailed off.

“I have to do this to keep you safe…This will take the spotlight off of you and the kids if they’re trying to find me.” He told her.

She nodded. “I know. I just… we just lost Michael, and I don’t like saying goodbye. Even if it’s temporary.”

“Then don’t say it. You need to be strong, Cass…I need you to be…the kids need you to be…”

“I don’t think I was ever strong. But I’ll try.”

“You always have been.” He kissed her again. “I love you, Cass.”

“I love you too.” She kissed back eagerly.

Garrett ended the kiss and gave her a warm hug before backing away. He turned to Garrett, who was standing a few feet away. “Take care of your mother.” He told him.

As Garrett approached the plane, Gavin intercepted him. “You never told me what the hell I’m supposed to be doing here, and I’m not gonna sit around and wait for you to get back. What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to look after things…if something happens…” Garrett said quietly, giving Gavin a meaningful look.

“No way. I’m not taking over, I don’t even want to *be* here…”

“Just promise you won’t let them kill Garrett. Even if you don’t want to be here, he is my only successor now.”

Well… he’d kept a family of his own safe for six years, hadn’t he? He could mind Garrett’s son for five years if something went wrong… and his brother had an astounding talent for returning from the dead. “I’ll look after him.”

Garrett turned and walked out onto the plane.

~*~*~*~

“Gavin… I couldn’t tell you before when Cass was around, but I *know* something’s going to happen. I’m not coming home. I need you to make sure nothing happens to my son. Garrett’s the last one left, you need to hold things together for him. He’s a good kid, he’ll be ready to take charge soon… but you need to make sure there’s something for him to run when he’s old enough. And for God’s sake, help Cassidy keep it together. She won’t understand why I left.” The message ended and Gavin stood there dumbfounded.

Both Gavin and Grace listened as the machine beeped a final time. The silence that had enveloped the room was disrupted when the phone rang.

“Hello?” Grace quietly answered the phone.

“Aunt Grace… Dad’s dead, we just heard the news, and Mom’s gone crazy…” Ella sounded as if she’d been crying. “It’s a disaster over here… Garrett told me to call, that Dad said Uncle Gavin would know what to do.”

“We’ll be over soon, Ella.” Grace hung up the phone. “He’s dead.” She said.

Gavin sighed, running a hand through his hair as he tried to collect his thoughts. “Then I guess… I guess I have to go over there.”

“I’m going with you.” She replied. “Chelsea can watch Zack.”

“Alright. Then… let’s go. Chelsea, call if you need us, okay?”

The girl nodded, locking the door behind them.

“Grace… I didn’t expect him to die. I mean I guess I knew it was possible… but I never thought he’d actually die…”

Grace sighed. “I didn’t think he *could* die…But no one’s infallible.”

“He was supposed to be. Like growing up… he was always Mom and Dad’s Golden Boy and I was just… the spare tire or something. You forget it’s there until you actually need it.”

“But you’re more than that.”

“To you. I wasn’t to them… I just… I don’t know. I can’t do this, I’m a lawyer for God’s sake, what do I know about running an anti-government terrorist mafia?!?”

“All you’ve got to do is keep it from falling apart and from the IMF getting a hold of it and dismantling the entire thing.”

“I don’t wanna set the poor kid up for a fall either… I don’t know what I’m doing, Grace. Sure I said I’d do it, but at that point I just wanted him to get the hell on the plane.”

“I know…but at least he stopped to think about what might happen before running off, didn’t he?”

“He wasn’t thinking too hard if he appointed me to be the organization’s guardian!”

“He trusts you.”

They pulled into the driveway. The house seemed somehow foreboding to Gavin, more than it ever had, as the iron gates closed automatically behind the car. He opened Grace’s door.

Garrett opened the door and stepped out onto the walkway, meeting them halfway up the path. “Mom’s flipped out…she locked herself in her room and won’t stop crying or screaming.”

“Well she can’t hurt anything up there… have the agents descended on you yet?”

Garrett shook his head. “There seems to be a 24 hour grace period. I’m sure they’ll come soon enough, though.”

Gavin nodded. And then he would tell them that he was taking over until his brother’s son was old enough… but from the looks of things, the boy could have done it now. If only he were old enough to command respect… hell, who was he kidding? *Gavin* didn’t exactly command respect… as far as the agents were concerned, he was an empty suit and had probably been switched at birth. “Come on… how are your sisters?”

Garrett sighed. “I couldn’t tell you…girls are such a different species, especially my sisters. All three of them have been in the downstairs bathroom for an hour.”

Grace put a hand on Gavin’s arm. “I’m going to see Cassidy.”

Gavin nodded. “Thank you.”

Grace walked into the house and up the stairs to the locked door at the end of the hall. “Cassidy?” She knocked.

“Go away! All of you go away!”

“Cassidy, it’s me…it’s Grace.”

“Go away… leave me alone…”

“Can you unlock the door? Please?”

“No!”

“Cassidy, come on, open the door.”

“No!”

Kayla came up the stairs and handed Grace a key. “Dad left this in case she ever tried to lock him out.”

Grace gave the girl a quick hug before turning and unlocking the door. “Cassidy?”

A stained-glass lampshade went flying over Grace’s head, hitting the wall a few feet away. “Get out!” Cassidy screamed. She was curled up on the bed wrapped in Garrett’s old black jacket. “Out!”

“Cassidy, let me help you.” Grace took a couple steps towards her sister.

“I don’t want your help, you’re traitors, both of you, if you hadn’t left he’d still be… he’d still be…” She broke into sobs.

“It wouldn’t have made a difference…that doesn’t change anything. I’m your sister, let me help you.”

“No!” She managed through the sobbing. “Leave me alone… just leave me alone…” She had rested her head on Garrett’s pillow. It still smelled like him… “Go away!”

“I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“I don’t care what you want! Go back to wherever the hell you two ran away to!”

“Cassidy, we’re not leaving…”

“Get out!” Cassidy threw the rest of the lamp. “GET OUT!”

“I’ll be back in a little while.” Grace closed the bedroom door behind her. Suddenly she wished she knew where that damned bear went to.

~*~*~*~

A week later, as they stood in the office, Gavin placed a hand on his nephew’s shoulder. “They’ll be in today. Just… it’s entirely your choice, if there’s someone else you’d rather have handling things until you’ve got a few more years behind you…”

Garrett shook his head. “Dad wanted you…he said you’d know what to do…”

Gavin nodded, wishing he had the confidence in himself that Garrett had had in him. “Yeah. Yeah… and Garrett, you *are* allowed to be upset. He was your father.”

“I know…but not now…I can’t yet.” Garrett replied. His thoughts landed on the agents who would be arriving soon. “They’ll jump to try and take over all the harder if they see me upset. They can’t see me weak and vulnerable.”

“You’re just like your father, you know that? Just like him…” Gavin sighed as the office door opened and a small mob poured through the door. “Didn’t any of you ever learn to knock when you enter your boss’s office?” Gavin demanded, trying to call to mind how his brother and father had acted.

“Our boss is dead.” One of the agents replied. “Just because you’ve got the Spencer genes doesn’t mean we’d just hand everything over to you, Gavin. You betrayed your own family.”

“But you’d give it to his son, wouldn’t you? You’d hand everything over to him… just like you did to Garrett, and Nathan before that.”

“No. The two predecessors knew what they were doing, they were older…he’s just a boy. The organization must go to someone capable of keeping it together.”

“Exactly. I’m not taking over, I’m just making sure he’s got something to run in a couple years,” Gavin said, trying to appease them. Perhaps that had been his mistake…

“Yeah, but when the time comes, you’ll conveniently find that he’s disappeared, and as the last Spencer man, you’ll be forced to run the company. How dreadful for you.” One of them replied.

“Don’t think shit could last under *your* guidance for a couple years, by the time that boy’s of age we’ll be bowing to the damned IMF.”

“How do you expect to just waltz in and run the show when you don’t even know what the fuck has been going on?”

“You *left* last time, what’s gonna keep you from walking away and doing whatever the hell you went off and did?”

“You’re probably just looking for a way to fuck Garrett’s wife anyway. Sure the sister was fine, but now you get a chance at your brother’s coveted wife…”

“Don’t know that he exactly qualifies as a Spencer *man,* anyway…”

“What the fuck is going on in here?” A voice demanded from the doorway.

“Mom –“ Garrett began.

“Don’t you Mom me, I want to know what’s going on.” She looked over the room at the gathered agents. “You’re *not* doing this. They haven’t even found him yet.”

“We want the organization to land in trustworthy hands, ma’am.” One of the agents said. “And frankly, we don’t trust your brother-in-law.”

“But my husband did. Gavin is here on his brother’s orders. Garrett told him he’d have to handle things until our son was old enough if anything should happen. Why’d you think Garrett didn’t hunt Gavin down when he took off? We needed someone clear in case there were problems… so *this* didn’t happen.”

“Ma’am, shouldn’t it be someone who’s been here…who knows what’s going on, who’ll be able to deliver your son the entire company when it’s time?”

“Hmm. Looks like someone else is trying to get a crack at me too,” Cassidy said with a raised eyebrow. It was quite clear she’d heard everything. “If you’re questioning this, then you’re questioning what was quite possibly Garrett’s last order. And you’re no longer welcome here. That’s an order from *me.* Go on out back and wait ‘til I get my pistol.”

“I’m only looking out for the future of the organization.” He defended. “If the IMF gets a hold of it, they’ll rip it to shreds.”

“If the IMF gets a hold of the organization, agent, my boy and I will wind up dead and I can only imagine what Dylan Kincaide’ll do to Garrett’s daughters. I’m quite aware of the consequences, thank you, and I still say you can get your ass in the yard until I get a chance to fire a round through your head.”

The man began to laugh until he realized Cassidy wasn’t playing around. He left the room grumbling.

“Mind you don’t mess up the flower bed,” she ordered. “I don’t want shit all over the yard.” She turned to the agents in the room. “Anyone else? Garrett didn’t marry me entirely because I’m beautiful, I live up to my promises and I’ll take my chances outfiring any of you assholes.”

None of the other agents said a word.

Cassidy seemed to consider a moment. “If you’re here because you honestly care what happens to the organization and want to see it in good hands, then thank you.” And with that she stepped aside so the others could leave. Clearly, they’d been dismissed.

“Mom?” Garrett said. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know that okay’s quite the right word, Garrett. But I’m downstairs and that’s something.” She suddenly looked paler, weak somehow. Then she turned to Gavin. “Don’t fuck up.”

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