Meridio's Daughter Part 32

"Tessa would be very disappointed to see you behaving like this," Olympia said sharply. "Is this what my daughter gave her life for? Shame, Ca.s.sandra."

It was the sound of Tessa's name that broke through Casey's pain. The sound of a name that she remembered as being the sweetest sound she'd ever heard. Casey took in a ragged gasp and tears pooled in her eyes, spilling over the edges. And as Olympia moved to hold Casey in her arms just as her daughter had done so many times, Casey released a cry of pain and anger and finally wept for her dead lover.

The Meridio estate changed a great deal over the next six months, mostly due to Eva Meridio's return. It was as if a cleansing breeze swept through the mansion, the combined force of Olympia and Eva erasing any trace of the man who ran the household previously. Every piece of furniture in Andreas Meridio's private rooms and office was removed. Since Casey still remained in a wheelchair even after her third surgery, Eva prepared the estate with special access doors and ramps, even though Casey told her time and again that she refused to let her body stay in the chair.

A paved walkway was added, connecting the house to the guesthouse and the driveway extended to reach back to the private dwelling. Casey was adamant about living in the guesthouse, even though the older women warned that she might not be ready for such a move. It was true, Casey still had occasional nightmares, and crying was at least a once a week occurrence, but she was taking one day at a time. No longer did the mere mention of Tessa's name send her into a depression. On the contrary, she enjoyed Olympia's stories about her.

Casey dropped the dumbbell into its place on the weight rack.

*She was glad Tessa had the weight room put in the guesthouse.

This meant Casey didn't have to go up to the main house every day. She loved her mother and Olympia, but being mothers, they could certainly wear on one's nerves. She reached her arms over her head and stretched, feeling her muscles complain at the extra workout she'd put them through that day. She grew tired of taking it easy with such slow physical therapy on her legs and asked the therapist for exercises so she could work on her upper body from the wheelchair. Now the muscles rippled under the soft skin as she stretched, her long hours of weightlifting starting to show.

Casey moved to the window as she heard a car in the driveway.

She maneuvered her chair onto the patio once she recognized the familiar face of the man getting out of the van.

"h.e.l.lo, Jack."

"Hey there, kid. How's tricks?" Jack asked matter-of-factly.

He was suspiciously absent of late, and Casey a.s.sumed he finally had some time to spend with his wife and daughters. He held a large manila envelope in his hand and was getting that I'm uncomfortable as h.e.l.l look.

"Don't beat around the bush. It doesn't suit you at all." Casey smiled.

Jack remembered the first time he ever saw that smile. It was like someone opened a curtain and let the suns.h.i.+ne in. He watched then and realized the smile was now tempered with a deep-seated pain."Okay, here it is." He opened the envelope. "Tessa made me executor of her will."

"When did that happen?"

"The day you were in Athens, in training down at the center.

She left most of her dough to her mom, but she named you in the will, too." Jack looked up, and not seeing any kind of response, he continued. "She left you a sizable chunk of money in a couple of Cayman Island accounts, then there's this." He handed the photograph to Casey.

It was the Apogevma Nostimo, Tessa's catamaran. Tears welled in Casey's eyes, and she couldn't stop them from rolling down her cheeks. She had only been on the sailboat once, but if *she closed her eyes, she could see the sunset in her mind's eye that she and Tessa shared that day.

"There's one more thing." He rose and walked over to the van. Casey's curious gaze followed. He opened the side door and two Dobermans bounded out the door and ran around Casey's chair. The animals sat close to the chair and licked Casey's face.

Casey cried as she hugged Cinnamon and Mahogany.

"Yeah, well, I guess she made the right choice. I had to drug them just to get them over here." Jack reached over to place a hand on Casey's arm but froze with his hand in midair as the dogs growled and bared their teeth at him. "Okay, then...I can see that's gonna get you a lot of second dates. Guess I better be going."

Casey laughed at his nervous behavior and realized that this was the first time she'd laughed since the accident.

"I hear you're going to be heading back to the States pretty soon," Jack said from a careful distance.

"Yes. There's a center in Connecticut where I'm going for the rest of my rehab. They're supposed to be able to perform miracles, and they think I have a good shot at being out of this chair within a few months."

"You know I'll miss you, kid," Jack said softly.

"Thanks, Jack," Casey said, absently scratching behind Cinny's ears.

"You know, once you get back on your feet, if you find you ever need a job, you might think about giving me a call."

"Jack, are you seriously asking me to join the FBI?" Casey smirked.

"Hey, Quantico could use a cadet like you."

"I don't think so, but thanks for the offer." Casey smiled sweetly and held out her hand to him.

When at last he looked in the rearview mirror, he smiled sadly at the way life had to go sometimes. His last glimpse of Casey was of her leaning down from her wheelchair, gripping the dogs in a fierce hug.

Epilogue.

One year later...

Long Island, New York, U.S.A.

Casey was trying to stuff additional items in her backpack.

She topped it with a small bag of treats for the dogs and an extra bottle of water for herself. She was almost to the kitchen door when Olympia's voice reached her. d.a.m.n, I almost made it.

"Casey, you're going to eat something before you leave, aren't you?" Olympia asked.

Eva came in from the patio and almost ran in to Casey.

"Casey, you're not going out dressed like that, are you?"

Eva walked past, indicating the sweatpants and sports bra Casey wore."It's official," Casey whispered to the two Dobermans who sat obediently at her feet. "We're in h.e.l.l."

The two older women planned their day; they were off to go shopping for antiques. Being fostered by two mothers was almost more than Casey could handle some days, but she wasn't complaining. Since Olympia came to America to live with them, she found her mother was actually getting a life. The two old friends became the life of the community, doing everything from playing bridge to gardening. Casey was happy that her mother was showing signs of forgetting about the past.

Tessa's fortune allowed Olympia to realize some dreams of her own. Casey pleaded for Jack's help in eliminating the red tape of getting Olympia citizens.h.i.+p in this country, and of course, Jack *always seemed to come through for her. He did it so well that Casey hit him up a few months later to get Alex in, too.

Olympia opened her own restaurant on Long Island and initially spent long hours turning the business into an eatery with an impeccable reputation for authentic Greek food. Alex managed the establishment and found that he had a natural apt.i.tude for that kind of business. In the last few months, Olympia taught cooking cla.s.ses at the local community college and became a big hit.

Olympia was a G.o.dsend for Eva when Casey went to Connecticut for her rehab. Now all three women lived in the s.p.a.cious Long Island home, and even though Casey had to bite her tongue about once a day, she wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'll be home late...I'm taking the boat out," Casey called back to the women.

"Be careful," both women said in unison.

"Yes, mothers." Casey made sure to tease as she closed the door.Casey set her pack down and bent to unlock her bike. She slipped the backpack over her shoulders and hopped on the narrow seat. Her time at the rehab center was rough, mentally as well as physically. They said they could work miracles, but Casey soon realized they meant they could make her work the miracles.

The program was intensive and she was still just getting over her losses. Sometimes she would cry herself to sleep, missing her mother and Olympia. Once, when she was having a particularly rough day, she looked up across the grounds and thought she saw the outline of a tall dark figure. When she blinked her eyes and looked again, the vision was gone. It was enough, though, to remind her of Tessa and give her strength to go on for another day, which turned into two, and soon six months had gone by.

Her strong legs pedaled the bike up the steep hill, Cinnamon and Mahogany loping along beside her. She'd tried to keep the animals at home when she went sailing, but her mother said they howled the whole time she was gone. Even though it was Tessa who trained the Dobermans, they obeyed every word from Casey.

Soon, she took them everywhere she went. It was a satisfying feeling having the animals as bodyguards, almost like the feeling *of being safe within Tessa's strong embrace.

Casey shook her head and chided herself. She promised she wouldn't do this anymore. She caught herself the last time staring at Olympia. Olympia's hair earned a few extra streaks of gray so she had her hair colored. It made her look years younger, but it had a different effect on Casey. Sitting in the living room, enjoying a gla.s.s of wine, Casey noticed how much Tessa favored Olympia.

Once Casey realized she'd been staring, she turned away, blus.h.i.+ng in embarra.s.sment.

They reached the private docks and Casey smiled as Mr.

Peterson opened the gate for her so she didn't have to fish around for her own key.

"Mornin', miss." Peterson waved and Casey waved back. She left the gate to her slip open, knowing she would have a visitor.

Casey hopped aboard the Apogevma Nostimo and hoisted the mountain bike into the air easily with her powerful shoulder muscles over the boat's rail. She went about the task of preparing to set sail. Casey moved about the boat with the efficiency and skill of a seasoned sailor. She still had the slightest limp to her right leg. It was barely noticeable, and the doctors told her she would more than likely have to live with it. It took about a half hour to get everything set up the way she liked it. She tugged on the side stays, as was her habit, to test the tightness of the wires supporting the mast from the side of each hull.

That's when she heard the low growls from the dogs as they lay pa.s.sively on the deck of the boat.

"I know, let him get a little closer." Casey muttered under her breath. "Okay, heads up," Casey said louder.

The dogs leaped gracefully from the boat's deck onto the dock and bared their teeth menacingly at Jack Armstrong.

"s.h.i.+t! I hate when you do that, Casey," he said, backing up along the dock.

Casey laughed aloud. "Down," she said quietly, and the dogs immediately ran up to the man and licked his hand in apology.

"Jack, what in heaven's name was so important you couldn't e- mail me?"

"Well, I have this application, now before you say no-"

0.

*"I'm saying no. I do not want to join the FBI. My answer was no yesterday, last week, even when you sent me an application in my Christmas card, which was really pathetic, I might add. My answer will be the same a week or a year from now...it will always be no."

"All you do is work out and sail this d.a.m.n boat around, or you just come out here and sit in it while it's tied up. You live with your mother, you never see anyone...you're young, Casey, don't you think it's time you took your life back?"

Casey could have been angry with him, but she understood how Jack felt about her. She was only five years older than his oldest daughter, and he felt a certain fatherly responsibility toward her. That and the guilt over having gotten her into this mess in the first place.

"Yeah, well, just in case you change your mind," he held out the application.

"Goodbye, Jack," Casey smiled and turned her back, "have a nice weekend."

"You're not from around here, are ya?" Peterson asked the stranger.

"No," the low voice said, trying to step back into the shadows of the harbormaster's office.

"Look, ya come by here every day to watch her, and if you're thinking about starting any stalking kind of trouble, then ya should know I never forget a face."

Peterson watched as the face broke into a small smile that seemed to be tinged with irony. He was getting on in years, and he guessed there might be a few faces that he forgot, but this one wouldn't be one of them. She was as tall as he was with long dark hair that fell into her eyes. Those eyes were what he'd remember.

Pools of blue like the sky, but they had a look, kind of like a wounded animal that doesn't know whether to run away or just lie down and die. She had a long thin scar that ran along one cheek, and she hardly ever took her gaze off Casey on the sailboat.

"Like I said...if it's trouble-"

*"No. It's nothing like that," she said. "Do you...have you known Casey long?"

"Well, let me see...I was here the day she put her first Hobie Cat in the water. She was just thirteen that year, I guess. Pretty long, why?"

"Does she...does she seem happy...when you talk to her?"

"I guess if you knew her well enough you'd know that she had a bit of trouble when she was in Greece. Pretty bad accident.

I heard her father was killed...big mess. I don't know what all happened, but I do know that she ain't the same girl she used to be."The stranger stepped farther into the shadows when she saw the man's car coming toward them to leave the gate. She held her breath, waiting as he rolled past, but the car stopped suddenly with a jerk and the pa.s.senger side window was powered down.

"You're not supposed to be here...h.e.l.l, you shouldn't even be in the country," Jack's voice called out from the car.

The stranger stepped forward into the sunlight and leaned her head down to the window.

"I had to see her...I couldn't-" Her voice broke and she thrust her hands into her jeans to try to calm herself. "I just couldn't do it anymore."

"Two years, Tessa. We agreed it would have to be for at least two years. If everyone thinks you're dead, Casey is safe, but if the Turks ever get wind that she knows where you are-"

"I know...I know. It's been so long and I was afraid...afraid she forgot about me."

Jack watched as tears filled Tessa's eyes. He'd seen those eyes filled with a lot of emotions...anger, hate, and even pain, but this was a new look. Tessa swallowed and looked back out to the boat where Casey sat on the deck. Her eyes filled with abject despair, and he wondered if he could do what Tessa had. Could he have let his wife believe he was dead, watching as she tried to put her life together, only to hope that there would still be room in it for him when he came back?

Jack sighed. He always sighed like that when he was about to do something that could possibly get him fired.

*"Aw, h.e.l.l...two years, eighteen months...seems pretty d.a.m.n close to me. Go on." He met Tessa's gaze and finally saw a spark of life in them.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, what are you gonna say to her?"

Tessa smiled and Jack felt better about his decision already.

Tessa knew just what she would say. She made a deal and there was nothing on earth that could keep her from saying the words now."It's okay, Mr. Peterson...she's one of us," Jack called out to the harbormaster standing close by.

"Jack." Tessa reached a hand through the window and placed it gently on his arm. "Thanks...for everything."

He placed a hand over Tessa's and squeezed it briefly. He drove off as soon as Tessa stepped back from the car.

Casey leaned against the mast and closed her eyes, feeling the sun s.h.i.+ning down on her and thinking of the time when Tessa held her in those strong arms as she slept, here in this very spot. She kept her eyes closed tight, but the tears squeezed from behind her lids to cover her cheeks in their wetness.

A strange sensation pa.s.sed through her, almost like a tingling up her spine. She heard footsteps on the dock behind her and uttered the same words she always did in these situations. "Heads up!"Cinnamon and Mahogany jumped on to the dock, but they were whining, as if they didn't know what to do with the command Casey gave them. Then Casey had that feeling again. She turned around slowly and met the vision that consumed her sleeping, as well as her waking, dreams. The dream that it was all a horrible misunderstanding and Tessa never did die. Her therapist said it was a natural response and it would go away eventually, but it never did.

Tessa gently scratched Cinnamon behind one ear, never releasing Casey's uncomprehending gaze. Casey felt that if she was going to go crazy, this is the way she wanted to go.