Elite 2: The Wrong Side of Revolution Page 23

  “I’m starting to see a theme here,” Daniel commented as they all sat down at the table.

  Boone let out a loud chuckle. “It’s that time of year, son.”

  It certainly was. Since the cherry trees had started to blossom the whole property had been overtaken by a sweet cherry scent. Daniel found it to be the most pleasant aroma one could wake up to in the morning.

  Much to Daniel’s pleasure, the Boones seemed more interested in Carlos and Marie and their cherries than they did in Daniel and Jordan’s origin. Daniel had coached Jordan in the car on the story he had made up for them, but it didn’t appear as though they were going to need to use it. Daniel was relieved because it seemed as though Jordan had been unable to properly absorb all of the intricate details he had conjured up in his mind.

  After dinner the company adjourned to the screen porch for desert, where Carlos and Marie brought out cups of cherry sorbet and a pot of coffee.

  “Marie you always serve the most delicious meals,” Melinda Boone complimented.

  “Well, I learned from Carlos a long time ago the importance of feeding the mouth that feeds you,” Marie quipped.

  “And how!” David Boone shouted in agreement.

  “Oh shoot,” Marie blurted, looking around the room. “I left the coffee cups in the kitchen.”

  “I’ll get them,” Daniel volunteered.

  Marie continued her search in the screen room though the cups were nowhere to be found. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course,” Daniel replied, standing up and leaving for the kitchen.

  When he got in the kitchen, Daniel found the coffee cups all laid out on the breakfast bar. He pulled them all together and tried to determine the best way to grip all six without dropping one.

  “It’s you, isn’t it?” a shaky voice called out from behind him. Daniel turned to see David Boone standing in the doorway.

  “It’s me,” he said indifferently, not understanding what the old man was getting at.

  “You’re the one,” Boone continued. “The one with the special brain.”

  Daniel froze, completely taken off-guard by Boone’s statement. How could he know?

  Daniel readjusted his expression before turning back to the man. He picked up the cups and headed for the door. “I’m sorry sir, but I don’t think there’s anything special about my brain.”

  Daniel tried to make the comment sound like a joke, but Boone seemed all to convinced.

  “Come on,” he said, blocking Daniel’s path with his body, “I may be old but I’m no fool. Carlos’s cousin. Do you think the Birthright doesn’t know about Agent Stone?”

  Daniel kept his head down so as not to give anything away. He used his ability to calm his nerves and avoid shaking.

  Boone continued to make his case. “And you arrived the day after Christmas, just a week or so after Chuck Richfield was killed and his building was burned to the ground.”

  Daniel tried to convert his worry into confusion through his words. “Mister Boone, I promise you I’ve never met any Chuck Richfield or been to any buildings owned by him—or at least not that I know of.”

  Again, Daniel tried to pass the old man, worried about how he was going to manage to make it through the rest of the evening without panicking.

  Again, Boone blocked his exit. “Indiana…you think we don’t know everything there is to know about possibly our greatest asset? Where do you think the first place we looked was after you disappeared?”

  This struck deep into Daniel’s heart, and he was no longer able to hide his reactions. A darkness came over him—a combination of hatred and fear. If the birthright had done anything to his family, Boone was now first in line to die.

  “Oh don’t worry,” Boone assured, reading the expression on Daniel’s face. “Not all of us are as…radical…as Gordon Demérs. I for example, always supported Chuck Richfield. You could call me his biggest fan.”

  Daniel now began to fear for the life of not only himself but for Jordan, just a few dozen feet away in the screen room. If the Birthright now knew their location, they would no longer be safe hiding out in northern Michigan or any of the surrounding states.

  “Interesting that the resistance would choose to hide you here. I would have thought it would have made more sense to send you out of the country, but I suppose they wanted to keep a close eye on you. Seems you’re a very desirable man Mister Simmons—or rather…Mister Hart.

  “Ah well, it worked for a little while. There was no way Stone could have known that her beloved cousin was doing business with an elder member of the Birthright. But as always, we are the superior, as we always shall be, and we will always find what we’re looking for.”

  Then, with an evil grin, Boone turned and walked out of the room. Daniel had himself all pumped up, but he had no idea what to do in this situation. Clearly Boone was wise enough to know that he would never survive a direct confrontation with Daniel, but sooner or later he would have to tell the rest of the Birthright and they would be coming for him. Daniel needed to do what Boone had suggested—he had to leave the country.

  Somehow Daniel managed to get through the rest of dessert without snapping and killing Boone right then and there. He used his abilities to remain calm on the outside, while on the inside he was quickly plotting his escape. Jordan kept looking over at him, sensing that something was wrong. She gave a questioning glance, which he abruptly shrugged off. She wasn’t going to like what he now had to do.

  After dessert, Carlos offered to take the Boones on a ride around the farm in his tractor—an offer which they accepted. Daniel, Marie and Jordan said their goodbyes to the couple and as Daniel went to shake hands with David he felt the old man squeeze a little harder than before. Daniel looked up and saw that the old man was gleaming with satisfaction. His finding and confronting Daniel would be considered a great success with the rest of the Birthright.

  Once Carlos and the Boone’s were safely out the door Marie started cleaning and Daniel grabbed Jordan by the arm, pulling her toward the stairs. Daniel ran up the stairs and turned to make sure Jordan was behind him. When she got to the top he took her by the arm and pulled her into her bedroom, closing the door behind them. He then went over to the window and closed that.

  “What is going on?” Jordan demanded. “Something was wrong when you and David came back from the kitchen, I could tell.”

  Daniel gathered himself and tried to decide where to start. “I have to go.”

  “Excuse me?” Jordan countered.

  “We’re not safe here anymore,” Daniel explained.

  Jordan placed on hand on her hip and the other on her forehead. “You wanna tell me what happened in there?”

  Daniel put his hands on her hips and stared straight into Jordan’s eyes. “Boone is a member of the group that’s after me. He figured out who I am.”

  Jordan pushed Daniel away and started pacing around the room. “Gordon’s group?”

  Daniel swallowed and nodded. “They know more about us than we ever thought. If I stay here, we’re not safe.”

  Instantly, Jordan stopped pacing and ran to her dresser, opening it up and pulling a bag out from under her bed.

  “What are you doing?” Daniel asked her.

  Jordan shot Daniel a glanced that suggested his question was obscene. “I’m packing. You just said we have to leave.”

  “No,” Daniel told her, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her up toward him. “I said that I have to go. You can’t go with me.”

  Jordan’s eyes widened, and she looked betrayed. “Why not?”

  Daniel let go of her and ran his hands over the top of his head. “Because my biggest concern has always been keeping you safe, and as long as you’re with me, you’re not safe.”

  Jordan dropped down onto the bed and Daniel could see tears beginning to surface. “That’s stupid. The whole reason we’re here together is because you needed to be close to protect me. We are in this together.”

  “That was
the case then, but this is different,” Daniel desperately tried to explain. “Gordon is off the grid somewhere building his army of super people, and the rest of the Birthright just wants me out of the way. I need to leave the country, where no one can find me. Boone was just trying to scare me to get me to leave, but if I don’t they will come for me and they will use everyone I love. They know where my parents live Jordan. I have to leave or no one will be safe.”

  “But I thought they wanted you dead,” Jordan countered. “That’s why Gordon kidnapped me, to get to you—to kill you.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I don’t think that’s what Boone was getting at. He told me that they’d already been to my parent’s house in Indiana. If they wanted to use them against me they would have. I think this is more of a ‘if we can’t have him, neither can they’ type of deal—they being the FBI in this case. As long as I’m gone and out of reach, I’m no longer a threat and they’ll leave it alone.”

  Jordan threw her face into her palms, her body jerking back in forth as she cried into them. “But what about me? I love you.”

  Daniel dropped his arms and slouched over. He sat down on the bed next to Jordan and threw an arm around her. “I love you too, but I can’t bring you down with me. Once I’m gone you can finally go back to having a real life. You can see your family again, move back to Indiana. Or you can stay here and hang out with Bachman.”

  “Do not make this about Bachman,” Jordan ordered sternly.

  Daniel shook it off. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, I was just pointing out that here, or back home, you can have a life. If you come with me you’d be giving that up, and I don’t want that and I don’t think you really do either.”

  Jordan put her head between her knees in a full cry, tears running down the bridge of her nose and onto the floor. “I’m going to miss you so much!” she cried, turning and throwing her arms tightly around Daniel.

  “I’m going to miss you too,” he replied, tears of his own starting to fall. He probably didn’t understand right now just how much he would miss her, but he knew it was better than the alternative. If he was going to have to spend the rest of his life on the run and never being able to see his family again, he took some solace in knowing that Jordan didn’t have to go through that with him. His final act in protecting her was setting her free.

  Chapter 18

  Daniel had no time to waste if he wanted to get out before Boone told the rest of the Birthright where he was and they changed their minds about how they wanted to handle his fate. In his closet he had stashed what was left of the money in his old account before he became Daniel Simmons. Because the government had supplied him with more than enough to live on, he still had over ten grand in cash that he withdrew from the bank in St. Louis.

  “At least the taxpayers won’t have to fund my hiding anymore,” he told himself as he got a few necessary things together. He pulled his gun out of his dresser for the first time since he and Jordan had arrived, throwing it and the two extra magazines Eva had given him into the bag with the money.

  He then pulled out the cell phone he had bought under Daniel Simmons’ name and opened the contact list. He scrolled down to Jessie’s number and hit send.

  “What’s up bruh?” Jessie answered after four rings.

  “Hey, which does your dad like better? His cabin cruiser or his sailboat?” Daniel asked him.

  “Uh, he loves ‘em both, but his sailboat is his pride and joy. I think he loves it more than me to be honest. Why, what’s up?”

  “In that case I need to borrow the cabin cruiser, which works out since I have no fucking clue how to sail anyway,” Daniel replied.

  “And by borrow you mean…”

  “I’m gonna steal it, yeah,” Daniel confessed.

  “May I ask why?” Jessie inquired.

  Daniel decided there was no more reason not to tell the kid the truth anymore. “If I don’t leave there are some people who are probably going to come try to kill me.”

  There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. “That’s fucking rad, bro! I knew you were into some heavy witness protection shit like that!”

  “Yeah, yeah. So will you help me?”

  “Hell yeah I’ll help you buddy! Just name the time and place.”

  Daniel smiled to himself. The kid was crazy, but reliably so. “Meet me just outside the bay at dawn tomorrow. And you’ll probably want to bring another boat with you.”

  “No problem, I’ll bring my buddy Marvin with me. We’ll just stay out all night and meet you there bright and early.”

  “Thanks Jessie,” Daniel said sincerely. “And I’ll give you some cash for your dad’s boat.”

  “Dude there is no way you have the cash to pay for that boat!” Jessie countered.

  “I didn’t say it’d be a fair price.”

  “Yeah, I’ll probably just keep that shit,” Jessie admitted.

  Daniel laughed. “Alright, I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “A’ight.” Jessie hung up the phone.

  Daniel threw his phone onto the bed and continued packing. He was now placing his life in the hands of a nineteen year-old delinquent. What had his life become?

  Daniel and Jordan spent the night in his bed, holding each other and talking. It was crazy to think that everything that had happened had happened because Daniel so badly wanted to get to this moment, and now that it was here he was being forced to let it go.

  Though there were a lot of tears, the night had provided both of them with closure. They both cried not because they were losing a lover, but because they were losing a friend. There was no doubt within either of them that they were not destined to spend their lives together, but they would never stop caring deeply about one another as friends.

  For a moment Daniel feared that he was making the wrong decision. What if leaving Jordan meant that he was leaving her for the Birthright to use against him as Demérs had in Chicago? But he soon realized however that if they had no way of getting the message to him, they had no way of threatening him with it. There was no reason to believe they would bother her after he was gone, whereas if she went with him they would hunt her in the same way they would hunt him.

  “What about when Gordon and his people make their move and start a war with the government using their super people? How will they find you?” Jordan asked softly as she twirled his hair around her finger.

  Daniel took a deep breath and sighed. “That’s not my biggest concern at the moment.”

  “But all the people who will get hurt,” Jordan argued, “you can’t just leave them helpless. You’re our best chance of stopping them before anything begins.”

  Daniel looked at Jordan and a part of him knew she was right, just as she had been at the jewelry store. He couldn’t turn his back on all of those people.

  “If a war does happen, I will hear about it and if it’s safe for my loved ones, I’ll come back.”

  Jordan looked as though the answer wasn’t the one she had wanted to hear, but given the circumstances she did not argue any further. She wanted to spend her last few hours with Daniel loving him, not fighting with him.

  Daniel rolled over and reached for something on his nightstand. “Take this.” He handed Jordan a folded up piece of paper.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a note to Eva,” Daniel answered. “It explains why I left and tells her to make sure nothing happens to you or my family while I’m gone. Make sure it gets to her.”

  Jordan tucked the note in her pocket and grabbed Daniel’s face before giving him a sweet and gentle kiss, then she started to cry. Daniel closed his eyes and tried to stop himself from joining, but the emotions were too strong.

  Before long the clock read four-thirty and Daniel knew that it was time for him to go. At some point during the night Jordan had managed to drift to sleep. He kissed her on the cheek and whispered goodbye before grabbing his bag and walking out the door. There was no telling when he’d se
e her again.

  As quietly as he could he snuck out the front door and fired up the red sedan. As he began his drive toward the yacht club, he reached into his bag which was resting in the passenger seat next to him and pulled out his Glock. He loaded it and slipped into the back of his waistband. Something about holding it again gave him a rush, and he began to focus in on his objective.

  Daniel got to Harbor Springs just as a bit of pink was beginning to form on the eastern horizon. He parked in the currently empty parking lot and jogged down to the employee entrance of the club. Daniel hadn’t been there long enough for them to trust him with a key, but Carlos had. Using the key he had taken off of Carlos’s keychain before leaving the house, Daniel unlocked the door and quickly scurried inside. Once inside he hustled down a plain, narrow back hallway until he got to the main office on the left. Inside he could see the combination safe that held the keys to all of the boats in the marina. He unlocked the office and went to the safe. He hoped Carlos wouldn’t get in too much trouble for having his key stolen.

  Daniel then went over to the safe. The club manager and the dock manager were supposed to be the only two who knew the combination, but Jessie had spied the combination over the dock manager’s shoulder one day. After that it was only a matter of minutes before every dockhand in the marina knew the combination. The only people who weren’t in on the joke were the dock manager and the club manager.

  Daniel was relieved to find that Jessie had accurately deciphered the combination and that it hadn’t changed. The safe popped open and he grabbed the key labeled “Boone.” He then closed and relocked the office door and the club door, leaving the key under a nearby rock. He wasn’t sure why he had done that, but he had no need for the key anymore and it seemed appropriate. Once the key was properly hidden, he ran over to the docks. It didn’t take long for him to find the Boones’ yacht. It was unsurprisingly named the “Divine Right.”

  Daniel snuck onto the yacht and tried to get an understanding of the layout. He had not been put in charge of servicing the Divine Right so he was it was his first time on board. From its size he guessed that it held a crew of at least three, all of which would more than likely be sleeping on board. More if there were any service staff members, which from what Daniel knew about the Birthright there probably were.