11
Ghosts That Haunt—47
Despite the fact he had no idea where he was going, Casey insisted on driving. When Riah led him to a small Volvo SUV, he considered making cracks about her owning a communist car, but he didn't, mainly because she'd simply remind him as she usually did that they might be socialist rather than communist, which took a lot of the fun out of it. Riah quietly directed him to V. H.'s house. For some reason, it surprised him to find it was a modest suburban house with a rolling lawn.
They went in the kitchen door at the back of her father's home. Casey carried Victoria, and Riah smiled widely at the housekeeper, who turned from the stove and wiped her hands before she came forward to hug his wife tightly. Casey was glad he held his daughter since she'd make an effective shield if the woman got notions about hugging him as well.
"You remember my husband," Riah said when the other woman released her. His wife introduced her as Mrs. Munson, who nodded warily, and Casey tried not to be pissed that for the other woman, the jury was clearly still out on whether or not to trust him.
That quickly turned to amusement when the older woman folded her arms across her ample bosom, ignored him, and told Riah, "If he marries that Debi bitch, I quit."
His wife nodded solidarity. "I don't blame you in the least."
"I mean it, Mariah. I will not work for that ungrateful woman." Mrs. Munson unfolded her arms and used a finger to tick off her points on the fingers of her other hand: "She leaves everything in the floor, she can't make a bed, she leaves the bathroom a complete and soggy mess, she thinks my job is waiting on her hand and foot instead of seeing to this house and your father's meals, and she's a mean bitch."
Riah obviously struggled to keep a concerned look on her face despite what Casey suspected was a desire to laugh at that particular list of sins. For his part, he thought the woman had given a pretty accurate summary of Wallace's probable faults and wondered what else might have made the list had she possessed more fingers.
"She runs around naked—or mostly naked," the woman added, "and I neither need nor want to see that."
"Have you told Dad?" Riah asked.
"I've told him I'll retire," the woman countered firmly.
"Perhaps you should discuss your employment terms again," Riah offered. "As I recall, Dad was pretty willing to accommodate you the last time you needed to amend what you would and would not put up with."
Casey read that as the woman controlled Adderly's house, but he figured the other man both needed and deserved that.
"Just tell your father I'll quit," she groused, though Riah made no promises to do so before they left the kitchen.
They found V. H. in the living room. His father-in-law stood from the couch where he sat reading when they entered. The other man took Victoria from him and kissed Riah's cheek before he shook Casey's hand. When they were all seated, Adderly turned to his daughter and said, "You're about to be really pissed off, Sweetheart."
Pretty sure what was coming, Casey wondered how angry she'd be when her father finished telling her. They sat on the other end of the couch from V. H., and his wife leaned back into Casey, who tightened his arm fractionally around her. For his part, Casey was well aware they still had unresolved issues, and he hoped against hope her father was wrong about how upset she'd be. He knew, from a brief conversation on the phone with his boss while Riah had been in the shower, that if her father and the General had been comparing notes, she was not going to be happy at all, and he might have to leave her as angry—if not more so—as she'd been before he arrived.
"I've had my ear bent by Diane Beckman this afternoon," V. H. began, moved Victoria to a more comfortable position. "The U. S. Government has decided you are a national security risk, and your deportation order is not only going to stand, but if you enter the States, you will be arrested."
Riah's rigidity could have given a marble statue a run for its money. Casey held back the sigh. It was undoubtedly true that she was very pissed off, but the least her father could have done was put it a little less bluntly. "I assume this is because I managed to pull John's records together," she said tightly. Casey shifted next to her, and she slid an accusing look at him. He avoided meeting her gaze but was still aware she narrowed her eyes at him. When she next spoke, it was impossible to miss that her anger had gone up several levels. "Or has this been arranged, supposedly, for my own good?"
Her father played stupid at that point, started asking Victoria if she had had her dinner—as if the six-month-old baby could answer. Riah stared down Casey, who didn't appreciate at all that the other man had left him in the crosshairs with no body armor. She waited, her temper obviously simmering, for him to say something. Finally, he agreed, told her, "Yes." Before she could start, he sliced in. "You might want to ask who thinks it's a good idea."
She swung around to look at her father, and Casey didn't feel the least bit guilty for throwing the other man into the line of fire. Her father gave her that innocent look of his that was anything but. "I think we all agreed it would be a good idea, but for the record, Casey wasn't part of the discussion." His face turned grim. "Mariah, Casey doesn't need the distraction at the moment—that's one thing on which I do agree with Diane. If you stay here, you have a better chance of staying safe, Victoria, too."
It was pretty much the exact same thing Casey had told her, so he relaxed, figured she could hardly lay the blame squarely on him when he'd warned her. It was crystal clear that Riah was still pissed off, though, and Casey considered how much she'd insist he appease her—or if she'd even let him appease her.
Appeasement was good, but this could have been done after he was gone. That way there would have been no need to sit and make nice with the man responsible for Casey now needing to appease his wife.
"Diane's biggest concern is that things seem to be escalating." V. H. looked across at him then. "You and Walker have both been direct targets. It's only a matter of time before Bartowski is, and if they're eliminating the professionals," the other man said and turned his gaze on Riah, "you go on the list if you go home."
She nodded. Casey could tell how much she hated that her father was right. He didn't like it any more than she did, so it was easy to sympathize with her viewpoint. While it didn't make her any less angry, he hoped it would help her get over it sooner. He watched her struggle to contain her temper and was simply glad that it wasn't directed at him. Finally, she sighed. "Fine. I remain in exile until they get Shaw and whoever else in involved." It came out cranky, but Casey relaxed beside her. She breathed slowly and then relaxed as well.
V. H. apparently decided that was enough business, and steered the conversation to baseball. Casey mostly listened, amused that the man still revered the Jays, and wondered if the other man stalled because he was waiting for Debi Wallace to turn up before they had dinner. He was glad when it turned out to be just them. Dinner was good, though Casey wasn't about to admit that Mrs. Munson's perfectly cooked prime rib wasn't as good as his wife's since he suspected the other woman would simply add that to her grievance list.
One thing he had noticed since Riah had first come to live with him was that his wife wasn't much of a dessert eater despite her talent making them. As a result, he was surprised when she dug enthusiastically into a pretty healthy slice of a simple caramel cake the housekeeper served with coffee to finish the meal. V. H. was amused at his daughter's single-minded appreciation of the cake and told Casey, "It's always been her favorite."
Watching her lick her fork, Casey sincerely hoped she showed that much dedication toward him when she had him naked later.
Victoria had eaten the homemade baby food Riah brought, and Casey had given them his rapt attention as Riah spooned pureed vegetables into his daughter's mouth. His wife wiped the baby's mouth before she handed their daughter to him and stood to begin clearing the dessert plates. He hadn't missed the look her father sent her before she did so, so he suspected V. H. wanted a private word with him. She disappeared into the kitchen and didn't return.
"Let's go in the den," V. H. said, and Casey followed him.
He and V. H. each took a chair. "I take it the two of you have kissed and made up," her father said.
"That's one way of putting it," he agreed, "though I think your daughter prefers the term appeasement." The other man's pained expression cheered him. Riah's father should know by now that Casey wasn't about to take any squeamishness on his part into consideration. If V. H. wanted to poke, he'd poke right back. "I call it something else."
V. H. cut him neatly off with, "I really shouldn't feed that ego of yours, but she's been miserable without you."
Casey had been equally miserable without her, but he didn't say so. "You will keep them safe."
It wasn't a question, so V. H. simply nodded, and dropped his eyes to Victoria. "You look awfully comfortable holding her," he observed. V. H. shifted in his chair, crossed his legs, and then looked across at Casey. "What are you going to do about your other daughter?"
As he had with Riah, Casey answered, "I think it's best if I stay dead."
He still believed that, but he had to admit Riah's statement that she found it hard to believe he could just ignore Alexandra McHugh had made him reconsider a few times. He didn't want to be a part of the girl's life, knew he had no right to disrupt her life by intruding, but he was curious. He wanted to know she was alright, wanted to know she was happy, but he knew the only way to really know that was to see for himself. Those weren't the sorts of things a surveillance report could accurately tell him.
"One good thing about the way my daughter was raised is that she's pretty good at rolling with shifting family relationships." V. H. rubbed his dead hand. "It doesn't make her very happy, but she copes."
"Speaking of shifting family relationships," Casey cut in, "your housekeeper says she's quitting if you marry Debi Wallace."
The other man grimaced. "I'm not marrying Debi, but you might as well know Mrs. Munson threatens to quit every other month."
It wasn't his business, he decided, so he dropped the subject. He and V. H. talked shop, agency gossip, and waited on Riah to join them. When she did, Victoria was nearly asleep in Casey's arms. He didn't mind, would have continued holding his daughter, but Riah gave him a lingering kiss that made her father complain like a juvenile, then took their daughter. She settled Victoria in a bassinette in a corner of the den before settling on a love seat. Casey decided to join her and slipped his arm around her so he could enjoy the feel of her body against his.
Her father got up and crossed to a table that held a number of bottles, and Casey approved when he picked up one half-full of his favorite scotch. V. H. splashed some in two glasses and handed one to Casey. He asked Riah if he could get her something, and she asked for club soda. Casey would have liked a cigar, too, but he made do with the drink. Her father handed Riah a glass of club soda.
They sat in companionable silence for a while, and then her father asked, "How close are you to stopping the Ring?"
Casey sighed before he said gruffly, "Not nearly as close as we'll have to be. The Director didn't know squat, as it turned out—or if he did, he isn't talking."
"So far they aren't much of a problem for us," her father said. "CSIS has had a few problems, but ISI seems mostly clean." He looked at Riah then. "It's the only reason I let your wife come back to work for us."
"About that," Casey growled. "My boss is far from amused that your daughter broke her agreement." He followed that with a hard glare since his conversation with Beckman had, in part, covered when their marriage would be declared valid again. Beckman had told him that when Riah went back to ISI, she negated the deal that had allowed them to marry in the first place. Then she had coldly told him, "And don't think I'm not aware the two of you married before she resigned in the first place." As a result, Casey tried to reinforce his displeasure with one of his hard glares.
"Your boss broke the agreement on her end first," her father returned. "I merely exploited it."
Riah shifted beside him. He suspected she'd prefer he simply let it go, but he wasn't in the mood. "My wife," and Casey gave special emphasis to those words, "is not a pawn."
"My daughter," and like Casey, her father stressed those words, "is a pawn, like it or not. I expected you to take better care of her."
That was several steps over the line as far as Casey was concerned, so he snapped back, "I do take care of my wife. Why do you think I'm not insisting you let her come home?"
"My daughter," her father began again, but Riah had clearly reached the end of her patience.
"Has had enough." She punctuated each word forcefully so that neither of them could ignore her meaning. She looked at her father. "My husband is taking me and our daughter back to my apartment. You are going to ignore us until he has to leave." She looked over her shoulder at Casey who was careful to make sure his pleasure at her taking her father to task didn't show on his face. "You are not going to say anything that lets him go on about us molesting each other or anything else that supposedly upsets him." He kept his expression blank but she must have seen something of what he thought because her face flamed. After all, she'd promised to service him the second their daughter was in bed. She added softly, "If you upset him, I will not molest you tonight."
Her father was the one who whined. Casey considered joining him, but since it was obvious she would be a woman of her word, he wisely refrained. Her father, for his part, sighed and said he'd help her get Victoria's things.
Riah hugged her father when she had buckled Victoria into her car seat and straightened to say good night to him. He kissed her cheek and looked across at where Casey stood beside the driver's door. "Keep them safe," V. H. said, and Casey nodded back.
On the way home, she slid her hand onto his thigh. Casey's mind was on what his wife had promised and what he might ask of her in light of that promise, so the stroke of her hand up his thigh had him pushing the accelerator a fraction harder. He nearly moaned when she stroked his thigh again, especially when she trailed her fingertips lightly up the inside and over his crotch before she let them stroke downward again. Casey caught her hand before she started the upstroke again and ground out her name. "I don't need to wreck the car because you've decided to assault me in it."
"I haven't begun to seduce you, John," she told him in a soft, throaty voice that almost had him finding a quiet, deserted road. He probably would have if Victoria hadn't made a noise in the back seat. With any luck, the police wouldn't pull him over for speeding before they got back to Riah's.
As they came off the elevator on her apartment's floor, he nodded at the two men there, but when they reached Riah's door, she swiftly unlocked it, turned to the man stationed outside it, and said with a wide smile, "If you hear my husband scream, just ignore it."
Casey felt his face burn until well after his wife bathed their daughter, nursed her and put her to bed. He wondered when the ISI operative finally got over his own shock.
Once in her room, she started stripping his clothes from him, but he stopped her. She looked at him, cranked up a brow, and asked, "You're going to waste time talking, aren't you?"
He couldn't stop the snort. Instead of saying what he'd intended, that there were still things they should discuss before he left, he changed his mind. "I thought you promised to be at my service."
She cocked her head, planted her hands on her hips and raised her brows. "I believe," she said slowly as though he might be a halfwit—and admittedly he could be once she got started on his body, "that's exactly what I was about to do."
Casey considered giving in, but then he changed his mind. He stepped forward and then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. He started slowly, waited until she parted her lips and kissed back before he stepped closer and pulled her against him. Jesus, she felt good, tasted good, but he didn't want to waste time waiting for her to make up her mind what to do to him. He figured he'd take the guesswork out of it for her. When he released her mouth, he told her gruffly, "Continue what you were doing."
Her hands went to work on his clothes, and his did the same on hers. Since he wore less and she'd had a head start, she had his off him before he was quite finished with hers. One thing he appreciated about Riah was that she wasn't good at remaining idle. On the other hand, if she wasn't careful, he was going to disappoint her, so he batted her hands away, grunted for her to wait, and finished what he was doing. When she was naked as well, he reached for her, but she flattened her hands on his chest, gave him a sultry look, and shoved for all she was worth.
Casey went down on her bed where he sprawled across it, startled at first. He was about to tell her she only managed that because he wasn't expecting it, but she was on him before he could even open his mouth. She kissed the breath out of him then bit his ear, soothed it with her tongue, and whispered, "I believe I promised service, but I think I'll take what I want first."
There was a moment where he considered protesting, nearly pointed out that she was reneging on her offer, but then he realized he was going to get what he wanted anyway, so he said, "Carry on."
She did. She definitely did. Casey began to wonder how she managed to have her hands and mouth everywhere at once. It seemed that way, anyway. Since she didn't protest when his hands glided over her waist onto her back, he got involved, touched, tasted what he could, but he didn't roll her beneath him. He was going to make her take what she wanted since she had demanded so very nicely.
He left his hands on her back when she headed south, let her slide beneath them as her mouth worked its way down to where her hands made themselves almost a little too useful. Then her mouth closed over him, and he lost all ability to think. His hands buried themselves in her hair, and he focused intently on the slide of her hot little mouth over him, on the feel of her hands—one wrapped around the base of his dick and the other fondling his balls. His fingers tightened against her skull as she moved up and down, her tongue doing that thing she'd picked up from her aunt's sex book. She picked up the pace, and Casey wondered how loud he was when he came and sincerely hoped the operative outside Riah's door did as she had commanded.
His thoughts cleared about the time that mouth of hers worked its way up to the base of his throat. He wasn't certain he could move just yet, barely noticed his hands were still tangled in her hair. "I think that counted as service," he noted sleepily, "but I'm damned if I can figure out how that was taking what you want."
Her teeth lightly bit his throat, and then her tongue swiped over it. She nibbled further up toward his jaw before telling him, "I wanted to do that, and when things solidify for you, I'll take my own satisfaction."
The grin might be permanent, he thought, as she nipped along his jaw, over his chin, kissed over his face but evaded his mouth. "You could speed things along by returning to what you were doing," he hinted as she nibbled down the other side of his neck.
Casey felt her snort over his collarbone. "You're not in charge, John," she chided and returned to tasting her way along various parts of his body. He noticed, after a little while, she was evading what should be the point. About to call her attention to it, she finally took his mouth, pressed her body along his, and he decided her assistance wasn't completely necessary.
Riah went astride him, took him inside her, and she wasn't exactly gentle. She'd apparently been serious about taking what she wanted from him, and when he moved to grab her hips, she batted his hands away. He noticed she didn't mind when he reached for her breasts, though, so he contented himself with letting her do the work while he stroked, cradled, squeezed, though she did let him hang on to her hips when she was close, let him help. He gave her a moment, let her get her breathe a little, and then he rolled her over and took his own pleasure.
That purr of hers came when he pulled her against him and settled on his side facing her. One of her arms slipped over his waist, and she tipped her face toward his. He kissed her and then said, "Don't go to sleep yet."
She made a faint grumble.
"I need to talk to you," he told her.
"In the morning," she grumbled.
He breathed in deeply before he admitted, "That's just it."
Riah raised her head, and all signs of sleepiness were suddenly gone.
"I have to leave by four," he confessed. He wasn't going home on a commercial flight. Instead, he was hitching a ride with a government official back to D.C. where he'd meet with Beckman once more and then go back to Los Angeles. As he explained this, he watched her face go blank once more.
She sighed, ran a hand up his chest to his shoulder and reached to kiss him. "Then you have appeasing to do."
"Later, okay?" He really did need to talk to her first. She nodded, settled her head on his shoulder. "I don't know when things will come to a head," he admitted. "Until it does, you and Victoria are better off here."
"I've heard this lecture several times, John," she reminded him, and she sounded a little pissed.
"Don't take risks, Riah," he said. "I mean it. Don't do anything that will draw the kind of attention that puts you or Victoria in jeopardy."
"I don't take risks," she said tightly. "Even if I wanted to, neither Mrs. Gerrard nor my father would let me."
He must have been tired because he asked something he'd been wondering but figured might start an argument. "Is there a reason you call Izzie that?"
Color bloomed on her face, and her eyes dropped. He was glad they had left the lights on so he could see the deep blush. "She scares the hell out of me."
Casey laughed. Izzie could be scary as hell, it was true, but he knew she was fond of his wife and unlikely to do anything that would either hurt or scare Riah.
"It isn't funny," Riah growled.
That only made him laugh harder.
"It really isn't funny," she insisted, but he didn't get it under control until she threatened, "If you don't stop laughing at me, you're sleeping in a hotel—alone."
He rolled her beneath him and kissed her. "You don't mean that."
"I absolutely mean that," she promised, but he could see a faint hint of humor in her blue eyes. "I really don't want to, but I would."
Once more, Casey kissed her.
"Convince me I don't need to," she suggested.
As a result, he decided to seriously appease her. It wasn't until he was about to drift off next to his already sleeping wife that it occurred to him he hadn't finished telling her what he wanted. Perhaps it didn't matter, though, because she had apparently decided to forgive him, hadn't really even been angry that he hadn't told her when he had to leave.
She insisted on getting up and taking him to the airport. Casey tried to insist she stay home, but she had given him that look—that hard, cold look that meant she'd do as she damned well pleased—and he'd given in. He insisted at least one of the ISI operatives had to go along so she wasn't alone when he boarded his plane.
At the airport, the operative did his job, and Casey said a semi-private goodbye to his wife and daughter. Riah eyed him and said, as soon as the operative was out of earshot, "Get our marriage reinstated, John."
"We're married—legally," he assured her.
"No offense," she said, and it was all-too obvious she was offended, "but I want papers proving it." She pulled an envelope out of a pocket and handed it to him. "That's the name and address of my attorney. Do whatever has to be done, but see that I'm sent the paperwork. Sheryl can see I get it."
"Done," he promised, kissed her, kissed Victoria, and then signaled the operative. He watched until they were out of sight before he boarded the plane.