Secrets of the Fall (9 page)

“Okay,”
I said heading into the boardroom. I peeked inside, and Drew was in the middle
of a call, but he saw me. He got up and came to me, while holding his phone,
and put his arm around me. I could see how badly he wanted to kiss me, but he
didn’t. “I’m going back to the Pad with Rach,” I whispered. “I’ll let you work.
I’ll be fine with Rach.”

Drew
nodded and watched me walk out of the boardroom while still on the phone. It
was the first time he looked absolutely determined and dead serious about
something. He was not the fun-loving Drew I knew last summer, but a man who was
taking matters and his life into his own hands. For some reason, seeing him
this determined to get his brother back home, despite their rivalry, made me so
proud of him. It made me realize that no matter what his situation and
relationship with Nat was like, he would survive and be fine with it.

Nat
had told me about his dream regarding Drew. He had told me in great details one
night after we made love at the Pad. It was his family’s demon, the darkness
that could haunt everyone in the house…those depressed feelings, those
repressed emotions, the possibility of mental illness that could be passed down
to either of the Donovans offsprings. Nat had dreamed of Drew seeing Nat and I
making love and had been so depressed and devastated by that, so heartbroken
that in his dream, Drew pulled the trigger that ended his life. Nat was shaking
when he told me about that dream. He was so upset that he refused to touch me
and make love to me or kiss me whenever he thought Drew was around us. He made
that vow to me that he wouldn’t show any pda towards me if he knew Drew was
there. He kept that promise too. But now seeing this side of Drew, seeing how
he handled all this, made me realize maybe just maybe we had underestimated
Drew.

Chapter
11

Summer

I
was jogging along the beach early in the
morning that drew up against the Pad’s back patio, when Rachel, in her curlers,
black camisole and plaid shorts pajamas came running up to me.

Rach
was now staying at the Pad full-time while she finished her internship at the
Academy. Needless to say, I was happy to have her there with me. Just us girls.
Without all the drama of the boys being there.

After
we flew back to Malibu, she ordered pizza and Chinese food, and we ate and ate
until we were agonizingly stuffed. Then we played music, watched
Mean Girls
,
recited all the lines we loved in
Mean Girls
, and fell asleep in each
other’s arms. We were exhausted from worry, but being able to relive those
carefree childhood days with Rachel had lifted our spirits, if only just for
one night.

It
was as though Aunt Sookie was back in our lives, telling us girls to live life
to the fullest, to go after what we really wanted out of life and never look
back. Never have regrets. Never apologize for being you. Being back in Malibu
in Aunt Sookie’s beach house calmed my soul, and made me realize how fortunate
I was to have known all the special people who came into my life at different
stages and points of my life…Aunt Sookie, Rachel, Nat, Drew, Astor, Nadine
Donovan, and even Ryan. To me, it was fate that I have them in my life…if fate
was to act again and separate one of any of them from my life; then there was a
purpose for it, a purpose I couldn’t see in the present, but will someday
realize. Knowing this helped provide me with peace and tranquility in a sea of
uncertainty. Knowing this helped me prepare for the news I was about to hear
from Donovan Dynamics. Thank God, I had that strength. Thank God, Rachel was
with me. If not, I would have collapse to the ground and have never wanted to
get back up.

“Summer,”
Rachel said, “Summer!”

“Yeah,
what?” I said slowing down my jog to a sudden halt. “What?”

Rachel’s
face was wet from crying. From heavy sobbing. “It’s Nat…” she cried. “They sent
a Special Forces team to find any trace of Nat,” she cried. “He had helped Dad
get out of whatever crime organization that had him. He was the one to get
another hostage out. You wouldn’t guess who it was…”

“Who?”
I asked.

“Your
mother,” Rachel said. “Your mother was held by this crime organization she was
investigating for the military. Then she went missing, and Dad made it a
personal mission of his to find her. He promised Mom and Aunt Sookie he would
do everything he could to find her.”

My
eyes probably shot out of my head with surprise. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?
Why didn’t I know? It’s my mother. Don’t I have a right to know? I knew she was
off on some kind of special assignment, so I didn’t try to contact her, wanting
her to focus on her mission, get it done, and come home, but this…Oh God…how long
was she kept prisoner? Was she mistreated? Oh God…she was the military hostage
your father was traveling back with…I should’ve stayed to see her!”

“Summer,
she’s okay; she’s fine. They treated her well enough. She’s exhausted but she
will be making her way here tomorrow.”

I
put my hands to my face rubbing it out of nervous energy. “Thank God Mom is
safe.”

“Thanks
to Nat,” Rachel said, looking solemn. “He was a real hero, going there to get
them out. He had to go into the headquarters of some criminal organization to
do it, and…” Rachel gulped. “The Special Forces team Drew sent over last night
found something. The men who was part of Nat’s team had been killed. Nat was
nowhere to be found nearby. But that crime ring had been known to wash away all
traces of their crimes, including murder. I can’t go into detail what they
found of the team Nat had been with, but if Nat was with them, there would be
barely anything left of him.”

I
fell to the ground, feeling the rush of sand meet my face and scraping it. My head
was spinning, and I was seeing half the sky and half blurry darkness. Nat. Nat.
Nat…he was dead.

Chapter 12

Nat

T
he deed had been done. I’m a bastard in so
many ways for putting my loved ones through this grief. Rachel may forgive me
one day…she’s still considered my sister, but Summer, I won’t blame her for
hating me forever. Perhaps it was better that she hated me, than hold some kind
of hope out for me…that I would return to her, make her happy, and live happily
ever after with her.

Than
for her to find out the truth.

*****

Lamar,
an FBI giant with muscles everywhere, packed up the computer equipment from the
van securely and loaded it into an unidentifiable vehicle. It was the last of
the valuable hardware that had to go to the lab for data analysis.

“Good
job, Rookie,” Lamar’s booming deep voice said, while he slapped me on the back
hard enough to make my teeth chatter. “We have the evidence we need to bring a
suit against the ring. Then you can send that mother fucking psycho to prison
where he belongs. No more tormenting young women with blackmailed photos of
them, no more stalking celebrities and hacking into their accounts. Your girl
could rest assure we got one of her biggest cyber-bullies. Or at least we will.
How did you put two and two together?  That was genius by the way…”

“When
I went into the computer of their headquarters searching for a code, I found
the name of a man who had been stalking Summer and also Summer’s Aunt Sookie.
He seemed to know too much about Summer and had access to very personal photos…I
knew he was connected to some kind of cybercriminal activity that was bigger
than an one-person operation. Well, bingo, his name popped up in the database
on this crime ring’s computer as one of their own. Sloane, Wilma, KazuKen,
Celi-hag, BunnyMuff, were all part of the illegal and criminal cyber-bullying
ring that used blackmail to extort celebrities and famous authors, musicians,
schools like Aunt Sookie Acting Academy for money or they will post lies, false
rumors, photo shopped fake photos, and accusations of fake awards, fake
credentials on the internet. They did that to Summer and tried to do that with
Aunt Sookie, apparently. But as seemingly innocent as they seem, using young
girls’ photos as their supposed fake identities, they really were part of a
larger crime ring.”

“Why
Summer and why the Acting Academy?” Lamar asked.

“Because
of revenge…Summer’s mother found evidence of their criminal activity once and
had reported them. These cyber criminals were ruthless, went after anyone
associated with Major Jones…meaning Summer and Aunt Sookie. Of course Summer
also got attacked for getting into the public eye when she dated that pretty boy
actor Astor Fairway.”

“Well,
good job, and glad we could put your genius cyber-crime solving mind to work
for us. It was about time we found this to bring about justice.” Lamar looked
into the van and noted that it was completely cleaned out.

“What
next?” I asked.

“We
torch the van so there are no trace of this ever happening. We’ve already
masked the scene at the headquarters to appear as though all the men who
accompanied you as part of your Special Forces team, were killed.”

“They
weren’t?” I asked, the relief clearly running across my face.

“No,”
Lamar said. “When you decided to head back to a part of the fence close to the
area Tito was trying to get through, and rammed it with the van to create an
opening large enough for any of the guys to go through, before you headed out
as fast as you could, that created the escape and diversion they needed to escape,
scatter, and hide into the forest.”

“Where
are they now?” I asked. “Are they still in the forest?”

“No,
these men you hired are the most elite of the elite. They’ve been in far more
dangerous missions and lived to face others. They did what they had to do,
escaped, and probably went their separate ways afterwards, never to meet up
again. I would do the same thing.”

“Is
that what I’m supposed to do now?” I asked. “I was part of that team. Do I go
back to being a normal college student again?”

“Nat,”
Lamar said, leading me away from the van and to the opposite side of the garage
where there was a simple, no-frills beat-up looking silver 1998 Honda Civic. “Actually,
Nat, you will still be a college student, only a normal one…one with college
tuition worries, school loans, dorm-room living, and girl troubles…Because you
were in this mission, not only acting for your father’s company, but also for
the FBI, you could not assume your old identity. It would be too dangerous, for
you and for anyone you care about. That criminal ring had your face and name
snapshot as soon as you entered the premises. They could find Nat Donovan.
Unless he disappears. The rest of your team…they knew the dangers, too. They’ve
disappeared. Now Nat Donovan have to disappear, too. You will be another
college student, so at least you could finish college and move on with your
life, but not Nat Donovan.”

I
swallowed. This was hard to take. I knew this mission was dangerous, but I didn’t
think about the consequences afterwards, if I survived. “Who will I be?”

“A
student attending USC on a scholarship. A film major. You’re also a player who
goes through girls like candy. We can color your hair blonde, put blue contacts
into your eyes…this is the car you’ll be driving. This life is completely
different than Nat Donovan’s. What do you think?”

“This
is the way it has to be? Would anyone in my family know? What about my mother…she
needs caring, would someone watch her for me? Summer…oh God, what about Summer,
could I see her again?”

Lamar,
who looked and seemed younger than his forty years, shook his head. “Your
brother Drew knows you’re alive. But he thinks it’s because you left on your
own accord, that you wanted to distance yourself from Summer, considering you
may be blood—related to her. He knows you’re alive, but won’t reveal it because
he personally have some stake in having you disappear or declared as dead.”

I
could not believe what Lamar was saying, Drew would want me out of the picture
alright, to be with Summer. I just didn’t think he’d actually want me dead.

“Everyone
else believe the story the new ex-Special Forces team Drew and Donovan Dynamics
sent last night, gave…that they found pieces of the men from your team left at
the headquarters, and that you were probably part of that, too.”

I
bent over to keep from hyperventilating; I was knocked clear out of breath. I
was dead to my family now. I was dead to Summer. To never be able to touch or
hold her again. To never be able to kiss her again, despite whether or not we
were taboo from ever being together. I didn’t even know if I was Aunt Sookie’s
son.

All
this was too much to handle. I could handle everything else, but losing Summer
was the one thing I couldn’t. She was my weakness, my Achilles heel. The one
constant in my crazy abnormal life. How would I deal with seeing her but not being
able to have her?

“Nat,”
Lamar said. “Your transporter’s here. He’ll take you across the border. Then
you’ll see this same exact car parked at the parking garage near Pike’s Market.
From there, you can drive to San Francisco and on down the California highway
to USC where you’re set up with a dorm.”

“Will
I ever have my life back again?” I asked. “Will I ever get to return to being
Nat Donovan?”

“That’s
a sound iffy, Nat. For now, to keep yourself safe, and to be able to work for
us to get this crime ring completely busted, you would have to be this other
person. This is the way for you to still help Summer out, and still be close
enough to her.”

“But
not as myself,” I said. “When could I be myself with her?”

“When
we bust this cybercrime ring, and bring all of them to justice so you, Summer,
and Summer’s mother are safe.”

“This
is going to devastate Summer. I have a hard time putting her through this…she
just lost her aunt for God’s sake.”

Lamar
looked me squarely in the face. “Then do what you need to do to put yourself at
ease with this. What do you need to do to find some kind of closure?”

I
said, “Do you have a pen and paper?”

Lamar
brought out a briefcase from his vehicle and opened it revealing stationery of
all kinds as well as different types of pens, pencils, and writing utensils. “For
my 5 year-old daughter, but also for our line of work. Clean up, disguises, espionage.”

I
took a nice fine point blue ink pen and an ivory linen pad of paper and began
writing. When I was done in less than five minutes, I handed it to Lamar. “Can
I make this look like it’s been through a lot to get to her?” I asked.

“Easy,”
Lamar said. “I’m a master of disguises, change identities, and appearances.
This is a piece of cake.”

“Good,”
I said, “because Summer would probably see through it if it wasn’t done right.”

“Well…we’ve
fooled the crime ring you’re dead already. Now are you ready to be resurrected
as someone new?”

“As
ready as I could be,” I answered. “When I thought about the possibility of
being blood related to Summer, my life already was forfeit.”