Chapter 1

Daniel wasn't sure what he should be doing. He knew that if someone came into the emergency department that he could take care of them. For the last three weeks, he'd been organizing the hospital so that when they did find someone to run it, they could step into the role without having to search for every little thing. At least not in the office and this department, anyway.

Sure, he'd made his mark on it. Putting things together the way that he wanted it. But it was organized, unlike most of the other departments in the big hospital. Making his way to the front desk, he asked the woman sitting there, a woman who had been hired to only run the department, if there had been any calls out.

"No. Not as yet. Which, if you ask me, is good. The less we have to deal with until we get fully staffed, the better. Have you figured out why the head of this place fired so many staff before he left? I have a feeling it was him getting the last word in. The man was nothing if not vindictive." He had noticed a couple of days ago that she, like a lot of the staff that had been brought in, was armed. The Feds had come in and ‘helped' with the staffing of not just the staff but had replenished the departments with doctors and nurses to help get the place back up and running. Even Sebastian's family, the Romans—a powerful Italian family had helped by having relatives come in and be staff, too.

The Romans had been the most powerful mobster family around for decades. They were still powerful and worldwide in their works. But when Parker, the patriarch of the family, had taken over decades ago and was father to three sons who were running the empire now, he had made them a giving family rather than one that only took and murdered. They were giving back; he thought a great deal more than was taken by them. After setting up shelters and clinics all over the country, they had settled in and began helping with anything and everything that they'd been asked to help with. Tabby and Caleb, his half-brother, had brought them in when they asked to be able to help. His family, he thought, was one of the more giving families than he'd ever seen. Daniel smiled when spotting Luke when he entered the emergency room door and spotted him.

"Hello, Mr. Daniel. I have a leash for Orange now. He's all right with waiting outside until I leave. Thanks for making sure that he has food and water when we come to visit. He's getting kinda fat, but I think he's really happy." He got a hug from the young man. "You said that you wanted to check on my arm today. I didn't know you'd be in here."

"I'm the doctor on duty today. Who brought you here? Is Sen with you?" He said that she was parking the car. "Good. I don't like that you're still without a coat, but you said that you have one at the house. Aren't you cold?"

It had worked out really well with Luke and his five sisters living with him. The house that he'd gotten from Caleb—more like a flipping hotel to him, it had fourteen bedrooms as well as a butler's house. He'd been making use of it while the women and Luke made good use of his house. Besides, they were cooking for him, and he couldn't think of a single reason to have them looking for another place.

"Nah. I've been cold before. When my daddy was hanging around us he'd sell off my clothing that I'd get from the shelter place. By the way, Sen said to remind her about the receipts that she has for detergent and also donations." Daniel said he'd do that. "Good. Now don't forget. I won't get dessert tonight if you don't do this. She's depending on me to remember all kinds of stuff for my job. You know? It sure is nice to be able to walk around town without having to worry all the time, don't you think?" He agreed with him.

Burt Branch, their father, had been arrested not ten minutes after he'd been released the last time for drunk and disorderly conduct when his wife, Olivia, had passed away. He'd gotten out and went to the grocery store and tried to steal steaks and French fries. Not only was he run in again, but he had to wait for the judge to come in and hear his story before he could be released. Everyone was happier for those arrangements. Luke certainly was.

The sisters of Luke were working for the family, helping Tabby sort donated clothing so that it could be given away when people needed it. There were five of them, all mother hens when it came to their little brother. Luke would fuss about them, but he certainly loved them all. And Daniel couldn't blame him. They were about the nicest bunch of women he'd met in a long time. Between the five of them, he and his little buddy had been eating well every day since they moved in.

"I don't think that you're listening to me, Mr. Daniel. Are you getting all goo-goo over that woman at the desk? She's pretty but…well, she's pretty mean when she needs to be, too." He told him he was sorry, but he'd been thinking. "I've been doing that a lot, too. Anyway, my sister is taking me to the college tomorrow so that I can sign up for some college classes. I've not been hit once since my daddy was put in jail, you know. Even my sisters are healing up now, too. Do you know when my aunt and cousin are supposed to be coming to town?"

"I bet that they are. And no, not yet. I thought that they'd be here by now, but they had some trouble with the tickets that had been left for them at the airport." Daniel thought about what he'd heard about the mess up at the ticket counter but decided it wasn't his place to make a judgment about the two people. "Tabby said that you and your sisters have gotten all the donated things separated out and washed and dried. That has to be a great thing for the people that go there." Luke said that his sister was allowed to wash their clothing there as well. "That must be nice. You tell them that the washer and dryer that I purchased will be there tomorrow. Then they don't have to lug their things over there too. I certainly don't have enough dirty things to use it all that often." He'd gotten him a smaller set for the house he was using. It was working out well for the little bit that he was wearing. And it was close, too.

"I'll tell them that. I think that they feel bad about using the one in the donation place. It's a nice one, but like you said, they have to lug all their clothing in and out of the place, and it has about fifty stairs to it." They both laughed, knowing that the place only had about five steps, but they were steep. "Sen has a job interview with Mr. Caleb tomorrow, too. Did you know that?"

"Doesn't he know what she can do already? I mean, she's been working for him for two weeks now at the donation place." Luke told him what apparently his sister had told him. "Oh. Yes, I can see where he'd want to make it fair to everyone that was applying. Also, I do the same things here. Interview for a lot of different jobs that need to be filled up then put them where I think they'll work out. Good idea on his part but I guess he didn't get rich by being stupid. Caleb is smart for doing it that way if he has that many jobs that need to be filled in different areas around town. The hospital alone needs about three dozen more people working here."

Caleb, the man who had set out to find him and the other men who had been sired by Howard Berkley, had gathered them all up and made their lives a good deal better than they had ever been. Caleb's mom, Abby Anderson had made it so that her son had plenty enough resources to do what he needed to not just find them but to bring them here to live around him. Daniel had been the last of them. His mom, like the others, had been raped by Howard and left to raise him on her own.

His mom, like most of the other half-brothers, had passed on. He didn't think that his mom had ever been all that healthy even before she had him, and raising him on her own hadn't been all that easy on her. But, and he would be forever thankful to her, she had made him the man that he is today. Someone that people could depend on.

After getting Luke set up to have an x-ray of his arm, he looked them over and declared him well enough to start exercising it. The kid had been complaining about only being one-armed in trying to hold down a job. Daniel thought that at ten years old, he could hold off on working full time. The kid, he loved him to pieces and he had a charm about him that made him feel like he was on top of the world just by being around him.

When his cell phone rang, another gift from Caleb so that they could talk whenever they needed to, he answered with his name. Realizing that it was Tabby, Caleb's wife, he smiled, thinking about how happy he was that his brother had found himself such a wonderful person to live the rest of his life with.

"I just heard from Olivia's sister." He had to think a moment and remember that she was talking about Luke's mom. "Her name is Beatrice Miller, and her daughter is July. I have to admit something only to you, I don't know that I'm going to care for her. The aunt. She's kind of…how should I say this… She's a fucking bitch." He laughed and was happy that Luke had gone out to go help Ava, one of his sisters, clean the kitchen up at home. "I want everyone to be on their toes around her. She's been making comments about the kids that make me think that we shouldn't have bothered with contacting her. Ms. Miller is a great deal like her brother-in-law, Burt. A mean person."

"Did you ever hear what happened with the tickets that were waiting for them at the airport?" She explained to him how the mess-up had occurred. "How is that your fault? If she didn't get to the airport on time, I don't see how she can say that you were the one to mess their flight out. Yeah, I'm right there with you. I don't know that I'm going to like them either. She'd better not be a bitch to those kids. I know the older ones can hold their own, but not the two younger ones."

"Maybe she's just grieving. I know that it can make a person say and act differently than they normally did." He didn't believe that, and he was sure that Tabby didn't either. "Anyway, she's going to be here this evening. If you don't mind, we're going to meet up at your house when she arrives. We're sending a car for her since, according to her, she's going to need time to chill before meeting her sister's family. I'm all right with that. I don't want to be in a car with her for over an hour, either. I've made a couple of calls. Her plane will arrive at about four this afternoon. After they get their luggage then get here, it'll be around five-thirty or six. The caterers will be at your home about that time. They'll set up and clean up, too. I just don't want to have to deal with food since the weather has turned again. Did you know that it was supposed to be ninety today? Yesterday, it was forty. I don't care for the weather around here."

After making sure that he knew what he had to do when the caterers arrived and where the aunt was staying with her daughter, he told Sen when she came out of the elevator after her interview with Caleb. He also reminded her about the receipts, too.

He really liked this sister. Daniel loved them all, actually, but Sen and her sister Ava were the ones that he had spent the most time with at the house, being about his age. They were all smart, too, and could hold their own in a conversation.

"I don't remember her at all. I did remember my mom talking about her a couple of times. How they really didn't get along all that well. But since she's all mom had, she wanted her to come and see to Luke and Beth. They're the only two that aren't adults yet." Daniel asked her why she didn't adopt her brother. "I'd love to, I would. But mom didn't want me to be settled, she called it with my little brother if a man came along and wanted to marry me." She snorted.

"You don't think that anyone would want to marry you?" She did that twirl-around thing, showing him, he supposed what a man would be getting if he did. "I don't know if you're serious or not but I would think that any man would be thrilled to have a partner like you in life. You're smart, beautiful, and funny. And you have a readymade family right here."

They both laughed. That was another reason for him to like her a great deal. She never took anything seriously if she didn't have to. She and Luke were off-the-charts smart, both of them having graduated from high school before they were ten and started college right away. The other four sisters were smart, too, but they'd not graduated until they were twelve. It made him smile when he told anyone how brilliant his housemates were.

At three o'clock, he made his way home. While he was on call for the entire day, there hadn't been a single emergency in since he'd gotten there. The entire area had been told that if they had an emergency and could make it to one of the other hospitals in the area, to go there. The hospital was very short-staffed, and it would be a while before it was up to standards again, even with the extra help that was coming in from other hospitals.

Lucky for him, he didn't live all that far from the hospital and could walk home. The girls had been using his car since he'd gotten it. Or since his big brother had gotten him one. Caleb was an extremely generous brother.

~*~

Watching the trees as they swayed back and forth, she thought that she'd never realized how relaxing it could be to sit quietly and not fill her mind up with things that could have and should have been done. Looking to her right when the door opened, she stood up and carefully made her way to the room where she'd be doing her exercises in.

"You're doing very well, Major. I don't have to ask if you are keeping up with things. You're muscles are loosening up very nicely now." Cassie asked her if she'd heard from her boss. "No. Only in that, you're supposed to be given the best of care no matter what you have to say. I think that he's going to want you better sooner than you do."

"I didn't want to be better at all. That's the problem." Cassie had been shot when her brother had been killed. Every day since she woke up from the operations that had saved her life, she wished that they would have just let her die along with him. Bradley had been her hero, her best friend and her brother like none other. "Did they tell you when I can get out of here? I'd like to go to his grave before the snow comes in. And is there any word on who it was that killed him?"

"No word on when you can leave here to go see his grave. I've been thinking that someone could take a picture of it for you. Cassie, you do understand that you've been declared dead as well, don't you? If you go snooping around, as I think you want to do, you could be caught and killed. No one wants that, I promise you." She nodded, then turned away from the woman. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I truly am. I know it won't be the same, but I'll go there after I leave here and take some pictures for you. And I'll ask in my report when you're going to be taken out of here."

"Please do." Being declared dead had more than likely saved her life along with the people that she'd been staying with. But she didn't want to live. There was nothing for her to live for. Not anymore. "I've lost so much, Connie. Everything when you think about the fact about how I'm living. Hiding away in the dark like an animal. I miss my brother."

Cassie lifted her legs as she was asked to do when the two of them settled into their routine. Exercising her body, trying to get back into the shape she'd been before was difficult for her. Not that she'd been all that out of shape before being shot at, but she just didn't have the will to do anything lifesaving. She'd lost so much that she didn't want to be sticking around to lose anymore.

First, her parents when she and her brother had been just teenagers. They'd been killed when the plane that they'd been riding in had simply dropped from the sky. It had been their anniversary that week and they'd planned to go back to the places that they'd seen on their honeymoon. They were on their way home when the plane crashed, killing all two hundred eighty-seven on board, including the crew.

After that, it was her husband. She'd met Albert on a job, and he had been killed as well. He'd been out of the country working on a project that she'd still never found out what it had been. His body was shipped home to her on the day of their wedding anniversary. Five years to the day, she'd had to put him to rest. She had a nervous breakdown that night, having to be hospitalized for six months until she was ready to face the world again. Now she's lost Bradley.

Bradley had been the only person in the world that had made her feel like living again. With his sense of humor and his ability to find something positive in every circumstance, she missed him more than anyone that she'd ever missed. She wished daily that she could lie down beside him and end her life to join all her family in the afterlife. If there was one. But people with more pull than she had had made it so that she had lived while everyone around her was gone. It broke her in ways that she didn't think she could stand.

The phone was ringing when she went into the little room she'd been using the most. There were no computers nor televisions in the place, not much in the way of furniture either. Just a couch in the living room that had a full-sized refrigerator stocked full of water and sodas. A bed with a matching dresser in her bedroom. There was no kitchen, not that she would have used it anyway nor was there anything that would help her connect with the outside world. And she liked it like that. Right up until she didn't. And the last two days had proven to her that she's not all that good with her own company.

Picking up the phone, she waited for the person on the other end to speak. When they said the code for the day, Harvey the Rabbit, she said her name. The man on the other end of the line was laughing, and she knew who it was immediately.

"You can't tell me that you're tired of the walls already, Major Blake. I had a hand in decorating them just for you." She told the president that it was the ugliest rooms that she'd ever been in. "Yes, well, we needed to act quickly. But I am sorry, honey. Connie said that you wanted to go to the grave site. I can't allow you to do that just yet, either. We're using every man that we have now in trying to find the person or persons that shot at you and Bradley. As soon as we have him, I'll personally take you there."

"I miss him." She sobbed a little, having a rough morning already, and now this. "I miss him so much, you can't imagine. I have no one left. No one to hold me when I'm down. Nothing."

"Oh, Cassie, honey, I'm so sorry. My heart hurts for you and all that you've lost. Let me do some things on this end, and I'll get back to you. I'm not saying that it will be able to go through, but I'll see what I can do for you." She cried more, thanking him for putting up with her. "You are the one that I should be thanking. Without your help, even as hurt as you were, we wouldn't be as far as we are now in finding the persons responsible. We'll get them. Sooner rather than later. I'm not going to allow two of my best agents to be shot at and one of them killed without using all the power that I have to find them. Let me call you back."

Cassie laid down on her bed and cried herself to sleep. She'd been doing that so much since she woke up here that she was sure that she had shed enough tears that she could fill a bathtub. She hurt. Not just from the injuries from being shot, but her entire body ached all the time because of how lonely she was.

Waking up to her phone ringing again, she didn't say anything again until Wilhelm Davis, the president, did. He told her that he had a plan, but she'd have to do exactly what she was told, or the mission would be aborted. He asked her if she could do that.

"Yes. Will I get to go to the grave?" He said so long as she listened to the people she'd be staying with. "I just don't know what to say. Of course, I'll listen. And I promise that I'll do what I'm told. Just to be able to get out and about for a minute would be more than I could have hoped for today."

By the time her dinner was brought to her, she was ready to go. Wilhelm told her that once things were set into motion—he'd been the one that briefed her on what was to happen—and it would need to happen quickly. As soon as the agents showed up at the place she'd been staying, they handed her a bag. Inside of it were clothing and a wig, plus a pair of glasses. Not for the sun, she'd been told, but for her to look like someone else. She was nearly giddy with excitement.

After getting dressed, she was ready to go to the airport. She hadn't realized how far she'd come when they moved her out of Caleb Anderson's home until just then. Taking a commercial flight had her seated next to one of the agents who was dressed similarly to how she was. Jeans and a nice shirt that he was wearing with a plaid shirt over it. Even his boots looked like he'd been shit-kicking, something that Bradley said a lot and didn't look shiny and new. For that matter, her clothing and boots didn't either.

The agent, Jim, handed her a small box and she was asked to wear the ring inside. She put it on and was surprised that it was a college ring. She'd been told that it had a tracker in it and that she was never to take it off.

Cassie had one of her own at home, but this one was for Brown, and she'd gone to Harvard. Slipping it on, she put her wedding rings that she still wore in the box as well and handed it back to him. It was the first time she'd removed her wedding rings since her husband had put them on her fingers all those years ago.

The trip wasn't all that long. Even before they landed, she could see the airport and some of the smaller planes that were there. She knew where she was, but keeping her excitement from alerting people around her that she was not a normal passenger, she continued to watch the goings on around her.

"See the family ahead of you? The women and the man?" She nodded at the whispered question in her ear. Another thing that she'd been given on the plane was an earphone. "The man is Daniel Watson. He actually was the one that saved your life. Those are his housemates. Cling to them like they're family. You're going to be the long-lost sister to them all. The youngest is Luke. He'll be accepting if the others are."

She had all their names ready when she came up to them, glad that she'd been given pictures and briefed on them as well. Doctor Watson simply shook her hand when introduced to him, but the women, five of them, were excited to see her. She had never been so wrapped up in hugs as she was from them. Even Luke acted like he'd not seen her in a while by hugging her tightly to his small frame. It was Serenity, Sen for short, who filled her in on things.

"Dad is in jail still. He won't be getting out until the judge comes to see him. Maybe another week, they said." She'd been prepared on that as well. Burt Branch had been beating on his children since they'd been born. And perhaps was indirectly responsible for the expedited death of his wife, Olivia. "We're going to be getting something to eat. I'm so glad that you're home finally."

They treated her like their long-lost sister. Not once did anyone give them a sideways glance unless they were marveling at the beauty of the women. Cassie knew that she was all right looking, but these women were amazing, beautiful women who were helping her get to see her brother's grave.

She was surprised that Doctor…she supposed she should call him Daniel like the others did, paid for lunch. She'd not been sure if she would have to pay for her own, but he treated her like he did the others. They all seemed to have a good relationship, and she hoped that she was fitting in. This was important to all of them. If she was caught, they'd all pay the price. It was why she was glad to see several of the secret service men and women lingering around the airport and restaurant, too.

They made two stops on the way home. The first one was to the grocery store, and she went in with them like part of the family. She couldn't believe how frugal they were about food. Even Luke, when told he could pick out any cereal that he wanted weighed his options like he was thinking how he'd win the lottery. He ended up getting a box of plain cornflakes that he knew everyone would share with him. She fell in love with him right then and there.

Cassie didn't have any money, she realized, when she got up to the counter with a basket of personal items. Daniel slipped her some cash, fifty dollars, just as she was thinking that she should have just stayed where she'd been and not embarrassing this little family. But he didn't make a big deal out of it, just handing her the money and walking away. She was able to purchase some flowers, just as the others had, with enough money left over to treat herself to a candy bar and share it with Luke.

The cemetery was next on their list of places to visit. She'd not realized that the children had lost their mother recently, and that was where they were headed. When Daniel held back, asking her to follow him but to keep moving, he took her right by her brother's gravesite.

She wanted to lay herself down on the grave and cry, she was so happy to see the marker with his name on it. Daniel stopped her, leaning over to take her foot up to his waist, and pretended to look at her ankle. Her hand was resting on the stone. Cassie knew that this was going to be as close as she was going to be able to get to his grave until the people were caught that had killed her hero.

"Thank you." He told her that it was his pleasure and that her ankle looked like it was going to be all right. Nodding, not sure that she could speak to him right then, she reached for his hand, and he took it. "I'm a little emotional right now. I guess I missed him…them more than I thought that I would."

"Understandable. When we get back to the house, I have some photographs for you to look over. Nothing big, just some people that I was asked to ask you about. Also, there will be a cell phone for you to use as well." She nodded, and then he explained to the kids there, that Sen and Ava were about her age, so she had to stop calling them kids, that their aunt was coming in today. They all groaned. "Come on, guys. She came all this way. We can make her welcome, can't we?"

"Yeah, we're having all kinds of food too. Ms. Tabby is having all kinds of catering things brought to the house. We don't even have to clean up." She laughed. It felt good. Something that she'd not done in a very long time. "You need to laugh more, sis. It sure is a pretty sound coming from you."

"Thank you." They all touched the headstone of their mom as they left the flowers for her. The other flowers that had been there were taken away, and the ones that were still good were put on the graves of some of the others around the cemetery. Cassie put her hand on the headstone as well but said nothing out loud. Her heart was breaking again, but for the family that the woman had left behind.

As they were leaving the cemetery, going the same way that they'd come in, she watched as Luke, putting flowers on some of the graves that they passed put one on her brothers. She barely made it to the car before she broke down. Once in the limo, she leaned on Daniel and sobbed her heart out. The others hugged her, too, and it was the first time in longer than she could remember that Cassie felt like she could go on in the world.

They were all seated in the living room when the front doorbell rang. There was staff in the home, but it was Daniel who got up to answer the door. As soon as she heard the woman's voice, bitching about the right to the house, she got up and left the room as quickly and as quietly as she could. Once outside, she made her way to the butler's home, the one that Daniel was living in, and entered with the key that he'd given her. As soon as she was settled in with the television on, someone knocked on the door. It was a man in a nice suit coat, and he had some of the food that they were fixing in the big house next door. Thanking him, she put it all in the kitchen and sampled the cake first. It was just as delicious as it looked.