awful. It just seemed like the end. I threw some clothes in a bag and flew to Maine to be with my Montgomery cousins. They always seem to be sure of what they want to do in life, so I hoped some of it would rub off on me.” Nate was silent as he looked at the rain.
“I take it that being there didn’t help you to decide.”
“No.” Nate gave a low chuckle. “But then, Uncle Kit arrived. All of us—kids and adults alike—were in awe of him. For all that he was part of the family, none of us knew much about him. We used to make up things, like how he was the prototype for James Bond, that sort of thing.”
“I can believe that,” Terri said. “Does he ever slump?”
“No, never. No matter how tired he is or how defeated, he carries himself in a way that makes people follow him, believe in him.” There was awe in Nate’s voice.
He picked up another slice of pizza. “I’d been there about a week when one day we were in the big living room of the old Montgomery house watching some football game and arguing over who should win. But I was standing against a wall, my mind full of the question of what I was going to do with my life. Kit came in, looked around and stopped at me. He said, ‘Come with me.’ I followed him outside and...” Nate shrugged. “He asked if I’d like to work for him. Even now, I’m astonished that I didn’t hesitate for a second. I said yes. The next day we took off in a government helicopter.”
“And you stayed with him for twelve years.”
“Yes. Technically, I worked for the CIA, but actually, I was Kit’s...”
“Assistant?”
“Yeah, right. I was his whatever he needed. Bodyguard, human calendar, the buffer between his temper and people who wanted to remove his head. We went everywhere. We stayed in five-star hotels and in tents full of scorpions.”
“I can tell that you hated every minute of it.” Terri was smiling.
Nate’s eyes took on a faraway look. “I liked the people. We met some so rich they thought they were gods—and others who were so poor they were starving.”
“And you got along with all of them,” Terri said.
“More or less. But I had to learn how. Kit has a ferocious temper and he hates stupidity. And trust me, we saw a lot of that!”
“But then, Kit retired. Why didn’t you stay on?”
Nate took his time answering. “I’ve never said this before, but Kit hurt my feelings. Injured my ego. He’d never mentioned retiring. We were in the desert, sitting by a campfire, and he told me he was going to retire and go to Summer Hill, Virginia, to get the woman he loved. In all our years together, I’d never heard of the town or the woman. I knew his ex-wife, but their relationship was more rage than love.”
He took a deep drink of his wine. “One thing about Kit is that when he makes up his mind, he doesn’t change it. Just six weeks later, he was out of the service and I was left behind.”
“How did you do without him?”
Nate laughed. “Since most of the things he and I did were...how do I say this?...off the radar, my record was very tame. No one knew what to do with me, but since I had a business degree, I was given a desk job.” He grimaced. “I was put to the task of dealing with big financial accounts.”
“So you were back where you started.”
“It was like my years of following my uncle around the world had never happened. They all thought I’d been Kit’s secretary. They’d dump papers on my desk and give a couple of taps and say, ‘Need it by Thursday.’ At one point I ripped my shirt open and showed the scars of three bullet wounds that I got when Kit decided to get involved in a tribal war. But my official record said that when that happened, I was on recreational leave. I’d actually been in a hospital fighting for my life. Kit’s blasted secrecy had been carried through into my record.”
“And then you met Stacy.”
“Yes. Kit met her in Summer Hill and got her to go to DC. He wanted her to meet his son.” A muscle in Nate’s jaw began to clench. “You know how it is. Blood is thicker than water. I walked into firing rifles in front of that