A flash of muzzle fire caught his eye.
“Fuck,” he muttered and threw himself forward.
He sprinted for the door, Kelsey close at his heels.
They were going to lose the senator and every damn lead they had, all because they’d played this too safe.
The moment Logan stepped into the house, he heard a garbled, “No. No!”
“Robert,” Kelsey gasped and shoved past Logan.
“Kelsey!”
He reached for her, but she was too fast. Damn her.
He sprinted after her.
There were two overturned barstools in the kitchen and a shattered glass. Logan saw it all in a glance. Robert and the senator had been having a drink, still going back and forth about whatever they’d been discussing since Logan and Kelsey left almost two hours ago now. The intruders would have burst in. The two men made a run for it up the stairs.
And what would they find?
Logan caught up to Kelsey at the stairs. He grabbed a handful of her jacket and hauled her back, away from the foot of the stairs.
“Together,” he growled at her.
Neither one of them were wearing protective gear. They were undoubtedly outnumbered. This was exactly the kind of situation he’d wanted to avoid putting her in. What choice did he have now?
If Kelsey got hurt for the piece of shit senator...
Logan didn’t want to think about it.
She glanced back and met his eye. The way she pursed her lips said all he needed to know about her attitude, yet she waited for him to step beside her. She nodded and together they started climbing the stairs.
Logan craned his neck to see ahead of them and get some idea of the threat posed to Kelsey.
His view was blocked by a prone body wearing khaki pants with a coffee stain on the side.
Robert Brown.
Shit.
“Get that door open now,” a man snarled.
Wait.
Logan knew that voice.
He reached out, placing his hand on Kelsey’s hip. As they reached the top of the stairs and could see into the senator’s upstairs office, he nudged her toward the windows, then into the corner.
“What are you doing?” Kelsey whispered.
“Butters,” he said.
Her forehead furrowed, and she gestured to her left cheek.
Butters had a large mole on his temple.
Logan nodded.
“Damn,” she muttered.
A metallic banging sound had Logan flinching.
What the hell were they doing?
He edged toward the door.
A shorter man stood back. He wore a black leather jacket, black slacks, and had a black ski mask pulled up. From this angle, Logan could only see his profile.
Logan glanced past him.
Three more men, one of which was Butters, were clawing at a metal door.
A panic room.
The closet in Dixon’s office wasn’t a closet at all. The man had a panic room.
This was good. Logan and Kelsey could pull back, wait for back-up. Chances were the senator had already signaled for help from inside his metal box. That would make things messier afterward, but it would wrap the situation up that much faster.
Kelsey grabbed Logan’s sleeve and yanked.
He backed up and turned.
“Dixon’s in a panic room,” he said.
“Robert’s still alive,” she said in a tight voice.
He whipped his head around and stared at Robert’s chest. He’d taken at least two bullets to the chest. His ribs rose and fell, slowly.
Shit.
If there was any chance of Robert surviving, they had to get him help. Now. They couldn’t risk another minute.
Logan closed his eyes for a moment.
He was really going to do this. He was going to put Kelsey at risk. Right now he hated himself, despite knowing this was the best decision.
“We take them out before they know what hit them,” he said in a low voice.
It would mean leaving no survivors.
Kelsey nodded. There was no reservation on her face. Just a determination to do the job.
There really was no one better to be in it with him right now.
“High-low,” she said and stepped past him.
Kelsey went to a knee as another series of bangs resounded through the house.
Four targets.
They’d take two down quick. Butters wasn’t the kind of guy that worried Logan. He’d focus on the unknowns.
Logan took up a stance just over Kelsey. She pressed her elbow against his leg. He saw her head nod in his peripheral vision.
This was it.
He leaned forward, looking into the room again just as the small man in black turned. His eyes widened when he caught sight of them.
Logan shot at the same moment Kelsey did.
The man in black never even got to reach for his gun. Two shots hit him square in the chest and he staggered back, falling to the carpet.
The other three whirled.
Logan fired again, aiming for the man in the back with his hand already on his weapon.
Almost at the same moment Logan’s target went down, Butters howled with pain and went to his knees.
The fourth masked man thrust his hands in the air and froze.
“Step forward, lie on the ground and put your hands over your head,” Logan ordered.
The masked man scrambled over Butters and practically dove onto the carpet.
“I didn’t know what we were doing, man. No one told me. I didn’t know.” The guy’s voice broke.
He was a kid. A kid that had gotten wrapped up in something he didn’t fully comprehend. That or he was a great actor.
Kelsey was quicker to move in than he was. She had a length of some fabric in hand at the ready.
“Fucking hell,” Butters howled.
Logan kept his weapon aimed at the one who’d given up.
The other two were undoubtedly dead.
Butters rolled to his back. His face was red and splotchy. He glared at Logan.
“You? You’re protecting that piece of shit child molester? You monster,” Butters snarled.
“Ouch, bitch!”
Logan glanced back at the kid.
Kelsey wrinkled her nose, but her mouth kept moving. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”
She pushed up off the young man quickly.
It was the belt to her coat.
Logan had to force himself not to grin at that.
“Roll over, Butters,” he ordered.
“I can’t,” the beefy guy whined.
“Roll over now,” Logan said with more force.
Kelsey leveled a cold stare at the man. “Look, you roll over or we get into resisting arrest territory. You’re already on the hook for trying to murder a sitting US senator. Do you really want to add resisting arrest and assaulting a federal officer?”
Butters glared up at them. In the end, he rolled over to his stomach.
Kelsey glanced at Logan and held out her hands.
“Check on Robert. I’ve got this,” Logan said.
He knelt and yanked at the kid’s shoelaces.
“Hey,” the youngest of the attackers said.
“Don’t fucking move,” Logan said.
His voice sounded frosty to his own ears. The kid froze instantly.
Using the shoelaces, Logan secured Butters wrists. With the two suspects restrained, he moved on to checking on the other two.
Sure enough, both of the remaining attackers were dead.
Police procedure would be to secure both bodies, but seeing as how Logan didn’t have one set of handcuffs, he wasn’t going to worry about tying up two dead guys.
Logan backed up to where he could see Kelsey and kept his gun aimed at the other two. She had her
phone out, someone on speaker, and her hands pressed to Robert’s wounds.
Damn it. They’d known there was a threat, and yet they’d let this happen.
If Robert died, it was on Logan.
FRIDAY. UNKNOWN. WASHINGTON, DC.
Skilton inhaled deeply through his nose, held the breath for a count of five, and only then did he let it out. On the screen, a trim woman bent forward. Her mouth moved, but Skilton had her on mute. Yoga was more relaxing without prattling people.
One reality of the world was that he was getting older. These cross-Atlantic trips weren’t as easy on his body as they used to be.
He bent forward until his nose practically touched his knees. He flattened his hands on the floor and began walking them out until he could transfer weight to them.
Inhale again.
Dixon should be dead by now. It was honestly a matter of luck that Skilton had found someone already disposed toward violence and disliking the senator. All he’d needed was a push. A little nudge.
Hold the breath.
Skilton would allow Dixon’s people to squirm for a day. That seemed about right.
Push the breath out.
It was a pity Dixon hadn’t worked out. He really had been their best candidate to back. He’d been polished, likable, easily molded. They could have had a long and profitable career together. Too bad he’d gotten greedy.
That was the thing about people today. They didn’t know how to be patient and wait for rewards to ripen. They all wanted it immediately.
The adjoining door between his suit and the next opened.
Skilton’s eyes opened and he grit his teeth.
“Not. Now,” he got out without snapping.
“Sir? It’s urgent,” his assistant said.
Skilton twisted and sat down on the mat. “Fine. What is it? What possibly couldn’t have waited?”
His assistant took a step back. Was he rethinking this intrusion?
“It’s the team that went after Dixon, sir.”
“What? Spit it out already.” Skilton was going to drag the words out of the man one way or another.
“They’re dead. Or arrested. I’m not yet clear which.”
“What?” Skilton shoved to his feet. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure yet. Our source on the task force just reached out via the secure channel. They are reporting some fatalities and some still alive. They indicated Dixon wasn’t among the dead.”
Skilton’s head reverberated with curses he would not debase himself by uttering. He could never forget that his so-called assistant wasn’t his man. For all he knew, his very own assistant reported to someone else.
“Out. Get out,” Skilton snapped.
His assistant scrambled back through the adjoining door, closing it with a hard thud.
“Fuck,” Skilton muttered, allowing himself that one word.
How did the Task Force know already? Had they been there?
He’d been assured that those watching the senator would be gone by five or six, at the very latest. Sending his people there by eight should have had them in the clear. And it wasn’t like Dixon had two brain cells to rub together when it came to his safety. Hell, Skilton’s people had already confirmed how easy it was to get in and out of the place without being seen.
This should have been an easy job.
Four men. Two targets.
How hard was that?
Skilton turned and began pacing.
It had all been handled. So what the hell was going on? How had things gone so wrong?
If he didn’t wrap this up soon, it would be his head on the block. He had no illusions about his job security. If he screwed up too many times, he’d get cut regardless of the years of work he’d put in.
“Think.”
There were too many people involved.
It was time to go back to the old ways, when he handled things himself and shit got done. Trusting others was a luxury he didn’t have any longer. No, Skilton hadn’t heard from his superiors. And he never would. They’d simply cut their losses and fill his position with someone else.
He stalked across to his briefcase and fished out the phone.
From this moment forward, all of the decisions would be made by him. He would pick the people and they would do what he told them to. There were too many loose ends for this Task Force to follow back to him, and ultimately the others.
Skilton tapped the number for his informant and lifted the phone to his face.
It was time to deal with this and be done.
FRIDAY. SENATOR DIXON’S Home. Annapolis, Maryland.
Kelsey paced the hallway. There was still blood smeared on her clothes and under her nails. Her skin felt sticky with it, but she wasn’t letting Dixon out of her sight. Not after she’d done everything she could to keep Robert alive until the paramedics arrived. He was in their hands now.
She swallowed and stopped, looking into the office where another set of paramedics were looking over the senator.
Dixon had alerted local police to the break-in from within the panic room. If it wasn’t for that, Robert might have bled out there on the carpet.
The cops eyed her. She’d had to show them her badge to keep from getting arrested. They still weren’t keen on allowing Logan free, but she’d thrown her weight around just enough for them to back the fuck off.
Where was Zora? Where were the guys?
Kelsey crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Dixon.
Logan made no sound as he approached and stood next to her, leaning against the wooden railing above the stairs.
“Makes you wonder what’s going on, doesn’t it?” she said in a low voice.
Logan merely nodded his head.
The instant Dixon had opened the panic room, he’d said he needed to see his lawyer. Not a word about Robert or anything, just bring me my lawyer. Until the lawyer arrived, the only person Dixon had deigned to speak to was the paramedics.
“Did Butters say anything else?” she asked.
Logan turned just a bit and when he spoke his words were a soft whisper. “Just more stuff about him being a child molester.”
Kelsey grimaced. Now that was nasty business.
If Dixon was guilty, Kelsey wouldn’t hesitate to nail the guy’s balls to the wall herself. However, if he was innocent an accusation like that could do damage simply breathing it. She might not like Dixon, but she didn’t know enough about him to know either way what was going on.
“Where is Zora?” Kelsey pulled her phone out of her pocket with her left hand and peered at the screen.
“They should have been here by now.” Logan actually sounded disgruntled. That was new. Usually he aimed that at her. It was kind of nice seeing him unhappy with someone else for a change.
Kelsey’s phone lit up. Only it wasn’t Zora calling her.
It was her FBI handler, Baruti Wimbush.
She glanced at Logan, then answered. “Hey, boss man.”
“There’s my Thumbelina. Hey, will you let the police out front know we’re pulling in? We’ve got Dixon’s fixers with us.”
“His—okay.” Kelsey blinked.
“Talk more when we get there.”
The call ended.
“Zora’s not coming?” Logan’s frown deepened.
“Has to be a reason for everything.” She shrugged and headed for the stairs.
Logan stayed close, shadowing her down to the first floor.
He still hadn’t asked her about that damn kiss. She should be overjoyed he was letting it go, and yet it irritated her. Was she not good enough? Or had one kiss been all he needed? Why was she so bothered about this? Especially if she didn’t want him.
This was silly.
She was on scene at a shootout where a US senator had been at risk. She’d had to shoot—and kill—a person. And she was obsessed with this ridiculous man and a damn kiss.
“You want to wash up before we go out?” Logan asked.
“No,
thank you,” she snapped and stalked to the entry.
The two police officers standing there studied her.
“Excuse me,” she said.
She was being an utter bitch now.
Fantastic.
Why was it this guy got under her skin so badly?
A SUV eased to a stop at the end of the driveway.
That had to be Baruti and the lawyers. He had said fixers. Just what the hell was going on?
Kelsey waved the cops aside, allowing the SUV to pull into the crowded driveway. Most of the police cars had their lights off, but the damage was done. No doubt neighbors were talking and news was running. They’d have to deal with that later.
The front passenger door opened and a tall black man with linebacker shoulders got out of the vehicle. “Dear Lord, Thumbelina. Who pissed you off?”
Kelsey mustered a smile for him. If the blood wasn’t Roberts, she might have had a comeback to that question. She didn’t have to like Robert to fear for his life.
“Come here.” Baruti swept her into a tight side-hug.
There was something so completely comforting about Baruti. She laid her head on his shoulder for a moment and allowed herself to feel his warmth.
If Santa Claus were a black man, Baruti would be the embodiment. She’d never seen him anything other than uplifting. She counted herself as lucky to have him and his partner in her corner.
Logan stepped in front of them, pointedly staring at three people heading toward the house. “What’s going on?”
“Those three are Dixon’s lawyer, his fixer and his PR rep,” Samuel Jenkins replied. The sharply dressed black man had been Baruti’s partner since Kelsey had been entrusted to the duo.
They were as different as night and day, but as a team they were the best. Then again, Kelsey couldn’t be objective about them. In her book, there wasn’t anyone better.
“Where is Zora?” Logan asked. This time he glanced back at her. Or more accurately, at the arm around her waist. Kelsey didn’t miss the look.
Samuel glanced over his shoulder. “Let’s talk in the SUV. Privately.”
That made sense. For all they knew, there were listening devices in the house. The vehicle was the safest option for now.
The four of them climbed back into the SUV.
Baruti twisted to look at them. “Zora thought it might be best to let us take point on this. It’s easier for us to step in rather than her without having to spell out what we’re doing.”
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