GoodKnight: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  He nodded slightly. The man was holding up pretty well given the circumstances. He didn’t look scared so much as resigned. He knew this was coming. Most likely, Senator Allan had called the others when I had warned her I was coming for her.

  I grabbed him by the elbow and led him along the path to Senator Burke’s front door. There was no point in knocking or even sneaking in. He knew I was coming for him. I booted in the front door and shoved Samuelson in front of me. Hunter moved off to the right, his gun raised as he cleared the front hall of the house.

  “He’s in the living room,” I told Hunter. He nodded and moved along the wall to the living room.

  “I would put the gun down if I were you,” Hunter said to the senator. He turned to me and nodded. I shoved Samuelson forward and smirked at the surprise on Burke’s face. He obviously wasn’t expecting so many people. Hunter moved forward and grabbed the gun from the Senator’s loose grasp.

  “I thought you would be coming alone,” Burke said, standing from his seat slowly. He took his glass and walked over to the sideboard where he poured himself another drink.

  “I thought it would be more fun to bring along one of your conspirators.”

  “And him?” he said, nodding to Hunter.

  “I’m just an observer. A concerned citizen, you might say.”

  Burke smirked at that and swallowed down some of his drink. “A concerned citizen would call the police, or try to stop someone from killing me.”

  “Well, since you didn’t seem too concerned when you planned on murdering half the population, I figured that me watching you die wasn’t all that big of a deal.”

  “It was for the good of the people,” Burke said, as if his argument was completely rational.

  “I’m not really interested in your reasoning,” I broke in. “You can call it whatever you want, but you were doing this for your own political gain. Tell me, what do you get out of unseating the President?”

  His eyes flicked to Samuelson for a moment before returning to mine. “Control of the senate.”

  “You only get control of the senate if the voters keep you in office,” Hunter pointed out.

  “If you have the President’s ear, you can get almost anything accomplished.”

  He was hiding something, but I didn’t know what. And since Burke was the ringleader in all this, he wasn’t about to tell me either. I shoved Samuelson to the ground and pointed my gun at him.

  “What isn’t he telling us?”

  “I don’t know,” Samuelson said with wide eyes.

  “Wrong answer.” I fired a shot into his kneecap, moving the gun to point at his head. Shouting over his screams I asked again. “What isn’t he telling us?”

  “Keep your mouth shut,” Burke warned.

  I moved the gun to his foot and fired again. The senator sat sobbing on the floor, snot dripping down his face as he cried.

  “Don’t make me shoot you again. There are many other places I can shoot and not kill you.”

  The senator held up his bloodied hand. “Fine, I’ll tell you.”

  “Don’t-”

  Hunter moved quickly, slamming his gun across Burke’s face. He fell back into the chair, stunned for the moment.

  “Tell me,” I warned Samuelson.

  “He made a deal with Nathan Arrington,” Samuelson all but shouted.

  “The guy running against the president?” Hunter asked. “A deal for what?”

  “The vice-presidency,” Samuelson said shakily. “Burke doesn’t have the backing to run for president, but Arrington agreed to make him his running mate if he helped him secure the presidency.”

  I clenched my jaw in anger. This thing kept getting deeper and deeper. I would bet that half of the senators that joined in this charade didn’t even know Burke’s ulterior motives. If they had, I wondered how willing they would have been to get involved, knowing there was more at stake for Burke than anyone else.

  I turned to Burke. “Did you tell them how far you were willing to go to secure the vice-presidency?” He swiped the blood from his mouth and shook his head. “I bet if they had known they would all end up dead, they wouldn’t have been so willing to go along with your schemes.”

  “They knew what they were getting into. If you’re going to kill us, just do it.”

  “Oh, I’m not going to kill you,” I smirked.

  He huffed out a laugh. “What are you going to do?” he taunted. “Are you planning to drag me through the streets of Washington D.C. and scream about what I’ve done? They’ll never believe you. You’re nothing but a killer.”

  “I may be a killer, but at least I only go after bad people. You’re willing to take out anyone in your path.”

  “And you think that makes you better?” he shouted. “I was protecting people from-”

  “Save it! Nobody gives a shit about your so-called reasons. We all know what you were really up to. It was selfish and had absolutely nothing to do with saving anyone. You had a whole plan laid out nicely, didn’t you? You’d kill off half the population, and the other half would be so broke, so weak, that they would need a savior. And you really thought that people would praise you? After you took their livelihoods and made them beggars? Exposing you isn’t good enough. I have no plans to drag you through the streets and shout your crimes. But I do want at least one of you to know what it’s like to take a life with your own hands.”

  I reached down and pulled Samuelson to his feet. He struggled to stand upright on his bad leg, but he was too scared right now to argue about his position. Burke laughed outright.

  “You want me to kill him? You think that’ll be hard for me?”

  “No, I’m pretty sure that would be quite easy for you. No, you’re not going to kill him. He’s going to kill you.”

  Burke’s smile slipped from his face. He glared at Samuelson. “Don’t you even think about it.”

  “He doesn’t have a choice,” I said scathingly. “He either kills you or he takes a few more bullets. What’s it going to be?” I said, turning to Samuelson.

  I could see the indecision on his face, but he made up his mind pretty quickly when he reached out with a shaky hand and took the gun from me.

  “Ever held a gun before?” I asked Samuelson.

  He shook his head. That was the moment Burke realized that he was screwed. The chances of Samuelson killing him instantly were not good, which I had planned on. He would likely get shot several times before he actually died.

  “I can pay you,” Burke argued. “I have lots of money.”

  “So do I. Do you really think I would let the man who had my wife murdered walk free?”

  “That wasn’t- I didn’t want to go after your family.”

  “This was all on your fucking shoulders! You sealed your fate the moment you took her. And then you attacked us, and tried to kill us. There’s no way in hell I’d ever let you walk.” I lifted Samuelson’s arm. “Shoot.”

  When he hesitated, I reached behind my back and pulled another gun, pressing it to his head. His hands shook as he fired the first shot. He missed, didn’t even come close in fact. Burke jumped and then closed his eyes in relief when he realized he wasn’t dead yet.

  “Again.”

  His jaw clenched as he squeezed off another shot. This one hit the senator in the arm. His body jerked slightly, but he stayed on his feet. His eyes searched furiously for any way out of this, but with Hunter right next to him, he didn’t stand a chance at surviving.

  “Not close enough. Try to make this count, senator. After all, none of this would be happening if it wasn’t for Burke’s ambition.”

  His eyes barely met mine before swinging back to Burke’s. The shots came easier for him after that. A few missed, but most hit the senator in various parts of the body. When he fell to the ground after the third bullet struck his body, I walked forward and knelt down beside him. He had blood seeping from his chest and was wheezing. The bullet had most likely struck a lung.

  “You’re ev
il,” he said slowly.

  “I know, but I’ll die with a clear conscience. Can you say the same?”

  I stood and walked back over to Samuelson. “Finish him.”

  Samuelson slowly walked over and held the gun over Burke’s body. He pulled the trigger three times consecutively and Burke’s body went still. Samuelson just stared down at him. Then he quickly raised the gun to his head. Hunter raised his gun, but Samuelson had already fired, shooting himself in the head.

  “Well, I guess that takes care of him,” I said, walking over and taking the gun out of Samuelson’s hand. “Let’s get out of here. Someone will come looking for Burke eventually.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Hunter

  “So, it’s done.”

  Knight just grunted in response. He had been quiet since we left the senator’s house. Of course, he was always silent, but this was worse. I had no clue what was going on in his head right now, and there was very little chance he would tell me.

  “What are we going to do about Arrington?”

  “We aren’t going to do anything.”

  “I’m already here.”

  “You really want to go after a guy running for President?” he snaps. “I’m sure Lucy would love that.”

  “If you can do it, so can I.”

  “That excuse isn’t going to fly with her. Besides, this one will be dangerous.”

  “And the others weren’t?”

  He shot me a look saying that those were cake walks. I knew it was true. A presidential candidate would have security. It wouldn’t be easy to get to him, but that compelled me all the more to stick it out with Knight. I didn’t want him getting shot because he wanted revenge.

  “Not like this, and you know it.”

  “And how are you planning on getting in there?”

  “I’ll do what I always do. I’ll watch and plan. When I see my opportunity, I’ll take it.”

  “Knight, you can’t-”

  “Would you just leave me the fuck alone?” he snapped. He jerked the wheel of the truck over into the parking lot of the motel and shifted into park. “I don’t want your help. I didn’t ask you to come along on this. This is my revenge.”

  I shook my head with a sigh. “Knight, have you even really processed that she’s gone?”

  “You walked in on me. You tell me.”

  “That’s not the same thing. Yeah, that one time you were fucked up. But now, you’re just running on revenge. You’re not sad or anything.”

  “So, I’m not grieving the death of my wife properly? Is that what you’re saying? How the fuck should I be acting? What would you have me do right now?”

  “I don’t know, man. Just allow yourself to feel it.”

  He scoffed, his hand tightening around the steering wheel. “I do feel it. Every fucking day. All those people are dead because I feel it. I don’t know what you expect from me. Should I be back at Reed Security right now, crying on your shoulder? Or maybe it would be better if I just sat around drinking.”

  “I’m not saying you should be doing anything. It’s just…when I walked in on you that night, you were broken, and since then, you’re just blank.”

  “Because I feel blank.”

  This was different. It was like he was pushing Kate aside. He still brought her up with every kill, but she wasn’t at the forefront anymore. It was like he had put her in a box and decided that he wasn’t going to acknowledge her death. She was gone, but he wasn’t going to think about it.

  He flung his door open and stepped out. “You did your job. You came and made sure that I was alright. Now go home to your wife and kids.”

  He slammed the door and went into the motel room, leaving me in the truck. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to leave him, but he didn’t want me around. He had already made up his mind on what he was going to do, and those plans didn’t include me. I shoved the door open just as he was stepping back out of the motel room, bag slung over his shoulder. I stepped out and walked around the truck.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To my next target.”

  “Let me grab my bag.”

  “You have your own truck,” he grumbled, tossing his bag inside.

  “Just give me a minute.”

  “No!” he said, slamming the door. “Don’t you fucking get it? I don’t want you here. I don’t need you on this. I have one purpose and that’s to get rid of the assholes that killed my wife. I don’t need a shoulder to cry on or someone to follow me around like a lost puppy.”

  “You need a friend.”

  “I don’t have any fucking friends. I don’t need friends.”

  “Really? So, all these years, all the holidays we spent together-”

  “I did it for Kate. Do you really think I ever wanted to go hang out with people? I hated every fucking minute of all those parties and barbecues. I never wanted to go, but Kate wanted me to, so I went. But she’s gone now, so there’s no need for me to pretend anymore. Go back to Reed Security and your family, and leave me the fuck alone.” He shook his head slightly and yanked the door back open. “I was never meant for this, you know. I was never any good at being part of a unit. The day I joined Reed Security was the biggest mistake of my life.”

  He got in the truck and peeled out of the parking lot, leaving me standing in the dust. I knew he was hurting, and I focused on that instead of what he said. Because I knew he was lying. I knew how hard he tried to fit back in, and it wasn’t because he wanted to please Kate. It was because he wanted that life. All that shit he just said was a self-defense mechanism. But if he didn’t want me around, what the fuck could I do about it?

  My phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket. Cap was calling. Sighing, I answered. “Yeah?”

  “Are you with Knight?”

  I glanced at the road where he had just taken off. “No, he just left, kicked me out of the truck and told me to fuck off.”

  “You have to go after him right now.”

  “Cap, it’s not gonna do any good. He’s not in his right mind and-”

  “Kate’s alive.”

  My brows furrowed in confusion. I pressed my finger to the opposite ear that I was holding the phone so I could hear better. “Say what?”

  “Kate’s alive. You have to go get him.”

  My gaze shot to the road and I shook my head slightly. “Are you sure?”

  “Pretty damn sure.”

  “No, Cap. Not good enough. You need to be one hundred percent sure that she’s alive. I can’t go to him and tell him that Kate’s alive if this is just a hunch.”

  “I sent you the video. I need you to watch it again.”

  “You want me to watch her being murdered?” I asked incredulously. That seemed like a low blow.

  “You need to see this. Just watch the fucking video.”

  I sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to let this go unless I did it. “What am I looking for?”

  “Watch it in slow motion. Watch her hair and then watch the blood on the ground and the smear marks on the floor. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you watch it.”

  “Fine,” I gritted out. “I’ll call you back.”

  I hung up and pulled up the video he sent me. It was difficult to watch on the small screen, but I did as he asked and slowed it down. My stomach churned as I watched her plead for her life and then turn to the camera to tell Knight she loved him. The first thing I noticed was that from the angle it was shot, I couldn’t really tell where the gun was in relation to her skull. Then I saw the hair at the back of her head move. I rewound it again, just to make sure I was seeing this right. Why would her hair be moving from the back of her head?

  Letting it play out, I watched as the camera zoomed in on her face. I watched the pool of blood like Cap asked. It was a pool of blood. I didn’t see anything unusual about that. And the smear marks…why would there be smear marks? I rewound the video again and watched her fall again. It was only seconds after she was shot
that the camera zoomed in on her. Not nearly enough time for someone to move her body. And she was already dead at this point. There would be no reason that she would have moved on her own.

  That was when I realized why Cap insisted I look at the pool of blood. It wasn’t moving. It should be growing as she bled out on the floor, but the pool of blood was still, like the blood had been sitting there already and she had fallen into it. Like there was another body that had been there, and was then moved. Which would explain the smear in the blood. Holy shit.

  I dialed Cap back and he answered right away. “Did you see it?”

  “Yeah,” I answered gruffly. “But is that enough to convince Knight?”

  “You think he won’t believe it?”

  “No, I don’t. I think he’s going to think that we’re trying to trick him. Has Becky had any luck tracking where she might be?”

  “No. We have nothing to go on. When she was taken, we put all our resources into finding her, but she had vanished. We don’t even have a starting point.”

  “What about the video? There has to be a way to track that phone.”

  “The phone is off, or it was tossed. And if they faked her death, they were probably smart enough to leave their last location.”

  “Still, we might be able to get something from the location they were holding her.”

  “Hunter, I’m telling you, we’ve looked into everything we could. The most we’re going to get is a general area, and that’s not going to help us if they’ve moved on. We need something solid, and Knight is the best at tracking people down. You have to get him and convince him that Kate is alive.”

  I stared at the ground, kicking at the gravel. I was hesitant to go after Knight. It could be a disaster. “We don’t even know if Kate is still alive,” I said quietly. “If you give him hope, and then he finds out that she’s dead…you can’t ask me to put him through that again.”

  “And what if she’s still alive and we can’t find her? What if you’re taking away the one chance he has at getting her back?”

  He was right, but I didn’t look forward to being the one that told him we had been wrong, that we had missed key information that let us know Kate wasn’t dead. He was going to try and kill me just for mentioning her name to him.