GoodKnight: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Not to break up this reunion, but we have to talk, Knight.”

  He nodded and moved to leave, but I wasn’t having it. I had been left out of a lot, but if this had anything to do with me, I wanted to hear it. I snatched his hand and held on tight.

  “Whatever you have to say, you can do it in front of me. You’re not leaving,” I said to Hudson.

  “It’s about Arrington,” Sebastian said, like they were sharing a secret.

  “Who’s Arrington?”

  Neither of them said anything, but Hudson’s whole body tensed. Whatever this was, it was big, and they didn’t want me to know about it.

  “Who’s Arrington?” I asked again. Sebastian turned to me with a sigh.

  “Nathan Arrington.”

  “The guy running for president?”

  Cap nodded.

  “What’s going on with him? What does he have to do with anything?” I looked to Hudson, but he was staring at the wall, completely ignoring me.

  “We need to take care of this.”

  “No.”

  “Take care of what?” Still, neither of them answered.

  “It doesn’t end just because the other players are dead.”

  “The other players?” I asked. “Was he involved in this?” I looked to Hudson again, but he still refused to look at me. I tugged on his hand and he finally turned to me. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  His whole body was strung tight. Whatever this was, Hudson was pissed. “Nathan Arrington was working with one of the senators to unleash the virus.”

  My eyebrows shot up. This was insane. “How deep does this run?”

  “We think it stops with him,” Sebastian informed me. “With Dennick dead, that just leaves Arrington and Helen Taylor.”

  “You can’t ask me to do this,” Hudson growled. “You can’t ask me to put her in danger again.”

  “This has to end, Knight,” Sebastian snapped.

  “Arrington’s not a threat anymore. He doesn’t have any help.”

  “You know that’s bullshit. You’re just telling yourself that because you want another excuse to run away,” Cap seethed. “If you run now, you’ll be sentencing the rest of us to death.”

  I sucked in a breath, trying to figure out what he was talking about. But I didn’t have to figure it out because Sebastian kept ranting.

  “You know that as long as he’s out there, he’s a threat. He knows of our involvement and if we don’t take care of him, he’ll come after us. As long as someone is out there that knows his secret, we’re a threat to him. You don’t become president when you have skeletons in your closet that could be exposed. He’s going to come after us, after your wife and family. After my family! He can’t risk anyone knowing his ties to this clusterfuck. You know it, so stop lying to yourself.”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Knight

  I knew he was right. I was lying when I said that Arrington wasn’t a threat. He was the biggest threat there was because he had so much to lose. I knew he needed to be taken out. It wasn’t just about the fact that he was willing to kill off half the population and plotted to do it, he would most definitely come after my family and everyone else at Reed Security. It was only a matter of time. He was probably working with someone right this very minute.

  The problem was, every fucking time that I got involved with something, Kate paid the price. I couldn’t do it again. I couldn’t put her at risk like that. I was so fucking tired of making her life worse. She refused to see it. She looked at me like I hung the moon and stars, but I was the one destroying her. This past week in the hospital nearly killed me. I couldn’t function. Every fucking day was torture. Watching her struggle to breathe or watching blood pour from her face, that was more painful than watching her die in front of me on that video. That had been what I assumed to be a quick death. This was slow and agonizing. I knew her body was still in pain, but she was trying to hide it from me. I could see it in her movements and how she tired out quickly. I had done that to her.

  “No,” I said to Cap. “I can’t. I won’t.”

  “You have to,” he ground out. “We all helped aid this clusterfuck. Now we have to finish it.”

  “You’re asking me to put her at risk again. You know the minute that we show our faces, it puts her and everyone else in even more danger.”

  “They’re in danger now! Can’t you see that? Are you so blinded by your own misery that you can’t see how much this will hurt all of us? We started this, now we have to finish it. As long as Arrington is alive, we’re all in danger. And as long as Helen Taylor is allowed to walk around free, the more time she has to make another deal with some other bioengineer that’s looking to destroy the planet.”

  The door swung open and Jim Caldwell walked through, a grim look on his face. He glanced at Kate, giving her a small smile before motioning to me that he needed to talk to me.

  “Let Caldwell deal with it,” I snapped. “He’s a fed. He swore he would take this to the right people. He can take down Arrington.”

  Caldwell shook his head. “Nobody will touch this. I’m sorry, but everyone said that they don’t want to go near this. Arrington has a lot of friends in high places. He could ruin careers. If you want him taken out, it has to come from you.”

  I scoffed. I couldn’t believe it. He took this to the government and they walked away. It was ridiculous.

  “Hudson,” Kate said quietly, tugging on my hand.

  I sat down on the bed, finding it extremely hard to look at her. I knew what she was going to ask, but how could I do it? How could I put her in danger again? I loved her more than life itself, and asking me to risk her life again was just too much.

  “You have to do this,” she pleaded. “I know what you’re thinking, but think of all the people he could have hurt if he succeeded. Who’s going to stand up for those families? What if he tries to do something like this again, or worse? You have to stop this before someone else gets hurt.”

  I shook my head slightly. “You don’t know what you’re asking. I’ve almost gotten you killed twice already in just two months. Every time I try to make things better, you get hurt.”

  “But you are making things better,” she urged. “Imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t dug into those senators. What if it was our kids, Hudson. What if it was them that got sick? Cade isn’t even old enough to fight off a virus like that. He would have died. Please, Hudson. Do this for me.”

  I always had a hard time saying no to Kate. There were only a handful of times that I went against something she wanted, and I usually had to hurt her to do it. And I fucking hated hurting her. Sitting here with her now, I knew that I couldn’t say no to her. She knew what she was asking me to do, and she truly felt that this was best for our kids. Kate would never ask me to do this if she didn’t feel it was right. She never wanted me to take another life, because she felt it blackened my soul. But my soul was already charred. All that was left was the love that I had for this woman, and the need to do anything possible to keep her safe. If this was what she wanted, I would give it to her, and then I would walk away for good. Just as I had planned.

  “I’ll do it, but you and all the other women and children will be locked in the panic room at Reed Security, and you don’t get to come out until we say it’s safe. I won’t risk your life again.”

  She nodded, leaning forward to press a kiss to my lips. “If that’s what you need.”

  I stood from the bed and nodded to Cap. “We have an assassination to plan.”

  “This is an easy call,” Chance said, staring over the blueprints of the venue where Arrington’s next rally would be. “I can position myself here, and take him out with my rifle.”

  “And how the fuck are you going to get a rifle in there?” Jackson asked. “Secret service will clear all of these buildings first. Anywhere within rifle range is going to be heavily guarded. That’s not the way to go.”

  “Then what do you suggest?” Chance shot back
. “If you find a way to get me on one of these roofs, I can take that shot and be gone before anyone knows what direction the shot came from.”

  “It’s not feasible,” I interjected. “Jackson’s right. There’s no way we can get a sniper rifle in any of these buildings.”

  “I can use my Remington Defense CSR.”

  “A concealable sniper rifle won’t do jack shit,” Cap cut in. “You can break it down, but Secret Service won’t let you into any of these buildings with a suitcase unless they check it first. One look at the pieces of a sniper rifle and you’re getting your ass hauled off to jail.”

  “Then what the fuck do you suggest?” Chance said irritatedly. “We can’t let this fucker walk.”

  “No one’s suggesting we do,” Hunter interjected. “But we have to be smart about this. None of us wants to end up with a life sentence.”

  He looked pointedly at me when he said it. I didn’t have any plans on going to prison. I would take a bullet to the head first.

  “Caldwell, do you have any contacts that could help us work around Secret Service?”

  He shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t even know who to talk to about that. It’s not like I can just walk up to someone and see if they’re willing to help me with an assassination.”

  The door to the conference room opened and Elsie, Jessica’s grandmother’s friend walked in. She had a huge grin on her face and really hoped that meant she had good news.

  “Good news! I’ve been able to secure you a meeting with someone that I think will be able to help you out.”

  “You don’t even know what we need help with,” Cap answered.

  “Stop me if I’m wrong, but I’m guessing you’re having issues with some senators.” She glanced around the room, waiting for any of us to respond, which we didn’t. “Since they’ve been dropping like flies and then there was an FBI agent that was killed not too far from here, I’m guessing there’s something big going on and you need help with it.”

  “You would not be wrong,” Cap sighed. “So, who is this contact?”

  “Oh no. That’s not how this works,” she said with a smile. “My friend is former CIA, but he still has some excellent connections. He’s set up a meeting for you and we need to leave.”

  “Now?” Cap asked.

  “Did you want to wait until a better time? I could call back and see if he can work around your schedule.”

  A low chuckle came from somewhere in the room and Cap flipped his middle finger in the air. “Now works fine.”

  “You can bring along two people. I would suggest the FBI agent,” she said, looking Caldwell up and down. “I think that will give you some extra leverage during negotiations.”

  Cap’s eyes immediately met mine and I nodded. We both knew that this was dangerous for me. If I went to a meeting with someone in government and they found out who I was, I would most likely end up back in prison. But that was a chance I was willing to take.

  We headed for the door and she looked at me in surprise. “You’re coming with us?”

  “Is that a problem?” I asked a little too testily.

  “No,” she said, holding back a grin. “I would just think that you wouldn’t want to be too involved. I would actually recommend that this be one meeting that you skip. Who we’re meeting is someone that you don’t want to screw up around.”

  “I started this thing. I need to make sure that it’s finished. I’ll deal with the consequences.”

  “Alright. Follow me then.”

  Cap laughed at being commanded by an elderly woman in his own building, but he didn’t say anything. Caldwell, Cap, and I followed Elsie downstairs to the parking lot where an SUV was waiting for us. It was like ours, non-descript and easily blends in with other vehicles. Cap opened the back door and we slipped inside. Another man was waiting for us there, sitting in a limousine style seat that faced the back seat of the vehicle.

  “So, Elsie tells me that you boys have found yourselves in a little bit of trouble.”

  “You could say we’ve found the United States in a whole lot of trouble,” Cap corrected. “This isn’t just about us. This is about national security.”

  He didn’t even look shocked. He just leaned back in his seat and waited for us to fill him in. So, on the drive, Cap filled him in on everything that had happened over the past few weeks. It was a good hour before we finally came to a stop and I had a bad feeling that we were walking into a trap. When the door opened, my gut sank. We were outside some kind of warehouse and there were guards everywhere. Who the hell had Elsie come into contact with?

  “I need to check you for weapons before we go in,” the guard said to us.

  “I don’t have any weapons.” I glanced at Cap who was already holding his arms out and had his legs spread. He looked at me and rolled his eyes. I pulled a gun from the small of my back and handed it to the guard. Then I bent over and pulled the gun from my ankle, along with the two knives that were strapped on as well. Then I pulled the gun from the front of my pants and handed that over as well.

  “No weapons, huh?” Cap grinned.

  “I like to be prepared.”

  The guard started to pat me down and raised an eyebrow at me when he felt the knife that was strapped to my back. I undid the velcro and handed it over. That was the last of my weapons. The guard stepped away from me and opened the door, stepping aside for us to enter. Cap walked through first and stopped in his tracks. I stepped around him and my jaw almost dropped. This was her contact that could help?

  “Mr. Vice-President,” Cap finally said, moving forward to shake his hand. “I’m Sebastian Reed. It’s an honor to meet you.”

  Vice-President Vince Manchester chuckled at Cap and then held out his hand. “There’s no need to lie.”

  Cap shrugged slightly. “It’s not a lie. I voted for President Haynes.”

  “And you?” he asked me, his eyes calculating my every move.

  “I didn’t vote.”

  He nodded slightly and moved on to Caldwell. “You must be Agent Caldwell. I hear you’ve been making a lot of noise.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “So, why don’t you gentlemen tell me why I was pulled away from an important meeting to come out here, to the middle of nowhere, to have a meeting with a security owner, an FBI agent, and a former assassin.”

  My shoulders tensed as he looked at me again, a slight smirk on his face. Security would have sent over our pictures before we even got in the back of that SUV. I had hoped that my identity would hold up under scrutiny, but I knew that it wouldn’t. There were things like fingerprints that just couldn’t be changed.

  Since he already knew who I was and there was no point in trying to hide anything, I laid it out for him. “I came across some information on Senator Cortez that led us to the discovery of a lab that was testing a deadly virus on random subjects. That virus was meant to be unleashed on the American public by Senators Cortez, Samuelson, Burke, Allan, and Brunswick.”

  His eyes were wide as he acknowledged that. “All of whom are dead.”

  I nodded. “Yes. Senator Burke was working with Nathan Arrington to tank the markets and spread fear through the public in the hopes that they could swing voters in their direction. That plan was set to go into motion very soon. We intervened and took out the threat, but Arrington is still out there. He was working with an Agent Dennick of the FBI to try and revitalize the plan. Agent Dennick is currently deceased, but Arrington knows about our involvement, which makes him a threat.”

  “And you want to take him out.”

  “Yes,” I said bluntly. “But his secret service is a bit of an issue.”

  Manchester nodded, running his hand along his jaw thoughtfully. He stood and moved across the room for a few minutes, leaving us standing here cooling our heels. He motioned over one of his guards and spoke with him quietly. Cap and I exchanged a look, neither of us knowing how this would turn out. We were taking a risk by coming here today. If the vice-president didn’t
agree with us, we wouldn’t be able to take any action against Arrington. I wouldn’t even be able to go after him on my own because that would cause blowback for Reed Security.

  Manchester walked back over to us, rubbing at his upper lip. He wasn’t looking at us, and that made my stomach churn. He was going to fuck us over.

  “This is not something that I can handle. To take out a presidential candidate would cause a lot of problems for the president. He would be bombarded with accusations and-”

  “He was going to take out half the population,” I spat. “He was going to callously kill millions of people and you want him to walk? Did you know my wife was injected with the virus?” His eyes shot up in surprise. “Yeah, and she lived, but that wouldn’t be true for millions of other people. This guy can’t just walk away. He’s scum and he needs to be taken out. If you won’t help us, I’ll take care of this myself.”

  I turned to walk away, but his words stopped me. “I was going to say that I need to consult with the president on this.”

  I slowly turned around, catching the slight smile on his face before he went back to a stoic expression.

  “There’s more involved here than me just giving you permission. You’d need access to the secret service, which isn’t something I can do. However, I think that this does warrant a visit to the president, so if you will follow me, we can get going.”

  He walked out, leaving us little choice but to follow. “I guess we’re going to meet the president.”

  Meeting the president was something I never thought would happen. I had to admit, it wasn’t really something high on my wish list. I had known too many people in power that turned out to be complete assholes, only out for what could benefit them. I wasn’t sure this guy would be any different. The office of the president held a lot of power, and if he decided that we were a threat to him in any way, it would be easy enough for him to send me back to prison. I wasn’t too eager to go meet him, but I was already riding on my way. There was no getting out of this now.