by Desiree Holt
*****
Max and Regan were also awake. They’d been up since early that morning, hiding in the bathroom so they could talk softly without fear of being overheard.
“I have this bad feeling that won’t go away,” Regan told him. “I call it my doomsday sense. Usually it means something very bad is going to happen.”
Max pulled her into his arms and kissed her forehead. God, he loved the feel of her against him. No matter what happened, he was going to make sure she didn’t get hurt.
“I should tell you you’re imagining things, but I have the same little quirk. It saved my ass a lot of times in the SEALs. Even the day I got shot, it could have been so much worse if I hadn’t had that little voce whispering in my ear.”
“I’m glad it wasn’t worse,” she murmured against his shoulder.
He gave a short laugh, “Yeah, me, too.”
“What are we going to do, Max? I just know something bad is going to happen today.”
“I’m going to call Si right now and check in with him. We have backup out, there and these nifty next-century watches that do everything but wash the car. If I can’t call later and things are going to shit, I can just press the warning button, and he’ll come barreling in.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Si picked up on the first ring, as if he’d been sitting there with the phone in his hand.
“Go ahead,” he said.
Max dove right into what he wanted to know.
“I’d tell you to stay alert,” Si told him, “but you’re the master of that. George, Kevin, and two others of my men met up with Lou Valenti last night. They’re staged at a piece of property about ten miles from Whitlow’s lodge. That was as close as they could get.”
“I’m surprised they got that close,” Max commented. “Whitlow’s property has to be more than a hundred acres, which is about average for around here. But I checked it out when we drove here, and there didn’t seem to be any vacant properties.”
“One of the reasons why Lou is such an asset. The property just west of Whitlow’s is owned by people who also only show up a few times a year. They’ve asked Lou to keep an eye on it.”
Today, she wore slacks, so she tucked her gun at the small of her back. Her casual jacket was loose and covered it well. Max did the same, choosing to wear a loose, tight-weave soft-collared shirt that would conceal the weapon. They checked that they had their secure cell phones and their special pens with them. Then they grabbed their folders from the day before.
“Well, Mrs. Ferren,” Max said just before he opened their door, “I guess we’re all set. Let’s just be ready for anything. I hope we at least get the name of who the face of this would be if they succeeded.”
“Me, too. But they won’t succeed, Max. We’re going to stop them.”
*****
Breakfast was over and the dishes cleared, and everyone was back at their seats at the table with full coffee mugs. They had their folders open and pens out, and Max made sure he and Regan had their special pens in their hands.
“Okay.” Jed Whitlow looked around. “We have the shipments confirmed, the cartel soldiers at the ready, a schedule for when each event is to take place”
“I have a question.” Lorena looked at Max. “Did you happen to bring any of the weapons you’ll be shipping so we can take a look at them? Maybe you could give us a demonstration.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Jed told her. “We won’t be firing the weapons ourselves.”
“Luis wants to be absolutely sure they’ll be top quality. He doesn’t want inferior goods that will derail the entire event.”
Max looked at Lorena. He and Si had discussed this, but neither of them were excited about the prospect of doing this.
“You can rest assured only the finest weapons are being loaded for the shipments.” He looked over at Jed. “You saw them when you visited the factory, right?”
“I did. I even test fired a couple myself. Tel Luis to put a cork in it, Lorena. It’s all good. Now.” He opened his folder. “Today we need to review the outline for what takes place afterward.”
“I believe we’re using your helicopter to get to D.C., Gavin?” He looked at Gavin Emery.
“Yes. We avoid airports that way, and I have just the place to land. The SUVs will be waiting for us.”
“Five of them?” Lorena asked.
Gavin nodded. “One for each of us. I contracted with Downrange Security, as we discussed. Three guards for each of us, fully armed. They’ve been paid and the men will be there waiting for us. They’re also providing the SUVs.”
“The city will be in chaos after the explosions and killings on the National Mall,” Jed continued. “We’ll go directly to the White House. Our man will be there waiting for us. The president and his family are scheduled to be at the Washington Mall and, if they are not dead, they will have been hustled off somewhere by the Secret Service. We—”
“What about the vice president?” Elizabeth Emery asked. “Is that taken care of, also?”
“Yes.” Jed looked around the table. “As we discussed, Luis’s men will handle that during the explosions.”
Listening to the litany, Max had a hard time controlling both his nausea and his anger. These people were discussing the murder of both the president and vice president of the United States as if it was just another activity. He curled his fingers around his pen so hard he was afraid he’d break it and ruin the information it had gathered. If Regan hadn’t filtered out the bits and pieces of conversation, beginning with the transport and smuggling into the country of high-value terrorist threats, July 4th would end up being the most disastrous day for this country yet.
“Newsom will be waiting for us at the White House,” Jed continued. “He’s been briefed and is more than ready to step forward.”
Max worked hard to conceal his shock. Grant Newsom? The Speaker of the House? The man who couldn’t control his own party in the House? This was the man chosen to lead the country back from disaster? Holy fucking god!
Whitlow looked at Kurt Cavanaugh. “He knows he’s just the figurehead, right?”
Cavanaugh nodded. “That’s really all he wants. Leading the House is a job that’s way beyond his skillset, but he loves the publicity, the parties, and the media appearances. When we get to the White House, I’ll go to him directly. I’ve sent him the prepared statement, and I promise he’ll be ready for the media. I also sent him his speech to the House of Representatives. Whoever survives, that is.”
Max was afraid to even glance sideways at Regan. They had to get this information to Si ASAP. No doubt about it. And what was up with Anna Whitlow, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket every ten minutes to look at the screen.
“Max?” He realized Jed was speaking to him.
“Sorry. I was just taking it all in. Bernardo briefed me but listening to it here makes it all real.”
“Oh, it’s real all right.” Jed grinned. “Three weeks from now, we’ll be in charge of it all.”
“Bernardo didn’t get into this,” he said, “but how long do you predict it will take before the smoke dies down—no pun intended—and we have everything under control? And is there an immediate meeting planned so we can coordinate everything?”
“Yes.” Elizabeth Emery was the one who answered. “We’ll be meeting in the White House. Our security details will be with us in case there are any problems.”
“What about the Secret Service?” Regan asked. “Won’t we be using them?”
Jed shook his head. “No. We’re disbanding them and using our own people. More control that way.”
“Sounds good.”
Sounds insane! He had to get this to Si. He couldn’t wait until later. However, he forced himself to sit there until it got to be noon and Jed called a halt for lunch.
“I’ll be back down in a minute,” he said as he rose from his sat. “There are some things I need that I left in my room. More informati
on about the guns and ammo that I wanted to pass around.”
Before anyone could say a word he was heading upstairs, forcing himself to walk slowly although he wanted to take them two at a time. He hustled into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and called Si.
“Go,” Si said when he answered the phone.
“You are. Not fucking going to believe this,” Max said, then laid everything out for the man.
“Holy goddamn shit. Are you kidding me?”
“Not even a little. Si, we have to stop this.”
“No shit.” Silent filled the air. “Okay, we need to get the two of you out of there. Now.”
“But there may be more they’re planning to discuss this afternoon,” Max protested.
“I don’t care if they want to talk all goddamn night. There’s still the chance that Luis Rojas’s visit could have provided them with more information than we know. It at least has made them sit on the edge of their chairs. Let me get it set up and I’ll text you.”
“What about just coming in here and arresting them?”
“Not until I have this all tied up so tight there’s no way for them to find a way out. And I need to make sure nothing leaves the Ferren factory, but I don’t want to tip my hand yet. We’ve got a little wiggle room there.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to go back downstairs and have lunch and talk to these people and try not to shoot them while I work things out on this end. Watch for my text.”
“Max?” A knock on the door and Regan calling to him.
“Coming.” He opened the door and pulled her into the bathroom. “I wish I had time to give you a proper kiss and wash away the bad taste in my mouth.”
“No kidding. Did you get hold of Si? I figured that’s what you were doing.”
“Yes. He wants us out of here ASAP.”
“But—”
“But nothing. He says it’s too dangerous for us to stay here now. He’s getting our exfil ready and will text me.” He gave her a quick, hard hug.
“He’s the boss. Come on. Let’s go try and eat lunch and see what the afternoon brings.”
The afternoon brought more of the same with one exception. Everyone at the table seemed a lot more uptight, and every so often he would catch someone glancing at both him and Regan with a strange look. He was beginning to think Si was right and they needed to split ASAP.
Nothing changed until late in the afternoon when there was a knock on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Lorena said, pushing her chair back.
Everyone seemed to freeze in their seats while she walked to the entrance. Max watched her carefully, shocked to see Luis Rojas and three men who could only be his “fixers” walk into the room. The muscles in his stomach tightened, and he pushed back in his chair, reaching slowly for his gun. Before he could get his hand around the grip, Gavin Emery was behind hm, grabbing his wrist. When he glanced at Regan, he saw Whitlow had pulled her from her chair and yanked her hands behind her back. In seconds, he had her gun, also.
“What the hell is going on here?” he demanded.
Anna Whitlow looked up at him from her place at the table.
“I had a very short but interesting phone call while you and Regan were upstairs,” she told him. “I remembered that I had the number for Jeanne Ferren’s very private cell phone, so I tried to call her. You know. Just to verify that the two of you were the real deal. I waited all day for her to get back to me. If she was really in the hospital sitting with her husband, she would have called me back right away. But finally she did.”
Oh shit.
“And what did she say?”
“She had a very interesting story to tell me, but I’m sure you know all the details. About Bernardo’s fake heart attack, the threats from the government. She said as soon as Jed had visited Bernardo in the hospital and gone home, they moved her and Bernardo to a house somewhere with deathly frightening men to guard them, no telephones or other means of communication. She was lucky she’d had the presence of mind to hide the one cell. They’ve got her and Bernardo locked away there, while the real Max and Regan are under guard somewhere else.”
Max stood silently taking it all in. Waiting for whatever came next.
“Nothing to say?” Jed asked.
Max wondered why the fuck her guards hadn’t confiscated her cell phone, but Anna’s next words answered his question.
“Before they let the Ferrens pack their things they took their cell phones, laptops, any other electronics. But clever Jeanne had this other cell that she managed to wrap in her panties when she packed, but she wasn’t alone long enough to make a call until today.”
“You think we’re idiots, Max?” Lorena sneered. “Or whatever your name is. We didn’t trust you from the beginning. Luis took a little trip to scope things out that really set us to thinking.”
“So, I reached out to Jeanne,” Anne put in. “As I said, it took all day, but she finally called back.”
Max looked around at everyone. “You’ll never get away with this. Just so you know.”
Jed glared at him. “We’ve put too much into this to let you ruin it. Our plan will still go forward.”
“Yeah? Exactly how will you do that?” He looked at Rojas. ”And what the fuck are you doing here?”
“Luis is going to take your lady on a little trip, where she’ll be comfortable until the Fourth of July. After that, it won’t matter.”
After that we’ll both be dead, he thought.
“And what about me? There are people waiting to hear from me.”
The smile on Whitlow’s face was anything but warm. “You will be our guest until the Fourth of July. When we leave here, tomorrow you’ll come to my ranch with me, where you’ll be my guest for the next couple of weeks. When we’ve taken over the country, we’ll let you go.”
Yeah, right.
He took a step toward Regan, where one of Luis’s goons was holding her, clutching her arms. Whitlow pulled him back. He could have broken the hold, but the circumstances at the moment weren’t favorable for any kind of success here.
Whitlow stripped both of them of weapons, and set them on the table.
”I’ll just take these while I’m at it,” Whitlow said. “You won’t be using them.”
Max stood there, grinding his teeth. At the moment the odds were stacked against him. He might be a SEAL but he wasn’t Superman. He needed to make a plan, and that involved getting up to his room and retrieving his other cell phone.
“Don’t try anything,” Whitlow added. “We’d have to kill you both right here, and that would really mess up this room.”
Max’s mind was working overtime. He sent Regan a silent message to do what they said. None of them were aware of two important things: he and Regan wore watches with GPS locators in them, and Si’s people were not far from this place.
I’ll be fine, she mouthed at him, but it didn’t make him feel any better.
“You’re making a big mistake.” He spoke to the room at large. “You have no idea whom you’re up against.
“No, you’re the one who has no idea,” Lorena told hm. “You and whoever you work for must think we’re all a bunch of dunces. You’ll find out you’re not dealing with powerless idiots.”
He wanted to say they were the ones in for a surprise, but he didn’t. He stood there, blocked by Whitlow and Emery, while Rojas and his thugs took Regan out the door. If they harmed so much as one hair on her head, he’d find each of them and make sure they died a slow and very painful death.
The men holding him back finally released him. The front door opened again, and two men who looked like they were employees of Thugs-R-Us walked in.
“Part of my security team,” Whitlow told him. “Hank will be sitting right outside your door, just in case you thought you might take a walk. Make yourself comfortable. Someone will bring dinner up to you later.”
When Hank grabbed his arm with thick fingers, he yanked it free.
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“No touching,” he said. “I can walk by myself.”
“Okay. Just don’t try any funny stuff.”
Max had no intention of it. He had a plan, and he didn’t want to call any undue attention to himself right now.
When they reached his room, Hank couldn’t stop himself from giving Max a shove. Max didn’t even stumble, just walked into the room and waited while Hank stepped out into the hall and closed the door. He waited two minutes, to make sure the hulk wasn’t about to pop back into the room. Then he went into the bathroom, closed and locked the door—at least this door had a lock—and fished the two phones out from under the sink. He activated them both then put one in his pants pocket.
Instead of calling Si, since his voice just might be head, he typed a message.
Cover blown. Rojas has Regan. Activate GPS trace.
He waited nearly a full minute before an answer came back.
Done. Called Kevin to watch for it on his laptop. They will find car.
Approach carefully.
What am I, an idiot?
Max actually grinned.
Going to try leaving. Have a way. Will contact you in a few.
Let me know. Kevin can jam outgoing signals from the lodge.
K.
Next, he grabbed the suitcase from the closet and opened the concealed compartment. There was a third handgun in there, a Glock 42, what was known as a pocket pistol. He shoved it along with three extra clips of ammo into his pockets, and replaced the suitcase.
He’d done some recon when they first got here, in case a situation just like this came up. There was a huge tree with thick branches right outside their bedroom window, part of a small stand at that side of the house. He hadn’t done anything like this for a while, and his shoulder was still questionable, but he really didn’t have a choice.
He eased the window open and removed the screen, which came out easily. Getting himself out and onto the thick branch that nearly touched the side of the house wasn’t as bad as he thought. He was even, thankfully, able to lean over, lower the window, and replace the screen. The great room had no visuals on this side of the house, so there was no one to notice what was happening.