“Perhaps I will. After he tells me the names of those others he referred to.”
Despite the fact that his heart was quivering with raw fear, Luke kept his gaze glued to Teddy’s. “Ellery first.”
Teddy shrugged. “As you wish. She’s downstairs. I’ll take you to her.”
An alarm went off in Luke’s head. Ellery’s mother saw something downstairs that ultimately scared her to death. “You go and bring her up. I’ll wait here… ready to shoot your dear sister-in-law if you try anything funny.”
“Go on, love,” Vivian said smoothly. “I’ll be perfectly fine. Mr. Madigan isn’t going to hurt me and risk your hurting his precious Ellery.”
* * *
Diane had been on the verge of forgetting her plan to wait for everyone to be together when Madigan showed up… and pulled a gun on Vivian. Another unexpected complication, but his actions seemed to have solved the problem of locating Ellery. In a minute or so, she would be in the front room with the others, which meant Diane had that much time to take care of Senator Jones.
No longer concerned about staying quiet or invisible, she raced to the master bedroom.
The senator was momentarily confused at the sight of Diane standing beside him, but when he saw the large gun with a silencer aimed at his head, he just closed his eyes and accepted his fate.
* * *
The bright light coming on awoke Ellery even before she felt the movement of the door opening behind her. She jumped to her feet with the knife gripped in her hand and moved to the side of the door, so that whoever came in wouldn’t see her until they stepped inside.
“Guess who decided to join our party—” Teddy stopped when he didn’t see her on the couch. “Ellery?”
She held her breath and prayed he would go into the other room in search of her. The moment he did, she intended to run like hell.
He got halfway there and turned around with a wicked smirk on his face. He had seen her reflection in the mirror!
Instantly, she poised the knife to strike and took a sideward step toward the open door. “Stay where you are and I won’t hurt you.”
He laughed. “You wouldn’t dare.”
As he lurched forward, she bolted out and pushed the door closed, but he had it open again before she reached the stairs. Her heart nearly burst from fear as he caught her sleeve and, without thinking, she slashed the knife at him.
They were both momentarily stunned by the blood gushing out of his upper arm, then she took off again. But she only got to the third step when he grabbed her broken wrist and jerked her off her feet.
Wildly, she hacked at him, not trying to kill, only trying to escape. He was bleeding profusely, yet he seemed unaffected by the multiple wounds as he pummeled her with one fist and tried to gain control of her knife-wielding hand with the other.
Ignoring her own pain, she managed to pull her injured arm free again, and quickly scaled a few more steps before he captured an ankle and dragged her back.
As his fingers closed around her throat, she knew she no longer had a choice. With all the strength she could muster, she raised the knife and slashed his jugular vein.
* * *
Luke heard the cries and sounds of a struggle, but it was impossible to tell whether it was from a man or woman or both. “Move,” he ordered Vivian, nudging her forward. With his mind on rescuing Ellery, he was stunned by the vicious blow to his genitals as his captive swiveled around and kneed him. She grabbed for the gun, but he held onto it in spite of the searing pain.
With surprising tenacity, she clung to the weapon with both hands while slamming her body into him. Shoving aside any concerns he had for her gender, he kicked her feet out from under her. She fell but pulled him down with her. They grappled on the floor, rolling back and forth, but she held on no matter what he did.
Suddenly, there was an explosion of sound between their bodies and Luke felt as though he’d been hit in his thigh by a sledgehammer. He’d been shot!
More than pain, he felt rage—blinding, amoral rage. It gathered and funneled into his gun hand until it turned and fired again.
* * *
Ellery heard the two shots and recovered her wits enough to move again. Teddy had implied that someone had arrived. Was it Brevowski? Or Luke? Who shot who?
Teddy’s bloody form lay sprawled on the stairs, one arm still draped across her stomach. With a shudder, she pushed it off then quickly inched up the remaining stairs backward. Even though his head tipped back from where his throat gaped open, she didn’t trust him not to surge back to life and attack again.
She staggered into the front room in time to see Luke trying unsuccessfully to rise to his feet. Vivian was motionless on the floor beside him with a growing bloodstain on her chest. Ellery’s concern, however, was focused on the stain on Luke’s pant leg.
“Oh my God, Ellery,” he whispered, scanning her from head to toe.
“I’m all right,” she said, rushing to him with the bloody knife still in her hand. “It’s Teddy’s blood. He’s—”
“What the hell’s going on here?”
It took Ellery a moment to believe what her eyes registered. “Diane? What are you doing here? I mean, I am extremely grateful to see a friend but—” She stopped when she noticed that Diane was pointing a very large gun at her. She was more than she’d let on after all. “Do you work for Jones or Brevowski?”
“Set the weapons on the floor, nice and easy, then slide both of them toward me.” She said it with such calm authority that they obeyed the order.
Ellery came to the conclusion that Diane must be with some branch of the government, and realized how bad the scene must appear to someone who wasn’t in on the whole story. She must think they’re the guilty parties. “It’s not what it looks like. I can explain everything. The senator is The Eye Doctor and his brother murdered several witnesses, while Vivian protected them both. The proof is all downstairs, in a secret room in the wine cellar. He kept all the eyes in jars, and there are journals—”
Diane cut her off with a wave of her gun. “The victims’ eyes are all downstairs? And he kept journals?”
Ellery nodded.
“Where?”
“In a secret room hidden behind the wine racks. They locked me in there and—”
“Shit! What about the brother?”
The fact that Diane had not lowered her gun was beginning to frighten Ellery all over again. “He’s… dead. On the stairs. He was going to kill us, just like all the others. Diane, please stop pointing that thing at me. I’m telling you the truth.”
She nodded. “I have no doubt about that. But deciding who are the good guys and who are the bad is not my problem. In fact, for me, it would just get in the way. All I do is make problems go away. But if it’s any consolation, I wish I hadn’t accepted this job.”
As Diane’s finger moved on the trigger, Ellery finally understood that Diane was there to kill them. “Wait!” Ellery cried, and Diane angled her head curiously. “At least tell me why.”
Diane let out a dry laugh. “What do you think this is? A movie, where everything gets explained at the end?” Her finger moved again, and a shot was fired—but it was Diane whose body was slammed backward by the force of a bullet to her chest. As she raised her arm to return fire, a rapid succession of five more shots caused her body to jerk convulsively then crumple to the floor.
Ellery whipped around. Brevowski had finally come to her rescue… at least she hoped that’s what he was there for. Just in case it wasn’t, she didn’t completely let out the breath she’d been holding. “Should we be glad to see you?”
“I’ll let you know after you tell me what you found.”
“Luke needs medical attention first,” she said, kneeling beside him and taking his hand. “Mrs. Jones shot him.”
Brevowski bent over and peeled back Luke’s blood-soaked pant leg. “It’s barely a scratch. He’ll live until I can figure out what to do with this mess.” He took off Luke’s belt an
d proceeded to create a tourniquet above the wound.
“I was sure you knew I was on my way here. But I’ve got to admit, I was starting to get worried,” Ellery said.
“Sorry. I left right after I heard where you were headed. But I had a few arrangements to take care of first and it took me longer than expected to get here.”
Ellery thought she saw a shadow move past the front window. “I think someone’s out there.”
Brevowski nodded. “Just a few old friends from the FBI. There’s another agent upstairs. I had to call in all my markers, but they’ll make sure the locals are kept away. Considering all the gunfire, I’m surprised we’re not swarming with police already. Okay. Let’s hear it.”
As quickly as possible, she filled him in on the highlights. Details could wait until after Luke was taken care of.
When she was finished, the agent who had been upstairs reported that he had found the senator.
Brevowski said, “So it looks like Diane had already gotten to the senator before she came for you. The bottom line is, we’ve got an unholy mess in the basement and a body count of four.”
“We would have been dead too if you hadn’t stopped Diane,” Ellery added.
“The people who hired Diane don’t want you to be able to tell anyone else this story.”
“Do you know who they are?”
“I have a pretty good idea. I understand the logic, but I just couldn’t make myself look the other way this time.”
Ellery smiled softly. “Thank you. Maybe what I’m going to say now will help you explain to them why you didn’t let her kill us.”
He was clearly interested in anything that might cover his ass.
“Luke and I each wrote letters to five different people, telling them that if anything happened to either of us in the next twenty years, they were to go to a certain place—all different—where they would find documentation about one of the biggest government cover-ups of the century. I’m sure you know very well that we both disappeared for a while yesterday. We were taking care of our insurance policy.”
“Twenty years?” Brevowski queried, raising his brows. “A lot could happen to you in that time that would have nothing to do with us.”
She shrugged. “We’ll take our chances. And oh, by the way, that goes for Detective Harris too. In return, we’re willing to give you some insurance as well. If you let us live in peace, none of us will ever breathe a word of this to anyone. I’m going to be running for a congressional office soon, and no one is going to vote for a murderess, no matter how blameless she was. And as for Luke…” She glanced at him and noted that his eyes were closed. “Well, as soon as we get out of here, he’ll be promising to love, honor and obey my every command for the rest of his life.”
* * *
It was the top story on the news that night. “Shocking. Tragic. Unbelievable,” one reporter began.
The newscaster went on to explain that the FBI had received an anonymous tip that several shots had been fired in the Sausalito residence of Senator Abraham Lincoln Jones. When they got there, the senator, his wife and brother were all dead. Full details had not yet been disclosed, but preliminary evidence suggested that the senator shot his wife and brother then turned the gun on himself. A quantity of the drug ecstasy and various items used for sexual enhancement were found near the bodies. An inside source revealed that the three may have enjoyed an unusually close relationship throughout the marriage.
“Shocking,” Ellery said, shaking her head.
“Tragic,” Luke agreed.
“You just never know what really goes on behind closed doors.” She shifted on the couch beside him, and he emitted a grunt of discomfort. “Are you okay?”
He grimaced. “Sure. It only hurts when I exhale. How about you?”
“I’m fine.” Her left arm was in a cast and his right leg was tightly bandaged, both applied by a nameless doctor who Brevowski said they could trust. The man had asked no questions and barely spoke, other than to tell them to get some rest. “The truth is, it all seems like a very bad dream.” He hugged her closer, and she lifted her face for a kiss. “Have I thanked you yet for coming to my rescue?” she asked.
“Several times, not that I did much rescuing. But I’m still counting on my reward.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Your reward? I think you should give your body a chance to heal a little before—”
He touched her lips to quiet her. “That’s not the reward I meant. Although I am looking forward to that too. I was talking about the big one.”
She drew back her head. “What big one?” His mouth curved in that special, funny way that she liked so much.
“The one where I get to promise to love, honor and obey your every command.”
Her eyes widened. “I thought you were unconscious.”
He shrugged.
“It was the only thing I could think of to include you in my guarantee.”
He continued to grin at her.
“It would be a terrible idea. We would always be getting on each other’s nerves. Anyway, I decided a long time ago that I would never get married.”
His eyes twinkled with confidence.
“You don’t understand. Being married to a politician can be very difficult. You’d be living the rest of your life in a fish bowl.”
He silenced her protests with a kiss so sweet, she forgot the rest of her arguments. And as the kiss deepened with passion, she also forgot why she had ever thought falling in love was such a bad thing.
“Say it,” he whispered against her mouth.
“I love you.”
He chuckled. “I know that. I’m waiting to hear your answer.”
She made a face at him then said, “Kiss me again.” And when he did, the last of her doubts were swept away. “Yes. I’ll let you love, honor and obey my every command for the rest of your life.”
His smile spread across his face. “Good. Now about your name…”
“Don’t worry. I’m not that much of a liberated female. I’ll be happy to change it to Madigan.”
“Thank you. But I was referring to your first name. What about Lee or just E? Or maybe I should just stick with Princess. It fits you so perfectly.”
Using his tactic, she silenced him with a devastating kiss. One thing was certain about their future—there was going to be a lot of kissing in it.
Epilogue
Washington, D.C., November
“Congratulations, Mr. President,” Brevowski said, shaking Sam Erikson’s hand.
“Thank you. But it’s only Mr. President-elect until January.”
“A mere technicality.”
“You saved my butt this year,” Erikson said with sincerity. “Hell, you probably saved the whole party. We were damn lucky you found out about those letters before it was too late.”
Brevowski nodded humbly. “I only did the job you paid me to do.”
Erikson cleared his throat. “I trust this is the last time we will speak of it.”
“Absolutely. And I’m certain you won’t hear of it from any other corner either.”
“Excellent. How is our Miss Winters these days?”
“She’s Mrs. Madigan now, and in the process of starting up her campaign for the congressional seat with her new husband’s help. Don’t be surprised if we’re calling her Madame President one of these days.”
Erikson grinned. “I won’t be. She has the ambition and the right image. Her intelligence could be an obstacle, but she’s proven to be a team player. Of course, a lot can happen in twenty years.”
“That’s true,” Brevowski agreed with a return smile.
“In the meantime…”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be keeping an eye on her.”
“Speaking of team players…” Erikson said, turning his attention to the bank of monitors on his office wall. With the remote, he moved one image to the larger center screen.
For a few seconds, Brevowski observed the tall, lean woman walking on a treadmi
ll. “She’s getting stronger by the day.”
“I can see that for myself. What I’m wondering is whether you’ve made any progress in getting her to accept our offer.”
Brevowski shrugged. “She doesn’t care for being held against her will.”
“Against her will?” Erikson exclaimed. “We saved her fucking life! She’s in one of the finest private rehab facilities in the country. Keeping her there is for her own protection.”
He took a calming breath before continuing. “She owes us now. Working on our team would be to her benefit as well as ours. Just keep reminding her—Casper is no longer a ghost.”
The End
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“You’ll get your money. The gallery just sold another one of the bitch’s new paintings. Ya gotta give me more time,” Rico Gambini pleaded into the telephone. “Wait. Just listen a minute.” He paused as he was the one made to listen. “Okay, okay. Two weeks then. You’ll see. I’ll get the money out of her. One way or another.”
The “bitch” halted abruptly outside the bedroom door as she heard her husband’s voice. Teri Carmichael Gambini had been working in her studio over the garage when she spilled coffee on her blouse and decided to change. Closing her mind to the possibilities Rico’s final words suggested, the petite brunette stealthily retreated. She knew from past experience that confronting him would only waste energy she couldn’t afford to lose today. Their arguments, which had increased in number the past few months, always left her vibrating with anger and frustration, not exactly a state conducive to creativity.
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