by Misty Evans
Rain now sheeted down on her, drenching her as she stood in front of the arched back door of the winery. In the nighttime quiet, a trillion reactions occurred in her cells every second as she overheard snippets of the conversation between Cooper and Cal. A trillion reactions keeping her heart pumping, her organs functioning, and her brain engaged. So why did she feel numb—dead inside—from her husband’s words?
A single overhead bulb illuminated a golden circle on the ground at her feet as Cooper drew near. “You said you would stop him.”
Water beaded in his short hair. “I tried.” He walked past her, opening the winery’s back door. “Come inside.”
She kept her back to Cooper, hands clenched. Puddles formed at her feet. “Why did you let him go?”
A huff came from the taskforce boss. “I’m big and mean, Bianca, but do you really think I can stop a Navy SEAL without using deadly force?”
Cal was the deadly force, and now he was hunting Justin Lugmeyer without a team to back him up. “He’s always worked ops with a unit of trained men. He can’t do this on his own.”
“He has Petit.”
“Who has a million resources, but no background in covert ops!”
Bianca’s brain should have been trying to figure out ways to stop Cal, to intercept him, to get to Chicago first. Instead, it seemed frozen along with her heart. Arguing felt better than thinking. “If we don’t leave until eight o’clock, they’ll have a six-hour lead. What if something happens and they need help? We’ll be too far out to do them any good.”
“I’ve got eyes on the ground. As soon as they land, my people will keep tabs on them.”
She looked over her shoulder, wiped rain from her face. “Who?”
“Dupé and Celina should be landing shortly. I sent them ahead in case we needed more boots on the ground.”
“Celina, your girlfriend?”
“Before she became a CSI photographer, she was FBI.”
“She brought down the Londano cartel and you kicked her off your taskforce.”
Shadows flanked Cooper’s jaw as he took his time answering her. “You did your homework on everyone, didn’t you?”
“I’m an analyst. It’s what I do.”
“Then you know why Celina left the taskforce.”
“Hard to perform undercover ops when your name and picture have been on Time magazine.”
“So was your assignment to investigate all of us or just Dupé?”
“Only Dupé, but I was bored. I looked up all of you. Interesting skeletons in your closet, by the way. Does anyone know how you bribed a criminal with government money to keep your son, Owen, safe when you were still a cop?”
His face contorted and she knew she’d hit a sore spot, but God, she was so tired of secrets. Looking away, she stared out at the distant vineyards. “The real reason I was sent here wasn’t to investigate Dupé, you, or the taskforce. That was my assignment, mind you, by my boss Jonathan, but I knew that wasn’t the real reason. Haley Banner needed me out of D.C. to get me out of her hair and make it easier for Tephra to kill me. Lucky for me, he decided to ask for my help instead.”
“Lucky for all of us.”
She didn’t want his words to affect her, but they did. A flicker of warmth nudged against her heart, pushing the numbness aside. “I’ve brought nothing but chaos to your team. Put their lives in danger. How you can say that?”
“I didn’t realize the extent of your skills until these past couple of days. You’re not only a valuable asset to this team, Agent Marx. You’re a valuable asset to America. I’d throw my hat in with you any day.”
Again, the force of his words slid under her defenses. Her heart seemed to beat again. “You don’t think I’m crazy?”
“Only as much as the rest of us. And that’s mostly because we have to put up with Thomas.”
She almost smiled. “I kinda like him.”
Silence fell with the rain. Cool night air seeped into her bones and made her shiver. “So Cal remembers what happened in Afghanistan?”
“Sounded like it.”
“Do you think he’ll get better now with his memory returning? Will he still need therapy?”
“I’m no shrink, but if it were me, the best therapy would be putting the killer behind bars.”
Bianca rubbed her arms, trying to get feeling back into them. “Cal’s justice will be more violent, I’m afraid.”
“He won’t kill Lugmeyer. He knows we need the man’s testimony against Banner in order to take her down.”
The small puddles at her feet merged into one. “There’s nothing the US government can offer Lugmeyer as a bribe to turn on her. If he tells the truth, he’ll be put in prison. In prison, he’ll meet with an unfortunate accident. He knows that.”
“Violence might be in order, then.”
“Torture?”
“Persuasion.”
Bianca had always been against such measures. Now, thinking about how Lugmeyer had nearly killed Cal and her both, she found her position wavering. “Why didn’t Lugmeyer take Cal out at the hospital in Germany?”
“Perhaps you’ll get a chance to ask him. My guess? It was too public, too many variables. He needed Killer Kathy to slip Cal a poison pill.”
“But she was already cozying up to Senator Halston here in America.”
“Exactly.”
All the hours she’d spent in therapy talking about her childhood had never done her a bit of good. Talking things out with Cooper made her feel better. Not completely, but a little.
The realization surprised her. She eyed Cooper over her shoulder. Maybe it was the person she was talking to. “Are you sure you’re not a shrink?”
He chuckled. “Are you ready to get to work, Agent Marx?”
Pushing her hair back, she stepped over the puddle and headed toward the door. “I have a few ideas that might help us.”
On the plane, Bianca and Bobby immersed themselves in data.
Bianca had never been in a private plane before and might have enjoyed all the bells and whistles if she hadn’t been cramming and analyzing. The onboard Wi-Fi allowed her and Bobby to collect plenty of information, and that was good enough for her.
They’d already gone over the blueprints of McConnell Place, all the entrances and exits, right down to the garbage shoots, loading docks, and interior duct work.
They’d gotten hold of the guest list and ran their own background check on every person attending. No one stood out.
Dupé had made a request to secretly join the FBI team running the event’s facial recognition software and been granted access by the FBI’s director.
There’d been no word from Cal and Emit—not that that surprised her or Cooper. Dupé and Celina had failed to locate them, nor had they seen anything of Lugmeyer. Another thing that didn’t surprise Bianca.
By the time they landed in Chicago, Bianca had given each of the team members a job and Ronni had given her a makeover. Bobby and Ronni had built fake ID’s for everyone and Ronni had used her FBI access to hack into the guest and staff lists and add their false identities. Together with Bobby and Ronni’s help, Bianca had backstopped each member and added current photos.
As she stepped off the plane in Chicago, she was no longer Bianca Marx. She was, in fact, Beyoncé Arnold, a scientist with a privately-funded group interested in President Norman’s stand on DNA profiling.
The sunshine was bright when they landed, the October air in Chicago biting. Her new credentials were tucked safely in her pocket. One of the buttons on the jacket Ronni had given her hid a camera. The brooch on the lapel, a hidden mic. Ronni and Thomas would be inside with her, their covers as wait staff. Cooper would cover the outside of the building with Bobby and Celina, watching the entry points.
Adrenaline rushed through her veins, sending jolts of nervous energy down her arms and legs, but her mind was clear, and when Ronni asked her if she was ready for her first official undercover assignment, Bianca gave her friend a thumbs-up.
“The hospital was my first op,” she reminded Ronni. “Don’t worry, I have your six.”
She wasn’t just ready to go undercover, she was ready to nail Haley Banner to the wall.
Chapter Thirty-two
McConnell Place was abuzz with people. As Bianca stood on the upper balcony and watched the commotion below her in the auditorium, the movements of people circling tables, mingling with each other, and engaging in normal human interactions reminded her of an ant farm. A lot of industry from the worker ants as the soldier ants stood on alert. Everyone milling around, waiting for the queen to emerge.
Of course, the crowd thought they were waiting to see the president, but it would be the queen—his running mate and lover—who would steal the show tonight.
Unless I stop her.
Cooper had given her an assignment—get to Haley Banner—while Ronni and Thomas hunted for Lugmeyer.
She and Cooper both knew there was little chance she’d actually have a shot at talking to Banner and getting a confession, but Bianca loved her new boss just a little for giving her a chance to be part of the op, even if he was being like Cal and trying to keep her safe.
Won’t Cooper be surprised when I pull this off?
There were too many variables at play for her liking. Lugmeyer could get past them and take out Tephra and the president. Tephra could be lying and setting them all up. Even if the taskforce found and arrested Lugmeyer, Vice President Banner could have a backup plan. Bianca had been over those scenarios and more multiple times. She had to get a confession one way or another from Banner. That was the only sure fire way to take the bitch down.
McConnell Place hosted a wide variety of entertainment and political events. There were hidden tunnels into and out of the bowels of the building that led to the stage and auditorium. Bianca had already told Thomas to get down to those tunnels during his search. Lugmeyer could be hiding in one.
The president had yet to arrive. The V.P. was already there, and if there was one thing Haley Banner loved, it was the spotlight.
As Bianca expected, Banner made her entrance several minutes before the shindig was to start—nothing too grand like later on when she’d be formally introduced, but acting like one of the “little people,” entering from behind the stage curtain and catching people’s attention as she walked down the stairs to the auditorium floor, waving and calling out to certain friends and acquaintances. Secret Service agents stayed close as people gathered and Haley started shaking hands with the president’s supporters.
Bianca tapped her jacket button, heard Bobby in her ear comm unit. “You’re a go. We’re right here if you need us.”
The balcony had been roped off, but from the blueprints of the building, Bianca had located a secret door that led to and from this spot for maintenance people to work on electricity and lighting behind the scenes. She’d thought it would make a perfect sniper’s nest, but found it unoccupied. Now, drawing a fortifying breath, she slipped back through the door and worked her way downstairs.
She emerged on the auditorium floor a minute later and zeroed in on the V.P. Ronni sidled up to Bianca the minute she spotted her, wearing a black and white wait staff uniform and carrying a tray of champagne glasses. “May I offer you a drink, miss?”
Her hands needed something to do. She accepted a slender glass. “Thank you.”
Ronni nodded, the said under her breath. “Tunnels are empty. No sign of target outside or in.”
No Lugmeyer. No Tephra either. Maybe Tephra had found the man and killed him. Or they’d both fled the country. Who knew? If only the nerves in Bianca’s stomach would stop fluttering like manic butterflies. If only she knew Cal was okay.
Bianca gripped her glass tightly and circled closer to Banner.
She was almost there, practicing in her head what she was going to say to bribe the V.P. to speak with her in private, when a hand caught her elbow. She pivoted and found herself staring at…
“Jonathan?”
The older man’s thick eyebrows drew together, dipping low. “Bianca? What are you doing here? I thought you were in California.”
Jonathan never left D.C., never left Command & Control. But here he was, dressed in a dark suit and tie, and looking strong and steady as ever. “I, uh…wow, don’t you clean up nice!”
She was never tongue-tied, never speechless. And she sure as heck never gave ridiculous compliments to men old enough to be her father and smart enough to know a redirection when they heard one.
But this was bad. Really bad. Jonathan could blow her ID, could blow the whole mission.
The truth sprang to her lips. She tempered it by channeling Ronni and Cooper and even Cal, none of whom would give up anything relevant to tonight’s operation. “I had a little trouble in California. I came here tonight to speak to Vice President Banner in the hopes of getting things straightened out.”
“Trouble?” His gaze scanned the people milling around. His grip on her elbow tightened. “Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere private.”
Time was running out. She didn’t have time to talk to Jonathan. In her ear, she heard Bobby say, “Get away from him.”
“I have to speak to the vice president before dinner.” She gave Jonathan a big smile and pulled her elbow out of his grip. “We can catch up afterward.”
His hand latched onto her upper arm. “Now,” he said, starting to drag her away.
“Lose him,” Bobby said in her ear.
Bianca purposely tripped over her own feet and tossed her champagne in Jonathan’s face. “Oh, dear, clumsy me. Let me get you a napkin.”
He released her, and Bianca ducked out of sight.
A moment later, she took the secret entrance to the balcony once more. She had to catch her breath and regroup. Fast. Jonathan’s appearance had completely thrown off her plans.
Down on the auditorium floor, she saw him looking for her. Staying back in the shadows, she placed a hand on her stomach and bent slightly at the waist trying to breathe. Her first undercover assignment and she’d blown it.
There had to be another way, she just had to figure it out.
“B?”
Cal’s voice made her spin around. As if he’d materialized from the shadows, he stood behind her, three days of stubble on his jaw, his face tired but his eyes steady.
“You okay?”
What a question. Bianca threw herself at him, hugging him close. “You bastard. How dare you leave me.”
He didn’t hug her back, only patted her lightly with one hand at the base of her spine. “We didn’t find Lugmeyer.”
Which in his mind was a failure.
She dropped her arms. “He hasn’t shown up here, either. He’s probably not even in Chicago. Once he knew we were on to him, he disappeared.”
Cal didn’t respond. She could see it in his eyes; he didn’t believe his former senior chief would give up so easily. Truth was, she didn’t believe it herself.
Before they could say anything else, Vice President Haley Banner took the stairs to the stage and hustled up to the podium. There, she tested the mic and waited for the room to fall silent.
When it did, she gave the guests her biggest, toothpaste-commercial smile and said, “Folks, you’re in for a treat tonight. Please take your seats, because the President of the United States has arrived!”
The crowd broke into cheers and applause. A moment later, President Norman took the stage.
“Showtime,” Cooper said in her ear.
They were out of time, and even if no one had seen Lugmeyer, it didn’t mean they were out of the woods.
Bianca scanned the balcony and the open beams above the arena. “Cal, if you were Justin and going to snipe someone, where you would set up?”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “Emit and I have been all over the place, even up here. So has the Secret Service and FBI. There’s no assassin, Bianca, and even if Lugmeyer is here, there’s nowhere he could set up to shoot the president on stage
and then get away cleanly.”
The president had emerged from the backstage curtains to thundering applause. He waved and helped the First Lady to her seat before sitting himself.
Bianca scanned the tables of guests. Where is Jonathan?
Vice President Haley Banner stood at the podium. “Before we get started tonight, I want to take a minute or two of your time.” She looked over her shoulder and smiled at Norman. “I promise, it’ll be worth it.”
The president smiled back, nodded, and motioned for her continue.
Something isn’t right, Bianca’s brain insisted.
“Ten years ago, we lost a valuable soldier in Afghanistan. A Navy SEAL with over thirty missions under his belt and more commendations in his file than any of you could fathom. He’s been hailed by his own men as one of the greatest SEALs to ever defend this country. For years, we didn’t know what had happened to him. He was declared Missing In Action.”
She paused, letting her words sink in. “But tonight…” A smile passed over her face and the lights reflected off tears welling in her eyes. “I’m pleased and honored to stand on this stage and tell you… I, along with a small team of dedicated individuals, have found Navy SEAL Rory Tephra.”
A gasp from the crowd. The president sat forward.
“Senior Chief Justin Lugmeyer of SEAL Team Seven discovered Lieutenant Tephra’s location in a remote Afghanistan prison on one of his last missions to the area, and…” She swept a hand toward the backstage curtain. “…with the help of former CIA Operations director, Jonathan Brockmann, we brought him home.”
From the curtains, two men emerged. Tephra, dressed in uniform, and by his side, escorting him forward, was Jonathan. Jonathan, former CIA Operations director. Haley Banner, former CIA analyst.
Bianca’s stomach twisted.
The crowd broke out into applause, people coming to their feet. The president and First Lady came to theirs as well. Vice President Banner smiled like a schoolgirl and rushed forward to shake Tephra’s hand.