“This is the second time he’s asked for information on Bertie Geofferies. I think it may be time for me to find out why,” Lizzy said with the decision made. “Alex, can you get that information Sebastian wants?”
“Some, but Rock Star can get more.”
“Rock Star?” Dalton asked with a quirk of his lips. The way Alex said the name showed an admiration and respect, but it was the way little hearts practically leapt from his eyes that told Dalton that Rock Star was more than just a hacker buddy.
Alex cleared his throat. “Yeah, she’s the hacker from London.”
“I remember,” Lizzy said, not bothering to hide her smile. “Our little boy is growing up.” She held back the laughter.
Alex turned apple-red. “Not cool, dude. Not cool.”
“But Rock Star is,” Lizzy said, and she surrendered to the laughter.
“Okay, okay, we embarrassed him enough.” Dalton was laughing as well. “Can you get what we need?”
“Duh. I’ll get working on it immediately. I’m assuming I’ll give it to you and not Sebastian.”
“You’ve got it,” Lizzy said, finally leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes. “And make sure Rock Star meets us before you take her on a date. We have to make sure she’s good enough for you.”
* * *
Dalton walked hesitantly into the building Jason was using as a black site. It was an abandoned building made to look like office space. He knew Jason had seen him on the cameras, and sure enough, Jason appeared at the office door.
Dalton stood in the aisle surrounded by empty cubicles and looked at his friend and mentor. Jason was empty. His eyes were blank, his lips were in a thin line, and his body that had plumped after retirement was now sagging. It was evident that Jason wasn’t dieting; he wasn’t eating, period.
Jason leaned a shoulder against a steel doorjamb and crossed his arms. “You come to check on the prisoners?”
“Are they still alive?”
“For now.”
“Jason, you need help,” Dalton told his friend, knowing it was the last thing Jason wanted to hear.
“I’m getting my help here.”
“Is revenge the only thing keeping you alive?” Dalton asked, fearing he already knew the answer.
Instead of answering, Jason turned and walked down the dark stairwell, leaving Dalton to follow. The stairs led into a secret network of rooms behind a false wall in the basement of the building. Down there, no one would hear a gunshot, a scream for help, or any other noise that might occur during interrogation.
Interrogation rooms lined the hallway as they walked to the cells in the back. Each cell was a small cement block room lined with thick metal walls and exposed steel beam ceilings. Behind each steel door with the small square Plexiglas window was a cot and a toilet. The first cell contained Gene, huddled on the cot as his body shook.
“Here,” Dalton said, stopping Jason. “What’s wrong with him?”
Jason pulled out a set of keys. “Drug withdrawal. This one wouldn’t shut up. He told me everything he knew the second I set him in the chair. Unfortunately, it’s not much. Mostly, he was a patsy. I kind of feel sorry for him. Michelle would have taken him under her wing.” At the mention of his wife, he looked away from Dalton and opened the door.
Dalton walked in and knelt before the old butler who was still in his White House tuxedo. Next to him was plenty of food and water, something Dalton was betting the others didn’t have.
Gene opened his eyes. “Are you going to kill me?”
“No. I’m here to tell you that your daughters are safe. There were two operatives following your girls. They’ve been eliminated. Your daughters will be getting on a plane tonight and coming home only to discover they’ve won an all-expenses paid trip out of the country for the rest of the summer. They’re going to call you, and you’re going to tell them you are stuck at work and are so happy for them. You’re going to tell them to leave immediately and enjoy themselves. And you’re going to tell them how much you love them.”
Tears began to stream down Gene’s face. “The president did that?”
“Yes.”
Gene began to cry harder. “I didn’t want to do it.”
“I believe you,” Dalton said sadly. Gene was another life ruined by Mollia Domini. How many more people would be dead or ruined before this was over?
Dalton stood, and Gene reached out and grabbed his leg. Dalton didn’t jump back. There was nothing Gene could do to him. Not with Jason aiming a gun at his head. “Thank you. Thank you for saving my girls. They’re all I have left after my wife passed.”
Jason faltered. His gun momentarily dipped at the mention of the loss of Gene’s wife. “You’re welcome. Gene, are you willing to testify about what happened?”
“Only if it doesn’t hurt my girls. They’re all that matters to me now.”
Dalton gave him a tight smile showing he understood and walked out the door. Jason shut it and locked it again. “Who is next?”
“Thurmond. But he doesn’t know anything more than he’s already told us. It’s clear he was set up to take the fall if Sandra started to come under suspicion.”
“Will he testify against Sandra?” Dalton asked.
“Maybe if it means he doesn’t get the death penalty. I’m sure he’d enjoy writing a tell-all book and doing interviews from prison.”
“Then let’s ask him.”
Dalton waited for Jason to open the cell door. Thurmond was sitting on the cot with his back against the wall, waiting for them when they entered. “Who are you?”
Jason rolled his eyes. “He’s still a little shit.”
“I can tell,” Dalton said seriously.
“Will you testify about everything you’ve told him?”
“Testify to whom?” Thurmond asked as if he weren’t sitting in a black site.
“The court and Congress, if need be.”
“What do I get out of it?”
“How about not dying and a chance to be on every channel live as you’re telling Congress what role you played along with Sandra?” Dalton casually answered.
“I want immunity,” Thurmond said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“How about you die in a secret prison? You’ll be that asshole they’re glad disappeared,” Dalton countered.
Thurmond looked ready to argue, but one look at Jason had him changing his mind. “Fine. I’ll testify. But I want a lawyer.”
“You’ll get one. Here’s the deal. If there is anything you haven’t told us, and we find out, the deal will be as dead as you will be. Got it?” Dalton asked as he stared a mutinous Thurmond down. Thurmond was trying to be tough while clearly petrified of Jason at the same time.
Thurmond looked away and then back to Dalton. “Deal. I, um, know something that Sandra could tell you that I may have forgotten about until now.”
“What?” Jason snapped.
“Um, a private security group that Sandra and President Mitchell wanted to contract through the State Department. They had something to do with the report I was generating. They were to be part of the response team to the financial district and the Department of Energy.”
“Which private contractor was it?” Dalton asked, knowing they were onto something big here.
“CBL Services Group.”
Neither Dalton nor Jason said anything. They were intimately aware of how dangerous CBL was. The head of the company was retired Col. Brandon Locke. He was now in his early fifties, but Jason had worked with him quite a bit before Locke was quietly pushed out of the military. Dalton had worked with him for a year before the rumors became too much and the military was forced to either admit what happened under their watch or quietly pension him off. They chose to pension him off and bury the evidence as much as they could.
“Anything else?” Dalton asked.
Thurmond shook his head. “Not that I can think of. So, we have a deal?”
“Yes, we do. If you think of anything, knock o
n the door and tell him. No matter how big or small it is. Okay?”
“Okay. When do I get my attorney?”
“If you can use half of your brain to figure out why we’re asking this and connect the dots, then you’ll realize how much trouble you’re really in. When it’s over, you will get your lawyer. Until then, you will be fed, clothed, and treated well, unless you start withholding information. You are considered an enemy of the state and you need to understand that.”
Dalton turned to leave and Jason followed him out. They didn’t say anything until the door was locked. They walked a couple paces away and huddled together, dropping their voices.
“Why am I not surprised Locke is involved?” Jason asked rhetorically.
“All I know are the rumors. I met him a couple of times when we were overseas for rescues. I’d never met anyone so cold-blooded. He didn’t care if civilians were in harm’s way and that’s where the rumors came into play,” Dalton remembered.
“Brandon Locke is a disgrace to the military. He ran an elite group of black op soldiers who were just as bad as he was. They had absolutely no moral code. Sometimes you need that in war. But you need someone who can control them. Locke was more interested in riling them up and letting them loose than focusing on the mission.
“I remember a rescue that I was called in on before you joined us. They went into the mountains to try to find one of the high-value targets. They were caught in a shoot-out and one of them was injured. My team was called in for a medical evac. In the meantime, the terrorists were hiding among innocent families. By the time I arrived, they were all dead, and not from the terrorists. Locke had gone in and wiped them all out. Innocent or no, he didn’t care. He got his target. Children as young as two were murdered. My team found women with clothes ripped off and a single bullet in their head.” Jason looked down the hall as if he were there, looking at the casualties.
“I shoved Locke against the helo, but his men were on me in a heartbeat. They threatened us all and said what we saw were the casualties of war. We took it to our commander and were told, very clearly, to drop it. I heard there was an incident with a foreign ambassador and his family that finally ended Locke. It was a rescue mission and during the blood lust that followed the rescue, the ambassador’s daughter was raped by one of Locke’s men. Allegedly she was a very beautiful nineteen-year-old woman and was being held alone in a separate room. When the soldiers killed her captors, they thought they deserved an extra reward for saving her. The woman caused a scene, and Locke killed the girl to keep it quiet. The ambassador went straight to Sandra Cummings, who was the head of the Senate Foreign Affairs at the time, and it was covered up the best it could be, and Locke retired,” Jason said with a disgusted shake of his head.
“That’s the connection we needed, though,” Dalton said, pulling out his phone. No service. “Let’s check on Sandra and hear what she has to say about it. Then I think it’s time to renew our acquaintance with the colonel.”
Dalton followed Jason down the hall. Jason stopped at the door and then rushed to get it open. “Fuck!” he yelled, flinging the door open so hard it echoed off the metal wall. Dalton saw what it was the second he got through the door. The cot was leaning partially upright against a wall as if it had been stood on its end lengthwise and then kicked over. Sandra was hanging from the exposed beam by her bra a couple feet away. She’d found a place where a bolt had fallen out and slid her bra through making a noose. She’d shoved her cot upright and climbed up, kicked the cot away and hung herself.
“When did you last see her?” Dalton called out as he raced over to try to lift her in case she wasn’t dead.
“Right before you arrived. I took her pantyhose. Dammit, I didn’t think of her bra.” Jason moved the cot and took Dalton’s place, holding Sandra’s body so Dalton could climb up and cut her down.
Dalton cut the bra and Jason laid Sandra down on the ground, feeling for a pulse. “She’s dead.”
20
Valeria woke with her body pressed against Grant’s. She didn’t know how, but she’d somehow fallen asleep as they watched over Gene’s girls from their cabana. Grant was reclined with one arm behind his head and the other around her back and resting on her hip.
“I’m so sorry. I’ve never fallen asleep on a stakeout before.” Valeria made a move to sit up, but Grant kept her pinned there.
“It’s okay, lass. Rest. We leave in a couple hours for our red-eye anyway. They’ve just been swimming and sunning. We had a long night last night.” He leaned down and kissed her upturned lips, reminding her of the pleasures of staying up late with a man like Grant.
She rested her head back onto his chest and watched the girls being handed strawberry daiquiris. Since her time with Anthony, Val had been a one-night kind of girl. She didn’t trust. She didn’t want to have to decide ever again between love and the law. Instead, Val preferred no-strings-attached dates. However, she wasn’t ready to shove Grant out the door. Somewhere, over the rescue in Mexico, the rescue in California, the night in the desert, and time together at the resort, she had begun to trust him. And trust was dangerous in her book. It gave Grant power over her and that was something she didn’t know if she was ready for.
“You’re thinking so hard I can hear it,” Grant said softly as he began to absently stroke the curve of her hip with his thumb.
“Just trying to plan out our next step.”
“Of the operation or of us?” Grant asked, knowing her better than Anthony ever did. Not since Brock had any man really known her. Valeria had never thought she’d have those feelings again. Trust, affection, love.
“Both,” she said honestly.
“I know you’re blown away by my animal magnetism. It’s scary and intimidating, but as long as you don’t look deep into my eyes, you’ll be okay.”
Valeria burst out laughing. Maybe it was time to take a risk with her heart along with the mission. Grant smiled at her as she leaned up and kissed him.
“Hmm,” Grant said, pulling back. “Phone. It’s Dalton.”
Valeria sat up as Grant answered. She had enjoyed their moments together, free from the reality of their mission. But reality had a way of never really going away. The more you fought it, the harder it picked you up and slammed you back to earth.
“Fuckin’ A,” Grant cursed, sitting up quickly and looking at Valeria as Dalton continued to talk. “Yeah, we’re still here. We leave in a couple hours. Sure, we can catch an earlier flight. Tell Alex to get the girls on the same one. I don’t want to leave them here alone. I think they’re safe, but I don’t want to risk it until we’re out of the country.”
Valeria took in Grant’s hand as it opened and closed as if he were trying to remain calm. He finished his phone call and Valeria knew reality had just slammed them yet again.
“What is it?” she asked as he stared out over the open water, searching for signs of trouble.
“Have you ever met someone so evil they scared you to your core?”
Valeria thought about it. “Angered me, worried me, threatened me, sure. But scare me that deeply? No.”
“You will. Retired Colonel Brandon Locke. He’s the owner of CBL Services Group. Private security of the worst kind,” Grant told her. The more he told her, the colder Valeria felt. It didn’t matter she was in the hot summer sun. To know that kind of evil was out there chilled her,but sadly didn’t surprise her.
“Dalton wants me to go with him and Jason to see Locke. They believe he’s with Mollia Domini and will be used by them as their own private army.”
“Where are their offices?”
“New York City.”
“We’ll all go. Lizzy and I certainly aren’t ones to sit back keeping the home fires burning.”
Grant shook his head. “Locke will talk even less if you’re there. He finds women worthless. He’d order you taken out the second we have our backs turned because no matter how hard Dalton and I hide it, he’ll see we care about you both.”
&n
bsp; It rubbed Valeria the wrong way to be considered a liability, but she understood. She threatened family members all the time to get people to talk. “We’ll be invisible. We’ll stay in the van or in lookout positions.”
“I think we can handle that.”
“Rebecca or Stephanie Rankin,” a hotel staffer called out as he walked through the sand in his white shorts and bright blue polo.
“Here!” Rebecca called out from her chair in front of Grant and Valeria.
“We have you scheduled for a shuttle to the airport this evening, however, your flight has been changed. You leave in two hours. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
The sisters quickly gathered their things as Grant called the man over. “I just got notice our flight was also cancelled and rebooked for earlier. Can you arrange two more seats on that shuttle for us?”
“Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Browning.”
Valeria watched the staffer hurry back to the resort as she gave one last look out over the ocean. It had been twelve blissful hours, but reality was a bitch.
* * *
Dalton, Lizzy, and Jason were the first to arrive at the tunnels. She hated waiting but knew it would be safer to go through the tunnels all at once. With the increased security, she didn’t want to have to open and close the hidden entrance to the White House residence more than necessary.
Dalton had given her the abbreviated version of what had happened, and since then, neither he nor Jason had said much. Lizzy didn’t push. She had said she would go with them and they’d both said no with such force she didn’t bring it up again. She’d see what Valeria said because she had no intention of staying behind.
The secret door leading from the basement of the hotel opened and Valeria entered, followed by Grant and Alex. Grant looked around in wonder, and Lizzy wondered if she’d ever looked so awestruck. Then she remembered the first time she came through the tunnels she had a sack over her head.
Lizzy greeted them as Dalton began to lead the pack up the tunnels. Lizzy hung back and put a restraining hand on Valeria’s arm for a brief second. It was more than enough as Valeria instantly slowed and moved to her side.
Shattered Lies Page 15