Executive Bodyguard (The Enforcers)

by Debra Webb

  “A few billion,” he corrected. “Part of Eugenics’ budget is siphoned from the Pentagon, NSA, NASA. There’s much more at stake than you realize.”

  She strode up to him, hands on hips. “If this project is so damned important then how come I know hardly anything about it? NSA, DOD, no one has ever mentioned it before.”

  “You weren’t ready to know yet,” he said bluntly. “There was no reason to tell you. Everything was under control.”

  She felt trapped in some kind of time warp where nothing was as it seemed. “Okay, let’s say for the sake of conversation that I believe you. Winslow was the bad guy all along. He thought he’d sway my support and get the funding shift. Meanwhile he riles up Redmond in hopes of keeping me distracted. Who was supposed to be behind the calls or those attempts on my life?”

  “The same man who likely murdered your husband.”

  The words sent her stumbling for the closest place to sit. He reached for her, but she refused his help. “How can you say that? The investigation revealed no conclusive evidence of foul play.”

  The man—Cain—moved closer to her, sat down on the sofa next to her. “Justin Winters met with a known associate of the people who are behind the Genesis Project. He may have been working with them and they felt double-crossed. Whatever the case, the crash was no accident. My people conducted their own investigation before anyone else even knew where the plane had crashed. Your people found only what they were allowed to find.”

  Her face paled again and she looked at him in sheer horror. “That’s how you have Justin’s wedding band.”

  Cain stared at the finger where the gold band resided. It wasn’t his…it belonged to her. He pulled it free and offered it to her. “Little else was found.”

  She snatched the ring from his hand, renewed fury crackling in those wide hazel eyes. “If you know so damned much then you tell me how to stop Winslow. How do I even prove any of this?”

  “He’s probably dead already. My people,” he said carefully, “have likely already taken care of him. It’s the person inside your staff, the person close to you who’s been feeding him the information he has used to get to you that we need right now.”

  Confusion lined her smooth brow. “What do you mean?”

  “The calls. It had to be someone close to you to have your private number…to know just what to do to get to you. The attempt on your life at that restaurant, who knew you would be there? Think, Caroline, who is close enough to know your every move? To change schedules in order to throw you off, to make you look incompetent?”

  Reality settled down on her shoulders like a damp wool coat. He was right. It had taken someone close to her to pull off the schedule inconsistencies…to know her private number.

  “Who would know about your father’s files? That you looked to them at times when you remembered something similar he’d faced in the past?”

  A rock of anguish settled heavily in her stomach. Her secretary had access to her calendar but knew nothing of Caroline’s father’s files. It couldn’t be. There were only two people that she trusted on that level besides her husband and he was dead.

  “Rupert and Dennis.”

  She shook her head in denial even as the names echoed in the room. “I won’t believe that one of them would be involved.” She shook her head again. “Dennis was there the day I was shot at. He could have been killed as well.

  “Rupert…”

  “Was back at the safe house,” he finished for her.

  Caroline closed her eyes, but she couldn’t hide from the truth. Cain—her senses revolted at calling him the name that sounded so alien to her—was right. She scrubbed her hands over her face and through her hair. “God, what do I do?”

  Cain remained silent, allowing her to come to her own conclusions. She was thankful for that.

  “We don’t have much time,” she said finally. “But before I can accuse my senior adviser of wrongdoing, of treason, I have to be sure.”

  Cain nodded. “A test.”

  Her gaze collided with his. “A test.”

  IT WAS DARK when headlights flashed across the front of the house. Caroline waited in her father’s study. Her mother had been taken to a hotel for safekeeping. She’d told Rupert where the spare key was. He was to meet her there supposedly to discuss the traitor she had discovered and decide on a course of action.

  When she heard him fumbling for the key and no other headlights arrived she knew the truth.

  Rupert had betrayed her.

  She had used the code phrase they had decided on when she first took office. If Caroline ever found herself in a desperate situation of any sort where she needed help immediately she would say the phrase: Mother is expecting you for dinner next Thursday, can you make it?

  She and Rupert had laughed at the silliness of it. After all she had the entire Secret Service to protect her, but he had insisted that he know if she ever needed him in a way that she was not free to voice out loud.

  Today she had needed him and he’d failed her. He had not called for help…had not taken the measures they had agreed upon if the code phrase was ever initiated. He’d come here alone. To finish the ultimate betrayal.

  Agent Copeland and a dozen FBI agents were in the house, around the house, stationed as necessary to protect her. Levitt had told her Copeland was injured but he’d lied. Justin—Cain, she amended—had merely disabled him and restrained him. One call to Copeland’s cell phone and she’d won herself an ally. Rather than risk who Levitt had turned among her regular security detail, she had allowed Copeland to call his friends at the Bureau. She sat at her father’s desk. A bulletproof vest beneath her blouse protected her torso.

  A quiet squeak warned that the front door had opened. Caroline’s tension escalated. Agent Copeland and Cain were both in the room with her. Two more agents were in the living room with another hidden in the entry hall. She was safe and yet she was not prepared for this moment.

  Part of her still didn’t want to believe it could be true. Not Rupert.

  Footsteps echoed in the hall, slow, deliberate. But he didn’t call out to her. Caroline’s heart twisted in anguish. He suddenly stopped. Her breath caught. A tinkling sound whispered through the darkness.

  The rattle of coins. He was jingling his change.

  A single teardrop rolled down her cheek. Rupert always did that when he felt at a loss for what to say or do next. Was he having second thoughts now? Did he regret the day he’d agreed to this betrayal?

  A succinct snap sounded and then he started forward again, made his way through the dark hall to her father’s study and paused at the door. He flipped on the light.

  Caroline blinked to adjust to the sudden light.

  “Really, Caroline, waiting in the dark? That’s a little bizarre, don’t you think?”

  Dennis.

  Confusion scattered the words she had prepared to hurl at Rupert. “Dennis, what’re you doing here?”

  He waved the gun in his hand, the barrel leveling on her in the end. “I showed up at your office as I promised and Rupert was rushing out the door insisting that you were in trouble.” Dennis shrugged. “When he told me what had happened and that he had to call in backup, I knew I had to take care of this myself.”

  Her head moved from side to side of its own volition. “Where’s Rupert?” This couldn’t be. Dennis was her friend. She’d known him forever…told him everything.

  He cocked his head toward the door. “He’s in the car. But I don’t think he’s in the mood to talk, he’s pretty much dead.”

  Hurt swelled in her chest and she stood before she had the good sense to stay still. They’d told her not to move from her position.

  “What’re you doing, Dennis? How could you betray me?”

  He glanced around the room. “Before we get into that, where’s your lover? I know he left with you. You know, I knew that guy wasn’t Justin the moment you told me you’d found him.”

  “He’s dead.”

&nb
sp; “Yeah, Justin’s dead all right.” Dennis nodded, his expression mocking. “But where’s the stand-in, the one who got you off when old Justin couldn’t?”

  Caroline shuddered with too many emotions to separate. “You bastard. He’s dead too. Didn’t Levitt tell you? He killed him.” Caroline knew that Levitt was in custody in the private conference room. Redmond was there as well, although he was not in official custody. Her most trusted member of the Cabinet, Secretary of State Hall, was interrogating the two in order to determine what he could about their respective parts in this matter. The latest technology in lie detection had been brought over by the CIA. No one else at the White House was aware of anything that had happened this day. The injured agents had been sent to Walter Reed for twenty-four-hour monitoring under guard.

  No one would know of any of this…until Caroline was ready for them to know…if ever.

  “Actually, now that you mention it, I didn’t see Levitt.” He glanced around the room once more. “He’s not hanging around here anywhere pretending to be your friend now, is he? He’d better not. How do you think I screwed with your calendar all those times?”

  “There’s no one here but us,” Caroline said, fury boiling beneath her words. “I’m on the run, or didn’t you know it? Redmond is meeting with the Cabinet right now to try and invoke the Twenty-Fifth.”

  Dennis nodded. “Oh yeah. I do recall that Levitt had the impression the good old VP wanted you out of the way.”

  “Tell me why,” she urged, not only for the ears listening but also for her own peace of mind. She had to know why her closest friend had betrayed her.

  “Gosh, Caroline, I wish I could give you some higher moral reasoning but you see, it’s nothing like that. It’s simply about the money. Waylon Galen made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. All I had to do was make life miserable for you while his busy little soldiers—like Winslow—did his dirty work.” Dennis placed his free hand over his heart in emphasis of his words. “It was so easy. Between what you told me and what Justin babbled on about, I had all the ammunition I needed.”

  “Justin? When did Justin talk to you about me?”

  “When we first became lovers,” Dennis said pointedly. “Don’t you know anything?”

  The weight of that statement forced her back down into her chair.

  “Don’t feel bad, it didn’t last long. Apparently Justin didn’t like men any more than he did women. I even tried to recruit him to help me get you out of the way. Galen made him a great offer as well, but he refused. Had some stupid loyalty to you even if he couldn’t bring himself to have sex with you.”

  Caroline held up her hands. “I don’t want to hear any more.” She couldn’t bear it. It was too much.

  “Oh, come on, babe. Don’t you want to know just how involved the process of removing a president from office can be? You only have a couple of choices, make ’em look crazy or assassinate ’em. Hell, you beat us at every turn. Between you and that special bodyguard they—whoever the hell they is—sent you, we couldn’t win for losing.”

  He shrugged again. “I guess I’m just gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way.” He laughed as he pulled the slide back on the weapon in his hand. “I’ve never had to kill anyone before tonight. Hell, I even forgot to put the clip back in the damned thing after accidentally ejecting it. Had to stop in the hallway and do that. But you see, Winslow didn’t follow through so I have no choice.” He looked at the gun then at her. “Recognize it? It was your father’s. They’re going to find you and the note you’re about to write, of course. It’ll be perfect. I’ll tell them all about how I tried to console you but you were determined to end your life when you lost your husband for the second time. And we do have all these other mix-ups to toss in.”

  “Don’t come any closer,” she warned. As much as she hated Dennis right now, she didn’t want him to die. The idea that he’d hurt Rupert made her want to scream with agony and at the same time she wanted to shake some sense into this man who’d always been so level-headed. How could she have missed this side of him? He’d always seemed so far above greed…above this kind of evil. How could she not have seen him for what he was? “Put the gun down, Dennis.”

  He laughed, that ugly, hateful sound that spoke of pure evil. “Make it easy on yourself, doll, you’re already dead. You just gotta write the note.”

  “Dennis, please—”

  He took another step and a gunshot exploded in the room. Dennis staggered back a step, shock registering on his face. He stared down at the leaking bullet hole in the center of his chest and then he crumpled to the floor, the weapon he’d wielded sliding across the floor.

  Caroline stumbled back from the desk. She struggled to breathe. Oh God. The car. He’d said Rupert was in the car…pretty much dead. “Rupert!”

  FBI agents descended upon the room. Cain climbed from beneath the desk where he’d taken up a position, ultimately shooting Dennis through the wood panel that had shielded him from view. He would later explain that his heightened senses had alerted him to precisely when to fire.

  Caroline found Rupert still alive…barely. Someone called an ambulance. She held her beloved friend and begged him not to die on her.

  There were so many people in her mother’s yard. A man speaking to Cain. Blue lights flickering. The sound of a siren wailing in the distance.

  Paramedics were suddenly at the car, moving Rupert. Her hands went to her mouth to hold back the cries that welled in her throat. Only then did she notice the blood. So much blood.

  She scrambled out of the car to follow the paramedics. From across the lawn her gaze locked with Cain’s. For two beats she couldn’t move…she could only feel the flood of emotions emanating from him.

  The ambulance was leaving…she had to go.

  Caroline, along with Copeland and another of her security detail, boarded a second ambulance without looking back. She had no way of knowing that she would never see the face of Justin Winters again.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Oval Office

  One month later…

  “Madam President, you won’t regret giving us your full support.” Governor Kyle Remmington, a Republican currently representing the great state of Colorado and the newly elected head of the Collective, offered his hand.

  “I’m confident I won’t.” Caroline shook his hand firmly and then reached for the other man’s. “Director O’Riley, it was a pleasure to meet you. I hope you know that I’ll be visiting your facility in the near future. I’d like to see those funds at work.”

  Remmington and O’Riley exchanged a look, then O’Riley smiled. “Come anytime, President Winters. I think you’ll be impressed.”

  “I already am.”

  Caroline walked the men to the door and exchanged the final pleasantries. O’Riley paused before leaving. “Give me a moment,” he said to the governor. Remmington nodded his understanding. O’Riley turned back to Caroline when his companion had moved out of hearing range. “Tell me, Madam President,” he said with emphatic formality, “what can I do for you? I want to show my gratitude in a tangible manner for your support.”

  She smiled, barely holding back the tremble that quaked her lips. “I appreciate the thought, Director O’Riley. But I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do for me.” She wasn’t clear what he was asking, but she didn’t want him to feel indebted. She’d made this decision based on the good of the nation; what he could or could not offer her played no role in the matter.

  O’Riley winked. “You’d be surprised what I can do,” he said enigmatically.

  He walked away with that mysterious statement hanging in the air. Caroline moved back to her desk and reviewed the afternoon’s calendar. She sighed. She so missed Rupert. But he wouldn’t be back to work for another two weeks. Those last days before he’d been shot, she had learned he’d been distracted by his own investigation into the strange happenings around Caroline. He would be on leave longer if her mother had anything to do with it. The two were now
officially dating. Caroline thanked God he was alive.

  Memories of that night descended upon her before she could stop them as she usually did. She thought of how Dennis and Agent Levitt had betrayed her. How Redmond himself had almost fallen into the trap. Samuel Hall’s interrogation had proven that Redmond hadn’t been personally involved. He’d been arrogant and uncooperative, but that was as far as his participation had gone.

  Winslow had been the middleman between the White House and the Concern. Dr. Waylon Galen had hoped to regain the power he’d lost so many years ago. His bitterness had turned him evil. His vicious machinations had cost numerous lives. Though he had not been found, his plans had been thwarted. He was impotent without the funding he had sought. They’d also learned that the Concern was responsible in great part for the increasing antagonism in Colombia against the United States. The facility Galen had built there had been located and dismantled.

  The knowledge that Justin had not betrayed her in the end relieved Caroline. Dennis had preyed upon his uncertainty about his sexuality. He had used him and then allowed him to be murdered by Galen’s people when he would have given Caroline the evidence to stop these atrocities months ago.

  And then there was Cain. The man she hadn’t even really known, but with whom she’d fallen deeply, deeply in love. Or maybe it was simply lust. He’d brought her back to life, had touched her as no other man had. She’d told herself that she truly believed him to be her husband and that’s why she’d made love with him, when the truth was she’d suspected something all along, but she’d wanted him so badly she had ignored her instincts.

  Now he was gone.

  She’d wanted to ask O’Riley to tell her what had become of Cain since he had disobeyed the direct order to eliminate her. O’Riley didn’t like that his man had shared that truth with her, but he’d explained that he’d done what he had to do to protect Center. In a twisted sort of way she recognized his admission as a sign of extreme loyalty. But the more human side of her wanted to slap him for having the nerve to play God.