That couldn’t be good. Christopher “Abe” Powers was the last person I wanted talking to the President about me. Abe valued honesty and integrity more than anything, both of which I lacked in this situation.
“I’ve read all the SITREPS and briefs. Now I’d like to hear straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, what transpired and how you came to the conclusion your best option was to betray your country.”
I tried my hardest not to squirm under the President’s scrutiny, but I was failing. My knee was bouncing, my palms were sweaty, and the words were caught in my throat. For six months I’d barely held it together. The only thing not allowing me to give up was knowing there were people counting on me to keep them alive. Now that Jaxon had explained they were all as good as dead, the driving force was gone. I had nothing to be brave for. I hated being weak and more than that, I hated others seeing it.
Jaxon’s hand gripped my knee and held it still and Zane pushed the bottle of water Jaxon had given me earlier in front of me. I took a sip and mentally prepared myself to relive the last few months.
I started at the beginning, telling the President how I was approached and talked all the way through killing the man in my living room and seeking out Zane’s help. It was the same account I’d told Zane; the same story I was sure the President had already read in his briefs. I didn’t leave a single incriminating detail out. I explained how and when I’d hacked into Attorney General Peter Newton’s emails, and how I was able to get into the White House emails between Pamela Cox and his wife. I admitted I’d read the personal emails and given the information to Timothy Clark.
“What tipped you off that Olivia Cox was Peter Newton’s daughter?” the President asked.
“I found an old email account of Mr. Newton’s. One of the emails was from Mr. Newton’s father asking Peter if the child Pamela was carrying was his and if so he was to make sure she had an abortion. Peter’s father didn’t want a scandal. The reply from Peter to his father explained Pamela’s child was not his but a man she’d met while in Paris for the summer. He went on to explain the man had died. Call it woman’s intuition but something didn’t seem right. All the previous correspondence between Mr. Newton and Miss Cox were of two people very much in love. Miss Cox did not strike me as a woman who would take a lover behind his back. I looked into Miss Cox’s life in France and there was nothing that led me to believe she’d cheated. It was the opposite actually. She was deeply in love with Mr. Newton.
“Once I found the connection to Pamela Cox, I started to look into her and her daughter Olivia. Miss Cox’s personal emails were a dead end. However, her internet searches proved to be helpful. She’d looked up several research hospitals and alternative medical treatments for brain tumors, along with how to draft a living will pro se. That’s when I hit pay dirt. Why would a woman who had money and connections, including access to the First Lady of the United States, want to draft her own living will and not use an attorney? Pamela Cox was hiding something. I hacked into the White House server to see if she and Mr. Newton had been communicating via their government email accounts. They hadn’t, but Miss Cox and the First Lady had. Pamela admitted Olivia was Peter’s child. Mrs. Anderson urged Miss Cox to tell Olivia and Mr. Newton the truth, not because Miss Cox was ill but because it was the right thing to do. Olivia needed to know her father.”
The President seemed satisfied with my explanation. “Sounds like my Rissa, always wanting to do the right thing.”
It was sweet, if you could call the POTUS sweet, that he called his wife, Marissa, Rissa. His face had softened a fraction when he said her name, but now he was looking back at me and the hard stare returned.
“If I’m understanding correctly, you sound like given the opportunity you wouldn’t change what you have done.”
“There are a few things I would change,” I admitted.
“Such as?” he asked.
Upon reflection, I’d realized I made some mistakes.
“I would’ve paid more attention to the shipments in and out of the house where Olivia was being held. My laziness almost got the extraction team killed. I didn’t know Manuel had set the house to explode. I also deeply regret killing the man in my apartment. When I did so, I believed he was a Chinese MSS agent. In my ignorance and silly assumptions, I killed a man that might have been being blackmailed by Manuel just like I was. I’m not saying crimes against the country shouldn’t be punished, but I shouldn’t have been the one to deliver them.”
“That’s what you’d change? Not helping Manuel kidnap Olivia? Not breaking into the White House servers. Not reading my wife’s personal emails to her assistant? Not giving information to a Bolivian war lord?”
I knew my answer was the unpopular one, and it went against everything these men believed but I would not back down.
“Sir, with all due respect, I thought then and still do, what I did was the right thing. I weighed my options and measured them carefully. There are one-hundred-five names on that list, their safety, and the catastrophic impact their exposure would’ve caused, was and still is more important than Peter Newton’s privacy. I don’t mean to sound callous, as I’ve explained, I’m sorry that Olivia Cox’s life was put in danger; however, it was for the greater good and national security. When I received the information a SEAL platoon was in danger and proprietary hardware had been compromised, I went to the only person I thought I could trust.”
“But you didn’t think to trust them when you were first blackmailed?” the President inquired.
“No sir, I didn’t. And I regret not thinking to do so. However, I don’t think they would’ve protected the list. I knowingly went against the United States policy and basically negotiated with a terrorist. For that alone, I willingly committed treason, and I’m fully aware of the punishment. I know I have no rights, and I’ve already mentioned this to Jasmin, but if I may be granted one small leniency - I beg you not to tell Declan what I’ve done.”
“Why is that?” Zane asked.
“He doesn’t deserve to feel any guilt. If he knows I’m spending the rest of my life in prison because I was trying to protect the names, his included, he’ll feel responsible. I don’t want that for him. He didn’t know.”
“Any luck tracking down Manuel or Declan?” the President asked Zane.
“Not yet. I have Garret and my team, as well as Tex, trying to get a lock on both of them,” Zane answered.
“And the list? Have the names been released?”
“Surprisingly no. Ortega seems more interested in Violet at the moment. Tex was able to shut down the sale of the guidance chip by going into chatrooms and explaining the US is no longer using the mini drones. Seems no one wants to buy technology that is no longer being used.”
I waited for the President and Zane to finish their conversation, tuning out the rest of what they were talking about, and concentrating on Jaxon’s hand still on my knee. I was going to miss him when he was gone. It was strange to think I’d only known him a few days, most of which were spent with him not being very fond of me. How, in such a small amount of time, had I come to care about him? The connection I felt was more than physical, it was comforting and soothing. I felt it deep in my soul.
I wondered if I’d be taken now? I’d given Zane all the information I had. I was of no use to them anymore. Now I was the strap Jasmin had once accused me of being. I was dead weight and Jaxon having to babysit me was a waste of man hours. I should’ve been happy I had a few stolen moments with him to take with me. How perfect it had been to be kissed and touched by Jaxon Cain. And loved, even if it was with his body. I’d lock those memories away and keep them close. But it wasn’t enough. I was greedy and wished I had more time with him.
It was the perfect punishment for what I’d done. I’d spend the rest of my life wishing I had more time with him, longing for the feel of him wrapped around me, and always wondering what if.
Chapter Sixteen
Jaxon
Violet was lost
in thought. She’d pulled into herself when Zane and the President started discussing how Tex was trying to track down her brother and Manuel. I was proud of her for answering him with honesty. She’d conducted herself with respect and never wavered from what she believed was the right thing. I was surprised when she’d asked us not to tell Declan she was involved, though I shouldn’t have been. All along she’d been willing to fall on the sword and never asked for anything other than understanding. What mattered to Violet was not that we agreed with her, but that we understood why she’d done it.
I knew Tom was going to pardon Violet the minute he’d sat across from her. Even though he still hadn’t told her. Tom Anderson was a fair man; he loved his country and family. Both he held dear. And though I doubt he’d admit it, and I had a hard time acknowledging it also, but in the grand scheme of things protecting national interest outweighed one person. It was a hard admission, especially because I now knew Olivia, and my friend and teammate Leo was in love with her.
The only thing Violet was guilty of was not telling someone she was being blackmailed. The perimeter alarm sounded, and I looked at the monitor then at Zane. His face was pulled into what could be described as a grimace, but for him it was a smile - a wicked one that told me I wasn’t going to like what he’d planned. When the three occupants exited the SUV, I wanted to strangle Zane. Violet’s knee had started to once again bounce, and she was biting her bottom lip. She recognized them as well.
Zane and Tom stood as the newest additions to our meeting joined us in the basement. Aaron and Gerald stepped aside allowing them to enter the room.
“Jasmin,” Tom greeted.
“Uncle.” She allowed Tom to pull her into a hug and when he released her she gave the rest of us a lift of her chin.
“Panther. Nice to see you again,” Tom reached out and shook Leo’s hand. “Olivia.”
Olivia remained quiet and kept her eyes locked on Violet. I made a move to stand, wanting to put myself between the two women. Violet stopped me when she grabbed my hand and squeezed.
“Mr. Pres… er… Tom,” Leo quickly corrected his greeting. All of us, me included, still had a hard time referring to the POTUS by his first name, though he insisted and would brow-beat you if you forgot.
The silence in the room was deafening as Olivia, and now Leo, sized up Violet. Zane seemed pretty proud of himself for setting up this ambush.
“This her?” Leo asked. He’d slipped into the cold and calculating mercenary.
Much to my surprise Violet stood, her back ramrod straight, and with steel infused into her tone she introduced herself.
“Did you know?” Olivia’s voice broke the tension.
“Did I know what?” Violet asked.
She softened her tone when addressing Olivia directly and her shoulders hunched. Now that she’d come face-to-face with the woman she’d had a hand in kidnapping, the reality seemed to be getting to her.
“That they were going to kidnap and torture me?”
“No. I didn’t know what they’d planned on doing with the information. As far as I knew, they wanted the information to blackmail the Attorney General into releasing a man Mr. Newton was holding in rendition.”
“Would you have still given them the information if you’d known they were going to kidnap me?”
Tears formed in Violet’s eyes and she hung her head. After a few minutes of silence, she lifted her gaze to Olivia and answered.
“Yes.” Violet didn’t try and hide her shame or her tears. And when Leo growled, Violet startled but continued. “I was willing to sacrifice you as well as myself if it meant that the list didn’t become public. I had to try and protect their identities.”
“What the fuck gives you the right to decide who gets to be sacrificed?” Leo asked.
My muscles tightened at the tone he was using. It was an inexplicable reaction, one I never thought I’d feel. Leo was a close friend and a teammate. We trusted each other with our lives. Our friendship was solid and battle-tested yet I wanted to rip his throat out from talking to Violet the way he was. A woman I barely knew.
“The same thing that gives you the right to go into battle and kill for the cause. I took the same oath you did to protect this country from all enemies. I didn’t get to decide who the enemy was and what they were going to do. I had the lives of American agents in my hands. Agents I am willing to give my life to protect. While I am deeply sorry Olivia was put in harm’s way, let’s not forget once I knew she’d been taken I tried my best to give you all the information you needed to find her. I didn’t want one single American death. However, one-hundred and five other Americans were at risk. And I hate to be crass here, but you know their deaths wouldn’t have been clean. They wouldn’t have been kept in a room chained to a wall, given food and water. While my heart breaks for Olivia, and I’m not belittling what happened to her, those men and women would have been tortured, and it would’ve been broadcasted and celebrated. I couldn’t live with myself knowing…” Her voice cracked, and she stopped to clear her throat. “I couldn’t live knowing they’d suffer, the last deep cover agent that was burned was beheaded, carved up, and hung from a fucking bridge by his arms, Leo. So, I’m sorry about what happened, but I still wouldn’t change it. And I’m sorry Olivia. If I could’ve been the one locked in the room, I would’ve gladly changed places with you.”
The room was so still. Olivia’s sobs seemed to echo around the room. Leo pulled her into his arms, his large frame engulfing the woman. When she spoke, her words were barely audible. “I understand.”
I should’ve known my friend wouldn’t let it go. “I don’t. I will never understand why you thought what you were doing was right. You almost got an innocent woman killed. When I found Olivia, her wrists were infected, and she was severely dehydrated. Another day and she could’ve died.”
“Leo. That’s not fair. Have you ever had to make a judgement call, one that was uncomfortable? One that you’re not proud of?” Olivia asked.
“Don’t. Do not compare my honorable service to what this bitch has done.”
“Easy, brother. I get why you’re mad. But let’s ease up on calling her a bitch,” I told him.
“Ease up? What the fuck? So now you’re gonna take her side over my woman?” Leo returned.
“It’s not like that and you know it. I’ll always have Olivia’s back because she’s yours. All I’m saying is if the woman we found in that house was anyone other than Olivia, you might be looking at this situation a different way.”
“Would I? She nearly cost Olivia her life! And it wasn’t another woman, it was my woman,” Leo yelled.
“No one is arguing that. But she did it to save more than a hundred others. And she did send us Olivia’s location. And she did bring us intel to help Wolf and his team. And she did step in front of a bullet for Jasmin and saved her life. So, while you want to be pissed because it’s your woman who Violet wronged, let’s be real here. Both of us have had to make hard calls, hard calls that ended with someone dead. We’ve both been in her shoes. The difference? We pulled the trigger. She didn’t have it in her to sacrifice Olivia.”
“She gave intel to a fucking terrorist,” Leo continued to argue.
“She did.”
“She did not call it in. She went all rogue-fucking-warrior and took it upon herself to make judgment calls so far above her paygrade they’re in a different universe.”
“She did,” I continued to agree.
“And now you’re what, just okay with it?” he spat out.
“Fuck no, I’m not just okay with it. The difference is I’ve had more time to understand why she made those calls.”
“Serious as fuck. You’re buying this bullshit? Or is it because you’ve spent the last twenty-four-hours balls deep…”
“I wouldn’t finish that sentence,” I told him and pushed Violet behind me.
“Enough!” Zane barked. “Christ, when did my men start acting like thirteen-year-old prepubescent boys that
just popped their first boner. Panther, you don’t have to like it. I knew you wouldn’t, but once you stop thinking about Olivia you’ll see what the rest of us see.”
“And what’s that Z?” Leo fired back.
“A situation that was or is completely FUBAR. As pissed as I am at her, and I reserve the right to call her a dumbass or The Leak in the future, after reviewing Tex’s intel I agree with her. I would’ve given the information about Peter Newton to Timothy Fuckwit Clark. I’m sorry, you’ve always been a little crazy when it comes to protecting Olivia. Once you have time to think on the situation, you’ll understand.”
I wasn’t sure if my jaw had hit the ground. That was the first time I’d heard Zane say he agreed with Violet’s actions. I found it surprising he’d admit he would have done the same thing. The President cleared his throat, reminding us all he was still in the room and had witnessed our argument.
“I have a few things to tell you all before I get back to the White House. Off the record, as a UDT and man, not as the President. First, thank you Violet for saving my niece. Panther? Blue?” He waited until Leo and I broke our stare down and looked at him. “Goddamn, I miss being a young man with a fire in my gut that made me want to raise hell and crack skulls. The fury and fire you feel deep in your soul that reminds you you’re alive. We have a common enemy, Manuel Ortega. He has a list of names, your brothers and sisters, and it’s up to you to find him and eliminate him. Panther, that woman standing beside you that you so fiercely love and protect was given to you by that woman over there.” The President stopped and pointed at Violet. “As fate saw fit, Violet’s actions sent you to save her. She also found a father she never knew she had. You can waste your energy being pissed or you can be the man I know you are and assess, survey, and evaluate your current situation and find you would’ve sacrificed the few for the good of the many as well. Zane, we’ll talk later. One more thing before I leave.” Tom walked closer to Violet and offered her his hand. When she took it, he gave her a tug, so she was standing almost toe-to-toe with him. “Don’t ever be so stupid again that you allow the filth and scum of this earth to collar you and bind your hands. I understand you thought you were doing the best you knew how when you were alone. You’re not alone anymore. Any issue, even the smallest hint of an issue, you go to Jaxon or Zane.”
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Redeeming Violet (Kindle Worlds) Page 10