by Kim Baldwin
“This woman—”
“It looks like she knows or owns a lot of people in high places, including Moore,” Wagner went on. “That’s why I was terrified to talk to you or even suggest what was going on. The woman gets personal invites to the White House. That should tell you how powerfully dangerous she is. Christ, I wouldn’t be surprised if she owned the place.”
“How do you know she gets invites?”
“Because that’s where I finally put a face to the voice. I’d recognize that voice anywhere.”
Shield sat forward. “You what?”
“She was invited to the state dinner for the Argentine president, and Moore introduced us. She came especially to check on me.”
“I saw her.” Shield remembered the older, attractive woman who’d arrived late.
“It was because of her I needed to get away and collect myself. You came to my room that night and we almost kissed…” Wagner went silent.
“The woman with the white hair.”
“And you didn’t have the pleasure of talking to her. She has the coldest voice and deadest eyes I’ve ever seen. My skin crawled when I touched her hand. It was like ice.”
Shield got up. “Who is she?”
“According to the guest list I studied and Rat…Moore…her name is Theodora Rothschild.”
Shield ran her hand through her hair as she stared at the floor. “I know that name, but from where?” she said to herself.
“Of the Rothschild Auction Houses.”
“The auction…you must be kidding.”
“Why?”
“She’s a client of mine,” Shield said. “Her secretary places orders directly to Tuscany.”
“But she doesn’t know you.”
Shield was still in disbelief. Rothschild was a huge name in the auction business, and although probably a wealthy individual, the woman had the power to own politicians and organize crimes of this magnitude? “Why would she? I’ve never dealt directly with her, and for privacy and security reasons due to my job with the EOO, I kept my company under Pepo’s name. The original owner.”
“But I swear I don’t know who this TQ is that that woman who saved us accused me of working for.”
Shield was lost in thought. “Huh? Yeah, the name doesn’t mean anything to me, either.”
She reached over and picked up the phone. “But maybe my employer knows.” Thankfully, she got a dial tone. “Shield, 29041971. Put me through to Pierce ASAP.”
*
Southwestern Colorado
Montgomery Pierce sat in his favorite armchair while Joanne massaged his shoulders.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised the grave was empty,” he said.
The op they’d sent to Kansas to check on Dario’s supposedly dead sister had confirmed Chase’s suspicions. Chase hadn’t sounded at all surprised when Monty called to tell her but had tried to reassure him they at least had something to go on. First thing tomorrow morning, she was going to Kansas herself to find anyone who knew the Imperis.
Reno had been assigned to find any adoption papers from the period that matched, but so far, his attempts had been fruitless. The baby had probably been sold, and no legal papers were ever drawn.
Monty sighed and looked up at Joanne. “We have to find someone who knew the parents. Someone must know—” The ringing of his telephone cut him off. He jumped up to answer it.
“You can’t keep this up, Monty,” Joanne said as he reached for it. “I’m worried, too, but you’re going to give yourself a heart attack if your blood pressure hits the ceiling every time the phone rings.”
“I’m fine. Stop coddling me.” He put the receiver to his ear. “Any news?”
“I have Shield on the phone.”
Monty took the receiver with him back to the armchair. “Put her through.”
He listened while Shield explained what had happened and how she’d gotten away. Halfway during the whole bizarre story he put the speakerphone on for Joanne, who was going crazy with his exclamations.
“I’ll be damned,” he said. “A fake president.”
“A very convincing one,” Shield said. “Do you know Theodora Rothschild?”
“Who?” he asked.
“Of the Rothschild Auction Houses. She’s the one who framed and hired Wagner, and unless someone finds her, she will not stop looking for us. We’re the only ones who know who she is and what she’s done, and she’s looking at terrorist charges. You know what that means.”
“Where are you now?” he asked.
“We’re at this abandoned safe house a few miles from Washington.”
“You don’t mean the one in Burke?”
“That’s the one,” Shield confirmed.
“How did you know about it?” he asked. “It’s exclusively EOO, but we haven’t used it in a decade or more.”
“It looks it. This woman who helped us escape told me where to find it.”
“How did she know?”
“I have no clue.”
Monty looked at Joanne to see whether she knew about an agent under cover in the area. She shook her head, as mystified as he was. “What’s her name?” he asked Shield.
“She wouldn’t say. I asked her to come with us, but she said she had to stay or they’d kill her. She said she was working for the same woman as Wagner, someone named TQ. But Wagner says she’s never heard of a TQ. You know, for a while I thought our helper was one of ours in deep cover—she used the EOO mantra to signal me.”
“By any means necessary?” Monty said distractedly.
“I offered to help her. Told her my people would protect her, but—”
“But what?”
“It was strange, but she said my people don’t give a damn about her.”
Joanne gasped. “What did she look like?”
“Dark hair, cut kinda short,” Shield replied. “She had green eyes, and a scar from her cheek to the corner of her mouth.”
“Oh, my God!” Joanne cried out.
“One of the men called her Silent Death.”
“Jaclyn,” Monty said aloud, stunned.
“As in Harding?” Shield sounded surprised.
“Jaclyn is alive,” Monty mumbled, and leaned back, ignoring the question.
“She saved my life,” Shield said.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“Probably long gone by now. Somewhere at a hospital, I would think.”
Monty gripped the armrest. “What do you mean?”
“After she gave us the keys to the van, she shot herself in the leg to make it look like I did it when she tried to stop us.”
“Are you sure this Wagner doesn’t know TQ?”
“She’s admitted to everything else,” Shield replied.
“It sounds like TQ and Rothschild are somehow connected, work together,” Joanne said. He nodded. “Rothschild should be easy enough to find.”
“She’s a customer of mine,” Shield offered. “She buys crates of wine directly from Tuscany.”
“I doubt she has it shipped to her home. People like Rothschild use in-between addresses,” Monty said. “Stay where you are until further notice. This TQ bitch means business. If she has to crawl under rocks to find you, she will.”
“Harding made that clear when she sent us to the safe house.”
“I’ll call when I have something.”
“They took my cell,” Shield said. “I don’t know the number here.”
“I do.” Monty hung up.
“What do we do about Wagner and the president?” Joanne asked.
“Thomas was returned to office hours ago,” he replied. “So far she hasn’t said anything about her kidnapping.”
“She probably won’t talk if she wants to keep her credibility.”
“And life,” Monty added.
“We do nothing,” Joanne concluded, “unless it becomes our business.”
“My business right now is to find Jaclyn.”
Chapter Thirty-three
Ryden glanced around the living room while Kennedy spoke in muted tones to her organization on the phone. She’d never seen a more bare-bones living space. No pictures on the walls, not a single piece of decoration, no books, not even a television—the couch faced a massive fireplace instead. At least, she mused, the place would be a little cozier once they touched a match to the stack of wood that had been left for whoever took refuge here.
Kennedy hung up the phone and turned to her. “Make yourself at home. I don’t know how long we’re going to be here.”
“Anywhere is fine as long as I’m free from those people.”
“I’m going to look for something to clean you up.”
Ryden wasn’t sure how to take that and suppressed the urge to do an odor check.
Kennedy must have seen her surprised look. “Your arm is bleeding.” She walked to the bathroom.
“Oh. Yeah.” Ryden noticed for the first time how thoroughly blood had saturated her sleeve. Although she knew she’d been grazed, she’d hardly been aware of it because so much was going on and the wound hadn’t really hurt. But seeing all that blood had suddenly changed things. Now it hurt. A lot. “Why the hell did I have to look?” she muttered.
“What?” Kennedy stuck her head out of the other room.
“Your eye is swollen.” That mysterious woman who’d helped them escape had taken a good swing at Kennedy.
Kennedy disappeared again as she went to check herself in the mirror. “So I see.”
“This place clearly hasn’t been used for years. I doubt you’ll find anything, but I’ll take any expired painkillers you can find.”
“Ten years, to be exact.” Kennedy returned from the bathroom with a big first-aid box in her hands.
“Thank you.” Ryden extended her hand to take it from her.
“Have you cleaned a bullet wound before?”
“Can’t say it’s on my list of experiences.”
“Then remove your shirt and let me have a look.” Kennedy appeared and sounded irritated.
“You don’t have to. I’ll let you know if it’s bad.” She wasn’t about to burden Kennedy with cleaning her up. She could barely face her after tonight’s revelations, and besides, she didn’t feel comfortable being seen half-naked.
Not that Kennedy would give a damn either way. Any attraction she might have felt toward Ryden during their time in the White House had disappeared within seconds of her finding out the ugly truth of who Ryden really was—nothing but a lying, selfish florist. Why couldn’t Kennedy understand that she’d just tried to stay alive? Although, in retrospect, it was stupid to trust these people, her gullibility and will to live should somehow excuse her actions. If Kennedy wanted to believe she was a maniacal terrorist and manic liar, that was her right, but Ryden was getting fed up with having to defend herself.
“You clearly want nothing to do with me, so please give me the kit.” She snatched it from Kennedy’s hands. “I can take care of myself. I always have.” She went to the bathroom and closed the door and looked at herself for the first time in the mirror. She had definitely seen better days: pale from tonight’s angst, black circles under her eyes from days of not more than a few hours of sleep, and the pain were starting to show in the lines of her face. “You look like a zombie,” she said to her reflection.
She unzipped the hoodie and managed to slip her arms out with minimal discomfort. Then, without thinking, she began to lift her arms to remove her long-sleeved T-shirt and screamed as pain tore through her arm and shoulder.
Kennedy stormed through the door in seconds, gun in hand. “Are you…?”
“It hurts.” The white-hot burst of agony had subsided, but tears still streamed down her face. She tasted salt as she licked her lips.
Kennedy placed the weapon on the sink. The bathroom was barely big enough to fit them both. “Will you let me help you?”
“I can’t lift my arm.”
“We’ll do it slowly.”
“I can’t. Just cut the shirt off.”
“We can if you want to walk around half-naked for the duration of our stay here,” Kennedy said, a trace of a smile at the corner of her mouth. “It’s up to you.”
“I don’t think so.”
Kennedy stood in front of her and took hold of her good arm. “Let’s start with this one.” She coaxed the arm free of the sleeve. “That wasn’t too bad, right?”
“No.”
“Ready for the head?” Kennedy’s voice was gentle, little more than a whisper.
She nodded and Kennedy gingerly pulled up the shirt. She ducked her head to help and winced as new pain resonated through her shoulder.
“Coping?” Kennedy asked.
“You’re good at this.”
“I hope you continue to think so after we’re done with the other arm.”
“Give me a moment.” Ryden backed up, nauseated from the pain, and held on to the sink. “I don’t understand why it hurts so much all of a sudden.”
“Because you’re tired and the adrenaline high is gone.”
“I guess.” She looked down at her half-exposed body. Why had she chosen to wear such a sheer, lacy, black bra? It left nothing to the imagination. Kennedy, she noticed, was staring at her chest, too. Her cheeks burned. “I…I um…”
“You didn’t seem shy about seducing me,” Kennedy said.
“I didn’t…”
“Oh, that’s right. You were in character.”
“It was never part of any plan to seduce you.” Dealing with the pain in her shoulder was bad enough. She didn’t need Kennedy aggravating her already fragile state. “I told you then and I’m telling you again, I have never been interested in women and wouldn’t even know where to start seducing one.”
“Which only amplifies my sentiment. You don’t expect me to accept the fact that a forty-something straight woman playing the role of the president suddenly decided to experiment.”
“It wasn’t a choice, and I was definitely not conducting any kind of sexuality research.”
“Whatever you say,” Kennedy replied flippantly, and turned her face away.
Ryden’s cheeks flushed like they always did when she got angry. She let go of the sink for a moment, forgetting about her pain. “What do you find hard to comprehend? The fact that I wanted you to kiss me or that I actually did?”
“You were drunk.”
“Tipsy. I knew damn well what I was doing, and I didn’t do it because of any ulterior motivation.” She closed the foot of distance between them. “What gain would I have from seducing you? You have nothing I want.”
“Nothing?” Kennedy asked arrogantly. “Not even the comfort my money can buy, for a new life far away from the people who hired you? Away from a career in flower arrangements?”
Her belittling tone exacerbated Ryden’s growing anger. She pushed Kennedy away. “How dare you accuse me of—”
“Using me for a better life?” For the first time Kennedy lost her cool demeanor. “Isn’t that why you agreed to this plan? For money and a new beginning?”
“They framed me,” Ryden shouted. The T-shirt dangling from her shoulder aggravated her even more so she pulled it off. “How many times do I have to tell you?”
Kennedy arched her brow. “And how convenient that a florist in a dead-end job, making what—twenty thousand a year?—finally gets some cash to pimp herself and her life.”
Ryden almost gasped. Sure, the idea of a second chance at a new life had been exciting, but she had agreed before they ever told her the terms, and by that time it was too late to change her mind. Even then, she would have accepted the offer anyway if it meant surviving. “For your information, my life was just fine before they took everything away. I loved my job as a florist, my candle making, and my tiny home. And yes, the death penalty would’ve put a glitch in my humble but otherwise satisfying life, so I accepted. You have no right to belittle my life or blame me for what I did, when all I’m guilty of is choos
ing to live.” She took a deep breath.
“All you needed was some adrenaline.” Kennedy looked at her shoulder, then bent to pick up the bloodied shirt. After handing it to her, Kennedy took the first-aid kit and went back into the living room.
Ryden stomped after her, the pain in her shoulder mostly forgotten in her growing anger. “I suppose it’s easy for you to stand there, acting all righteous, when you’ve never had to decide between life or death.”
Kennedy took a seat on the couch. “I make that call every time I throw myself in front of a bullet to save someone’s life.”
“Because it’s your job,” Ryden yelled, standing in front of her, trying to cover her nakedness with the soiled shirt. “I doubt you do it because you value a stranger’s life more than your own or because you have a death wish.”
“I do it because…” Kennedy looked away. “Because I don’t have a choice,” she mumbled.
“And that’s how I felt.”
Kennedy looked at her with sadness. “I never had a choice. It was made for me.”
“When your organization adopted you.”
Kennedy nodded.
“I guess orphanages and foster homes do that to a person.”
“Do what?”
“Make them feel they should accept anything, out of gratitude for being selected and given a chance. I should know.”
“What do you mean?” Kennedy asked.
“For years I was sent from home to home, trying to please whoever with the hope of being allowed to stay. I guess I wasn’t good enough, not pretty enough, or who knows what the hell. Point is, I spent my life trying to please others just to make them love or at least care.”
Kennedy was silent for a long while. “Let me take a look at your shoulder,” she finally said.
*
Southwestern Colorado
Monty was closing the blinds to the conference room when David Arthur joined them, soaked to the skin from the thunderstorm raging outside. Joanne was already seated at the big table.
“What’s Reno got?” Arthur asked.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Monty replied, “but I could tell from his tone he’s found something significant.” Reno had summoned them for this predawn briefing; he’d been working nonstop since Shield’s call to find out more about Theodora Rothschild and how she was connected to TQ.