At the Pleasure of the President

by Shayla Black

  Mad nodded. “Yes.”

  “And you thought I had been the one to order the hit? So I could be president?”

  Mad’s face fell. “Maybe. I didn’t know, damn it. I should have had more faith. By the day of the plane crash, I’d found a few things I thought we should discuss. I was getting on that bird to come face you. And then we found the bomb. That told me the Russians would do anything to keep their conspiracy buried. I also knew my time was up. So we agreed to the plan and faked my death. We had to involve you guys clandestinely so you understood the threat was at your doorstep and it was real. And honestly, we had to operate so far in the shadows that you could do things we couldn’t.”

  “You used us and our wives to investigate what you needed exposed.” There was no small amount of accusation in Gabe’s tone.

  “I did what I had to do,” Mad replied, his jaw tight. “Everly was already curious. I thought if I directed her, I could also keep her out of trouble.”

  “You didn’t do a good job of that,” Roman remarked. “She nearly died, and so did Gabe. Dax got shot.”

  “We couldn’t have foreseen either of those events,” Freddy explained. “And that night we had our own problems. Though the world thought Mad was dead, the syndicate realized something was fishy from the beginning. They had their own investigators, and that night one of them almost caught up with us. We barely got out of that firefight alive. It’s why I insisted Mad not be anywhere near DC during the rest of the operation.”

  “Lara was on our radar because she was looking into the situation with Natalia Kuilikov at the time. Was Lara involved on your end because of Freddy?” Zack needed to speed up this explanation.

  “Yes.” Lara leaned against her husband’s side. “I was working on a story for Capitol Scandals when Freddy helped me out. His information brought me into his investigation.”

  “Neither Freddy nor I thought we would be able to get close to Natalia.” Mad settled into one of the big chairs. “But they didn’t see Lara coming.”

  “Is Natalia Kuilikov my birth mother?” Zack needed to know.

  Elizabeth gasped. “What? What are you talking about? I know someone is trying to blackmail you, but you can’t possibly think you’re not Zack Hayes. That’s ridiculous.”

  It wasn’t, but that thought didn’t occupy Zack’s mind most. Elizabeth did. Besides being beautiful and intelligent, she was good with the press corps and quick on her feet. But he doubted she was capable of feigning such shock. That would require serious acting skills.

  “The information we discovered Tavia Gordon was hiding led us directly to Natalia Kuilikov, who happened to be my nanny for the first seven years of my life. I didn’t know until all of this began that she also had a child around the time I was born.”

  Elizabeth shook her head. “No. You look exactly like your father when he was young. I’ve seen the pictures.”

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t my father’s son,” he pointed out. “He had plenty of affairs.”

  “Fine.” Elizabeth got to her feet. “We’ll do a DNA test and put this to rest. Do we know what happened to the baby?”

  “Russian records are difficult to locate. There was no Internet back then.” Freddy picked up. “What we’ve been able to find suggests the official cause of death was SIDS, but who knows if that’s true? Officials could have been bribed to say anything. But we interviewed several people who worked at the embassy. They said Natalia simply stopped talking about her baby one day.”

  Roman looked grim. “And we know Zack’s mother talked about killing her child. That was what she told her doctor at that mental institution. She said she’d gotten drunk one night and heard a baby crying. When she woke up she had a dead child in her arms.”

  Elizabeth’s eyes shone with tears as she shook her head. “No. I won’t accept that your parents replaced the real Zack Hayes with you. Surely, a bombshell like this would have come out long before now. Even if it hadn’t, you’re still an American citizen, eligible to be president.”

  God, if she was faking, she was brilliant. Maybe he should have faith in Elizabeth, believe that she was exactly who she claimed she was, and that these fucking blackmailers had subversively spoon-fed him false clues and suspicions with every intention to cut him off from his loved ones. So they could corner him alone.

  “I don’t think some people would see it that way. There would be a constitutional crisis if it turned out that I wasn’t born how and when I said I was. I think the night my mother talks about in those tapes Roman and Gus recovered is the night she accidently killed her own son.”

  “We know there were several visits from top Russian officials during the time period the death likely occurred.” Freddy leaned forward. “That’s not so surprising. It is the American embassy in Moscow. But there were three known meetings between your father and a man who later became one of the heads of the KGB. This man was also a known associate of Ivan Krylov. We believe the syndicate used the women’s foundation to place Natalia at the embassy. Nature took care of the rest since the ambassador’s propensity for affairs was well known.”

  “We believe she was initially sent to spy on Frank.” Mad now spoke in a shrewd tone Zack had never associated with his friend. “After the syndicate made contact with the KGB, they formed an alliance. We’re not sure whether the Russian mob agreed to this arrangement out of patriotism or a desire to get the police off their backs. Either way, they traded information, and Natalia was the key. She became pregnant, and when the child was lost, they saw an opportunity because Frank was in a no-win situation. Whether the dead child was the real Zack Hayes or Natalia’s baby, they now had the American ambassador in a corner.”

  “My father’s only goal in the world has always been for me to be president of the United States.” Zack had heard his whole life that it was his duty to lift up the family name by reaching the highest office in the land. Now he wondered how much of that had really been his father’s ambition…and how much had been a deal he’d made with the devil—or in this case, powerful Russians. “My father would have done almost anything to keep that stain off the family name.”

  “But why would the Russians wait so long?” Everly asked. “Why pull the strings now?”

  “They’re excellent at playing a long game,” Freddy said. “When all this happened, Zack was merely an infant, and they had the ambassador under their thumb. Oh, I’m sure they promised to keep the other baby’s death hush hush and Constance out of jail. They would appear to be helpful like that because they could afford to be patient and wait to spring their trap at the right moment. After all, your father had no way to ever erase the stain of that child’s passing. By the time you were grown, Zack, and they started manipulating your father, he surely had to decide whether he should tell you all this information. I’m betting he stayed quiet in case you had an attack of conscience and decided not to run for any office.”

  “We’ve been piecing together a similar theory. If I’d had proof, I would have gone to the Agency without hesitation,” Zack assured. There was no question about it. “But the Russians waited until they had me in a corner, too. Until they could apply pressure I couldn’t deny.”

  If they had merely threatened his presidency, he would have resigned in a heartbeat. But instead, they’d learned who he valued and how much he loved them. Now Connor’s and Lara’s lives were at risk. Gabe’s future could be compromised.

  “Wait, I’m struggling to understand,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve heard your mother said outlandish things when she drank, but no one ever mentioned that she carried on about a baby.”

  “Most people didn’t know. She never said a word about it when she was sober. My father did his utmost to manage her. But whenever she fell into a bottle, he had to keep her out of sight because her lips always got loose. I assure you she talked about the baby’s death on more than one occasion. We now know Admiral Spencer was disgraced and murdered because he was looking into things my mother divulged to him when
she was inebriated at my wedding. We also believe her car accident wasn’t so accidental.”

  “It wasn’t. We’re almost positive Joy is the one who procured her a rental and checked her out of the mental facility that night,” Mad explained.

  That had Roman’s head snapping around. “We’ve been speculating the same thing, but there’s no proof. The doctor who treated Constance at the facility is dead. Almost no one else who worked there then is employed at the hospital now. We managed to track down tapes of her therapy sessions with her doctor and listen to them, but of course there’s no tape explaining who took her from the hospital since she was dead.”

  “Well, I can find almost anything online,” Freddy assured. “Even records people think have been deleted.”

  Gus gaped. “You hacked the firm that handles the facility’s medical records—the ones they swore they couldn’t find—and located Constance’s?”

  “What can I say? I’m talented.” Freddy smiled. “The only thing that threw me off was the night Mrs. Hayes died, the nurse made a note that a family member checked her out. The nurse described this woman as a pretty young blonde. Joy was a brunette. But who else could it have been?”

  “It wasn’t Joy,” Zack insisted. “She was in Paris on a shopping trip when we got the call about my mother.”

  “Was she?” Freddy challenged. “Really?”

  Zack scowled. “What kind of question is that?”

  With a toss of his hands, Freddy shrugged. “If Joy was supposedly in Paris, at least she was on the right continent…”

  To help commit murder? No. Joy had loved Constance. Then again, so many things about this case weren’t what they appeared to be.

  Zack shook his head, unable to believe that sweet Joy had been capable of wanting anyone dead. “My wife wouldn’t have arranged my mother’s death.”

  But he couldn’t shake the former intelligence officer’s suspicions. Who else could it have been?

  “Since your mother is gone and the records Freddy found don’t specify, we may never know who took your mother from the facility that night,” Mad admitted.

  True, and Zack accepted that for now. After all, the truth wouldn’t bring Constance back. “So circling back to the question of who my birth mother is, without DNA from a relative of either my mother or Natalia, we’re screwed.”

  Lately, Zack had thought of little else except finding a way out of this web. Well, that and Elizabeth. He’d worried endlessly that she was the most dangerous part of the Russians’ trap—the alluring bait he was no longer sure he could continue to resist. If she was merely a bystander caught up in this tangle, then he’d done her a disservice with his suspicions and he needed to protect her. If she wasn’t…the knowledge might wreck him.

  “There must be some relative somewhere,” Elizabeth insisted.

  “No. Natalia’s body disappeared and Constance was swiftly cremated. Mother was the last of her line. No aunts, uncles, or cousins. I have no one to compare my DNA to. I assume the Russians don’t have the same problem.”

  “They haven’t played out that hand yet,” Mad said grimly. “Given what I know now, I worry the higher-ups have decided to force the issue one way or another.”

  “Force the issue?” Everly asked.

  Mad’s whole body tensed. “Our Dark Web contacts believe they have an assassin targeting the president.”

  Elizabeth paled. Her hands shook. In that instant, Zack knew that if he didn’t act fast, they would have another fainting woman on their hands.

  When Gus leapt to her feet and lunged toward her friend, Zack interceded. Elizabeth was his responsibility. He’d brought her here for a reason, and leaving her care to Gus wouldn’t help him figure out his press secretary’s role in this mess.

  “Come on.” He wrapped a steadying hand around Elizabeth’s arm. “Let’s get you a drink. I’ve got the good vodka in the freezer.”

  She didn’t protest when he led her away, just followed silently until they reached the big kitchen. After he pulled out the vodka and a pair of glasses, he poured two shots.

  Elizabeth took it and knocked the alcohol back, setting it down for another. “This must be an anxiety-laden dream, Zack. Tell me it is.”

  “I wish it were.” He poured her another one. “It’s very real, and now you’re involved. Before you got here, Roman and I decided to use Lara’s blog to float the story about his e-mail fling with Joy. You’ll have to handle that fallout.”

  She nodded. “You want to expose as much of the blackmail threat as possible so it can’t be used against you. I can get ahead of this story. Let me think about how to frame it. I’ll talk to Gus. I think if neither of you seems upset by the news, it should die down quickly. Let’s not put Roman on TV. We don’t gain anything by doing that. But, Zack, you do understand that once you make this move, they’ll know you’re fighting back? They might come at you harder.”

  He and the others were as ready for that as they could be. He simply had to hope they could keep everyone safe as this played out. God knew, he was beyond ready for this threat to be over—one way or another. “Then I’ll watch my back.”

  Chapter Five

  Two hours later, Mad stood, watching his friends as they talked and drank. It was almost like old times…but not quite. They’d sat together at dinner. By some unspoken understanding, everyone shelved talk of the looming conspiracy they found themselves in, but the cheer around the room as they’d dug into their food felt frenetic. Afterward, the conversation had turned to Roman and Gus’s upcoming wedding, as well as the happenings in everyone’s jobs.

  He felt so out of touch with all of them.

  Beside Freddy, he’d watched these people he loved so much and had sacrificed everything for, wondering if he would ever again feel like he belonged or be the man he’d been before that terrible night changed everything.

  Now, everyone was clustered inside, listening to nineties tunes and reminiscing, pretending like this weekend was some sort of party. The old him would not only have applauded, but instigated. Now he was perturbed no one was discussing the fact they weren’t sitting around a bonfire because an assassin might take a shot at Zack.

  So he stood at the back of the room, contemplating whether he’d be bunking with Freddy tonight or be relegated to the couch. Of course the joke would be on them. That couch would be the best thing he’d slept on in months. His spine would thank him.

  Still, he was depressed by the thought.

  He’d imagined his reunion with Sara so many times. In his every version, he’d spent the night with her, inside her. Of course she shouldn’t be here now. When he’d realized the Secret Service had mistakenly brought her to Camp David, he’d been horrified. But now that she knew he wasn’t dead, it probably made sense to fill her in. Mad didn’t like it…but he suspected the endgame was near, and he couldn’t stand the thought of not being there for his baby’s birth.

  Still, he’d been a fool to think he and Sara could pick up where they’d left off. He had been gone too long and done too much damage to their relationship for that. She hated him now. Loathed him. Would probably never forgive him. The night Krylov had dropped into his life, he’d died for all intents and purposes. He’d been nothing but a revenant since.

  “What are you doing standing back here?” Gabe had a beer in his hand as he approached. “I’m not used to a Mad Crawford who isn’t the life of the party.”

  “Well, I don’t party much anymore.” Neither did Sara apparently. She’d disappeared after dinner, and he’d been told she’d gone to bed. She was tucked away in one of the cabins, sleeping. Or fuming and trying to figure how to extricate him from her life permanently.

  Gabe was quiet for a moment as he scanned the room. “I’ve been thinking all night.”

  “Good for you.” He was getting bitter, and he hated the feeling. Mad knew he was lucky to be alive, but what was the point when he couldn’t go home and everyone he loved wasn’t exactly happy to see him?

&nbs
p; “In your shoes, I don’t know that I would have done anything different,” Gabe admitted. “The whole time you were talking, I thought about what I’d been willing to do to keep Everly safe that night in the Crawford building, when Connor saved us. I would have gone to any lengths, even hurting her if that kept her alive. Now, I would probably make a different choice because I trust her and I’ve seen how strong she is. But then, I was so panicked. I would have done whatever it took to ensure that she survived.”

  “During my evening with Krylov, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to survive, and honestly, all I could think of was that my death would be worth it if Sara remained safe.”

  “You love my sister.”

  “Gabe, I never told you this because I didn’t know how you’d react, but I’ve loved your sister since she was sixteen. I get it; I tore through women, but she was the only one who mattered. I fell for her that summer before we went to Yale. I didn’t touch her. I never even kissed her until a couple of months after she came to work at Crawford, but I’d loved her for years by then.”

  “And you never told…Gus. You told Gus.”

  He nodded. “We shared the common bond of pining for people we could never have. I’m glad Roman came around.”

  Sara probably never would. While he’d been laying out the last couple of months of his life, she’d barely looked at him. She’d merely sat next to Liz, not far from Everly and Gabe, and stared without a word. He’d seen her brush away a few tears, and it had taken all of his willpower not to take her in his arms.

  “Is Sara okay? Did you make sure she locked her door?”

  Not that he couldn’t get in. He’d learned a lot of questionable though useful skills lately, things he’d never thought he would master. Lock picking. Hacking. Hand-to-hand combat.