by Shayla Black
That realization terrified him. The wolves could be anywhere, everywhere.
“Thomas, please go inform Mr. Calder that my late wife was working with the enemy.”
“Sir—”
“I know you’re not supposed to leave me, but Mr. Harding is an old man handcuffed to a table. I’ve survived one bullet today. I doubt there’s much else he can do to me.” When the agent still hesitated, Zack got stubborn. “I’m ordering you to. And I’ve got Freddy here to help me.”
Thomas sighed as if he didn’t like it at all, but he complied. “I’ll be back shortly.”
As he left, Zack sat back and tried to process everything Paul had hurled his way.
Joy had been a traitor. The woman he’d sought to make First Lady had been a Russian asset. Wow. Just…wow. Even as so many pieces of the puzzle began to snap into place, Zack thought of a thousand other questions. Why the emotional affair with Roman? What purpose would that have served to the Russians? To compromise his best friend? Possibly, but Roman was the one person he’d ever seen Joy be passionate about. Was it possible that she’d followed her heart that once? Had she changed her mind and shifted her loyalties, never knowing her end was near?
How much of her life had been dictated since the moment she was born? And what kind of relief had she felt when she’d thought she might escape? Zack could still remember the peace on her face when they’d realized he wasn’t going to win the election. At first he’d thought Joy was merely being a supportive wife. Now he wondered if she’d seen losing as her one-way ticket out of a life she’d no longer wanted.
What would it be like to have spent a lifetime in service of those others whose sole intention was to use you?
“I suppose I never found the ‘right people’ in your eyes. My father sent me to Creighton because you thought a school with such a rigorous reputation would make me easier to mold. You didn’t count on me finding a group of friends, did you?” Creighton had been isolating in the beginning. He’d spent the first half of a semester talking to no one until the mouthiest bad boy in the class sat down next to him and started talking. Maddox. He’d been the one to bring them all together. He hadn’t had any idea how his need to form a family would change their lives forever. “It might have worked if I hadn’t found my friends.”
“We expected all of you to drift apart as you got older. Most people do. We waited for you to get involved in your lives and careers, find other interests and people. Mr. Calder, we knew would stay around, but we thought he would be easy to deal with, especially when it seemed clear that Joy would have more success manipulating him than you. A physical affair between the two of them would have made him vulnerable.”
But Roman had never crossed that line.
Zack saw their plans now. They’d put him in the presidency, then waited until they’d been ready to use him. He was supposed to have been their frog in a pot. If they’d dropped him into scalding water, he would have leapt out. But by slowly turning up the heat, they had been hoping to boil him before he realized it was too late to escape.
“Instead, none of us drifted apart,” Zack pointed out.
One person had held them together. He’d done it by showing up at the most inopportune times and slyly convincing them to party. But now, Zack saw clearly that had been Mad’s way of holding his family together. He feared he would have done exactly what the Russians had expected without Mad Crawford to save the day. Even his death, sharing their grief, had held his band of brothers together. Everyone had underestimated Mad at every turn, even him.
“You did not. I didn’t see this as a problem, though. I believed your friends would be excellent tools to wield against you,” Paul explained.
“Hence the blackmail letter. Who delivered that to Ms. Matthews’s suite in London?”
Paul shrugged. “I am not privy to trivial details. I merely know the matter was handled poorly.”
A dead end, damn it. Zack raked a hand through his hair. No clue if or how involved Elizabeth might be.
That moment, Thomas stepped back into the room with a somber nod. It was done. Roman now knew that the woman he’d once thought he loved had been a traitor. Zack hated that he’d had to break it to Roman this way, but if it helped him at all in questioning Elizabeth…
Freddy jumped in with a narrow-eyed stare at Paul. “Why did you single out Maddox Crawford? I know he was getting close to discovering that Tavia Gordon’s foundation was a front for trafficking, but if you were willing to give up your own daughter, why not give up Tavia?”
“That was out of my hands. Some of us believed we should have killed Mr. Crawford. I took the man seriously, if only because I knew Zachary would. My partners disagreed. They believed that, if properly motivated, he could be persuaded to see our side.”
“I honestly thought I was going to find a corpse when I got to Mad’s apartment that night,” Freddy admitted.
Thank god Freddy hadn’t. “I assure you, you would never have been able to turn Maddox Crawford into a Russian asset.”
“Which is precisely why I wanted him dead. They thought he would break because he was a ridiculous, entitled playboy. I thought that his death would prove to you that our demands could not be ignored. The main handler chose a softer touch, but I knew you needed a hammer. And it is coming for you,” Paul promised.
“Who is Sergei?” Zack asked the question he’d been desperate to know the answer to for months. Sergei must be the hammer Paul meant.
A nasty smile lit Paul’s face. “You think it’s you, don’t you? Perhaps it is. Perhaps you are not who you believe yourself to be. It’s what children forget. You are who your father made you to be. You cannot change that, and you must pay because he sinned.”
“I know he did, but I will not make reparations for that. I am Zack Hayes. I don’t give a damn who gave birth to me. That was nothing more than a trick of biology. If I was born to Natalia Kuilikov, it doesn’t matter.”
That truth finally hit him. The man sitting across the table had no power over him unless Zack gave it to him. He’d spent so much time panicking at the need to save his friends and his reputation while ensuring the Russians didn’t have a backup plan that he hadn’t fully considered that simple fact.
“I assure you the voting public will care very much.”
“Then I’ll step down, but as I do I’ll drag every one of you traitorous bastards down with me.” Maybe that’s what he should have done the moment he’d received that blackmail letter. He’d hesitated because of Elizabeth. He hadn’t wanted to bring anyone else into the investigation in case she was involved. He’d been trying to protect her. Same with Gabe, who’d also looked potentially guilty because of the FAA investigation into Mad’s death.
Paul scoffed. “You cannot escape your past. Or your destiny. I am hardly the only one involved in this plan. I assure you, there are more of us. Many more. We’re right here in your White House. We’re waiting. You will do what we want or we will destroy everything and everyone you care about. If you need proof of our power over you, you will soon have it. And the price for your rebellion thus far will be steeper than you ever imagined. You cannot be rid of us. Not ever.”
Zack’s heart stopped. “What price?”
Paul merely curled his lips into the smile of a satisfied snake.
“What price?” he growled.
“You are easy, Zachary. You think those friends of yours make you strong, but every one of them is merely another weak link. I’m here to make you understand. And now I have done so. Call it the final act of a patriot. Cancel the pipeline or you’ll mourn more of your friends.”
Suddenly, Paul’s face went pale and his hand began to shake.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Zack replied, studying his unexpected nemesis. Paul seemed to be in physical distress. Or maybe it was an act, like everything else about the man. The important thing was, Connor and the guys from Justice could hold him, question him more. But Zack refused for a second to let Paul think
they’d won a thing. “Mad is alive. I don’t have to mourn anything but my idiocy where you’re concerned.”
Paul staggered and paled further. Zack watched as the older man bucked, then a drop of blood dripped from his mouth. “I don’t mean Maddox. I suspected he survived his ‘crash.’ There was a reason the FAA investigation was halted. But you have other friends. You see, the agents who picked me up were kind enough to allow an old man his coffee. My people have perfected some excellent new poisons. They work over the course of a few hours. My time is almost up. How will you handle that, Mr. President? I assure you no one has seen this poison yet. They won’t be able to save either of us.”
“Either?” Zack could hardly breathe. “What do you mean?”
Thomas stepped in front of him. “Don’t get close, sir. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
More blood spat from his mouth and he’d turned an ashy gray color. “Another of my country’s inventions. Odorless. Tasteless. Quick but not too fast. I sincerely hope your whore enjoyed her coffee this morning. If you don’t play the game properly, more will follow. This is my final message.”
Paul’s head fell forward and he slumped in his seat. In that moment, Zack knew precisely what real terror was.
Elizabeth.
He’d been such a fool. She loved him. He’d put her in a cell and failed to realize that the wolves around him would circle her the moment he pushed her away.
For his stupidity, he might have to put her in a coffin.
Without looking back, he dashed out the door, Thomas hot on his heels. Zack could only pray that somehow, someway he could save her.
* * * *
Liz was trying to pull herself together when the door burst open and Roman strode in, wearing his slick suit, carrying a thick file folder, and looking frightfully grim.
She gaped. Zack had sent his attack dog in after her rather than facing her himself? He’d nearly died and he hadn’t needed to see her, hadn’t wanted to hold her. No. He’d suspected she’d somehow been responsible for the attempt on his life and sicced Roman on her.
Mad followed, still in his pajama pants and a wrinkled T-shirt, looking like he’d rolled out of bed for this interrogation.
Roman frowned. “Liz—”
“Tell me exactly what I’m being accused of, you massive asshole. I’m never going to forgive you for this, by the way. Have you thought these ridiculous accusations through for even two fucking seconds? How long have you known me?”
He seemed slightly taken aback by her aggression, but he smoothed his expression as he set the file folder on the table and squared off with her. “I knew Joy, too. I knew her very well. And as it turns out, she was a Russian operative. Her father just told Zack that five minutes ago. So it doesn’t matter how well I think I know you.”
Liz felt her eyes go wide. Seriously?
But now that he said it, she felt stupid for not embracing that possibility sooner. She’d had her head in the clouds and hadn’t seen the real threat in their midst. Joy. Joy had been in charge of so many facets of the campaign and Zack’s life. Joy had been the ghost who’d kept her apart from Zack for years. Now she was the lie that could tear them in two for good. Liz had to handle this cross-examination well or risk losing everything.
“And that’s on you, pal,” Mad cut in. “Hey, Liz. You hungry? Sara made sandwiches. She could bring them down. Or booze.” He looked at Roman. “Man, we could probably use some booze.”
Roman glared his way. “I did not want you in here. You’re sitting next to me because Zack asked me to include you. I can toss you out on your ass.”
If that threat worried Mad, he didn’t show it. “I’m here so Zack has a shot at coming out of this with his family intact. You’re just going to ask Liz a whole bunch of questions you won’t believe her answers to because she doesn’t have definitive proof. But at some point the evidence she needs will pop up, and you’ll have to live with the fact that you cost Zack the love of his life because you can’t trust anyone. It sucks that Joy betrayed everyone. But you’re taking it personally by taking it out on Liz. You need to stop.”
Okay, Mad could stay.
Liz drew in a bracing breath. “I am not Joy, Roman.”
“While Zack and Roman were jogging earlier today, someone took a shot at him,” Mad explained. “Thomas managed to cover him, but one of the other Secret Service agents was hit in the arm. They’ve caught the man they believe is the shooter and Connor is talking to the Russian now at the police station.”
“Are you planning on telling her everything?” Roman asked with a huff.
She turned a glare on Roman because he didn’t get to have it both ways. “Well, according to you I should already know everything, shouldn’t I? Since apparently I’m the one who set Zack up to die.”
That was why she was here. They thought she’d sold Zack out. Now that she looked back, she could easily see that they’d suspected her for a while.
Her heart felt heavy in her chest. He’d suspected she was working with the Russians when he’d slept with her. What had he said? He kept his friends close and his enemies closer. Somewhere along the way she’d become his enemy, and only then had he taken her to bed. He didn’t love her. He’d merely placated and used her.
She forced herself to pull the chair back and sit because their accusations were serious. Zack had abandoned her. She loved Gus like a sister, but in the end her very dear friend would stick with her fiancée. Liz was completely alone. Sure Mad was trying to help, but the Perfect Gentlemen would close ranks around Zack, and she would be outside their circle. It was past time to start protecting herself.
“I would like a lawyer.”
“You don’t need a lawyer.” Mad pulled out his own chair and sat. “You need patience because this thing is going to settle out and Roman is going to see he’s being a butthead.”
“Is that a technical term?” Roman asked, shooting Mad a dirty look.
“Absolutely, Counselor.” Mad attempted a smile as he leaned in, his voice conspiratorially low. “That’s what we call him when he gets a stick up his butt about something, just like we have since we were kids. You have to understand that Roman feeds all of Zack’s worst impulses.”
“Could we stop psychoanalyzing me and focus?” Roman turned his attention back to her. “You’re not under arrest. I have some simple questions, Liz. If you’ll cooperate, I believe the president will work with you.”
“What he’s trying to say is Zack is absolutely sick at heart about this and he doesn’t know what to do. He’s crazy in love with you, but he’s suspected Joy for a while, and finding out that she was in on the Russian conspiracy won’t improve this situation for him at all,” Mad explained.
Oh, Zack had been smart to send Mad in here. “I’m not Joy.”
“I know that,” Mad promised. “And deep down Zack knows it, too. He just needs time to get over his shock. And you have to forgive Roman. He’s, like, ninety-nine percent cynicism. He was born that way. Once he has some proof, he’ll be right back to being our lovable grouch.”
She studied Roman. He was one of the most cynical humans she’d ever met. And she’d rather not play his game, but she didn’t have a choice. “Ask your questions, Roman.”
“How did you meet Joy?” Roman looked relieved to get down to business.
Her heart felt hollow as she answered. “You know I met her through Frank Hayes, the same way I met Zack. I had worked on a couple of other senatorial campaigns by then. As I understand it, Joy didn’t get along with Zack’s previous media consultant, and you didn’t like him, either.”
“He was old school,” Roman admitted. “He didn’t understand social media. His ways worked once upon a time, but I knew we needed a fresh voice, especially for the presidential election. I’m not great on camera, not the way you are. I liked the idea of bringing a woman onto the team. I thought it would make Zack look more inclusive.”
She didn’t take that statement poorly. Since
Roman was a blunt instrument, he had very little tact. She’d always been more subtle. It was why Zack had needed both of them for that campaign. “I took the initial meeting with Frank and instantly disliked him. I didn’t think there was any way I would accept the job if he offered it to me, but then I met Zack and I very quickly changed my mind. I even got along with Joy. But I hadn’t met her or anyone else from the campaign before that day. I don’t remember the exact day of our meeting. I think it was a Friday. I have years’ worth of calendar data. I could check it if you want me to.”
“What did you know about the Women and Girls Education Foundation?” Roman asked.
“I certainly didn’t know it was responsible for trafficking women,” she replied. “I went to a couple of meetings with Joy since she was considering partnering with them if she became First Lady. If I met Tavia Gordon, I don’t recall.”
“Are you aware that the e-mail that called off the FAA investigation into the crash that supposedly killed Mad originated from your office?”
Roman’s question made her heart stop. “No. Are you sure? It wasn’t me. Roman, it couldn’t have been. I don’t have the power to call off an FAA investigation.”
“Well, someone on your team is tricky enough with our network and knew how to make that directive look as if it came from the Oval, but we’ve traced the message back to your office.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Someone had been using her computer, setting her up and doing god only knew what else, and no one had bothered to mention it to her?
“Normally, you don’t tell a suspect that you’re on to their bad deeds,” Roman replied. “It tends to hurt the investigation. I’ll be honest with you, Liz. I believe you should have been isolated until we figured out your status. One way or another, the choices you’ve made have caused Zack a great deal of trouble.”
“Wow.” Mad sat back. “I don’t even know how to save you from yourself, man.”
Liz stood, glaring Roman’s way. “Are you kidding me? My choices? How about the choices you’ve made, Calder? You chose to withhold vital information from me.”