by Shayla Black
So the men in black suits either hadn’t understood how to deal with the president’s crazy father or they’d wanted to set Elizabeth up to make her look guilty of spying. Zack’s money was on the latter since the nurse had hustled his father out and she’d been found in his office alone. In fact, the nurse hadn’t been honest with him about the incident. Another way to isolate him.
“I can’t believe you would be so naïve.” Vanessa tsked at Frank like he was an idiot. “We were always going to want more. Zachary Hayes is the culmination of decades of work and careful preparation.” She turned back to Zack. “Do you know how we regard you in my community? You’re a myth. A unicorn. You’re the thing we whisper about in shadows and pray for. The ultimate tool. You will do your job. Lives were sacrificed to get to this point. My half sister and father are gone, and I will not allow their sacrifices to be in vain.”
“What did Joy willingly sacrifice? Your father already told me she didn’t know she was going to die that evening in Memphis. So what did she really give up for the cause?”
“Not enough. By the time others decreed that she should give her life for Mother Russia, I believe she was corrupted and, therefore, useless. She’d spent too much time with your friends. I read through her correspondence with Roman.” She sneered. “If you weren’t elected, Joy thought she would be free. She was always naïve.”
Maybe it shouldn’t, but the idea of Joy trying to be free gave him a measure of peace. Because that meant not everything between them had been a lie. He’d reached her, affected her. If she’d found her independence from this conspiracy, she might have even become an ally someday.
Elizabeth leaned against him as though she knew what he was thinking. “If he gives in on the pipeline, what will you want next?”
“I don’t make those decisions.” Vanessa nodded toward the Secret Service agent. “But whatever it is, you will be a good boy and play along. If you do as you’re told, we might even allow you occasional access to your girlfriend. Not too much, of course, since you’ll be a newly married man.”
So they were relying on that old playbook. “I assume you’re my new bride.”
Vanessa shrugged. “Someone has to stay close to you. My sister wasn’t smart enough to handle you. I’ll be better at it. We’ll be married in a few weeks. In the meantime, your little whore will find herself enjoying Krylov’s hospitality in Moscow. Her treatment will be dependent on your behavior.”
The idea of Elizabeth under their control made Zack sick. He refused to let that happen. They would not take her out of the country. Hell, they weren’t taking her from this house.
He tightened his hold on Elizabeth. “No one will believe I’m in love with you. And Ms. Matthews is not exactly an unknown figure. She’s my damn press secretary. There will be questions when she disappears, especially since she literally talks to reporters all day. They like her. If you want to tank my presidency, piss off the reporters who love her. They’re not stupid. They know I’m involved with her.”
“I’m convinced they do,” Elizabeth affirmed. “It’s a genuine sign of their affection for me that they haven’t floated more than rumors and innuendo about our relationship. How do you think it will look if the president dumps his well-respected, beloved press secretary for a younger woman, who quite frankly most people can’t stand, and installs her as First Lady? You’ve worked in the press office long enough to know how that’s going to go.”
“I’ll make it work,” Vanessa vowed stubbornly. “And if matters here go to hell, Zack can always have a heart attack, and we’ll deal with your mealy-mouthed VP. We have him in our pocket now, too. Everyone has a weak point. That pipeline will not go through. We have a stranglehold on the European gas market and it will stay that way. And soon we’ll talk about those sanctions the US has had on Russia for years. You’re going to bring our countries closer than ever.”
“I might be amenable to a discussion, but if you so much as remove Elizabeth from this room, I promise you I will fight to the death. You want any chance of my cooperation? You leave her alone. She’ll stay with me in the residence. She’ll remain my press secretary. Anything less will raise too many questions, and we already have a ton of them to answer.”
He used his last bargaining chip, hoping he could make her see reason.
“Do you think you’re in charge here, Mr. President?” The nurse’s dark eyes narrowed. “Your will means nothing. You are a pawn and we will move you around as we please. Vanessa, take her now. Our comrades will have already secured the garage, so we can smuggle her out in secrecy.”
Elizabeth stiffened beside him. Zack held her tighter. They had not come this far and dedicated themselves to each other to simply give up now. He couldn’t choose between Elizabeth and his country. He’d made vows to both. He wasn’t so naïve as to think that they would ever return Elizabeth to him. And how much would she suffer at their hands?
But one asset in his back pocket the Russians had underestimated time and time again? His friends. He believed in them.
He stepped in front of Elizabeth. “I won’t let you take her. I’ll die before I allow you to leave with her. You think about that. You need me on camera within an hour or two or this country will start asking questions that will lead to your whole plan falling apart.”
“Or we go to plan B,” the turncoat Secret Service agent said. “Sorry, Vanessa. This looks best if there’s a scapegoat. Turns out the president was unfaithful, and Ms. Matthews took exception.”
He fired, the sound pinging through the room, and Vanessa’s eyes widened as she stared down at the hole in her chest. Bright red blood bloomed across her white shirt. The gun she carried dropped from suddenly lax fingers as she fell to the floor and blood began to pool on the tile.
The nurse simply shook his head. “You were supposed to wait to do that.”
“He’s not going to cooperate,” Glen argued. “My mission was to assess the situation and deal with it. I think our new course of action is to frame Ms. Matthews for killing her lover and her rival. Then we’ll set up the vice president in the Oval. I think he’ll be much more compliant.”
“We don’t have a choice now.” The nurse raised his gun.
That was when Zack sprang into action.
He gave Elizabeth a shove, pushing her behind a heavy couch as the nurse fired. He felt something burn against his arm, but he ignored the fiery sting and dove for the gun lying on the floor.
“No!” A masculine shout broke through the room, and suddenly someone tackled Zack as he heard another bullet ping.
His father. Frank had covered his body with his own.
Seconds later, the door to the residence crashed open. Then he heard roaring gunfire. Whoever had just entered the fight was not using a suppressor.
“Stand down!” That deep voice belonged to Thomas. “I will kill you, Glen. You’ll be just as dead as that fucking nurse and I won’t regret it.”
“Or we could question him.” A sardonic voice joined the fray. Connor. “I promise we’ll make it hurt, but we could use him to find out who the others are. Because clearly we’ve got a problem in your department, man.”
“Why do you think I’ve taken to wearing a bulletproof vest even in the White House?” Thomas replied.
“Never meant to hurt you,” his father, who was still draped over him like a blanket, muttered.
Had his father taken the bullet meant for him? Zack was scared to shift him and risk injuring him more. “Dad, are you all right? Elizabeth? Elizabeth, where are you?”
“I’m here.” She was suddenly kneeling beside him. “Connor, call an ambulance.”
His father shook his head. “No ambulance. Sparks is here? Roll me off my son.”
Suddenly, the bodily weight lifted off him, then Elizabeth was above him, her beautiful eyes sparkling with tears as she reached for him. “Don’t you ever do that again. They could have killed you.”
They would have killed him if his father hadn’t leapt in fr
ont of him. His right arm hurt where the first bullet had grazed his skin, but he clapped a hand over the wound to stem the bleeding and rose to see that Connor and Thomas had everything in hand. Connor shoved the traitorous agent on his knees while Thomas put on the cuffs.
Zack knelt next to his father, whose skin had gone a pasty white while the spreading blood quickly stained his pajamas. The man was clearly dying. “Dad, we need to get you to a hospital.”
Elizabeth was on her knees beside him. “Quickly.”
His father managed to shake his head. “No. Cover this up. Sparks will know what to do. Start over. Hide everything. None of this was your fault. I should have been stronger, but I wanted everything for you. I thought I could manage them. Thought they would leave you alone. I had no choice. No other way to protect our name.”
Shock, anger, denial—they all rolled through him at once. Had his father ever truly cared about him or merely their name and the glory he could bring to it by becoming president? Zack feared he knew the answer. He had been nothing more than the means for the Hayes family to have a sparkling legacy.
“What about protecting me? Mom? The baby—your son—who never lived to see his first birthday?”
“Only you were important. History books don’t remember pawns, only great leaders who do great things.” A nasty gleam hit his father’s eyes. “You’ve always been too soft to understand that.”
And then his father was gone.
“Damn, this is a lot of bodies,” a new voice said. Mad. “Are we planning on calling the cops or should we grab some shovels? Then again, I think someone will notice us burying a bunch of people in the Rose Garden.”
“This is not the time, babe.” Sara was with him. “Zack just lost his father.”
He stood, turned. And they were here, all his friends.
They had saved him, just like he’d believed they would.
Roman moved in, reaching for Zack’s shoulder. “You okay? Connor was already on his way back when Gus called him. Connor stealthed into the garage before the Russians could secure it, and he sent Dax to check on us. There are some bodies down there, too.”
“You didn’t answer Roman. Say something.” Elizabeth wrapped her arms around him. “Are you okay?”
Suddenly, a smile broke across his face. The danger was past. Elizabeth was in his arms. He was surrounded by his brothers. “I’m not okay. I’m great.”
Chapter Twenty
“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?” Lara asked several hours later, just before she stumbled into the Red Room.
At the sound of her voice, Zack glanced up and motioned her inside. Connor followed. Now, they were all gathered here, his family.
He was still dressed in the suit Elizabeth had selected for him to wear after he’d had a couple of stitches in his arm to close the bullet wound and before he spoke to the American people. He’d given a brief but reassuring press conference, promising the people that he was well and that he would give a full prime-time address the following evening with more complete details about the assassination attempt. As he’d stood behind the podium and done his best to both soothe Americans while projecting strength, he’d unashamedly held Elizabeth’s hand.
He’d heard Twitter was abuzz about their public display of affection and he didn’t care.
Now it was almost midnight, and the White House was finally quiet again.
Connor and Thomas had taken over the grisly scene in the residence and worked miracles. Not thirty minutes after the bullets had flown, a grim-looking man and a silent woman with her pale-hair twisted in a severe bun had shown up, dressed in all black. CIA agents, ones Connor trusted. The man he’d introduced as Josiah Grant. The blonde woman Connor had merely referred to as Kim. Neither had been big on talk. Instead, they’d gotten to work right away and soon cleared the scene until he would have sworn it had never been the epicenter of a multiple-death event.
He didn’t even know where they’d taken the bodies. He probably didn’t want to.
Connor cupped his wife’s shoulders as he kissed the top of her head. “You made the right call, Zack. I know you would far rather have given a press conference where you told the American people about this whole Russian conspiracy. But it’s best for everyone that you didn’t.”
Roman nodded, tossing his arm around Gus. “If the truth got out, it could shake financial markets across the globe.”
Dax looked reluctant to agree…but he did. “I’m a truth, justice, and American way type of guy, too. So I know concealing this bothers you. But the idea that the Russians were nearly able to compromise our president and our government would shake up all our alliances and embolden our enemies.”
“Sadly, he’s right,” Holland put in as she dropped her hand to her husband’s thigh.
“Then how do we explain all the other details?” Everly leaned against Gabe. “All the other deaths? It’s not like people aren’t going to notice…”
Gabe had a glass of Scotch in his hands. “You want to let us in on the plan, Freddy?”
Once again, the former intelligence officer, while whacko, had proven invaluable. Now his eyes lit up like he’d been given the greatest gift in the world—the green light to build a conspiracy from the ground up.
Freddy stood with a bounce in his step. “Well, the president’s father had a heart attack when he learned his son had been shot. It’s very sad, but not terribly shocking since he was in poor health. Zack will mourn appropriately, at least for the cameras. His long-term nurse will give a statement, explaining the situation.”
Sara cocked her head. “But his nurse is dead.”
“Totally and rotting in hell, but no one knows that. So we’ve chosen a CIA agent who has lots of practice covering things up. He’ll play nice for the cameras, and his part of the story won’t even end up being a footnote in history. We’ve already got Frank Hayes’s death certificate signed. His body will be cremated within the hour, along with his Russian nurse.”
Connor led his wife to a chair where he sat and pulled her down on his lap. “And since the nurse apparently had no real ties to anyone except the conspirators, no one will make pesky inquiries later.”
“What about Vanessa? Washington insiders knew who she was, even if her reputation was more twatwaffle than press secretary in training,” Mad put in.
“She’s more difficult,” Connor acknowledged. “But Freddy has a solution for her, too.”
“We trace everything back to our amazing assassin,” Freddy explained. “He’s got well-known ties to Krylov. Magically, he’s going to disappear from custody this evening. He’s a badass, after all. And”—he gasped—“we’ll learn that he’d been using Vanessa to gain access to the president’s schedule. They had to have some pillow talk, right? But after he escaped, he decided to clean up his loose ends and sadly, Vanessa’s usefulness was at an end. We’ll stage her murder at her apartment. It’s really exciting. I’m looking forward to being in on the action.”
“Won’t forensics prove she died while the assassin was in police custody?” Gus asked.
Connor waved that off. “Trust me. We have ways around that.”
“So you’re saying we’re simply going to let the assassin go?” Elizabeth said as she stood beside him.
Zack tugged on her hand, and like Connor had with Lara, pulled her onto his lap. He didn’t want an inch of space between them. “He’s a paid contractor with no loyalty to anyone. And he was never actually going to kill me. He was only on the scene to cause sufficient chaos so that two things could happen. First, to close off the entire White House so their agents could take over and second, to allow Vanessa to nab you so they could force me to do their bidding. They just didn’t count on Thomas being a super-cautious badass.”
Thomas, who stood in the corner of the room, almost smiled. “I might never take this vest off, sir. And I probably won’t let you out of my sight again.”
The man had been a six-and-a-half-foot mother hen all evening
long.
“Have we figured out who our bad agents are and what we’ll do with them?” Zack asked.
“Connor and Freddy helped me identify three,” Thomas explained. “I’m certain we’ve cleaned house now.”
“One died tragically saving Zack’s life,” Freddy explained. “The other two are already in holding pens. Connor will take them to an undisclosed location, debrief them, get all the intel we can, then…permanently relocate them. Later, we’ll find proof they were in on the plans to assassinate the president. They were also on Krylov’s payroll. We’ll play the Russian mobster’s motive as having a vested interest in killing the pipeline deal. A kernel of truth is always best.”
“And bonus, we’ll be taking Krylov himself down since our assassin was more than happy to admit he’d been hired by the man and we caught the bastard at the airport, trying to flee the country.” Connor looked awfully pleased with himself. “Even if Krylov mentions the president’s father or that past crap, no one will care. At this point, the Russian government will deny all knowledge of him or his activities and let us do whatever we please with him. And soon, look for a new head of that syndicate. They know they can’t reach you now. Too many of the assets they had in place are dead or compromised, so we fully believe they’ll cut their losses.”
Elizabeth shifted so she could look into his eyes. “Then it’s really over?”
Zack nodded. “It’s over. I trust my friends on this. I know now that we’ll have no constitutional crisis about where I was born. I’m exactly who I say I am. No one can blackmail me again, and I can get on with protecting and growing our country. You know, I’ve thought a lot about whether I should really run for reelection.”
“Bowing out, especially with the election less than a year away, would be a bad idea,” Gabe argued.
“The country needs you.” Dax stood. “If you step down, Shorn might make a run at the White House. Having been the VP of a popular president, he’ll likely do well. We know he’s compromised, and it will embolden the Russians to try this again.”