All the King's Henchmen

by Morgan Kelley

  He stopped him.

  Ethan couldn’t believe this shitfest.

  Clearly, Marcus was insane.

  “Oh, Christ! Does anyone in DC not cheat on their wife?” he asked. “Your wife was at the party. I saw her with the vice president’s wife.”

  “We were discrete. We like to have sex when we can get caught. It ups the…”

  “Stupidity level. It ups it way up there,” Ethan stated. “Fucking the president’s wife while he’s in the same hotel…Marcus, man, are you asking to lose your job, or what?”

  The man paced.

  “I can’t help it. I have problems. The sex…”

  He stopped him.

  “Please don’t.”

  “Ethan, I’m addicted. I get off on it. I need you to stop Elizabeth from doing this.”

  He couldn’t.

  He wouldn’t.

  “Ethan, help me. If you were cheating…”

  He stopped him.

  “Woah! I’m all about the Bro Code, Marcus, but I never cheated on my wife.”

  “There was all that talk about the Secretary of Defense and you in your car.”

  He stopped him again.

  “I didn’t cheat. That’s rumor. It was Marlee Whittaker spreading it. The difference between us is you were having an extramarital affair with a woman whose husband turned up dead, and mine was someone trying to break up my marriage. My dick has been in one woman since I got married. Yours has not.”

  “I didn’t kill him. I swear. You know me.”

  That wasn’t good enough for Ethan.

  “Marcus, I didn’t think you cheated on Marylou, either. You have kids. What are you thinking?”

  “Ethan. I need your help to get out from under this. If this gets out, I’m going to lose my job.”

  Oh, he was aware.

  Talk was one thing, but proof…in DC, it could bury you. There would be fallout from this, and he was staying clear of it.

  “Please keep her off of me and the First Lady. That’s all I’m asking.”

  Ethan rubbed his eyes.

  “I’ll see what I can do, but if she can find ANY proof that you or the First Lady are involved in this, I can’t help you. I can only do so much, Marcus. Her hands are already tied over this. They are already working against the clock. You might just be better off going to Elizabeth and owning it. In an investigation, the truth is better than a cover-up any day.”

  “Ethan, please. I’m asking a personal favor as a friend. I didn’t kill him. I was naked in bed with his wife while mine thought I was handling a work call. That’s the truth. Help me.”

  He had to make a choice.

  “Please! Don’t do it for me, but my wife, Marylou, and my kids.”

  Shit!

  That got him in the conscience.

  “Okay, Marcus. I’ll talk to her, but I’m going to have to be honest with her. I don’t lie to my wife to save my ass. I’m not lying to her to save yours.”

  “Fine. Just help me keep this off of the record.”

  Oh, he would try.

  Only, he knew his wife.

  They’d abducted her for a reason.

  She was beyond good at her job.

  She was the best.

  And this would come out.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  Well, this was going to be beyond awkward. As she got into the passenger side of the FBI vehicle, Max was bright red.

  He looked like he was going to have a stroke.

  “Are you going to be able to work with me?” Harmony asked. “If not, I can ask Elizabeth to work alone. If you’re freaked-out, I get it.”

  Did she?

  Max doubted that.

  He was uncomfortable with the whole situation, and not just working a case with her. Max was thinking about her, their date, how he’d almost got to have a drink with her, and he blew it.

  “I feel like an asshole.”

  “You are one. You assumed I was going to have sex with you. That says a lot about your impression of me.”

  “That’s not what I wanted to say,” he offered as she entered the man’s home address into the GPS. “I swear to God it wasn’t.”

  “What did you want to say?” she asked curiously. “I hope it’s not worse than that.”

  Max understood what she was saying. He’d royally screwed-up.

  “I wanted to have that drink, but with my luck, I would have dumped it on you. You make me nervous. I wanted to say yes. I wanted to sit with you on your porch and enjoy the evening, but I know better.”

  She didn’t get it.

  Harmony was so damn chill that ice cubes looked warm. She didn’t pressure anyone, and she was pretty good with people—reading them and relating to them.

  Yet with this man, she sucked at it. There was something about him that tripped her up too. She had a rocky past. While she told no one, she should be the one who was afraid and freaked-out.

  Not him.

  “Why? What did I do to make you nervous, Max? Help me understand.”

  “You’re absolutely gorgeous.”

  She stared at him.

  “Pardon?”

  “When I’m around someone I’m attracted to, I fall apart like this. My dad died when I was a teen, and no one taught me how to do the dating thing. I’m a fish out of water, Harmony, but when the woman is beautiful, and I’m attracted to her, I’m a nightmare.”

  She laughed.

  He didn’t.

  “I’m being serious.”

  “I am too. That’s funny. A man doesn’t have to be nervous when he looks like you do.”

  “What?” he asked. Max had no idea what she was talking about. How did this become about him?

  “You’re sexy. If you’d just relax, stop stressing, and go with it, you’d have more dates than humanly possible. You’re a very attractive man, Maximus Chase.”

  He felt the flush. It moved from his chest, to his neck, and right across his face.

  “Would we have had sex?” she asked. “I don’t know. All I do know is I was enjoying my time with you. I didn’t get upset about the wine, the popcorn, or how you blurted out the sex thing. I was upset because you ran and didn’t have the decency to stick. I hate that in a man.”

  He glanced over.

  He hadn’t thought of it that way.

  “I really didn’t understand what I did,” Harmony stated. “I didn’t understand why you assumed I’d have sex, and then ran from me.”

  Max saw the hurt in her eyes.

  Was it there because of him?

  Had someone else put it there?

  He opted to be honest.

  “You have the prettiest eyes, Harmony. They are so gorgeous that I want to stare into them. I don’t just have sex,” he stated. “I know I should have explained after I said what I said, but I don’t just roll around with women all of the time. That’s not me.”

  Well, that made her feel better.

  “When it came out, I was horrified. I didn’t want to make it worse, so I ran. It’s not what I wanted to do.”

  “What did you want to do?”

  “Other than have that drink? I wanted to ask you out again. I wanted to prove that the jitters would go away. If you could get past me acting like an asshole, by date two, I’m better. By date three, I’m normal. I’m slow out of the gate, but I get it done.”

  Then he realized how that sounded.

  “I did NOT mean that as sex.”

  She laughed.

  His heart skipped.

  “When you smile, you’re stunning, Harmony. How could I not be attracted to you? My dumping a bucket of popcorn all over you was proof. You fluster me.”

  He started the vehicle.

  “I don’t know how to appropriately react to you. Part of me wants to laugh at my idiocy, and the rest wants to weep.”

  “I say laugh. When in doubt, get your giggle on. Life is too short to be afraid and miserable. That’s one more reason I left the Secret S
ervice.”

  Yeah, not the biggest reason.

  “I’m sorry I ruined our date. I know I keep saying that, but I can see I hurt you, and that’s not my style. I’m more the big, goofy idiot than the crusher of hopes and dreams.”

  She patted his knee.

  Yeah, she could see that. When Max wasn’t freaked-out, he was pretty chill too. She genuinely liked him.

  A LOT.

  Harmony felt safe around him, and that was HUGE for her. She wasn’t scared.

  “You didn’t ruin anything, Max. Until you alluded that I was a whore, it was all good,” she teased.

  He groaned.

  “My life sucks.”

  She laughed her ass off.

  “Shake it off, Maximus. You can’t let it get to you like this. It was only a date.”

  “It was more.”

  She blinked.

  “Pardon?”

  “We all have that one date we strive to get. There’s that girl that every guy knows is above him, but he still has hope he can get a date with her. You were that date.”

  That was sweet.

  “So, ask me out again sometime.”

  He glanced over.

  “Just don’t take me cliff diving or where there’s lava. You might accidentally push me off or in. You are a menace.”

  He laughed.

  “I likely would.”

  “For the record, Max.”

  “Yes?”

  “I genuinely like being with you. It was a decent date. You brought me pink flowers, and you opened the car door for me. You were a gentleman. A lady will overlook a lot of things for someone who has manners. Again, until you assumed I was going to rock your world.”

  He flushed.

  “For the record, I don’t even consider sleeping with a man for quite a while. I like to get to know them first. There was NO chance you were getting laid on date one.”

  That helped.

  It took a shitload of pressure off of him.

  “Thanks for that. I appreciate it.”

  It wasn’t lost on her that he didn’t ask her out again, despite her suggesting it. This man was a nervous wreck. Still, she found him sexy with that dark hair and dark brown eyes. He was handsome, mysterious, and she liked his name.

  Clearly, she was going to be the one who chased.

  Not him.

  Honestly, this was all new to her. Harmony had been married to her job for the last six years. It got her mind off of the things that haunted her.

  “Turn here,” she said, pointing.

  He listened.

  “It’s the house down there on the right. His truck is there, so he’s likely off today. Since he was one of the president’s Secret Service, and the man is dead, he’ll be reassigned to a different post.”

  “He let the president get killed. That’s not good for the resume.”

  “Oh, I know. He’s going to be angry. So, keep on your toes, Max.”

  He would.

  They parked and headed toward the door.

  On the porch, she knocked and waited. The second he opened the door and saw her, he looked confused.

  “Uh, yes?”

  “Clyde, we need to talk to you.”

  “About?”

  Max flipped out his badge.

  The man sighed.

  “And so, it begins. I figured the FBI would be here today sometime. Come in,” he offered.

  They headed into his home and toward his living room. He pointed.

  “Have a seat. I know this is going to suck. Let’s get it over with, okay?”

  “Since you said that, then you know we need to talk about the hookers, Clyde. What can you tell us about the women you supplied the president?” Max asked, leading the investigation. While Harmony knew him, he was the FBI.

  “I didn’t want to do it,” he admitted. “It felt wrong, but when Damian Dean told you to do something…”

  She got it.

  He took away a person’s choice. The man was a pig, and he’d destroy anyone who didn’t agree to do his bidding. There was not the option of ‘NO’ when it came to him.

  She’d learned that.

  “We get that,” Max stated. “Only, he was killed while you guys weren’t on him. Who was he with at the time of his death? This is going to go better if you just help us out.”

  The man shrugged.

  “I don’t know. He told us he wanted us to secure that floor. He told us that he wanted the cameras off, and that we were to give him space. He was going up to do some kinky shit. He was planning on someone else but had to take option two. He was NOT happy about it.”

  That made them curious.

  “Who did he want up there?”

  “Elizabeth Blackhawk. He had champagne and things ready for her.”

  Oh, well, she was NOT going to like that.

  Max laughed.

  “She wouldn’t meet him up there. Was he insane?” he asked.

  She got it.

  “Max, he wasn’t going to accept no as her answer, right, Clyde?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  Max was horrified.

  Jesus!

  “He was obsessed with her. He was sure that he was going to lure her up there. He was sure he was going to get her into that room. So, we didn’t have a hooker for him. We just know it wasn’t her. She left before I could tell her that the president needed to see her.”

  Max made notes.

  This was not going to make Elizabeth, or her husbands, happy when they reported this.

  It was clear that the president was an asshole.

  “Clyde, you are in so deep now. The only way out is to help us dig you out. We need the names of anyone you can think of who slept with him,” she said.

  “Harmony.”

  “If you want to get out from under this clusterfuck, you need to work with us. We know you were slipping him hookers. We know they were brought to the White House. Only, we don’t know their names. Give them up, and we’ll help you. Trust me when I say Elizabeth Blackhawk will ride your ass so hard you’ll weep. She’s not the one to mess with,” Harmony stated.

  He hesitated.

  “The Secret Service kicked the hell out of her. She’s going to hold a wicked grudge.”

  Harmony knew.

  She held one against them too.

  It was clear that he was weighing his options. His face said it all.

  “Come on, Clyde.”

  “You’re right. My time in the White House is up. I know that. I’ll help you.”

  That made their lives easier.

  “You got out when it was a good time,” he admitted. “It was some mess these last six years.”

  She was aware.

  Only, she had no choice but to leave. Harmony had loved her job. Then, one day, she didn’t.

  “Names,” Max said as he noticed Harmony was quiet. She looked like she was distracted.

  Clyde grabbed a pen and paper and wrote them down. Then, he handed it to her.

  “That’s who we brought him, and where we picked them up. I don’t know their real names. You’ll have to research them. When it came to the president, the less you knew, the better.”

  She was aware.

  So many of them turned a blind eye, and that was something she couldn’t forgive. They’d become his thugs, and that was all kinds of wrong.

  She pocketed the names.

  “Thank you, Clyde.”

  “Harmony, I’m sorry for all those years ago. I really am.”

  She physically flinched.

  Max was missing something. What was he apologizing to her about? Why did she look that upset?

  It was making him curious.

  Harmony had to roll with it.

  “Sure. Great. Let it go, Max. Let’s get out of here.”

  He sensed the urgency.

  Only, Clyde wasn’t done. He grabbed her arm, and she pulled away so fast, Max knew something was up.

  Honestly, he didn’t like the man touching
her. He grabbed his wrist and yanked his hand free.

  “No touching my partner. Hands-off, or I’ll make sure you see what it feels like,” he said, squeezing the man’s wrist.

  “Shit! Ouch!”

  Harmony put space between her and Clyde.

  “Thanks, Max. I’m good,” she said as he dropped the man’s wrist.

  “Be careful, Harmony. Whoever killed him was angry. He was beaten something fierce.”

  Yeah, she saw him.

  “One last thing,” Max stated. “Tell me about where he was found,” he said, making sure the man wasn’t near Harmony. She looked upset.

  “We cleaned up the hotel room after we found him there. He was in a puddle of his blood.”

  Oh, well, why wasn’t he shocked. Clearly, they had made this a million times harder by jacking with a scene. The ex-homicide detective in him cringed.

  “What was he killed with?” Max asked. “Did you recover a weapon?”

  Harmony watched him work. While Max might be shy when it came to women, he wasn’t when it came to doing the job. He was young, but it was clear this was in his blood.

  Clyde hesitated.

  “Well, I can charge you with obstruction,” he offered. “You know…since you just admitted to cleaning up the hotel room.”

  The man looked worried.

  “Spill it!” Max said loud enough that Clyde actually jumped.

  “We found him with a bloody pillowcase over his head, and with a lamp beside him on the floor. Everything was from the room. We handled them all on the vice president’s orders.”

  Well, Elizabeth was going to flip her shit.

  Max knew this was going to make all of their lives harder.

  “Who would want to kill him?” he asked. “The Secret Service’s job is to watch him. Who would you suspect if you were looking for a killer?”

  He actually laughed.

  “EVERYONE. Who wouldn’t want him dead? You, yourself, know that, Harmony. Where were you?” he asked.

  She kept her cool.

  “I was on a date. I have an alibi.”

  Max didn’t get any of this. Something had gone down with Harmony and the president, but what?

  Clyde continued, “He was the most hated man in the world. Foreign leaders hated him. His wife…she wasn’t a fan. His daughter couldn’t stand looking at him. He was a tyrant and wouldn’t let her live her life. He controlled everyone. He wanted the illusion of a perfect presidency. We all know it was anything but.”