by Cassie Cole
It was tough pushing through the crowd, but I was gaining on him. Now that I was close I knew it was him. Recognized the clothes from earlier. The crowd parted for a split second, and I saw that he was holding something down at his side.
Something black and metallic.
“Today, before all of my constituents…”
I shoved people out of the way to reach the attacker. He was dangerously close to the stage now. Within shooting distance.
He stopped, then raised the black object.
“…announce my candidacy for President of the United States!”
I launched myself, tackling him from behind.
People around us shouted with surprise, but they were drowned out by the roar of the crowd at Elizabeth’s announcement.
The man fell forward and I landed on top of him with all my weight. The object from his hand went flying, hitting someone in the back and clattering to the ground. A walkie-talkie.
I stared at the shiny plastic object while the crowd roared around us. Not a gun. Was I mistaken? I eased my weight off the guy and rolled him over. He was wearing the same motorcycle armor as the guy who had buzzed by our motorcade, and then hovered around Elizabeth’s car for far too long. He had dark hair that was shaved on the sides of his head and thicker on top, with a thin black beard along his jaw. Tattoos ran down the side of his neck into his motorcycle gear.
The pop of confetti cannons went off, filling the air with tiny bits of colored paper. Balloons rose into the air, and the enormous 2020’HARE banner was unfurled above the Statehouse. Elizabeth beamed out at the adoring crowd.
I grabbed the guy by his motorcycle jacket. “Who the hell are you, and why are you stalking the senator?”
“Get off me!”
He tried to fight me but there was no chance with my full weight pinning him down. “Answer me!”
He gritted his teeth. “My breast pocket.”
“What?”
“Open it, fuckhead!”
I hesitated only a moment before unbuttoning the outer pocket. A rectangle of leather was inside, smooth on one side and adorned with metal on the other. The gold badge of a United States Capitol Police officer.
What the fuck?
“I was on her detail earlier this week,” the officer growled. “I’m here watching Elizabeth. Trying to keep her safe!”
He wasn’t trying to kill her. He was here for the same reason I was. Relief washed over me.
And then the gunshots went off.
24
Luca
I had worked with some very powerful people in my career, but I really admired Senator Elizabeth O’Hare.
She was strong and confident for someone so young. Incredibly intelligent. She was self-aware, too, which was rare for a politician. She knew her strengths and limitations.
She had a bright future ahead of her. I found myself hoping that someday she would run for president.
I glanced over at Ethan.
I gave a start. Where had he gone? I spotted him a few seconds later, jostling through the crowd.
Goddamnit, what are you doing?
He was pursuing something. Or someone. Taking a moment to put aside my annoyance, I scanned the crowd ahead of him. There. A man was pushing sideways through the crowd. He wore all black, and he was now making his way closer to the stage.
The urge to sound the alarm was strong, to grab Elizabeth and guide her off stage to where it was safe. I fought down the urge. There were always a dozen potential threats at events like this who ended up being harmless. It was probably just a guy trying to get a better view.
Ethan was gaining on him. The stranger stopped, then raised a walkie-talkie to his mouth. Was he a plain-clothes Columbus PD officer?
Ethan flew through the air, tackling the suspect. Maybe he saw something I didn’t. Nobody else noticed because at that moment Elizabeth reached the climax of her speech.
“…candidacy for President of the United States!”
I blinked.
You have got to be kidding me. That was what all the whispering and secrecy was about. Why they cared more about the speech than security. She was announcing her candidacy today!
“Goddamnit,” I muttered to myself. That was something I would have liked to know prior to setting up her security.
Confetti cannons went off, and Elizabeth didn’t flinch at all. Balloons rose into the air like a rising tide of latex colors. Above, strings snapped and a giant banner unfurled. The crowd roared even louder.
And then a single gunshot cut through the noise.
It was a sound I knew immediately. One we were trained to know. It echoed off the buildings around the square, a whip-crack like thunder.
I began running toward Elizabeth.
A second gunshot rang out, then a third. Two balloons rising into the air in front of Elizabeth burst, and I heard a bullet ricochet off the stone wall behind her.
The crowd realized what the sound was, and then everything turned to chaos.
“GET DOWN!” I screamed.
Elizabeth still stood proud behind the podium, forcing herself not to flinch at what she probably thought were the confetti cannons. The three seconds it took me to reach her felt like three hours. I don’t know how she wasn’t cut down then and there, but I wrapped my arms around her and put my body between hers and the crowd.
Another gunshot. I tensed, waiting for the impact that would send me to my grave. None came.
“This way,” I said, covering her and pushing her toward the curtains at the edge of the stage.
“What?” she asked, dazed. “What was that?”
We reached the concealment of the curtain, and I pulled myself off her body. Now that we were no longer out in the open I could take stock of the situation. Our escape route was guarded by two policewomen, so the best thing for us to—
Two more gunshots pierced the curtain a yard from Elizabeth, leaving two eye-holes in the fabric. Like a child’s Halloween costume.
“We need to get out of here, ma’am!”
The chaos intensified as I put an arm around her and guided her toward the side street where our cars were waiting. Two Columbus police flanked the mayor ahead of us.
“Luca,” Elizabeth said. She looked at me with a pale face.
“Just relax and we’ll get you to safety, ma’am,” I said.
“Luca. I’ve been shot.”
25
Elizabeth
I didn’t remember being shot.
One minute I was standing behind the podium, doing my best not to flinch at the endless confetti cannons going off, and the next minute Luca was smothering me with his body and leading me away. When we got behind the curtain, I realized my hip and thigh were wet. When I touched my side my palm came back a shade of red so deep it was almost black.
“She’s hit!” Luca roared. “The senator has been hit!”
Our escape to the side street was abruptly halted. Luca lowered me to the ground behind a column and ripped the fabric of my skirt, my favorite skirt, the one I’d insisted on wearing for the important day. But Luca didn’t seem to care about the skirt because he was shouting for help, and there was so much blood now staining my clothes, and it was funny because I didn’t even feel it.
Then the world went black.
Everything was a blur.
Shouting. Yelling.
The inside of an ambulance.
Lights that were so bright they hurt my eyes.
Faces crowding my vision, asking me questions.
The tearing sound of bandages being cut.
Then everything went black again, and when I opened my eyes I was somewhere else, with even more police around me.
I started to panic, and called out for help, but then someone poked me in the leg with a needle and everything became fuzzy and warm.
I blinked, and then I was inside of a car.
The back seat of a car, staring up at the black fabric and the plastic light.
I tried t
o take a deep breath but was unable. I wiggled my arms but they were tied down. In fact, I could move nothing. I was tied down.
Restrained.
I’ve been kidnapped.
“What…” I said.
“You’re awake!” the driver said.
“Let me out,” I demanded, thrashing harder. “Let me the hell out of here! I’m a United States Senator!”
“Hold on. It’s me, Agent Santos. Just relax. I’m pulling over.”
I heard gravel crunching as we slowed down and stopped on the side of the road. Cars whizzed by outside, and I suppressed the urge to call for help.
It was difficult to think. Agent Santos. That was Luca. The Secret Service Agent assigned to me. He was my protector.
The door opened and he unclipped my restraints. No, not restraints. Seat belts.
“Only way to keep you from rolling onto the wound while asleep,” he said. “Sorry if it scared you.”
I rose to a sitting position, which made me dizzy. “No. It’s okay. I wasn’t scared,” I said, even though I was trembling.
Luca squinted down into my eyes. “How do you feel?”
“Tired,” I said immediately. “My eyes feel crusted together. How long…”
“We’ve been driving for two hours,” he said.
I looked at the sun behind him. It was falling in the sky. It was late afternoon.
Had I been out all afternoon?
“Let’s get back on the road and I’ll catch you up to speed,” he said.
I got out so I could move to the front seat. That’s when I noticed that I was wearing baggy hospital scrubs over my lower half, though I still wore my expensive blouse and jewelry on top. Before sitting down, I twisted and looked at my side. There was no blood, and only a single bandage the size of a credit card above my hip. And there was no pain.
I sat down and closed the door. “I was shot,” I said out loud.
“Yeah…” Luca looked over his shoulder before driving the car back onto the highway. “Just a glancing shot, thank God. Probably a ricochet. Took a thumb-sized chunk out of your love-handle, but nothing worse.”
“I… I don’t have love-handles,” I said. I suddenly felt self-conscious in my hospital scrubs.
“Just a figure of speech. We got you medical attention at Grant Hospital, but then I received orders to take you to an undisclosed location.”
“Undisclosed location?”
“For your protection. Elizabeth? Someone tried to kill you today. A sniper. You’re lucky to be alive.”
I tried to grab onto the thought but it slipped away. Someone else had tried to attack me. Okay.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
I tried reaching into my pocket before realizing I didn’t have any. “Where’s my phone?”
Luca grimaced. “I’m afraid we had to leave that in Columbus. There’s a high probability you’re being tracked that way. I’ve got your suitcase in the trunk, though. You can change when we get to where we’re going.”
“Where are the others?” I asked. “Ethan?”
“Ethan’s not coming with us.”
“What? Why not? Is he…” My throat tightened at the thought of anything happening to him…
“Ethan tackled a suspect in the crowd,” Luca answered. He almost sounded proud of the bodyguard. “Might’ve been a spotter for the real shooter, who was using a high caliber rifle from a window in the PWC building. I take back everything I said about that meathead.”
“Spotter.” My head still felt like it was full of cotton. It was tough to focus on any one thought. “Why would they need a spotter?”
“Lots of reasons. Determining if you’re wearing a bulletproof vest. Looking for other targets, like the mayor. The spotter might have been a backup option in case the sniper missed. Could have jumped up on stage to finish you off. In any case, this suspect was seen following our cars from the beauty salon to the event. That’s too much of a coincidence for them to be innocent.”
A memory tugged at me from the car ride, but my head was too fuzzy and it slipped away like mist.
“Someone tried to kill you,” Luca said, deathly serious. “Once you’re in the secure location we’ll discuss our strategy going forward. But first, we’re picking someone up along the way.”
“Who?”
“Someone who will help me keep you safe.”
26
Elizabeth
“It’s a puppy!” I squealed.
The black Labrador Retriever came galloping down the driveway toward me, tongue hanging out. I crouched down and he licked my face, then circled around me while getting as many sniffs in as he could. The whole time his entire butt wiggled back and forth along with his tail.
He reached the wound at my side, then paused to sniff at it. After that he licked my face extra careful.
We were at a little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. The moment Luca unlocked the front door the dog came running out. He didn’t even say hi to Luca—he came straight to me.
“Nice to see you too,” Luca muttered, crouching down to scratch the dog’s ear.
“Whose dog is this?”
“Boomer is mine,” he said. “My sister watches him most of the year while I’m in Washington.”
“Boomer,” I said. He flopped onto his back to show me his belly, which I gave some vigorous rubbing. “Are you named that because you shoot off like a cannon the moment anyone opens the door?”
Luca scratched his head. “My, uh, wife named him. She went to Oklahoma. Boomer Sooner.”
“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t realize you were married.”
“Divorced. Hey, Boomer? Want to go for a ride in the car?”
The dog leaped up and went right in the passenger door, then climbed across to the back seat where he promptly sat on his haunches like he was waiting for the bus.
“Boomer’ll keep you safer than three of me,” Luca said. “Let’s get back on the road.”
“I’m not going to meet your sister?”
He shook his weary head. “I told her not to be here when I came by. Said it was a national emergency. She knows not to ask questions about my job.”
My first reaction was mild relief. In my ultra-baggy hospital scrubs and bloodied blouse, I wasn’t in a condition to meet anyone.
My second reaction was: national emergency?
I supposed it was the right phrase for it. I’d had two separate assassination attempts in a 72 hour period. Surprisingly, that realization didn’t make me curl into the fetal position on the ground. I was too busy to deal with this bullshit. I had a campaign to launch. I didn’t have time for assassins.
Yeah, it was callous with maybe a hint of denial, but if Megan were here she would have said the exact same thing.
“Nobody else is here?” I asked.
“Nope.”
I popped the trunk on the car. “Then turn around so I can change into some proper clothes.”
It wasn’t as good as a shower, but getting into some fresh clothes did wonders for my morale. I actually felt like myself once I was wearing slacks and a long-sleeve button-up.
“We’re not going to an office building,” Luca said when he saw what I was wearing.
“This is the most casual thing I have aside from pajamas,” I said. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
We got back in the car and drove south for another hour. I didn’t realize how boring a car ride could be without a cell phone to keep you occupied. It was especially frustrating since I was itching to read news about my campaign announcement and how the networks were reacting. Was I trending on Twitter? And if so, was it because of the candidacy announcement or the assassination attempt?
But it gave me time to silently process everything. I was still coming down from the painkillers so it was good to sort through everything in my head.
We reached Wheelersburg, which was on the border with Kentucky, then headed e
ast from there. We wound down unmarked, unpaved roads for almost half an hour before reaching a tiny little cabin in the middle of nowhere.
“Whose place is this?”
“Mine.” Luca turned the car off and got out. “Well, my family’s. Use it for hunting in the winter. Not so much since my dad died. Haven’t gotten around to selling it. But the primary benefit is there’s nobody around for 20 miles in any direction.”
The cabin was on a little hill, giving me a view of the surrounding terrain. It was nothing but endless trees and rolling hills everywhere I looked.
The cabin itself was a single-room building. A living room, sleeping area, and kitchen occupied the 40-by-40 foot space, plus what looked like a bathroom off the back of the kitchen. That was a relief; I had begun to fear this place didn’t have plumbing. I’d rather get killed by assassins than do my business in an outhouse.
Boomer trotted inside, jumped onto the sofa, and rested his blocky head on his paws.
“It’s freezing in here!” I said, wrapping my arms around myself. “I swear it’s actually colder inside than outside.”
“I’ll get the generator running, then the heater,” Luca said. He went to turn off the faucets in the kitchen and bathroom, which had been left at a drip to prevent freezing.
“I don’t suppose there’s hot water for a shower,” I grumbled.
“Actually, we have a tankless water heater. You can have a hot shower as soon as I get the generator up.”
“Agent Santos,” I said with fake seriousness. “If I don’t take a scalding hot shower in the next 60 seconds I’m going to literally die. Then you’ll have to report to your superiors that a senator died on your watch.”
He grinned. “Wouldn’t want that, would we, ma’am?”
The generator was a loud rumble on the back side of the cabin, but if it meant I could take a shower I didn’t care. The bathroom was small but featured an oversized claw-footed tub long enough to stretch out in. I considered soaking in a hot bath but decided a shower was more practical. The moment the steam and water hit my body I sighed with pleasure. I had to turn sideways to keep the water from hitting my bandage, but that was fine because mostly I was just standing under the water to let the heat thaw out my bones. Once I felt like a human again I toweled off and changed into my pajamas.