Deadly Holidays

by Lisa Phillips

  “I think not. He stays here, and you go with your friend—” The gunman motioned to David with his head. “—to ensure the mission is completed.”

  “It’s not exactly easy to kill the president of the United States, you know?”

  “But you will do it, Mr. Super Spy. It is why you were chosen.”

  Steve looked at David. His former teammate gave him nothing, his face impassive and his eyes dark. He didn’t like these guys, but he also wasn’t objecting to any of this.

  He glanced at Bradley again. His friend nodded.

  “Okay.” He said it more to Bradley than to the rest of them, but they took it however they wanted. “I’ll do it.”

  Chapter 15

  Three agents met them in the hallway, grim faces. One said, “Ms. Perkins.” Then motioned for Megan to go with him. Another did the same with Alexis.

  Rachel stood in the hallway, while the third moved closer to her. A forty-something agent who had buzzed his hair, so it wasn’t so obvious he was balding. It didn’t work. He reached out toward her.

  Rachel took a step back, out of reach. “Please refrain from touching me.”

  He nodded. “If you’d come this way.”

  “May I ask what’s going on?” Seemed like something serious given Adrian was nowhere to be found, and they were being separated. Questioned?

  “Let’s have a seat in here.” He directed her to a small room with one table, two chairs and two way glass.

  “Do I need a lawyer?”

  “If you’d feel more comfortable. However, I assure you this is just an informal chat.”

  Because they couldn’t arrest her for anything. Which meant they either had no evidence, just a theory, or they were still waiting for the warrant from a judge.

  Rachel sat.

  The agent took the seat opposite her.

  “You aren’t going to ask me if I’d like a cup of coffee?”

  “Would you?”

  “No.”

  His lips curled up at the corners.

  Like he could’ve known that before she said anything. Rachel folded her arms. Not because she wanted to look belligerent, it was just freezing in here. Tea would have been good, but she needed to keep all her focus on what was happening here. Not be distracted by a yummy warm drink.

  Did they know she’d been in the SUV with Steve? How could they, when he’d been in disguise?

  So what did they know now that they hadn’t known before Rachel went with Alexis and Megan to the hospital to talk with Nicola?

  “How long have you known Steve Preston?”

  “The fact that I know him isn’t a secret, nor is it new information.”

  “Answer the question please, Ms. Harris.”

  “It’s Senator Harris.”

  He sat silently for a second, then shifted in his seat to flip open his file. He turned a photo so she could see it. Black and white, but she got the image.

  A dead guy, bullet hole in his forehead.

  Next picture: two dead guys in an alley.

  There were more.

  Rachel steeled herself.

  “These are all men Steve Preston has killed.”

  “I killed a man yesterday.”

  The agent stopped, mouth open. Rachel didn’t want to gloat that she’d actually surprised him enough he lost control of his train of questioning, but she kind of wanted to. Maybe it was being so close to Double Down, all high-intensity operators, that had left her with this core of strength. Enough she could hold it together right now.

  Maybe she would fall apart later, but that would be later. Right now she had to be strong. Stand up for her friends.

  “If you’re going to try and convince me that Steve Preston is some kind of murderer, I’ll point out that he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency at the time. What he did prior to that and after his tenure as an intelligence officer, was also in service to this country. Mostly as a minister.” She paused half a second, not long enough for him to speak, then said, “And everything he is doing now follows that same pattern. Regardless of what you’ve been told, or whatever the reason you’re questioning me and my friends. And making accusations against my family.”

  She wasn’t a politician for nothing.

  The agent cleared his throat.

  “And,” she continued before he could say anything. “Whatever the reason you’ve decided to divide this family by showing me the worst of what a good man has done just to shake my faith in him, it’s not going to work. Nor is telling anyone I’ve lost my mind, which seems to be the current rhetoric among law enforcement in this town.”

  As soon as they were done with this, Rachel intended to get back to her idea about reaching out to Mrs. Anderson. This conversation wouldn’t help Steve. Doing her part against the blackmailer would.

  With that thought, she realized this really was nothing but a time waster. Whatever—she assumed—the blackmailer had given to the FBI only made things worse for the Double Down team and everyone associated with them. But it was still just a tactic to slow them all down until the summit.

  “What did he give you?”

  The agent said, “Excuse me?”

  “You got an email, or someone made an anonymous tip. Based on whatever you just learned, you decide to question each of us.” Just the three of them, or the whole team? Rachel said, “Have you heard from Emma Burroughs and Mint?”

  “Who?”

  “Davis Malone.”

  “They were located by a team of our agents.”

  “Are they okay?” She hadn’t heard from them in a couple of days, and everyone had been worried. “We were starting to get concerned.”

  “As far as I know they’re fine, but I can check for you.”

  “So you’ve rounded them up like you rounded up the rest of us, right?” Rachel didn’t like that. Emma had been a victim in all this as well, and Mint was only trying to keep her safe from the blackmailer so she wouldn’t be a target again.

  She said, “We aren’t criminals, and you won’t be able to make any charges stick. Which you know, or you’d be making arrests instead of fishing for information or new things to accuse Steve Preston of. Too bad for you and this expedition that you feel the need to try and drum up something; we aren’t criminals. There is a blackmailer in Washington, which you know. You also can likely surmise that Steve is acting under duress the way Agent Zimmerman was when he went rogue.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Anyone can put those two together and come out with a logical assumption,” she said. “Even a senator.”

  He almost smiled at that. Almost.

  “Why would we be hanging around the FBI office if we’re behind all this? Seems like a strange way to protect someone who is hurting people, doesn’t it? If Steve really was the blackmailer, then we’d probably be trying to cover it up. Not helping the FBI any way we can.”

  “Where did he go with your brother, Senator?”

  “How should I know? I’m not either of their mother.”

  “Who is the blackmailer?”

  She pressed her lips together.

  “You know, don’t you?”

  “This is a conspiracy, Agent. The government is rotten to the core, and Steve is trying to stop it before it destroys the foundation of this country.” She sat back in her chair. “I, for one, intend to do everything I can to help him.”

  “And if he does something you can’t help him get past? If he incriminates himself in a serious crime, what then? You get dragged down as well and you lose everything.”

  It should have given her pause. That was his intention. But there just wasn’t anything in her life that she cared for enough that she didn’t want to lose. Except her family.

  And that family included Steve.

  She said, “If that happens, I’ll still have everything important in my life.”

  **

  David walked out of the warehouse first, followed by Steve, headed for a silver sedan parked at the far e
nd of the building. At least, that was where Steve figured they were going. Halfway to the door, David turned around. Steve was ready.

  David let go of whatever tether he’d been holding onto of his self-control.

  Steve met his attack with a block. Then another block to the sneaky cross he tried to slam into Steve’s side. Steve used a hook. David fell to one knee, coughing.

  “Let’s just go.”

  He climbed to his feet and pushed out a heavy breath. “You bugged me.”

  “You let him drag me into this, and you knew there was more for me to do. But you were fine with skating underneath everyone’s radar like the snake you are.”

  “You think I have no skin in this?” David shot back. “I thought you were the better sniper, remember?”

  He had said that. But Steve didn’t need to be reminded of it. “So I get to have my friends shot right in front of me and others nearly killed. My business completely destroyed. And what? He threatens someone you care about?”

  Steve did want to know about that. If he could safeguard whatever leverage the blackmailer had on David, then the guy would be less willing to do whatever he was told. “What does he have?”

  David turned and lumbered toward the car.

  “Dude. Just tell me what it is.”

  David pulled open the driver’s door and got in. Steve climbed in the passenger side, then said, “Tell me what he’s holding over you.”

  David blew out a breath. “I have no idea how he found out.” He rubbed his hands down his face. “I was in Belize. There was this girl, a waitress. Mary. Mara. Something.”

  He didn’t even remember her name?

  “I drove her to this private beach. Secluded, you know? Things got…hot and heavy. She asked me to…”

  Steve gritted his teeth. The story was about to get worse, and he probably didn’t want to know what David was going to tell him. But he was going to have to listen anyway.

  Long enough for David to get to the point.

  Steve’s jaw dropped when David said it. He gaped. “You killed her?”

  “It was an accident, okay? I took the boat out, and I dumped her over the side. No one was out there. So how does he know it even happened?”

  David seemed more concerned that someone had discovered the murder than he was about the fact that his actions led to a death.

  Steve closed his mouth. The man deserved whatever was happening, considering he’d been careless. There was no reasoning on earth that tolerated something like that.

  David wasn’t that far from the man who had victimized Rachel.

  “I’m a horrible person, okay?” The sarcasm in David’s tone detracted from the intention behind those words. There was no remorse in him. Just frustration that he’d been discovered.

  “Yeah,” Steve said. “You are.”

  “Fine. Be all judgy.”

  Steve glanced at the ceiling for a second. “That man they’re holding back there?” He pointed out the back window at the rapidly retreating building. “He’s the best man I’ve ever known. A good guy. A guy who deserves every good thing in his life, and yet he didn’t find it until a few months ago. Now you’ve got him tied up with Venezuelans who won’t hesitate to put a bullet in his brain and leave his wife a widow.”

  “This is my fault?”

  “Yes.”

  “Like I’m that much different than you.”

  “I didn’t say I was.” Steve wouldn’t have. Because the truth was, he was more like David than he was like Bradley. He hadn’t exactly been lily-white in his life, despite being a chaplain. He’d done plenty of questionable things when they’d recruited him into spy work—and since then. But it was nothing like the traumatic experience that had been dished onto Rachel against her will.

  He still had some honor.

  “Tell me about the second man. The one who is the vice president’s brother.” That was the whole reason he’d sought out David today.

  “You know about Harlem?”

  “If that’s his name, I guess. Anderson kept him a secret all these years?”

  David visibly shuddered. “He’s crazy. I know why Anderson never told anyone about him, because the guy is a psycho. Hidden away for years in some institution under guard.”

  And he was out now? Great. “He’s the one running the show, or is the VP giving orders?”

  “Who knows? Nearest I can figure is they both think they’re in charge and neither one wants to back down from this.”

  “But the goal is for the VP to be the one in the president’s seat?”

  “How am I supposed to know?” David asked. “It wasn’t like I sat him down on a couch and interviewed him like we’re on a talk show.”

  “So you do your part and no one finds out you killed that girl?” He didn’t care about the fallout at all?

  David pulled up at a stop light and pressed his lips together. After a minute of silence, he said, “He had pictures of her. An autopsy. Said I strangled her to death.”

  Steve didn’t have much sympathy for a man only trying to save his own skin. “How did he keep his brother a secret this whole time?”

  David shrugged and set off again. “Institutionalized. But I guess he was kinda crazy before that. Then what those operatives did to his mother, and the Venezuelans tried to stop it?” He shook his head. “They were all slaughtered. It was a bloodbath.”

  “He told you?”

  “Crazy eyes, man. Then he told me he’s the one who killed their father.”

  “The vice president’s brother killed his father?”

  David nodded, and his adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Doesn’t matter now, though. It is what it is, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Either you assassinate the president, or I do it. Then we walk away.”

  Steve didn’t think it was anywhere near that simple. He had a ton more information than he’d known a short time ago, and still no way to prove it unless they could get evidence about the father’s murder. That was something Adrian might be able to look into. But it wouldn’t stop what was happening now.

  Finding out what had really happened in Venezuela all those years ago could possibly put to rest the repercussions of those operative’s actions. Everyone who’d been there was dead, except one Navy officer involved in the planning. And word from Adrian was that St. Germaine was now working for the blackmailer.

  “Where is he?” Steve asked. “Where do you meet him?”

  “Don’t do that. It’s suicide.”

  Steve reached for the revolver at his ankle. David saw, as he’d known the man would. He hadn’t hidden it. Steve swung out his arm and hit the man in the diaphragm with the side of his fist.

  David coughed.

  “Pull over.”

  He did. Steve pulled the revolver. David said, “Going to shoot me?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  He asked David again where he’d met the vice president’s brother. When his former teammate told him, Steve grasped the back of his head and slammed his head into the steering wheel.

  David slumped in the seat.

  Steve tied him up, gagged him, and put him in the trunk of the car.

  Chapter 16

  The agent with Rachel led her back to the conference room. She frowned but went inside.

  “…didn’t know anything,” Alexis was saying, her back to the door. She faced Adrian.

  The agent shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know more than you do.”

  Megan was to the left. She leaned her hips against the sideboard where the coffee maker was, taking the weight off that leg again. The conference table stretched out to the right, down the middle of the room. On the far side, the blinds hung down in strips and muted the orange glow of sunset.

  “What’s going on?” Rachel moved toward her friend. She set her hand on Alexis’s shoulder. Since Bradley wasn’t here, Alexis needed all the support she could get.

  “It’s been hours. Where is Bradley?”

&nb
sp; “With St—” Rachel turned back to the door. Open, but no one stood there listening. Still, she said, “You know who.”

  “He would have called by now.” Alexis wrung her hands together. “I think something happened to him.”

  Rachel pulled her friend in for a hug, thinking of her brother. The connection between the three of them was strong. They’d been each other’s whole family for years—even though Alexis’s parents were still living. She didn’t find love and acceptance with them. Alexis had found it with Rachel and Bradley.

  Alexis reached up and wiped a tear from under her eye. “Sorry.” She looked sheepish. “I can’t seem to hold my emotions in right now.”

  “It’s okay, Lex. You know he can take care of himself.”

  She nodded. Rachel’s stomach knotted at the thought of what might’ve happened to both Bradley and Steve. She prayed they weren’t hurt. Just as she prayed the FBI didn’t find them before they accomplished whatever it was they were doing, which was surely an attempt to find the blackmailer.

  She squeezed Alexis’s shoulder and then asked Adrian, “Is there a laptop or computer I can use?”

  “I can ask but something’s definitely going on, so they may not allow even me to access a computer,” he said. “They ushered us in here and told us to wait.”

  “Did they question you about everything as well?” She glanced around. Each of them nodded. “I think they’re finally getting suspicious of us, even though we’ve been right here the whole time helping them as much as we can.”

  Adrian’s attention shifted over her shoulder. Rachel turned to see what it was and gasped. Three agents escorted Emma and Mint down the hallway. Emma was pale, her arm through Mint’s. Not just for her own sake. He looked like he could barely walk and had a bandage on his forehead.

  The agent in front opened the conference room door. Emma walked Mint in, and the door was shut. The group closed in around them.

  Rachel said, “What happened?”

  Emma’s eyes filled with tears. “One sec.” She tugged him toward the closest seat. “You should sit down.”

  Mint turned around and sat on the edge of the table. Then he reached out his hand. Emma took hold of it, and he tugged her to stand by his side. “Tell them.”