“Remove your gun from your holster,” the man said, in that familiar accent. “Very slowly.”
Mario did as he asked, holding the gun gingerly.
“Toss it into the woods.”
Mario complied.
“Now your communicator.”
Mario reached into his shirt pocket, and unplugged the wires.
“Give it to me.” He held out his hand.
When Mario handed it over, the man dropped it on the pavement and then stepped on it with a crunching sound. He then picked it up and tossed it into the bushes beside the road.
“Into the car,” he ordered. “Back seat.” He glanced over at me. “Don’t try anything, Miss Hayes. Or should I call you Mademoiselle?”
I stared at him in shock.
Mario complied, opening the back door and climbing inside. “Listen,” he said, “I’ll go with you. Just leave the girl here.”
The man walked to the open door, and peered inside. “Now why would I do that, when it’s the girl I want?” Suddenly, he swung his pistol hard against the side of Mario’s head. The agent’s eyes rolled up and he fell sideways on the back seat.
“Don’t hurt him!” I cried.
He pointed the gun at me. “Get in the car.”
“What do you want with me?”
“I want you to get in the car.” He cocked the hammer.
On unsteady legs, I walked around the open door and sat down. He came over to my side and pulled a black cloth bag from his pocket. As he leaned in close to put it over my head, I smelled his foul odor again.
He cinched the bag loosely around my neck, and then closed the door. I felt the car shift as he sat in the driver’s seat.
“Relax,” he said, “It’s a short trip to where we’re going.”
We began moving and my mind raced to catch up. This couldn’t be happening. I was being taken by the Raven. What did he want with me? I promised myself I would never tell him anything about the President. He would have to kill me first.
Then I remembered. “You killed Jamie,” I said through the bag.
He chuckled but didn’t respond.
“How could you do that? Just kill him like that?”
“Shut up, Miss Hayes. Or they’ll find you floating in the river with a bullet in your head too.”
“I hate you.”
He chuckled again.
“I’m not telling you anything,” I said.
“Good. You can start by not telling me anything right now.”
“You’re the Raven, aren’t you?”
“Shut up.”
“They know what you look like. They have your–”
That’s as far as I got before his hand shot out, backhanding me across the mouth. I was stunned for a moment, and tasted blood.
“Don’t make me tell you again,” he said.
We drove the rest of the way in silence. About fifteen minutes later we came to a stop. My door was pulled open and I was yanked from the car by someone else, and walked a short distance. I heard a door open, and could sense I was being led inside. Handcuffs were placed around my wrists, and then my arms were pulled up over my head and I felt myself being lifted. When I settled back down, I was hanging by my arms with my feet barely touching the ground.
There was shuffling sounds, and I realized they were doing the same to my unconscious friend, Mario. A moment later, the bag was pulled from my head, and I was staring into the hateful face of the man with the scar.
He sneered at me. Beside him was another dark-haired man, who I recognized as the other attacker from the park.
“Make yourself comfortable,” scar face said. “I’ll be in to talk to you in a few minutes.”
“I’m not telling you anything,” I said, still not sure what he wanted from me. I looked to my right, over at Mario, who was bleeding from his head. “You hurt him! He needs a doctor!”
The man chuckled. “He’s going to be dead soon anyway.” He turned and left, and the other man followed, closing the door behind them. I took a deep breath, trying to think of something to do.
“Sarah?”
The voice froze me.
It had come from my left, but what I was hearing was impossible. I turned quickly, and found myself staring into Jamie’s eyes.
Chapter 52
“Jamie?” My eyes were wide and my mouth gaped. He was strung up like I was, handcuffed and hanging from a hook embedded in the rafters. A bruise colored one cheek, and he was bleeding from a cut on his lip. But he was alive.
“Sarah?” he repeated. “What’s going on?”
“You’re alive!”
“My head hurts. Where are we?”
“Somewhere near Camp David. These people are trying to assassinate the President.”
“Why are we here?”
“I’m not sure. Oh, Jamie, I thought you were dead.”
“Why did you think that?”
“They told me they found your body in the Potomac.”
“What? Who told you that?”
“The President and the head of the Secret Service. They just told me a couple of hours ago.”
“Why would they lie about something like that?”
“I don’t know.”
My mind raced to catch up, as something tickled at my subconscious.
“So wait, you were at Camp David?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I can’t say. How did you get here?”
I was missing something. What was it?
“You were right,” Jamie said. “That guy was more dangerous than I thought. I ran into him two nights ago, and I should have listened to you, but I wanted to kick his ass so bad. Turns out I did get lucky the first time. He overpowered me and threw me into his trunk.”
“You’re lucky to be alive,” I said. “He’s an international assassin called the Raven. Everyone’s looking for him.”
“Sarah, why didn’t you tell me that when we talked?”
“I’m sorry, I should have. You wouldn’t be here if I had. Please forgive me, Jamie.”
What was wrong? I had to think.
“Forget about it, Sarah, it can’t be changed. We need to find a way to get out of here and warn the President.”
“If we can get out of these handcuffs, I know a way.”
“How?”
“The Secret Service agent. I know him. He always carries a backup communicator. We could use it to call the other agents.”
Jamie nodded. “Perfect. What time is the accord supposed to be signed?”
“Jamie, just hurry.”
Something flashed in my mind, a glimmer of a memory.
“I need to know how much time I have, Sarah.”
“Uh…”
It was something that the Raven had said to me in the car. What was it?
“The time, Sarah. Hurry!”
“Eleven-fifteen,” I said distractedly.
Then it came to me.
They’ll find you floating in the river with a bullet in your head too.
Oh my god.
My mind swam and I struggled to form a coherent thought.
“Jamie?”
“Yes, Sarah?”
“If the President and Luger were lying to me about the body in the river, how did the Raven know about it?”
He stared at me without responding.
“Jamie? What’s going on?”
He watched me for another moment, and then suddenly, his body arched upward, like a gymnast on the rings. His feet curled around the rafter, and he slid the handcuff chain off the hook. Letting go with his legs, his body flipped and twisted in mid-air and he landed on his feet like a cat.
I stared at him with wide eyes as he moved to stand in front of me.
Jamie?” I said, the ball of fear curdling in my stomach.
“Akmah!” he called. “Get in here!”
A second later, the door opened, and scarface entered. “What?” he grunted.
“Take
these cuffs off,” Jamie said, holding his hands out towards the man.
Scar face quickly complied, unlocking the cuffs and removing them. As soon as he was free, Jamie smacked the man in the side of his face with his open hand, causing him to fall to the floor, where he looked up in terror.
“Ghorbaan! What did I do?”
Ghorbaan? I had heard that name before.
“Did you tell her how I killed the boy last night?” Jamie said.
The man put his hands up in front of his face. “I did not think it mattered!”
Jamie kicked him in the ribs. “Fucking moron. Get outside.”
Without getting up, the man scrambled through the open door.
Jamie turned back to me, a grin on his face. “I guess it doesn’t matter now. You’ve given me what I needed.”
I stared at him in shock. “Who are you?”
He chuckled. “Isn’t it obvious? I am Ghorbaan, the Raven. And very soon, thanks to your assistance, I’m going to kill your President.”
I gasped loudly.
He laughed again. “Or should I say, your boyfriend? I can’t believe it took me so long to realize you were fucking him. But when you told me you saw Akmah in Paris, I knew. I knew that the President had taken his girlfriend to France with him.” He leaned in close and smiled. “And I also knew he would bring you here.”
I glared at him.
“It was perfect. Me working in a place where White House interns hang out. Or, more precisely, West Wing interns. It was fucking brutal putting up with your and April’s soap opera bullshit, but it paid off in the end. Twice, actually.”
“Who was that boy in the river?”
“That was the real Jamie Barnes. Has his father identified him yet?”
“Yes.”
“Perfect.”
“You’re sick.”
He laughed. “No, I’m just good at what I do.”
“You mean killing people.”
“I like to think of it as eliminating problems. And some very wealthy people think President Remington is a problem.”
“You won’t get to him. He’s too well protected.”
He laughed again. “I’ve already gotten to him. Thanks to you.”
“Me? What are you talking about?”
He stepped to the side and pointed out the open door. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the bright sunshine, but when they did I gasped again. Out in the grass was a missile launcher, with a large, round-headed missile sitting on it. I couldn’t breathe, and it felt like my heart had stopped.
“No!”
“Yes. In a few minutes, at eleven-fifteen to be precise, that’s going to launch and head directly for your boyfriend.”
“It won’t get through. They have missile defenses.”
“They’re looking for missiles from the sky. This one works like a cruise missile, hugging the ground, following the terrain as it homes in on its target.” As he said the last word, he laid his hand across his chest. I finally understood.
I gasped. “The flag pin!”
He chuckled. “Bingo. It’s actually a tiny homing beacon, and in a few minutes it’s going to guide that missile home. All thanks to you, Sarah.”
“If that’s true, you could have killed him at any time.”
He nodded. “Quite so. But I have other clients who have other problems. Why kill one, when I can kill eleven, and make even more profit? And once again, you made that possible.”
“With the time,” I said dejectedly.
“That’s right. That’s why I brought you here. I released the allegations that you were sleeping with the President, knowing they would send you away from the camp. And when they did, I was there to catch you.” He stepped closer and brushed a lock of hair from my face. “Sarah, he doesn’t deserve you. When this is over, I’m taking you back with me, and show you what you’ve been missing out on.”
“That’s never going to happen.”
He leaned in close, his breath warm on my cheek. “I promise you’ll change your mind. I told you I wasn’t giving up. Once I set someone in my sights, I never miss.”
He stepped away. “But now, I have some world leaders to kill. We’ll talk more afterwards.” He headed for the door, and then stopped and turned around.
“Almost forgot,” he said, and walked over to Mario. After patting him down, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the spare communicator. He dropped it on the floor, and ground it under his heel, squashing it flat.
“Just so you don’t get any ideas.” He started for the door again.
“You know what’s really funny?” I said.
He turned back with a grin. “What’s that, Sarah?”
“You went through all this trouble to kill him, using missiles and secret plans, when you could have just reached across the table and strangled him.”
He looked at me curiously. “What are you babbling about?”
I laughed. “You mean someone as smart as you didn’t figure it out?”
“Why don’t you explain it to me?”
“My date a few weeks ago. Reginald?”
“What about him?”
I smiled. “That was the President.”
He looked at me for a long moment, and then his face darkened.
I laughed again. “He was sitting right in front of you, and you didn’t know it.”
He strode to me and slapped me hard on the cheek. My head whipped to the side, then back. I tasted fresh blood in my mouth.
He leaned in close again and gripped my throat. “In a few minutes, the man you shared a bed with is going to have his body ripped into a thousand pieces, and by sunset tonight, flies will be feeding on him. So keep laughing.”
I glared at him with hatred in my eyes.
He smiled and walked away, closing and locking the door behind him.
Chapter 53
I struggled, trying to work my wrists out of the cuffs. They began to bleed, and I attempted to use the blood as lubrication, but it was no use, they were on too tight. I tried to lift myself up like Jamie had, but I had never been good at pull-ups in gym class.
I began to despair. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but it had to be getting close. I thought about what Jamie – or Ghorbaan – had said, and memories of the President’s body came back to me. How he held me in his strong arms, and how his weight covered me when we made love. And then I thought about flies eating him, and the panic rose. I wanted to scream, but I knew that would only bring Ghorbaan and his leering grin back into the room.
I took a deep breath. Then another. And another. I knew my only chance was to think about this rationally. If I panicked, all was lost.
I thought about the President and how much I loved him. We hadn’t mentioned that word until today, but I knew all along what it was. From the first time I had seen him in the Oval Office. Hell, maybe even from the first time I had met him at Stanford, I knew it was love. And I knew he loved me. Circumstances may keep us apart, but they could never stop us from loving each other.
So, what did I have to do for the man I loved? It was simple. All I had to do was one pull-up. One pull-up and I would be free and give myself a chance to save him. I could do that for him. I had to do that for him.
After another few breaths, I was ready. Tightening my ab muscles, I pulled my knees up to my chest. That was the easy part. My full weight was now on my bloody wrists, but I ignored the pain. After taking another deep breath I twisted my body upwards, bringing my knees up. More pain shot through me, but I focused on my goal. My body was turning, and my feet were reaching towards the ceiling.
My skirt began to slide down, exposing my panties, but that was the last thing on my mind as I pressed my body upwards. Blood was running down my arms, tickling my skin. My foot touched the beam, and then it slid, and I almost lost my balance. Every muscle in my body seemed to be screaming in pain as I held in place. I knew that if I failed now, I wouldn’t have en
ough strength to try again, at least in time to do anything.
The pain was overwhelming, and suddenly I knew I wasn’t going to make it. It was too much to overcome. I could feel the panic rising again.
Then I thought of Max, and pain. How could I be afraid of a little pain after what we had done together? With Max, pain was pleasure. They were one and the same.
I closed my eyes and focused on remembering his touch on me. How his hands had disciplined me, demonstrating how much he loved me. I thought about him striking me, giving me the pleasureful pain that I needed so much from him. Each spank reverberating through my synapses, transforming from pain to pleasure as it flowed through me.
I opened my eyes again. The pain was gone, replaced by a thrill of electric pleasure. Contracting my muscles, my feet slid up around the beam and gripped it. With a groan, I tightened my legs, and pulled myself up to the hook.
I had done it! My hands worked frantically to slide the chain out of the hook, but I realized mine was different than Jamie’s. Mine had a spring-loaded bar that kept the chain in place. I would have to press it down before I could pull the chain out.
My fingers were slick from the blood, and it took me several tries to get the bar down. But when I tried to pull the chain out, the bar popped back up. I pushed it down again, but the chain caught. I groaned in frustration.
To my horror, I realized my feet were slipping from the beam. I couldn’t hold it. In a second, they would slip off and I would fall, twisting through the air until the chain stopped me, yanking my arms upward and probably breaking them. I knew this was my last chance.
Focusing my mind, I pushed down the bar and pulled. The panic rose as I saw the chain catch again. But just as my feet came off the beam, the chain popped loose.
I was falling, but in that split second I didn’t care. I was free. My body twisted and I hit the ground hard with my shoulder. I felt something pop, and a fresh wave of pain jolted through me.
I lay there on the floor, my mouth open wide in a silent scream, as I fought against the pain in my shoulder. Get moving, I told myself, but my body refused to listen.
Finally, I struggled to my knees and crawled over to Mario. His words had been echoing in my mind ever since Jamie had stepped on the communicator.
Yes, Mr President Page 21
