Authors: T C Archer
She couldn’t do it. But he couldn’t know that for sure. Jesse rushed forward. His eyes widened. She seized his shirt collar and drove him against the wall, the PPK jammed into the soft flesh beneath his jaw.
“
What if I shoot you and make it look like you and Perez shot each other?”
“
With my own gun?” Lanton glanced down at her waistband.
“
You’re thinking about the Beretta. Go for it.”
Lanton’s eyes jerked back up to hers. She pulled the Beretta free and shoved it into the other side of his face, while stuffing the PPK into her waistband. A blank would blast a nice burn-hole under his chin. The pain would be excruciating.
This was one helluva deviation from the plan. She’d promised to get him talking. How long could she let Cole lie there? Tom hadn’t busted up the party yet. He was supposed to wait for her or Cole to give him the go ahead to come in. How far would he let her go?
Jesse jammed the Beretta into Lanton’s crotch. “You fucked me good. I can make sure you can’t fuck another woman ever again.”
“
Shooting me won’t get you off the hook—or get your sister’s trust fund back,” he said.
His eyes weren’t dilated anymore. He was one cool son-of-a-bitch.
“
What are you going to do?” he asked. “Call the authorities? So I shot Perez. You’re still a traitor and I won’t be around to clear your record. You need me.”
She barked a harsh laugh. “Even you can’t give me back my life. I got nothing. I’ve—” She shook her head, feeling like a junkie trying to clear the dope from her brain. “I’m gonna taste your blood when you go.” She leaned into him. “Time to pay the piper.”
“
Wait!” he shouted. “I can give you the final piece of the puzzle.”
Jesse stared, nonplussed. “There’s more?”
He lifted a sleeve to his mouth and dabbed at the blood. “Don’t underestimate me. You know the little girl you’re so concerned about?” he asked.
“
You fucking son-of-a-bitch, I’ll—”
“
She was never missing” he interrupted. “I have proof.” He paused. “She’s my daughter.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Jesse felt as if she’d been belly-slammed with a club. “Your daughter? But Senator Hamilton—” She stared. It all made sense in a sick, twisted way. Did the Senator know the daughter he thought was his, wasn’t? What would Lanton’s wife think of a senator’s wife as her husband’s mistress? Jesse’s head spun.
“
Don’t you see?” Lanton said. “I couldn’t hurt Maria, any more than you could hurt Amanda.”
In a flash, Jesse had the Beretta jammed so hard against his temple his cheek crushed against the cement wall. “Don’t you so much as mention my sister, you son-of-a-bitch. I’ll blow your brains from here to kingdom come, then feed what’s left to the dogs.”
Jesse punched him in the stomach. He crashed to his knees on the hard concrete. He gurgled a groan, a protective arm around his belly. She yanked the Beretta up.
He threw up a palm. “Wait! You need me.”
She wanted to laugh. She wanted to laugh from now until doomsday.
“
I—” His voice hitched, “I have the contents of your safety deposit box—and you need me to lift the freeze on your sister’s trust fund.” He struggled to his feet, then collapsed against the wall. “By now, you’ve no doubt falsified new identity documents, but you can never replace the personal items in your safety deposit box.”
Jesse stared at him impassively. The disc with the secrets Juanita had stolen from Tom. Jesse had been right. He was going crazy trying to figure out what was on the disc. He might return the rest of the papers, but would never return the disk.
She lifted a shoulder and wiped sweat from her forehead. “What do you want?”
“
A deal. I met Perez here. He was armed, I wasn’t. No one knows I have the Walther. You can say it’s yours. You caught Perez before he fired, and killed him in my defense. The evidence will hold up. I’ll back you on it.”
Jesse wanted to vomit, but forced an even voice. “Then what?”
“
I’ll resign. I have my twenty years. You get your property, money, and never see me again.”
“
You expect me to buy that? You’ve gambled away your wife’s money. You need payments from people like Perez to replace your losses. You can’t live on your pension.”
“
I can live quite well in Ecuador with what I have.”
“
Ecuador?”
“
The woman I love has dual citizenship,” he said with pride.
“
Love?” she repeated. “You’re—” This was too rich. Robert Lanton was in
love
. She should shoot him just for making her so sick to her stomach. His gaze darkened, but she cut him off with a cool, “FARC will put a price on both our heads.”
He shook his head. “Not me. The Senator.”
Jesse stared. “My God,” she breathed. “He goes down. You get his wife and child, and a whole new life.”
“
They’re mine!” he shouted.
“
Touchy, touchy.”
“
I’ll give you everything you want,” Lanton snapped. “You went to a lot of trouble to make sure your sister remained safe, and whatever’s on that disc must be important or you wouldn’t have kept it under lock and key.”
There it was. She had him running scared. “How do you propose to end this?” she asked.
“
A phone call from me will release the trust fund.”
“
OIA won’t let me off the hook so easily,” she said. “You made sure of that when you framed me for the murder of those five men—not to mention selling secrets of national security.”
“
Perez is dead,” Lanton replied. “There’s an abundance of evidence to prove you didn’t sell out Green Team, which will absolve you of any charges of selling top secret. I can make sure the information surfaces.”
Jesse bit her lip. Goddamit to hell, he was cagey. He still hadn’t admitted getting Green Team slaughtered. If he double crossed her and got her arrested, he could say he said made promises under duress. She needed him to confess.
Just a few more minutes, Cole. I promise.
“
I’m the only person who can clear you,” Lanton said. “Even with a full confession from me, that doesn’t prove you weren’t my accomplice. No one will believe I pulled this off alone.”
“
Morales,” Jesse murmured.
“
I can make this end the way it should,” he said. “I’ll get OIA off your back. If you’re worried about Cole Murphy, don’t be, I can deal with him. I put him on your—”
“
What did you say?” Jesse demanded.
“
I said, I can make this end—”
“
No. Murphy. Who—” But she understood. Both files from Juanita and Michael had been on
Cole Smith
. Cole Smith was Green Team Leader and had died in Columbia. Cole Murphy was the man lying on the concrete floor behind her. Disbelief washed over her in a wave of nausea. She’d trusted him. She’d cared.
How could she have been so stupid?
Jesse pointed the Beretta at Lanton. “You’re going to make a fast phone call to release my sister’s money—and hand over my belongings.” At least she could save Tom. He’d put himself on the line for her. “Fuck with me, and I’ll bury you alive—where no one will hear you scream.”
“
I agreed—”
“
Move,” she hissed.
He started forward and Jesse cast a glance at
Cole Murphy
. He lay just as he had moments ago, right arm sprawled over his head, legs spread. He looked dead. And why not? He was a damned good actor. He had lied to her—and oh, so convincingly made love to her as if he really cared. Her pulse spiked with memory of his hard thrusts deep inside her channel. She tore her gaze from him. She had to get out—and fast.
A moment later, they reached the back door. Jesse stopped Lanton. “How did you alter the transcript of my call?”
“
What difference—”
“
A show of good faith,” she snapped. “Give me something now or kiss your ass good bye.”
He hesitated, then said, “Morales has some dirt on Gloria Knowles. He made the transcript disappear, and she kept quiet.”
Jesse gave a low laugh. It really came down to who you knew. Gloria had eighteen years with OIA as Head of Communications. She was a fifty-five year old female geek. What the hell could Morales possibly have on her? She probably dated a Columbian mobster’s nephew in college.
Jesse motioned Lanton forward and he opened the door. Rusty hinges squealed. Light poured in as the door swung outward. As he stepped into the sunshine she reached inside her shirt, yanked the wire free, and tossed it aside.
“
Nail his ass, Tom,” she silently said, then closed the door behind her.
Lanton’s silver Mercedes sat parked a few feet away.
“
Hand over the keys,” she ordered.
“Now.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Jesse fired up the Mercedes as Lanton slammed the passenger door closed. Her hand contacted the gearshift when Tom jumped onto the hood. Their gazes locked. Apparently, this was as far as he would let her go.
“
Get off!” she ordered.
He shook his head.
“
You don’t know what you’re doing,” Jesse began, then caught movement in the corner of her eye.
Too late. Cole yanked open the car door. Lanton jerked as if going into a seizure and cringed against the passenger door. Cole lunged across her and killed the ignition, then backed out of the car, smearing fake blood across her jeans as he dragged her out of the car with him. Tom slid from the hood.
Lanton fumbled with the latch, nearly falling out when the door swung open. He backed up, muttering, “You were dead.
Twice dead
.”
Jesse tried to twist free of Cole, but he yanked her back against him. “Let go of me, Cole,” she hissed.
“
Cole?” Lanton’s eyes widened.
Adrenaline coursed through her. “Tomorrow, everyone will know you met Amadeo Perez in a deserted warehouse, framed me for treason, and falsified the kidnapping of a senator’s daughter.” She looked at Tom. “Tell him.”
“
Sure, Jesse,” he replied. “We got him.”
She yanked free of Cole. “What’s wrong?”
“
Jesse…” Tom faltered. “It wasn’t supposed to go down this way.”
She stared at him. “He admitted everything.
Tell him
.”
Tom remained mute.
She searched his expression. “Tell him we got it all on tape.”
Lanton whimpered.
“
Jesse,” Tom began as Cole reached for her.
She stepped back. “Don’t touch me.”
“
Where were you going?” he demanded.
She wanted to laugh.
Murphy!
It just didn’t matter anymore. “I was going to save a friend.” She looked at Tom. “Tell me I wasn’t wrong.”
Cole shifted. She took another quick step back. “Don’t fuck with me, Tex.”
His gaze darkened behind the latex mask and she was reminded of the hurt in his eyes that day in the hotel when he’d bandaged her leg.
She swung her attention back to Tom.
“Tell him.”
“
This is bigger than us,” he said in a rush. “If this got out—an affair with a Senator’s wife, using his daughter to send U.S. agents to attack a drug lord, sending a suicide mission into the jungle to get back a girl who wasn’t kidnapped—never mind squandering taxpayer money and our reputation.”
“
Our reputation?” she snarled.
“
This goes to the highest level,” Tom said. “OIA briefed the President on the operation.”
“
What?” Jesse’s mind reeled.
“
He knows about using Maria to get FARC and the sub base. We couldn’t do it without his go ahead.”
Jesse shook her head to clear the sludge of anger that threatened to drown reason. “I don’t believe you.”
“
We cut off the head of FARC and destroyed the sub base,” Tom shot back.
“
Perez headed FARC?”
“
We got them, Jesse,” he added with his old enthusiasm. “Lanton is finished. We can make him quietly retire. We need you around to remind him of that.”
Horror filled her. “You need me to
remind
him—what the hell kind of bullshit is this? What we need is for people to know that the law applies to everyone, even those at the top—especially those at the top.”
Tom’s lips thinned. “A scandal like this would damage the U.S. I love this country too much to allow that to happen. We’d be the laughing stock of the intelligence community. No one would take us seriously. Besides, there are no tapes.”
“
Wha—”
“
No one but the four of us knows what happened here,” he insisted. “All confidential. You know the drill.”
“
If I go along with this, I’ll be no better than him.” She whipped her Beretta from her waistband and pointed in Lanton’s direction.