Chapter 18 #2
“Copy that,” Emmett acknowledged as his teammates returned from upstairs. “First and second floors have been cleared.”
Which left the basement.
“We’re headed downstairs now,” he relayed for Boone’s and Jethro’s benefit.
He and the others began making their way to the stairwell at the back of the expansive lobby. They were halfway there when a noise stopped them in their tracks.
Emmett lifted a fist, and the others froze. They stopped and listened closely.
“Someone’s coming,” Blake whispered from where he stood at Emmett’s right.
The noise sounded again, pulling his focus toward the stairwell door. Whoever it was, they were heading up the stairs, and he and the others were directly in their path.
With another hand motion, Emmett alerted his team. They raised their weapons and steadied their stances, preparing themselves for a battle they sensed was coming.
The door opened. A man dressed in plain clothes like the others appeared. He was quick on the draw, but Emmett was quicker. He pulled his trigger, killing the man in one shot.
“Third target down,” he relayed to the two men guarding the building’s perimeter.
He looked through the doorway before them. The first step of a set of concrete stairs was visible behind the man he’d just shot. From what Blake had already told them, they led down to a long hallway beneath the building. Several rooms of various sizes had been constructed along its length.
Janie’s in one of those rooms.
Knowing the woman he loved was waiting, he used the small mic in his ear to let Jethro and Boone know he was implementing the final stage of their plan.
“Echo is on the move.” He kept his voice low. “We’re heading down to the basement now.”
“Copy that,” Boone’s response was immediate.
“Switching positions to the building’s south wall,” Jethro told him, rather than asked.
If the man felt the need to move, Emmett trusted there was a good reason. With no time for questions, he gave his team the signal to move. Without hesitation, they fell into a single-file line.
Emmett took the lead, keeping his rifle up and at the ready. His grip was strong, the gun he held in his hand steady as his boots began carrying him down the stairs.
He stopped two steps in, holding up a tight fist when a muffled sound reached his ears. His heart thumped hard, and a bead of sweat ran down the length of his spine. And then he heard it again.
It was a woman’s scream. Not just any woman.
Janie!
Emmett’s heart nearly stopped at the high-pitched sound.
He took off down the remaining steps, trusting his team to follow.
He reached the small landing separating the split stairwell’s two levels.
He stepped down onto the flat surface and turned right, taking those steps down to the underground level.
Five minutes earlier . . .
“Come on, Janie.” A man named Billy stood in front of her, a very large knife held loosely in his hand. “Just tell me where the file is, and I promise you won’t suffer.”
It was the same man who’d broken into her hotel room.
He’d come into the room a few moments before. Introduced to her by that jackass, Christopher Campbell. And he wanted her to tell him about something she knew nothing about.
“What file?”
And news flash, asshole. I’m already suffering.
Not physically. She had nothing more than a splitting headache, a throbbing cheek, and a few new bruises. But she’d been forced into the room next door and was currently tied to a chair. And now, on top of everything else, this psycho was about to cut her.
Janie’s heart broke thinking of the man she loved. She was going to die here. This man was going to torture and then murder her, and she was never going to see Emmett’s handsome face again.
A tear fell over her cheek, and Billy laughed. The son of a bitch actually laughed.
She shouldn’t be surprised, really. Everything about the creep was a giant contradiction.
He looked normal. Like someone you’d share a friendly hello with while passing them on the sidewalk or in line at the grocery store. He smiled. Told jokes. Seemed genuinely friendly.
But then there was the knife, and the threats, and the nonchalant way he spoke about torture.
Definitely a psycho.
“I like you.” Billy moved in closer. “I don’t always like my jobs, but you, I like.”
“I can’t tell you about something I don’t know.” She held the same green gaze she’d seen in her hotel room. “And I don’t know anything about a flash drive.”
Another chuckle shook the guy’s shoulders as he gave a shake of his head.
“Boy, if I had a nickel for every time someone told me that.” He smiled down at her as if they were the best of friends.
“Oh, well. I’m already rich. But that’s beside the point, isn’t it?
Anyway.” He moved in closer. “Where were we? Oh, that’s right. The file.”
“I already told you, I don’t have it.”
“It’s probably on one of those flash drive thingies,” he spoke as if she hadn’t. “They’re usually about yay big.” He made a small show of measurement using his forefinger and thumb.
“Look, Billy.” She emphasized his name. “You can ask me a hundred more times, but my answer’s going to be the same every single time.”
He studied her closely, as if he were trying to solve some sort of puzzle.
“You know, I want to believe you.” Billy smiled. “Really, I do. But I get paid to be sure, so . . .” He brought the tip of his blade to her arm just below the crook of her elbow and cut into her skin.
“Ah!” Janie cried out before rolling her lips inward to keep from showing the freak how much it hurt.
And holy shit, did it hurt.
She glanced down, forcing herself to look at the fresh, throbbing wound. Nausea churned in her gut when she saw the inch-long cut on her arm.
Her eyes closed, and she took several calming breaths in through her nose.
“Don’t worry.” Billy leaned in closer, dropping his voice to a whisper. “I’m not going to kill you, yet.” He chuckled. “I mean, we can’t very well have you dying before the boss has what he wants.”
“W-who’s your boss?” She gritted through the fire racing down her arm.
“Ah, sorry.” He shrugged. “I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
This guy was so far off his rocker, there wasn’t a word to describe how truly sick he was.
“Why not?” she demanded. “It’s not like I’m ever going to leave this room alive. Right?”
“Where’s the file.”
“I don’t have the fucking file!”
Her next breath was stolen when the blade’s tip pierced her skin again. This time, when he began to slice, he didn’t stop for several more inches.
Janie didn’t have the strength to hold back her scream.
At the same time, the door swung open, and the jerk of a Secret Service agent came rushing in.
“We have to leave. Now!”
“Why?” Billy frowned. “I just got started.”
“The building’s been compromised. We have to get our asses out right the fuck now!”
Emmett!
Had he found her? Were he and his team in this building right now?
If he is, he needs to know you’re here.
“Help!” Janie started to scream as loud as her lungs would allow. “I’m down here! Help! Please! Hel—”
Campbell slapped her so hard, her head whipped forcefully to the side. The metallic taste of blood ran over her tongue. And yet, she smiled.
“You’re all going to die now.” She spit her blood and spit on the floor. “Doesn’t matter if I live. You guys are already dead.”
Billy looked over at her and laughed. “Welp, that’s my cue to split.” He wiped her blood from the blade on the leg of his pants and slid it into the sheath at his hip. “Good luck, though. I do hope you manage to get away from these jerks.” He looked to Campbell. “No offense.”
When Campbell looked like he was going for his gun, Billy put his hands up and did as he was told. The guy took off out of the room, giving her a parting wink as he did.
Janie heard the sound of a nearby door squeaking open before it slammed shut again. Campbell came over to her and began releasing the rope holding her in place. While he did that, another man appeared at the doorway.
“Mr. Daley?”
What the—
“Let’s go!” the White House Press Secretary ordered Campbell gruffly.
The ropes fell free, and she was yanked from the chair to her feet.
“Wait!” She tried fighting back. “Where are you taking me?”
“Someplace we can continue our little chat,” Daley answered coldly.
“Please, just . . .tell me why.”
“You already know why you’re here. You have something I need.”
No, she actually didn’t, but these guys clearly weren’t going to believe her, no matter what she said.
“I meant why did you kill Amy Weaver?”
It had to be him. Or more likely, Daley hired Billy or Campbell, or he’d paid someone else. It was the only thing that made any since.
Are you insane? None of this makes sense!
Clearly fed up with her questions, Daley got right up into her face.
“You want to know why I killed the little bitch? Because she was going to turn me in. She was going to use that file to ruin everything I’ve spent my life building.
Me, Novak . . .all of us would have gone down for treason.
” He shook his head in a wild refusal. “I can’t let that happen.
I can’t go down for this, because if I do, the entire Republic will crumble down with me. ”
The republic? Novak?
“Timothy Novak?” Janie looked at him like he was nuts. “The Vice President’s Chief of Staff is involved in . . .whatever this is?”
“Involved?” The man huffed out a humorless breath. “This was all Novak’s idea.”
Janie’s head spun with more questions than when this whole thing started. Her mind raced to come up with a plausible explanation for it all. But she was scared and confused, and there was a lot of freaking blood dripping from her arm to the concrete below.
“We don’t have time for this shit now.” Campbell took control and pushed her forward, into the hall.
With Campbell taking the lead, Secretary Daley kept a gun to her head and a tight hold on her uninjured arm.
A touch of early morning light shone through the small, rectangular windows running high along the wall to her right.
Tears flooded her vision at the thought that they may be the last rays of day she’d ever see again.
Janie had the fleeting thought that this must be what death row inmates felt like, taking that long, dreaded walk to their executioners. She stumbled, but Daley’s tight hold kept her from falling completely.
“Get up.” He yanked her arm so hard, it was a wonder it didn’t pop out of its socket.
“Ah!” Janie cried out from the pain.
Janie was in pain and more frightened than she’d ever been in her life, but an odd sort of peace seemed to blanket her as she walked. Because she knew, if Emmett and his team were here, the men with her now were going to pay for their crimes with their lives.