Chapter 32
CHAPTER 32
W arrick, Kori, and Father Ben all waited for Veronica to tell them who the fingerprints belonged to. Veronica held up her tablet and turned it for them to see. The results showed the fingerprints belonging to Nicholas Houser.
“It was the glass Faith collected from Jacob Alexander,” Veronica told them.
It was as if the missing puzzle piece revealed the image he’d not be able to see before. “He’ll want Sutton killed so he can become the next secretary of state. That’s who was after her at the hotel today. Where’s Sutton?”
Veronica sent a text and a moment later, got one back. “Nabi said she was escorted to the garden cottage by her DS agent.”
Warrick didn’t wait. He threw open the door and ran right into a pissed-off looking muscular man with a tattoo poking out from the open neck of his dress shirt. “Who the hell are you?” Warrick demanded.
“Agent Kellen Avent, diplomatic security. Who are you and where the hell is Secretary Ramsey?
“What do you know about your partner?” Kori asked as Keenestonites began to fill the hallway and surround them.
“Luca Bade? He’s flashy and arrogant. I’ve never met someone who thinks more highly of himself, but he’s still a good agent.”
“You don’t believe that,” Ahmed said, glaring at him.
“Holy shit. Ahmed. The Ahmed.” Kellen’s mouth dropped open in awe.
Ahmed looked at Warrick and sent him a smirk. Warrick rolled his eyes. “We don’t have time for idol worship. Bade has Sutton in the garden cottage.”
“He has Cassidy too,” Veronica said, turning her tablet once again. “Nabi went back in the security footage and found evidence of Bade and Alexander taking Cassidy. Here’s the live feed from the garden cottage.”
Warrick and all the others leaned forward to look at the tablet. There was Sutton and Cassidy sitting on stools.
“That all depends on Cassidy.” Jacob Alexander’s voice said through the tablet as he turned to face Cassidy in the video feed. “If you’re not with us, you are against us. So, Cassidy, which will it be?”
Warrick felt as if he’d experienced a time warp. One second, he was in Keeneston. The next he was in Crusina, hiding in a drawer. Through the wood, he clearly heard what was happening in the room his parents would die in.
“You’ve been asking too many questions, Ambassador. It’s really simple you see. If you’re not with us, then you’re against us. This is your last chance, Hawkins. ”
“ I’d rather die,” Warrick’s father said with no hesitation. “I love my family. I love the world. I believe in goodness and will never support your kind of evil.”
“Then so be it.”
Bang! Bang!
“Warrick,” Ahmed snapped and Warrick blinked his eyes, aware he was back in Keeneston.
“Jacob Alexander is Nicholas Houser and Nicholas Houser is who killed my parents. I heard him say that same thing he just said to Cassidy to my parents right before he pulled the trigger. Nicholas is mine.”
Warrick didn’t pretend to blend in anymore. He pulled his gun and Kellen Avent seemed to react, but Kori stopped him with a shake of his head. “Send the SOS call,” Kori told Veronica who activated all of Keeneston, not just those in the hall with them.
“What is going on?” Kellen asked, clearly confused.
“It comes down to this. Are you for good or evil?” Kori asked him.
“Good.”
“Then follow us and know you might have to shoot your partner to save Secretary Ramsey. Let’s go,” Kori ordered.
Warrick was already running down the hall as Ahmed, Kori, Jesse, Father Ben, and a handful of Keenestonites followed.
“Activate the fist,” he heard Ahmed say into the comms. “Give the orders, Warrick. You’re in charge.”
“Surround the cottage. Enter through the back and I’ll kick down the front door. Try to take them alive, but don’t make the mistake of waiting too long to take a shot if Cassidy and Sutton are in danger,” Warrick ordered.
Ahmed issued the orders. By the time they arrived outside, Warrick saw all his friends there. He wasn’t alone. And neither was Cassidy. They’d save her.
A low rumble was heard and Warrick heard the piano keys and the slow beginning of Total Eclipse of the Heart as Pam’s Hummer came into view with a giant iron fist attached to the front.
“Don’t worry, Warrick. I’m going to fist the crap out of them,” Pam said over comms as the music began to build until Bonnie Taylor was belting out the chorus.
“Fist them in the back door, Pam,” Warrick told her.
The Hummer’s engine revved. The tires tore up the manicured lawn as Pam, and half of Keeneston, went around to the back of the building. Warrick glanced over to see Ahmed on one side of him. Dylan to the other and Cy and Aiden behind him.
Dylan looked ready to kill anyone who touched his sister, but instead of going in guns blazing, he deferred to Warrick. “Do you want Nicholas or Cassidy?” Dylan asked.
Revenge or love? Warrick could only pick one.
“Cassidy.” It wasn’t even a question anymore when said like that.
“You get my sister to safety and I’ll get Nicholas. Don’t worry. I’ll make it hurt.” Dylan’s voice was flat and full of menace and Warrick couldn’t have picked a better brother-in-law.
As Bonnie sang about falling apart, Warrick put his foot to the door, shattering it off its frame. He didn’t look around him. Warrick knew his family had his back. Warrick leaped through the air, right as Bade fired his gun at Cassidy.
Warrick saw Cassidy’s shocked face as the bullet slammed into his back and he was flung to the ground. Bulletproof suit or not, getting shot still hurt like hell. However, the image of a big fist ramming through the backdoor made him smile as he shoved himself up.
Bonnie’s voice filled the cottage, drowning out the shouts of everyone filing into the cottage.
“Warrick! Hold on, Warrick!” He heard Cassidy screaming.
He shoved himself up his knees right in time to see Dylan’s fist slam into Jacob’s face. More shots could be heard and then all of a sudden Warrick saw Sutton Ramsey reach into her shirt, pull out a dagger, and throw it with no hesitation.
Warrick stood up, placing his body between Cassidy and any danger as Sutton’s dagger sank into Luca Bade’s neck a second before a bullet between the eyes finished him off.
Kellen Avent’s gun was still smoking as he lowered it.
“Oh, sweetheart. Are you hurt?” Warrick turned his back on his revenge to get to Cassidy. His hands speared into her hair as he held her face in his hands while he looked her over for injury.
“I’m not hurt. Now kiss me, pookie.”
Warrick kissed her with the desperation of a man who almost lost the woman he loved. He’d like to say it was romantic, but the sound of Dylan punching the shit out of Jacob and Pam yelling about fisting the hell out of the back door, left them laughing instead of kissing.
“Just wait until my brother-in-law gets a hold of you,” Dylan muttered between punches to Jacob’s gut.
“Did I miss something?” Cassidy asked.
“Jacob Alexander is Nicholas Houser, the man who killed my parents.”
Cassidy smacked his chest with her now free hands. “Then why the hell did you come after me? You should be punching that asshole right now.”
“Because you mean more to me than he does. Besides, the family is taking care of it.”
“I am Ahmed. Yes, the Ahmed. I can’t wait to become better acquainted,” Ahmed said from where he was leaning over to stare into Jacob’s face.
“So freaking cool,” Kellen Avent whispered. “Sir, it would be an honor to watch you interrogate this man.”
Val reached down and yanked the dagger from Bade’s neck and handed it back to Abby. “Good aim, Sutton. Nice seeing you again.”
“I really want to know what the hell is going on here.” Sutton waved off Kori as he began to tell her about Jacob. “Not that. I’m talking about you all. I’ve met you four before at the Olympics when you asked me for a favor with no questions allowed. Now you’re here and all this goes down. And it’s clear they know you and you know them. What exactly is happening in this small town?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to win the presidency before you can find out.”
Sutton whirled around. “Mr. President!” She was startled and then realized no one else seemed surprised. Warrick saw her mind working at lightning speed and then she gasped. “Not one word, Madam Secretary,” Birch ordered, “until the trash is taken out.”
Dylan and Ahmed reached down and grabbed a moaning Jacob. “You can’t do this. I have rights.”
“You’re not in the United States right now,” Ahmed said with a smile that sent chills down Warrick’s spine. “You’re on Rahmi soil. My soil. I have diplomatic immunity and I know how to use it.”
Ariana and her brothers, Gabe and Zain, appeared. “Dad’s busy with a panel,” Ari explained.
“Take him to our interrogation room, Ahmed,” Zain told him. “I’m assuming you have no problem with that, Mr. President?”
“It was an attack on your soil. I have no say in how you handle this situation.”
Jacob was lifted up and carried away to the security center.
“You have a black ops group,” Sutton said the moment Jacob was gone. “An off-the-books black ops group. You know that’s illegal!”
“Your own DS agent was about to kill you,” Birch said, sounding very much the powerful president he was. “The former CIA director, the former secretary of state, and the former president of the United States, were all involved with Mollia Domini. Now, Sutton, you tell me if it would make sense for me to ask Congress to fund a military group to hunt down traitors. They save lives when no one else can. They operate in the shadows to take down groups like Mollia Domini and the terrorists who wanted to blow up the Olympics. There has never been a leak or a traitor from my group. Can you say that about your own office? We don’t even know your deputy’s true identity. You know him as Jacob Alexander, but before that he worked in the State Department as Nicholas Houser.”
“Who then became a DS leader and killed my parents in cold blood,” Warrick added.
“So, Sutton, you tell me. Who could I trust?” Birch asked.
They all waited for Sutton to answer. Instead, she sighed and sat down on the stool. She nodded her head as if she was beginning to understand. “That’s why the presidency is so important to you. You run this group and for the group to continue, you need an ally in office after your term ends.”
“They undertake the missions no one else can do to protect the world. It’s the only way I could think of to protect us from threats like Mollia Domini.”
“I understand. However, how do you check their power so they don’t turn into exactly what they’re fighting against.”
“Hello? Have you met us?” Val said with a roll of her eyes.
“Och, lass, give her a break,” Grant told his wife, “It’s a lot to take in.”
“We were all wronged by Mollia Domini,” Elizabeth told her, coming forward. “We fight so others aren’t wronged. It’s who we are. The innate sense of right or wrong was born in each of us. Do we do things that would make you cringe? Yeah, we do. But we only do them for good. We only do them to protect those who can’t protect themselves or don’t know the threats they are facing. Power is not what we seek. Honor, freedom, and a better world for our children is why we do what we do.”
Avent cleared his throat. “So, is there an application or something to fill out to join? Cause I’m in.”
“You’ve seen behind the curtain now, Sutton,” Tate said. “What are you going to do with that information?”
Sutton looked around again. Her eyes met Warrick’s before moving on to Cassidy, Elizabeth, Dalton, Val, and Grant. “I think it’s time for you to read me in, Mr. President, because I have no intention of losing this election and I have a feeling the real fight is about to begin. What do we call you all?”
“The President’s Guard,” Greer said, walking into the cottage. “And we’re just getting started ourselves, Madam Secretary.”