Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
“Dearly beloved…isn’t that how it goes?” The governor of Illinois stood at the front of the room.
The president and Lief Holmberg were on the step below him so everyone could see him over the top of their heads.
He seemed to be enjoying himself. “The leadership of our people takes strength. It takes collaboration and a firm hand.”
Ramon tuned out what he was saying and looked at Maizie. She didn’t appear hurt, just upset. If Stairns made a run for it, could he get to her before someone hit him with the same kind of stun gun they’d fired at Ramon?
“We need a distraction,” he said quietly to the men on either side of him.
Preston lifted his chin in a nod.
“Then we can—”
The wrinkly lady in front of them turned around and shushed them.
She had on pearls and huge earrings and a pair of silk gloves.
Was Ramon supposed to apologize? She was the enemy as far as he was concerned, a woman who knew about Dominatus and probably used her position within the group to continue living this lavish lifestyle she obviously enjoyed.
What a charade.
He wanted to stand up and start yelling. Maybe right around when the governor, officiating the wedding, asked if anyone had any objections. Ramon was going to jump up like this was a courtroom and he was a lawyer. I object!
The whole idea they could get Dominatus to have the leadership Bear wanted was ridiculous. They’d still be in operation. What they should be doing was destroying them, but aside from killing everyone in this room that wasn’t his friend or part of Bear’s team, he didn’t know how they could do that.
Probably Bear had thought all this through, decided he wasn’t a mass murderer, and opted for the nonlethal way to fight them.
The governor asked, “Do you, Lief Holmberg, pledge to lead our people with strength and keen insight into the future?”
The accountant they’d brought back from Norway said, “I do.”
He’d walked into this, probably knowing exactly why Bear and his team were there. Maybe they’d even told him ahead of time, and so he’d had all the operatives who likely lived in that town back off. But they hadn’t backed off with their traps.
The operation had cost Bear the life of one of his men.
All to make a point that they controlled life and death?
Ramon gritted his teeth.
“And do you,” the governor continued, “Madam President, pledge to lead this country under the authority of your husband and all of Dominatus?”
The president didn’t respond right away. “That’s not what I was told you were going to say.”
“Do you agree, or not?” the governor asked her.
She just stood there.
“You didn’t think you were going to be an equal, did you? You’re well aware of how this works. You’ve been a part of our group since birth. This position is an honor we bestow on you. Do you accept, or not?”
She looked at Lief, who said nothing. He didn’t seem to be surprised.
She asked, “What about the changing landscape of the future?”
The governor said, “It won’t change so much that a woman is in charge.” He laughed, coughing slightly. Blood coated his lips, and he used a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe it away.
“He’s dying,” Preston whispered. “That’s why he’s not lobbying to be in charge. He’s trying to leave them in good hands.”
The governor lifted his arms. “Strength and power!”
Most of the congregants in the room responded back to him, “Strength and power!”
The governor lowered his arms. “Agree or leave, Madam President. There are more wives to be sworn in.”
Ramon’s focus whipped over to Maizie and the woman beside her. Both dressed in white.
The president gasped. “I’m not going to be one of many!”
Lief turned to her. “You’re going to be what I tell you to be, dear.”
She shoved him away and screamed, then went for the governor. She grabbed him with her hands around his neck and started to choke the life out of him. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you!”
Men rushed over to drag her off.
“Go!” Ramon shoved at Stairns.
Even if the guy didn’t run for Maizie, Ramon would. But Stairns caught on fast and raced down the aisle. Ramon followed, sprinting over to Maizie.
A man dived at him, but Ramon was ready.
Stairns reached her at the same moment Ramon twisted around to punch the guy away. Another man jumped on his back and then a swarm of them were there.
“You dare interrupt these proceedings!” the governor screamed.
Someone punched Ramon in the stomach, and a second later, he was on his face on the carpet again. This time, with a knee in his back.
Across from him, on the other side of Lief Holmberg, they’d done the same to the president.
“I’ll marry him!” The other bridesmaid hopped over Ramon and went to stand where the president had been a second ago.
Maizie hid behind Stairns, who had his hand close to the gun on his hip.
“It’s never going to stop.” It would never be over. Ramon knew that.
The governor hissed, “Shut your mouth.”
Ramon stared at the president, her tears leaking onto the carpet.
These people would continue to do whatever they wanted, refusing to back down or bow to anyone.
They would use others for their own gain, or pleasure, anytime they wanted.
It wasn’t just about keeping Kenna safe or protecting Maizie.
It wasn’t about Kenna and Jax’s baby growing up in a safe world. This was about everyone, everywhere.
It was about the world.
A messy, tragic, beautiful place where a lot of people tried to live good lives and enjoy peace while they could. Where there would always be a need for the brand of justice that saved innocents and didn’t leave people lost and forgotten but fought always for a better world.
The president shoved off one of the men holding her. “Let me up!”
Ramon couldn’t move with this knee painfully pressed into his back. He started to demand the same, but the president yelled over him.
“Let me up! I’ve changed my mind.” She straightened, brushing down her dress. “I’ll agree. I just want to be what I can be to Dominatus, even if it’s not what I thought.”
One of the men by her, suited guys who had put their Secret Service badges out of sight for this. Dominatus operatives whose job it was to protect their asset—the one they’d installed in the White House.
She smoothed down her hair. “Get out of my place.” She lifted a finger and flicked it to the side, indicating the other bridesmaid should move back to her spot. “I’m going first, and you can get used to it.”
“Very well.” The governor seemed less enthused than before but willing to continue.
If they tried to marry Maizie to this Lief Holmberg guy, Ramon was going to—
The president moved fast, yanking a pistol from inside the agent’s jacket. She spun around and squeezed the trigger before she even aimed. The first shot went wide, while shots two and three landed squarely in the governor’s chest.
She spun again and fired at the man she was supposed to marry. Lief Holmberg fell to the floor, half on Ramon. The weight on his back lifted off.
Agents over to the right pulled their guns, but this was the president. No one fired at her.
She turned and shot three people in the front row, then pointed her gun at the bridesmaid who’d been happy to take her spot.
Ramon shoved Lief off his leg and scrambled up. “Ma’am—”
She fired, a glassy kind of fury on her face.
“Madam President!” Bear raced down the aisle. “We will shoot if you don’t put that gun—”
She pointed the weapon at Maizie. At Stairns, in front of Maizie.
Ramon raced at her, slamming into her shoulder and taking her down to the floor. But the gun had fired. He wrestled the weapon from her and rolled her to her front, pulling her arms behind her back while she screamed.
“I’ve got her.” Bear looped plastic ties over the president’s wrists.
Ramon shoved off her and scrambled across the slumped bodies to where Maizie was on her knees with Stairns across her lap.
“Ramon!” Her features twisted, and tears rolled down her face.
Stairns had blood on his chest, soaking into the material, expanding outward while he struggled for breath. He lifted his hand and touched Maizie’s arm.
Ramon squeezed her shoulder, kneeling on the other side of Stairns.
Bruce and Amara raced over with Preston, who said, “I can get an air ambulance, have them land on the roof. We’ll get him to the hospital.”
Ramon watched the life start to flicker from Craig Stairns’s eyes. He leaned down to the older man and whispered in his ear. “You saved her. No one is ever going to forget that.”
When he moved back, Craig’s features had slackened, and his head lolled to the side. Ramon touched two fingers to his neck and felt for a pulse.
Maizie whimpered. “Don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me.”
Amara crouched beside her and put her arm around the young woman. Maizie shoved her off. “No! He isn’t gone!” She clutched Craig’s body, pulling him up to her and bending over him. Holding on tight. Trying to hang on to him. “Don’t leave!” She shook with the force of the sobs.
The room had descended into chaos around them.
Someone fired a gun across the room, and the bullet slammed into the glass behind the stage. Preston and Bruce ducked down. Ramon looked at Bear, who handed the president off to people that Ramon figured were Secret Service agents.
He pulled his gun and said, “Copy that,” to whoever had spoken to him. Bear jumped a dead body and raced for men who were fleeing the room. His rogue teammates. “You’re dead, Cullers! This is your doing!”
“What a mess,” Preston said.
“The police will probably be here soon.” Bruce looked around, scanning for danger. “They won’t have a clue what to make of this.”
Ramon looked over at the agents standing around the president. She sat at the far end of the front row, her back straight. Chin high. Not looking at any of them. He looked back at his friends. “I don’t want Maizie here when the police arrive.”
He touched her shoulder. “We need to go.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
Ramon’s heart squeezed in his chest at the look on her face. Her world had been torn apart. But he would do what he’d promised Kenna he would do.
Bring her home.
“Come on.” He gathered her into his arms and stood, forcing her to go with him. She didn’t need to be here with a dead body any longer, and he didn’t want her to have to give the police a statement.
Bruce said quietly, “We’ll make sure Craig isn’t alone. We’ll take care of everything and bring him home.”
Maizie looked like she didn’t want to go.
Preston said, “Go.”
Ramon lifted Maizie into his arms. “You’re freezing.”
She curled her hands into the lapels of his blazer and tucked her face in his neck.
“Time to go home.” She said nothing. He kicked open a side door and found a hallway. “Maybe you’ll have a new baby sister by the time we get there.”
Ramon headed for the nearest exit door, aware he was going to have to find her some more clothing because it was freezing outside, and she only wore a thin dress. He set her on her feet just inside the door.
Gunshots rang from down the halls at the other end of the hotel.
Maizie flinched.
Ramon slid off his jacket and wrapped it around her. “It doesn’t seem like it now, but I promise it’s going to be okay.”
“He just stood there and let her shoot him so she wouldn’t shoot me.”
Ramon pulled her into his arms. “Any of us would have done the same. That’s what family is. We lay down our lives for each other.”
She blinked back tears. “‘Greater love.’”
“What’s that?” They needed to go, not spend too long in this hallway.
“Something Kenna said. ‘Greater love has no man than this. That he lay down his life for his friends.’ But she said it was about Jesus.”
“I guess we need to start listening.” Ramon shifted to put his arm around her and lead her toward the door. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s get you home.”