Chapter 33
“You have to let me in there!” snapped Razorback. Cowboy had secured safe passage for him into the convention, but his reach didn’t extend past the security checkpoint.
He’d just gotten off the phone with Sloan and Selena when he’d rounded the corner and watched Jackie enter through these doors.
“I’m sorry, sir, but it’s a restricted area. You need security clearance to get through.”
“I’m Ian Rhodes, a former US Navy SEAL charged with protecting Jacqueline McGrath. I need to get to her immediately.”
The woman at the table with the patriotic bunting looked seriously stressed. McGrath’s new wife must have been done speaking, because a man had replaced her, his voice booming through the structure.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as we meet here today to join our voices in support of one candidate for president of the United States, there is a shadow from the past that lingers over us, even now.”
“Please,” demanded Razorback. “You have to let me inside. I work for HERO Force, a private security firm. It’s imperative I be allowed to pass.”
“The death of Jacqueline McGrath left a pallor over her husband, Doug, for years after the tragic accident believed to have taken her life.”
Chatter broke out in the crowd, a low buzzing.
“HERO Force?” asked a man’s voice behind him, and Razorback turned to find a Navy official in full dress whites. Razorback saluted and stood at attention. “Yes, Admiral, sir.”
“Who is the leader of your organization?”
“That depends who you ask, sir. Jax Andersson runs the Atlanta office with Leo Wilson. Mac O’Brady runs mine in New York.”
The man laughed. “I’ve known Jax for a long time. I don’t think he’d agree it’s a matter of opinion.” He pulled out a cell phone and dialed.
“But Jacqueline McGrath didn’t die that day.”
The room erupted in confusion.
“Jax, it’s Admiral Wheeler. I have a man here claiming to be one of your men. Says his name is Ian Rhodes.” His eyes combed Razorback’s features as he listened. “That appears to be him. Thank you for your help.” He hung up and addressed the woman. “Let him in, on my authority.”
Razorback was running as best he could through the crowd that had gathered backstage.
“She narrowly escaped tragedy and wants to take this opportunity to tell us about it, so she can move forward with a clear conscience. Jackie?”
“Excuse me. Look out. Right behind you. Coming through!” Razorback weaved through the throngs of people as Jackie’s voice came over the loudspeaker.
“I didn’t plan what happened that day.”
She came into view at the podium, standing in her green dress. “Jackie!” he yelled.
She twisted around. A white-haired man to her right instantly tried to head him off, but Razorback moved him aside and closed the distance between him and Jackie. “Selena’s okay. I just got off the phone with Sloan. She’s okay.”
Her eyes were tortured. “Are you sure?”
“I talked to her myself. She’s fine. I promise you.”
She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed, then stepped back and turned to Levi Ludlow. “You son of a bitch.” She reared back and punched him square in the jaw, a collective gasp traveling through the crowd.
Camera flashes erupted from the audience and press sections, hundreds of cell phones suddenly held up to record what was happening. Ludlow backed away, then ran offstage.
Jackie returned to the microphone. “That man has been trying to keep me silent for a very long time.
Eight years ago, he ran my car off the road and into the ocean in Southern California, leaving the world to think I was dead.
Last week, he sent assassins to my house to make that assumption a reality, and earlier today he had my daughter and a former Navy SEAL kidnapped in a final attempt to keep me quiet.
“All because once upon a time, Doug McGrath made a beautiful, heartfelt speech about racism in this country, often referred to as the ‘I am a white man’ speech. It was the speech that put him on the map as a politician, and inspired an entire generation of people to affect positive change. But the premise of that speech was a lie.”
Goosebumps covered Razorback’s arms. She was stunning, passionate, and commanding the attention of everyone in the convention center. He was watching history. From the corner of his eye, he saw a man in the wings of the stage straighten his jacket and tug on his shirt cuffs.
McGrath.
“My former husband was not being honest about his heritage.” She paused while another commotion went through the arena.
“His grandmother, Hattie May Edwards, was a strong African American woman who stood up to societal norms of her time, battling racism to marry the man she loved. But she died shortly after Doug’s father was born, and his grandfather soon remarried—a white woman whose paler skin matched the baby she raised as her own. ”
Razorback widened his stance, staring down McGrath.
“Anyone can be president of the United States,” she went on.
“That’s one of a thousand things that make this country so great.
We’ve seen people of every color, gender, and sexual orientation take political office by storm—the vast majority of them from the Democrat Party.
But we’ve never seen this kind of deceit from a candidate at this level. ”
A gray-haired woman in a pantsuit approached McGrath, talked for a moment, then ushered him offstage.
Jackie continued. “I can only say I’m sorry I wasn’t able to come forward sooner.” She stepped away from the podium, an awkward smattering of applause coming from the stunned audience.
Razorback offered his elbow, and she took it, allowing him to usher her back through the convention center and out of the building, neither of them speaking until they were seated in a cab. “Just drive, please,” said Razorback.
“I want Selena.”
“HERO Force is working on getting her back. Her passport went through without a hitch, so it’s just a matter of arranging transportation.”
“I want to talk to her.”
He dialed, passing her the phone, listening as she talked to her daughter and laughed, watching as she wiped away tears of joy.
So beautiful.
He knew in that moment he was going to miss her more than he would have thought possible.
She hung up the phone and passed it back to him, his fingers brushing hers as she said, “Thank you.”
“You scared the hell out of me this morning when I couldn’t find you.”
“I’m sorry. For everything.” She wasn’t just apologizing for causing him concern. As their eyes locked and held, he knew she was saying she was sorry for the way things were ending between them.
He could have explained about her room being broken into, about his fears and self-recrimination that something had happened to her, but he said nothing. There was nothing left to say of any consequence, nothing that would change the way the rest of this would play out.
He drew in a breath and looked out his window at the Washington Monument lit up in the night. “I’ll be heading back to New York first thing in the morning.”
“Okay.”
He feared he already knew the answer to his next question, yet he had to ask it anyway. “Are you coming back to the hotel?”
“No.”
He nodded, respecting her answer. Understanding it. “I’ll find you somewhere else to stay.”
“I can do it myself. You’ve done so much already.”
Her polite tone made him want to scream, but all he said was, “If you’re sure.”
He gave the driver the name of his hotel. Given that they’d passed it when they left the convention center, it was only a few blocks away. They made the trip in silence, the car slowly pulling up to the curb.
“Thank you for everything you did for us, Ian. I’ll never forget you.” She longed to lean in for a brief hug, the familiar scent of her skin making him long to touch him still, but she didn’t do it.
“Goodbye, Jackie. Give Selena a kiss for me.” As he walked into the hotel, he couldn’t help but feel as if he was walking away from a life, just as surely as Jackie had once walked away from her own.
He was a steel skeleton, useful and strong.
It was better this way.