So the men in black suits either hadn’t understood how to deal with the president’s crazy father or they’d wanted to set Elizabeth up to make her look guilty of spying. Zack’s money was on the latter since the nurse had hustled his father out and she’d been found in his office alone. In fact, the nurse hadn’t been honest with him about the incident. Another way to isolate him.
“I can’t believe you would be so naïve.” Vanessa tsked at Frank like he was an idiot. “We were always going to want more. Zachary Hayes is the culmination of decades of work and careful preparation.” She turned back to Zack. “Do you know how we regard you in my community? You’re a myth. A unicorn. You’re the thing we whisper about in shadows and pray for. The ultimate tool. You will do your job. Lives were sacrificed to get to this point. My half sister and father are gone, and I will not allow their sacrifices to be in vain.”
“What did Joy willingly sacrifice? Your father already told me she didn’t know she was going to die that evening in Memphis. So what did she really give up for the cause?”
“Not enough. By the time others decreed that she should give her life for Mother Russia, I believe she was corrupted and, therefore, useless. She’d spent too much time with your friends. I read through her correspondence with Roman.” She sneered. “If you weren’t elected, Joy thought she would be free. She was always naïve.”
Maybe it shouldn’t, but the idea of Joy trying to be free gave him a measure of peace. Because that meant not everything between them had been a lie. He’d reached her, affected her. If she’d found her independence from this conspiracy, she might have even become an ally someday.
Elizabeth leaned against him as though she knew what he was thinking. “If he gives in on the pipeline, what will you want next?”
“I don’t make those decisions.” Vanessa nodded toward the Secret Service agent. “But whatever it is, you will be a good boy and play along. If you do as you’re told, we might even allow you occasional access to your girlfriend. Not too much, of course, since you’ll be a newly married man.”
So they were relying on that old playbook. “I assume you’re my new bride.”
Vanessa shrugged. “Someone has to stay close to you. My sister wasn’t smart enough to handle you. I’ll be better at it. We’ll be married in a few weeks. In the meantime, your little whore will find herself enjoying Krylov’s hospitality in Moscow. Her treatment will be dependent on your behavior.”
The idea of Elizabeth under their control made Zack sick. He refused to let that happen. They would not take her out of the country. Hell, they weren’t taking her from this house.
He tightened his hold on Elizabeth. “No one will believe I’m in love with you. And Ms. Matthews is not exactly an unknown figure. She’s my damn press secretary. There will be questions when she disappears, especially since she literally talks to reporters all day. They like her. If you want to tank my presidency, piss off the reporters who love her. They’re not stupid. They know I’m involved with her.”
“I’m convinced they do,” Elizabeth affirmed. “It’s a genuine sign of their affection for me that they haven’t floated more than rumors and innuendo about our relationship. How do you think it will look if the president dumps his well-respected, beloved press secretary for a younger woman, who quite frankly most people can’t stand, and installs her as First Lady? You’ve worked in the press office long enough to know how that’s going to go.”
“I’ll make it work,” Vanessa vowed stubbornly. “And if matters here go to hell, Zack can always have a heart attack, and we’ll deal with your mealy-mouthed VP. We have him in our pocket now, too. Everyone has a weak point. That pipeline will not go through. We have a stranglehold on the European gas market and it will stay that way. And soon we’ll talk about those sanctions the US has had on Russia for years. You’re going to bring our countries closer than ever.”
“I might be amenable to a discussion, but if you so much as remove Elizabeth from this room, I promise you I will fight to the death. You want any chance of my cooperation? You leave her alone. She’ll stay with me in the residence. She’ll remain my press secretary. Anything less will raise too many questions, and we already have a ton of them to answer.”
He used his last bargaining chip, hoping he could make her see reason.
“Do you think you’re in charge here, Mr. President?” The nurse’s dark eyes narrowed. “Your will means nothing. You are a pawn and we will move you around as we please. Vanessa, take her now. Our comrades will have already secured the garage, so we can smuggle her out in secrecy.”
Elizabeth stiffened beside him. Zack held her tighter. They had not come this far and dedicated themselves to each other to simply give up now. He couldn’t choose between Elizabeth and his country. He’d made vows to both. He wasn’t so naïve as to think that they would ever return Elizabeth to him. And how much would she suffer at their hands?
But one asset in his back pocket the Russians had underestimated time and time again? His friends. He believed in them.
He stepped in front of Elizabeth. “I won’t let you take her. I’ll die before I allow you to leave with her. You think about that. You need me on camera within an hour or two or this country will start asking questions that will lead to your whole plan falling apart.”
“Or we go to plan B,” the turncoat Secret Service agent said. “Sorry, Vanessa. This looks best if there’s a scapegoat. Turns out the president was unfaithful, and Ms. Matthews took exception.”
He fired, the sound pinging through the room, and Vanessa’s eyes widened as she stared down at the hole in her chest. Bright red blood bloomed across her white shirt. The gun she carried dropped from suddenly lax fingers as she fell to the floor and blood began to pool on the tile.
The nurse simply shook his head. “You were supposed to wait to do that.”
“He’s not going to cooperate,” Glen argued. “My mission was to assess the situation and deal with it. I think our new course of action is to frame Ms. Matthews for killing her lover and her rival. Then we’ll set up the vice president in the Oval. I think he’ll be much more compliant.”
“We don’t have a choice now.” The nurse raised his gun.
That was when Zack sprang into action.
He gave Elizabeth a shove, pushing her behind a heavy couch as the nurse fired. He felt something burn against his arm, but he ignored the fiery sting and dove for the gun lying on the floor.
“No!” A masculine shout broke through the room, and suddenly someone tackled Zack as he heard another bullet ping.
His father. Frank had covered his body with his own.
Seconds later, the door to the residence crashed open. Then he heard roaring gunfire. Whoever had just entered the fight was not using a suppressor.
“Stand down!” That deep voice belonged to Thomas. “I will kill you, Glen. You’ll be just as dead as that fucking nurse and I won’t regret it.”
“Or we could question him.” A sardonic voice joined the fray. Connor. “I promise we’ll make it hurt, but we could use him to find out who the others are. Because clearly we’ve got a problem in your department, man.”
“Why do you think I’ve taken to wearing a bulletproof vest even in the White House?” Thomas replied.
“Never meant to hurt you,” his father, who was still draped over him like a blanket, muttered.
Had his father taken the bullet meant for him? Zack was scared to shift him and risk injuring him more. “Dad, are you all right? Elizabeth? Elizabeth, where are you?”
“I’m here.” She was suddenly kneeling beside him. “Connor, call an ambulance.”
His father shook his head. “No ambulance. Sparks is here? Roll me off my son.”
Suddenly, the bodily weight lifted off him, then Elizabeth was above him, her beautiful eyes sparkling with tears as she reached for him. “Don’t you ever do that again. They could have killed you.”
They would have killed him if his father hadn’t leapt in fr
ont of him. His right arm hurt where the first bullet had grazed his skin, but he clapped a hand over the wound to stem the bleeding and rose to see that Connor and Thomas had everything in hand. Connor shoved the traitorous agent on his knees while Thomas put on the cuffs.
Zack knelt next to his father, whose skin had gone a pasty white while the spreading blood quickly stained his pajamas. The man was clearly dying. “Dad, we need to get you to a hospital.”
Elizabeth was on her knees beside him. “Quickly.”
His father managed to shake his head. “No. Cover this up. Sparks will know what to do. Start over. Hide everything. None of this was your fault. I should have been stronger, but I wanted everything for you. I thought I could manage them. Thought they would leave you alone. I had no choice. No other way to protect our name.”
Shock, anger, denial—they all rolled through him at once. Had his father ever truly cared about him or merely their name and the glory he could bring to it by becoming president? Zack feared he knew the answer. He had been nothing more than the means for the Hayes family to have a sparkling legacy.
“What about protecting me? Mom? The baby—your son—who never lived to see his first birthday?”
“Only you were important. History books don’t remember pawns, only great leaders who do great things.” A nasty gleam hit his father’s eyes. “You’ve always been too soft to understand that.”
And then his father was gone.
“Damn, this is a lot of bodies,” a new voice said. Mad. “Are we planning on calling the cops or should we grab some shovels? Then again, I think someone will notice us burying a bunch of people in the Rose Garden.”