Chapter 14
Blake
The Georgetown safehouse is nothing more than an apartment with an extra layer of walls. Lucky says the fortifications can withstand sniper bullets. Also, as if I should be honored, he mentions the princes and presidents who’ve slept here.
Now, he and Isabella are in one of the four bedrooms. Headsets on, they sit at a small dressing table staring at a computer screen. I understand Slate is watching along from New York.
“Any news?” I stop pacing the long hallway, peek inside the doorframe, and Isabella looks up.
“Nothing yet.” Her eyes intense, she leans into the screen and her fingers fly across the keyboard. “Hold on. Something is happening.”
Lucky turns the laptop slightly in my direction while she points to ghostly green shapes on a dark screen. “This is a video from a Patten drone overhead. That’s Gray and Jack inside the warehouse. There’s your diplomat and that’s Suds.”
“Shouldn’t we be calling the FBI?” I keep thinking of the conversation I had with my Mom a few days ago.How smart is this?
Isabella frowns and turns her gaze away from the computer. “It takes proof to get a warrant and we don’t have any. Not yet, at least… Wait.”
She presses her headphones against her ears. “Slate says the warehouse is full of flu vaccine.”
Is it possible they found the contaminated vials?
I hold my breath while Lucky raises his brows. “Well, I’ll be stuffed. The Chinaman says the bottles contain Fentanyl.”
Drugs, blackmail, vaccine, and kidnaping? I try to put all the pieces together and come up empty.
While we watch, more cars arrive and six more shapes jump out into the street carrying long weapons.
“Fuck me dead. Watch out, mates.” Lucky clenches onto the back of Isabella’s chair, his body tense, as if he were there, about to open fire.
Clearly, these new arrivals aren’t Patten’s men. Isabella pales and pulls off headphones so I can hear but I’d rather not because screams and moans mix with gunfire.
I clutch at her arm. “Is everyone okay?”
“Shush.”
Suddenly, the drone video changes from night vision to normal mode. The warehouse lights up as if midday and guys with FBI on their jackets jump out of armored cars with guns pointed. When Jack comes out with hands in the air, I let out my breath and collapse on the bed, room spinning.
“You okay?” Lucky waits by the bed for me to open my eyes.
“I’m good. Sorry. Been a long day.” Taking deep breaths, I wait for my heartbeat to slow and my hand to stop throbbing where my nails dug into my flesh.
A little later, I join them in the kitchen. Izzy grabs a beer from the stainless-steel fridge, then hands me cold seltzer.
Deep in our own thoughts, we all munch on chips until I break the silence. “Do you think McAlister knew about the fentanyl? Is that why he was being blackmailed?”
“What if he knew and was trying to stop it?” Isabella sets down her beer, stands, and searches cupboards until she finds a bag of pretzels and adds it to the bowl on the table. “I know Joe and underneath all his bluster, he’s a stand-up guy.”
Savoring the fat and salt, I eat for a while. Suddenly, I remember a conversation I had in the underground office. “If the Chinese are swapping Fentanyl and no one noticed, maybe Philip is right. The flu shot is a hoax.”
Lucky shakes his head. “Even if he lied, who’d be the wise-ah? They could replace the Fentanyl with almost any ’ol fluid. It could take years for anyone to suspect, even more to conduct trials and tests.”
Isabella jumps up, her voice excited. “Someone must’ve gotten sloppy, used contaminated fluids, and it killed those kids in California.”
Finally, the puzzle pieces fall into place. “Meanwhile, the senator thinks it was bad manufacturing so sponsors a bill to return jobs to his home state.”
Lucky swallows back his beer and nods rapidly. “That’s when Jack stepped in shit. To shut him down, this bloke Zheng and his gang kidnaps Blakely.”
I shudder. “Why not just kill me?”
