Chapter Eleven
Maddie sat in the chair Congressman Hale had pulled out for her and kept her expression bland as one of his guards, pissed off at being taken down by a woman, tied her wrists to the arm of the chair with a couple of the congressman’s neckties.
“What the hell are you doing?” Senator Miles demanded, hands raised in response to the gun pointed at the center of his chest. “This woman’s father is a senator, for chrissake!”
The congressman gave Miles a tight smile. “You believe that my loyalties are to the government? That just because we are all elected off icials, I owe you some measure of fidelity?” He shared an amused glance with his guards. “You poor, naïve fool . . .”
“Hale’s Illuminati,” Maddie spat. “His only loyalty is to those assholes.”
“Illuminati?” Miles laughed. “This is bullshit. I’m leaving.”
Miles waved away the man with the gun on him and strode toward the door. Maddie’s adrenaline spiked as a wave of fear washed over her. “Senator!”
But she’d barely gotten the word out before one of the guards swung his arm, nailing the senator in the back of the head with his gun. When the senator stumbled and fell face-first on the floor, the same guard snatched up a pillow and kneeled to put it over the senator’s head. Maddie cried out when the guard fired through the pillow. The senator’s body twitched once, then went still.
“Now,” Hale drawled, completely unaffected by the murder of his supposed friend, “where were we, Ms. Blake?”
She glared at him. “I was about to use one of your guards as a human shield while I shot the other two. Then I was planning to take you out.” She turned toward the guard who had shot Senator Miles. “I think you’ll go first, dickhead.”
Hale chuckled. “Is that so? Well, thank you for the warning.” He sent an amused grin toward the guard nearest Maddie. “Perhaps we’d better tie her legs as well so we can have a civil conversation, eh?”
The guard loosened his tie and slid it from around his neck with a snap, leering at Maddie through the swollen eye and split lip she’d given him earlier.
“So,” Hale said, strolling toward the wet bar as the guard stalked toward her, “why don’t you start with what you know about the missing flash drive my colleague Mr. Ralston was supposed to deliver?”
Maddie sent a glance around the room, getting the position of each of the guards at that moment. A familiar calm settled over her, and she exhaled slowly as the guard with the necktie bent to tie her ankles. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. She brought her knee up hard, connecting with the guard’s jaw, sending him staggering. In one fluid motion, she slipped her wrists from the restraints she’d been loosening from the moment they’d tied them and shoved her hand into the guard’s jacket, snatching his gun from its holster.
In the next instant, she was on her feet, wrenching the guard up by the front of his shirt to block her as the other two guards opened fire. The man in her grasp jerked with the bullets’ impact as she fired off two rounds, nailing each of the remaining guards in the center of his chest.
She pivoted toward Congressman Hale in time to see him bring up his own weapon, but anticipating his move, she fired off a shot, hitting his shoulder. His gun dropped from his grasp as he fell back against the minibar. He blinked at her in stunned silence.
Maddie shoved her shield’s body away and strode toward Hale, sweeping his gun out of reach with her foot. She saw him glance toward where his gun lay, obviously contemplating making a move. “Go ahead. Make a grab for it if you think you can get to it before I put another bullet in you.”
“What do you want?” Hale gasped.
“Tell me who you’re working for,” she demanded. “Who’s your contact in the Illuminati? Is it Jacob Stone?”
Hale chuckled, wincing at the pain in his shoulder. “Stone? He’s a puppet. Just one of many. He thinks he’ll rule the world someday, but he’s a delusional little prick. But then we all have a role to play.”
“And what was Ralston’s role?” she demanded. “What were you after on that flash drive? Information on the Alliance? Was it worth killing Ralston over?”
“Ralston was expendable,” Hale wheezed. “He double-crossed the wrong people and he paid the price.”
“Get up,” Maddie ordered, gesturing with her gun. “I’m turning you over to the authorities. This place is crawling with them, thanks to your little bomb-threat distraction. I assume your operative is waiting for your signal? What, not enough fireworks in Boston tonight?”
Hale’s brows came together. “Bomb threat? Do you think I’m a fucking idiot? Why in the hell would I want to risk blowing myself up?”
In her flurry of thoughts, Maddie had thought maybe Hale had set up the bomb threat to generate publicity, tout himself as some hero—the government official who was being attacked for his politics but couldn’t be intimidated. She’d seen it happen more times than she could count while growing up in political circles. So much of the bullshit controversies were staged, generating sympathy and outrage that helped a politician’s ranking, especially in an election year.
But if Hale wasn’t behind the bomb threat, who the hell was?
She tapped her earpiece, trying to raise Finn or Jack, but all she received in response was hissing static. Interference.
“Get up,” she ordered, motioning with her gun. “Now. We have to get the hell out of here.”
A long beep and a soft click sounded behind her as someone slid a key card into the suite’s door. She pivoted, gun raised as the door swung open. Jack charged inside, his weapon at the ready. She instantly dropped her gun to her side when she saw his beloved face, and heaved a sigh so heavy her shoulders rounded.
Jack’s gaze swept the room, taking in her handiwork at a glance. He rushed toward her, gun trained on Hale. His eyes darted toward her. “You okay?”
