Page 84 of Dangerous Liaisons

Chapter Sixty-Two

Jesse felt as if she’d been belly-slammed with a club. “Your daughter? But Senator Hamilton—” She stared. It all made sense in a sick, twisted way. Did the Senator know the daughter he thought was his, wasn’t? What would Lanton’s wife think of her husband’s high society mistress? Jesse’s head spun.

“Don’t you see?” Lanton said. “I couldn’t hurt Maria any more than you could hurt Amanda.”

In a flash, Jesse had the Beretta jammed so hard against his temple his cheek crushed against the cement wall. “Don’t you so much as mention my sister, you son-of-a-bitch. I’ll blow your brains from here to kingdom come, then feed what’s left to the dogs.”

Jesse punched him in the stomach. He crashed to his knees on the unforgiving concrete. He gurgled a groan, a protective arm wrapping his belly. She yanked the Beretta up.

He threw up a palm. “Wait! You need me.”

She wanted to laugh. She wanted to laugh from now until doomsday.

“I—” His voice hitched, “I have the contents of your safe deposit box—and you need me to lift the freeze on your sister’s trust fund.” He struggled to his feet, then collapsed against the wall. “By now, you’ve no doubt falsified new identity documents, but you can never replace the personal items.”

Jesse stared at him impassively. The disc with the secrets Juanita had stolen from Tom. Jesse had been right. He was desperate to learn what the disc held. He might return the rest of the papers, but would never return the disk.

She lifted a shoulder and wiped sweat from her forehead. “What do you want?”

“A deal. I met Perez here. He was armed, I wasn’t. No one knows I have the Walther. You can say it’s yours. You caught Perez before he fired, and killed him in my defense. The evidence will hold up. I’ll back you on it.”

Jesse wanted to vomit, but forced an even voice. “Then what?”

“I’ll resign. I have my twenty years. You get your property, money, and never see me again.”

“You expect me to buy that? You’ve gambled away your wife’s money. You need payments from people like Perez to replace your losses. You can’t live on your pension.”

“I can live quite well in Ecuador with what I have.”

“Ecuador?”

“The woman I love has dual citizenship,” he said with pride.

“Love?” she repeated. “You’re—” This was too rich. Robert Lanton was in love. She should shoot him just for making her so sick to her stomach. His gaze darkened, but she cut him off with a cool, “FARC will put a price on both our heads.”

He shook his head. “Not me. The Senator.”

Jesse stared. “My God,” she breathed. “He goes down. You get his wife and child, and a whole new life.”

“They’re mine!” he shouted.

“Touchy, touchy.”

“I’ll give you everything you want,” Lanton snapped. “You went to a lot of trouble to make sure your sister remained safe, and whatever’s on that disc must be important or you wouldn’t have kept it under lock and key.”

There it was. She had him running scared. “How do you propose to end this?” she asked.

“A phone call from me will release the trust fund.”

“OIA won’t let me off the hook so easily,” she said. “You made sure of that when you framed me for the murder of those five men—not to mention selling secrets of national security.”

“Perez is dead,” Lanton replied. “There’s an abundance of evidence to prove you didn’t sell out Green Team, which will absolve you of any charges of selling top secret. I can make sure the information surfaces.”

Jesse bit her lip. Goddamit to hell, he was cagey. He still hadn’t admitted getting Green Team slaughtered. If he double crossed her and got her arrested, he could say he made promises under duress. She needed a confession.

Just a few more minutes, Cole. I promise.

“I’m the only person who can clear you,” Lanton said. “Even if I confess to colluding with Perez that doesn’t prove you weren’t my accomplice. No one will believe I pulled this off alone.”