“Excuse me, Congresswoman McAvoy?”
Deborah turned, an impartial smile on her face. “Yes?”
Her smile dropped when Bella moved one step closer. “Remember me from yesterday?”
“Sure.”
The way the other woman’s gaze darted to her security detail told Bella much more than the one-word answer. “I have something for you, but it’s rather private in nature.”
Frowning, McAvoy snapped, “Haven't you given me enough of your opinion already?”
“It has nothing to do with my opinion and everything to do with your friendship with Vice President Barrett.”
Deborah’s face went pale. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Bella said, lowering her voice so far that Deborah had to lean in to hear her, “that I know what the two of you did.”
“What—”
“And if I were you, I’d be eager to hear what I have to say about it.”
Gripping Bella’s forearm tightly, Deborah hissed, “Are you threatening a member of Congress?”
Glaring at the hand leaving a bruise in its wake, Bella responded, “Why does having a polite conversation with a constituent sound like a threat to you?”
“Cut the crap. I know you aren’t who you say you are.”
Without saying a word, Bella stood there and waited.
“Fine, come over here.”
The congresswoman led her to a table in the far corner of the coffee shop, smiling tightly at the man in the suit who inclined his head in her direction.
“Don't make your detail nervous, Deborah.”
“I’m smiling, aren’t I?”
“More like grimacing.” Settling with her back to the wall, Bella sipped the coffee she’d bought before approaching Deborah McAvoy. “At great risk to my own life and my family's, I saved the president’s ass against Russian terrorists not that long ago. Now, I discover you had a hand in what went down.”
“You know nothing.”
Bella went on as though she hadn’t spoken. “My son was barely old enough to order a drink in a bar when he was held at gunpoint so some power-hungry twat could grapple for a higher position. We’d figured out that a handful of players wanted to dominate the western hemisphere, and the CIA assured us those people were taken out.”
“That makes you a Cullen.” Deborah narrowed her eyes. “What the hell makes you think you have the right to judge me when you’re a career criminal?”
“All the years I strived to be a better person, that’s what gives me the right. Each time, someone reached out to pull me and my husband back in. Your colleagues. Your friends. They won’t let us be.”
“Let’s say you’re right about what you think you know.” Deborah sat back, clearly thinking she had the upper hand by the smug smile on her face. “What about it?”
“Honestly, I’m not above telling the Taliban that you and Andrew Barrett are on the same team as Derrick Blithers. Look how well it turned out for him when he betrayed them.”
Nervously, Deborah rubbed her fingers over her throat. “They won’t believe you.”
“You wanna take that chance? Fine. I’ll take my deal with me when I leave.”
She’d barely made it halfway out of her seat when Deborah stopped her. “Okay! Okay. What do you want from me?”
“I want Barrett to pay for what he did; both then and now. I want him ruined as the treasonous piece of shit he is. I’d prefer that to happen legally, but I’m prepared to achieve my goal by any means necessary.”
“If I help you, I’ll be ruined too.”
“I promise to do my best to leave your name out of it. All I need is to know if Barrett is working alone now, or if he had someone else in his pocket besides Blithers. And if you know whether or not Blithers was acting on orders, or if he’d gone rogue.”
Rubbing her temple, Deborah sighed. “As far as I know, Blithers and Barrett were working alone. Well, as alone as two men who can’t wipe their own asses without an aide can possibly work. There were a few underlings who knew the plan, but I don't think anyone above them in the chain of command had knowledge of their activities.”
“Including the president?”
“No, he never knew. The plan . . .” Pausing, Deborah glanced around and lowered her voice. “The plan was for Drew to make Derrick his VP. In order to keep each other honest, they were exchanging favors.”
“As in, Barrett sold his daughter off to Blithers, and he also deposited exorbitant funds into his account quarterly to ensure he kept his mouth shut?”
Nodding, Deborah said, “And in return, Blithers would keep quiet about who contacted Zion in the first place. The only issue they argued about was Derrick’s contacts within the Taliban. Drew thought that was a step too far, but Derrick threatened to expose him to the public if he interfered.”
“So one man played with one type of terrorist group, and the other man picked another one, and somehow they still managed to judge each other?” Bella shook her head. “Unbelievable.”
“My only role was to shut up and lay low until it came time to breach the PEOC. Then I essentially unlocked the door and let the Russians inside. At the time, I didn’t know the whole plan. I thought we were staging a coup, not blowing up half the world with a freaking antimatter bomb.”
Bella tsked in disgust. “Right, because overtaking the presidency isn’t a terrible crime unless you throw in particle physics and a little radiation exposure.”
“Look, as soon as I heard the plan, I backed out. I promised Drew I’d keep my mouth shut because I knew he could ruin me, but I bowed out. I stepped down from my position as speaker and returned to being a law-abiding citizen. He merely replaced me with Blithers.”
“And then Blithers spent the ensuing years trying to blackmail me and my husband after using us as pawns in the Russian takeover.”
Deborah swallowed visibly, looking off in the distance. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Cullen. I really am.”
“Now, though, I need to know if I can trust the president with this information. My only other alternative is to put the audio evidence of your conversation with Barrett on the internet for the media to pick up and distribute.”
“Like you, I hope to spend my remaining years atoning for my sins and truly serving the people of my district.” Focusing back on Bella, Deborah said, “As far as I know, the president is in the dark. He believed it was strictly Zion targeting him, and he has given Drew his blessing to run.”
“And Barrett’s offer to make you his next VP?” Bella pressed.
“God, you heard the whole conversation, didn’t you? I don’t think I want to know how.” She shook her head. “You know I turned him down. I don’t have the fortitude for this sort of thing. I’ve constantly been sick off and on since the mess in the PEOC.”
“We’ll be in touch, then.” Gathering her things, Bella rose, leaving her empty cup on the table.
She waited until she was outside before talking to herself out loud. “I assume you got all that?”
“Of course, love,” Edward replied in her ear. “It came in loud and clear.”
“Maybe now we can stop feeling like we’re stuck in some kind of fucked up version of purgatory.”
Stepping into the waiting limo, Bella looked back over her shoulder to see Deborah exit the shop with her detail surrounding her.
“With Blithers gone, Holden is prepared to reach out to his contacts in the agency and get back on their payroll, so to speak.”
“There goes his pension,” Bella said.
“Yes, well, he only retired because he was sick of all the secrets and subterfuge within the ranks. That was meant to be kept outside the office to fool the American public.”
“And don’t we all feel safer because of that?”
As Stephen maneuvered the vehicle through afternoon D.C. traffic, Bella fell silent, staring out the window at the passing scenery. If they could wrap everything up in a neat little package and present it to the president, then maybe they could finally call it a day on the espionage.
Edward was the only one downstairs when she arrived home, and Stephen went upstairs immediately. Frowning at her husband when he pulled her in for a hug, she tilted her head back to look into his eyes.
“Is something going on I should know about?”
“I asked for privacy so we could have lunch alone and video call the girls.”
Tears pricked her eyelids. “I miss them so much.”
“We can truly say for the first time that we’re nearing the finish line.” Linking their hands together, he led her to the dining room. He’d set the table and apparently ordered in, considering the food currently spread out before her.
“Now we’re trusting people to deliver food to the safe house?” she asked.
“I used a pseudonym and had them leave the bags at the gate. Danny retrieved them for me.”
“From sniper to errand boy.”
Smirking, he kissed her lips before sitting beside her. “Better careful than dead.”
“Always.”
They tried their best to talk about anything other than the mission while they ate, but that was difficult when they’d been living it for so long. Calling first Maeve and then Caitriona, they listened to the girls talk about their completely ordinary lives.
“Somehow, we’ve raised two beautiful, smart, independent women who know what they want and how to work for it.” Bella dabbed at her eyes with her napkin. “It’s all I ever wanted for them, but damn do I hate them being so far away.”
“You knew what not to do from your parents,” Edward answered her. “And they take after you all the way, thank God.”
Smiling, Bella ran her fingers through the graying hair at his temple. “I love you.”
“I know you do. Is tú mo gach rud.”
Sliding onto his lap, Bella dropped her head to his shoulder. They were each other’s everything, and that would never change.
His arms came around her, and he held her tight. “I think we should let Dylan do her thing and drop all the files we have on the internet.”
“I’m inclined to agree, but maybe we should find a way to let Holden approach the president first. I feel he deserves a heads up.”
Stroking up and down her back, Edward let her words hang in the air for several minutes. Finally, he said, “In a way, he was betrayed just as much as we were. We now know Blithers wanted us—me—in his back pocket, and he was willing to go to any extreme to make that happen.”
“Including using my parents as bait.”
“All that evidence we saved with the intent of taking down Holden can be used against many in the agency, and it can also damn Barrett and McAvoy.”
Bella shifted, sitting up to face Edward. “I told her we’d keep her name out of it, though.”
“I’m not sure she deserves mercy.”
Shivering at the coldness in his eyes, she said, “Like us, she wants to move on from her mistakes. She wants to atone in any way she can, and if she helps us but then we stab her in the back, we’re no better than those we’re trying to stop.”
“Most men know to give me a wide berth. Even my demons stay away because they know what's good for them. But Blithers and Barrett don't seem to have a knack for self-preservation. They targeted what’s mine, Bella. They targeted you, and they targeted Aerinn, for God’s sake. Where was their sympathy for my family?”
“Deborah didn’t target us.” Framing his face in her hands, she repeated, “Deborah didn’t target us because she didn’t know about Blithers and Barrett’s entire plan. Hell, she was mostly a pawn in their fucked up game, same as the rest of us.”
“You know I don’t deal lightly with anyone who messes with my family.”
“I know, but just once, you need to let your demons rest.”
His hold on her hips tightened until she saw the change in his expression. “Fine.”
“Now, when are you going to put on that mask for me?” she teased.
Eventually, even her hard-ass husband couldn't hold out on her. Grinning, he brought her face within inches of his. The green and gold of his eyes burned into her, and she shivered again.
Above them, footsteps thundered and voices rose, and he sighed heavily. “Sounds like the natives are getting restless.”
“I know the feeling,” she replied, rocking over his lap just enough to have him groaning in her ear.
“God, Bella, don’t do that to me when our granddaughter is about to come barreling down the stairs.”
“Oops.” She laughed, climbing off his lap. “I guess there’s always later.”
“Later can’t come soon enough,” he said against her hair, giving her one last squeeze before Aerinn came running around the corner.
“Granda! Grandma! Look what I did!”
She held up her picture for them to see. Behind her, Layla came into the room more slowly. “Sorry, guys, I tried to keep her upstairs as long as possible.”
“It’s all fine, isn’t it?” Kneeling, Edward looked at Aerinn’s picture of a pink and purple horse swimming in a lake, kissing her on the nose while she giggled. “Isn’t that a fine kelpie you’ve drawn there, beagán?”
“But not a mean one, Granda! My kelpie is nice to humans.”
“Aye, of course it is!”
He picked her up, tickling her sides as she squealed. Bella knew that both their planning and their alone time would have to wait until later. For once, though, she no longer felt the heavy sensation of a weight pushing her down. They knew what to do next, and once that was accomplished, then they could all go back to living normal lives.
At least, as normal as the Cullens knew how to live.
 |
| Congresswoman Deborah McAvoy |
No comments:
Post a Comment