“Help!” Janie started to scream as loud as her lungs would allow. “I’m down here! Help! Please! Hel?—”
Campbell slapped her so hard, her head whipped forcefully to the side. The metallic taste of blood ran over her tongue. And yet, she smiled.
“You’re all going to die now.” She spit her blood and spit on the floor. “Doesn’t matter if I live. You guys are already dead.”
Billy looked over at her and laughed. “Welp, that’s my cue to split.” He wiped her blood from the blade on the leg of his pants and slid it into the sheath at his hip. “Good luck, though. I do hope you manage to get away from these jerks.” He looked to Campbell. “No offense.”
When Campbell looked like he was going for his gun, Billy put his hands up and did as he was told. The guy took off out of the room, giving her a parting wink as he did.
Janie heard the sound of a nearby door squeaking open before it slammed shut again. Campbell came over to her and began releasing the rope holding her in place. While he did that, another man appeared at the doorway.
“Mr. Daley?”
What the?—
“Let’s go!” the White House Press Secretary ordered Campbell gruffly.
The ropes fell free, and she was yanked from the chair to her feet.
“Wait!” She tried fighting back. “Where are you taking me?”
“Someplace we can continue our little chat,” Daley answered coldly.
“Please, just . . .tell me why.”
“You already know why you’re here. You have something I need.”
No, she actually didn’t, but these guys clearly weren’t going to believe her, no matter what she said.
“I meant why did you kill Amy Weaver?”
It had to be him. Or more likely, Daley hired Billy or Campbell, or he’d paid someone else. It was the only thing that made any since.
Are you insane? None of this makes sense!
Clearly fed up with her questions, Daley got right up into her face. “You want to know why I killed the little bitch? Because she was going to turn me in. She wasgoing to use that file to ruin everything I’ve spent my life building. Me, Novak . . .all of us would have gone down for treason.” He shook his head in a wild refusal. “I can’t let that happen. I can’t go down for this, because if I do, the entire Republic will crumble down with me.”
The republic? Novak?
“Timothy Novak?” Janie looked at him like he was nuts. “The Vice President’s Chief of Staff is involved in . . .whatever this is?”
“Involved?” The man huffed out a humorless breath. “This was all Novak’s idea.”
Janie’s head spun with more questions than when this whole thing started. Her mind raced to come up with a plausible explanation for it all. But she was scared and confused, and there was a lot of freaking blood dripping from her arm to the concrete below.
“We don’t have time for this shit now.” Campbell took control and pushed her forward, into the hall.
With Campbell taking the lead, Secretary Daley kept a gun to her head and a tight hold on her uninjured arm. A touch of early morning light shone through the small, rectangular windows running high along the wall to her right. Tears flooded her vision at the thought that they may be the last rays of day she’d ever see again.
Janie had the fleeting thought that this must be what death row inmates felt like, taking that long, dreaded walk to their executioners. She stumbled, but Daley’s tight hold kept her from falling completely.
“Get up.” He yanked her arm so hard, it was a wonder it didn’t pop out of its socket.
“Ah!” Janie cried out from the pain.
Janie was in pain and more frightened than she’d ever been in her life, but an odd sort of peace seemed to blanket her as she walked. Because she knew, if Emmett and his team were here, the men with her now were going to pay for their crimes with their lives.
CHAPTER NINETEEN