Rogue Defender (Gone Rogue), page 19
“Absolutely not.” I can’t believe he’s considering leaving the safety of the Presidential Palace until Domina squeezes my hand.
“He has to,” she says. “Manuel, when are you giving the speech? And where? I can draft something for you this morning.”
“At the Hotel Flores at 2:00 p.m.,” he replies. “Their business center is empty this weekend and the Institutional Protection Service has already secured the second floor. Rafael contacted the press and gave them three potential locations for the speech, and we will only announce the final location fifteen minutes prior.”
Austin and Trevor exchange glances, and Austin shakes his head. “It’s too dangerous, Mr. Vice President. Any public appearance is a risk.”
“If I were afraid of risks, Pritchard, I would still be working on my parents’ potato farm. I will be giving a speech. It will be short, but if I do not show strength now, the entire country might pay the price.”
“Hang on a minute,” Austin says and jabs the mute button. “This is a bad fucking idea.”
“Unless we try to draw the killers out.” Even as I say the words, I hate the idea, but Cortez isn’t going to listen to us. I wouldn’t either in his shoes. “If we can get in there with him, maybe we can catch the assholes before they take their shot.”
“We’re not going in armed.” Austin shakes his head. “Not after what happened at the rally. Because if we’re all arrested, no one’s going to be able to spring us before the election. Or before we disappear forever.”
Trevor pulls up a satellite map of the area around the Hotel Flores. “Narrow streets, too many buildings. Pinch points all over the fucking place.” He taps his screen a couple more times, and finds the layout of the business center. “Three ways in and out. Stairs, public elevator, and service elevator. Assuming these images are up to date.”
Austin scrubs his hands over his face. “We don’t have a choice. Cortez isn’t going to hide away the day before the election. All we can do is try to keep him safe.” Taking the call off mute, he sits up a little straighter. “Mr. Vice President, we need you to get us into the press conference.”
“That will not be possible,” Cortez says. “The speech will be televised, but only my staff and the camera operators are allowed in the room with me. The public will be waiting in the main foyer. I will make an appearance on the balcony to wave and show my face, but after the attack at the rally…”
“Am I on your staff?” Domina asks. Her shoulders hunch, and she shrinks back against her chair like she isn’t sure she wants to hear the answer.
“Oh, Domina,” Manuel says. “Yes. You never should have been fired. You have been with me from the beginning, and I would not be here without your words inspiring the people.”
“Then you can get me in the room,” she says. “And Leo too.”
“How the hell is he supposed to get me in there?” I ask. “You saw how well that worked the last time. And we have no idea if that Rafael asshole is involved in this. Do you really expect me to let you anywhere near him without me?”
Domina’s eyes blaze with heat. “I expect you to protect Manuel.”
“You are my priority.” Taking her by the shoulders, I touch my forehead to hers. “My only priority.”
For several long moments, neither of us move. Finally, Cortez clears his throat. “I spoke with President Garcia last night. He has no plans to leave El Palacio de Las Garzas today, so his protective detail is now assigned to me. They are the most senior agents in the service, all with more than a decade of experience.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” I ask. “You had a full detail at the rally, yet someone walked in with a sniper rifle.”
“That is why I asked President Garcia for a whole new team,” Cortez says sharply. “These agents see me every day. They could have killed me at any time over the past six months. I trust them with my life.”
“So we’re just supposed to sit here? The polls close in—what?—thirty-six hours? Whoever wants you dead isn’t going to wait much longer.” I push to my feet, stifling my groan. I need to move, despite all my bruises making themselves known. “We still don’t know who’s behind this.”
“We have to be on site,” Austin says with a small shake of his head. “We’re trained for this, Manuel.”
“And my security service is not?” He huffs. “What do you think you will be able to do that they cannot?”
“Observe.” Austin’s tone sharpens, now one hundred percent that of the man who had the entire United States military at his beck and call. “Your detail’s job is to protect you, sir. They’re trained to take a bullet. To exfil you and your family in minutes. Not to call out suspicious behavior from a hundred yards away. That’s what we’re trained for. Make sure we can get into the public areas of the hotel. It doesn’t matter if we’re in the room with you for the press conference. As long as we’re where the crowd is, we’ll find the people after you and neutralize them.”
“And how will you do that?” Cortez asks.
Austin leans forward, his index finger hovering over the End Call button. “Plausible deniability, Mr. Vice President. It’s better you don’t know.”
“I don’t like this.” In the back of the SUV, Trevor checks his rifle for the fifth time. “I can’t get closer than three hundred feet. We should have called Inara. She’s a better shot than I am.”
Next to me, Domina fiddles with the top button on her white blouse. The dark red skirt and blazer mold to her body, and it was hard as hell to make it out the door without taking her again. Especially after securing a GPS tracker to the band of her bra. But we’re on the clock now.
“The press conference in starts half an hour.” I check my phone, despite having looked at it only three minutes ago. “If he didn’t do his part and get us clearance, we’re fucked.”
Domina straightens. “Manuel will take care of our access. In six years, he has never broken a promise to me or anyone else on his staff.”
“My face says otherwise,” I mutter.
“He did not know we were in trouble.” Taking my hands, she squeezes gently. “You don’t know him as I do. When we spoke to him last night, his regret was genuine. He was convinced you pointed your gun at him.”
I hold her gaze. She’s so earnest, so utterly certain Manuel Cortez is exactly who he says he is, that I believe it too. For almost ninety minutes after we hung up with the man, she closed herself in my bedroom with her tablet to draft his speech. Even after everything Domina’s been through this week, she’s still so devoted to her job that she insisted we let her work while we went over our infil and exfil plans.
“We’re reviewing everything again.” From the driver’s seat, Austin checks the rearview mirror. “Domina, you do not leave Leo’s side. I’ll be no more than twenty feet behind you both the whole time. You remember how the comms units work?”
“Tap once to turn it on before we go through security. If I need to turn it off, tap twice. Do not touch it unless absolutely necessary.”
He nods. “Leo? Exfil route.”
“Through the kitchen, into the service elevator. Down one floor to the laundry. Follow the dryers to the fire exit. Disable the alarm, and the door leads to a back alley. You do know what I used to do for a living?”
He coasts to a stop at a light and turns. “You do know what I used to do for a living?”
“Like you’d let me forget, Stars and Bars.”
“Stars and Bars?” Domina asks.
Austin shakes his head. “Ryker—he runs Hidden Agenda K&R out in Seattle—started calling me that in Venezuela. It wasn’t supposed to stick.”
She peers up at me, confusion in her eyes, and I lean over to plant a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Austin has more medals than…well…just about anyone alive. When he came down to Venezuela, he was a four-star general.”
“And then he got shit-canned for leaving his post,” Trev says.
Austin snorts. “You say that like I didn’t have a damn good reason, Superman.”
The back-and-forth banter makes me feel like I’m part of a team. Like I’m not the damaged has-been who can’t do a damn thing but chase after cheating husbands and petty thieves. I’ll never go back to the CIA. But working alone for the rest of my life? Is that really what I want?
Silence fills the SUV. Trevor checks his weapon another five times before Austin pulls into a parking space half a mile from the hotel. Domina leans against me, and I steal as much closeness as I can before we have to walk through fire.
“Stay close, baby,” I say when the hotel comes into view. More than a hundred people gather outside, and even from here, I can see the lobby is packed. “Cortez should have kept this quiet, not broadcast it to the entire fucking world.”
“He had to.” Domina tightens her grip on my right hand. “If he did not, Muñoz would have given his own press conference and called Manuel a coward. Unfit to lead. You do not understand how easily the public can be swayed in the days before an election.”
“Oh, I’ve seen it happen.” I brush my lips to her cheek. “When we’re safe in bed tonight, I’ll tell you all about what happened in Venezuela.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Domina
Manuel’s speech is happening in one of the hotel’s many conference rooms on the second floor, but as we expected, we can go no further than the lobby.
Suited IPS agents, their gazes stern and postures ramrod straight, are stationed around the room, and the hotel brought in half a dozen TVs to broadcast his words to the throngs of people filling the space.
Leo tightens his fingers on mine. Every few minutes, we’re jostled from one side or the other. Tension rolls off of him in waves. My heart races as one of the IPS agents points in our general direction.
The local news issued a retraction this morning, publicly stating that I was no longer a suspect, but more than one person has seen my face and quickly moved away from us.
I lost track of Austin not long after we passed through the metal detector, but every few minutes he calls out a clock time over the tiny comms unit in my ear, prompting Leo to steer us in one direction or another to observe.
“I have to ask you to leave,” a suited agent says as he blocks us from moving through the crowd.
“For fuck’s sake,” Leo snaps. “This is a public event. Domina works for the vice president.”
“She is a suspect in the attempted assassination—”
“You’re working with outdated info, man. Or don’t you listen to the news? She wasn’t fired and she had nothing to do with the incident at the rally. Check your security briefing.”
I pull my staff ID from my pocket, then show the man the text message Manuel sent me an hour ago.
Manuel Cortez: I gave your names to my security detail. If you have any trouble, show them this message and the codeword: corazón.
The agent clicks the button on his radio and speaks in rapid Spanish. “The speechwriter, Domina Sanchez, is here. With that American the Ministry detained after the rally. What do you want me to do with them?”
“Do with us?” Leo asks. “We have the damn passphrase. You’re going to leave us the hell alone and get back to doing your job.”
The man touches his ear, which prompts Austin to mutter, “Amateur,” over comms.
On the television screens, Manuel wraps up his speech. “Those who seek to destroy us will never win because we have truth, compassion, and honor on our side! With your support, tomorrow night, I will address you as your president! For Panama! For the people! For us all!”
The IPS agent says something, but his words are lost to the thunderous applause surrounding us.
“Eight o’clock,” Austin hisses. “Gustavo Bernal from the Muñoz campaign.”
Leo takes my arm and turns, no longer caring about the armed and very angry man in front of us. There are too many people. Too close. I cannot see a thing other than Leo’s light blue shirt as I press myself to his side.
Men and women shove at us, desperate to get closer to the balcony where Manuel will wave and pose for photos. Members of the press elbow the public out of the way, and one tries to force us apart until Leo grabs him by the knot on his tie. “Get the fuck out of my way, asshole,” he grits out, and the photographer seems to deflate before my eyes.
But as soon as he fades into the sea of people, we cannot do much more than move a few steps in any direction.
“Jimmy, you better be close,” Leo mutters. “We’re about to be fucked here.”
Over comms, Austin’s smooth voice carries a harsh edge. “Stuck behind half a dozen reporters. Stick close to Diana and prepare for exfil. I’ve got a bad feeling about this whole circus.”
Leo frames my face with his hands. For a brief moment, we are the only two people in the room. “We have five minutes until Cortez does his thing on the balcony. We’ll get as close to the kitchens as we can before then. Keep your head down. Stay right behind me, and don’t let go of my hand. Got it?”
I nod, the worry in Leo’s tone frightening me. If anyone goes after Manuel, how will we stop them with this many people around us?
“It’s a shit show out here,” Trevor says. “Two, maybe three hundred people blocking the front door. Zephyr’s tapped into my scope, running facial recognition. So far, no one suspicious. What I wouldn’t give to be able to eavesdrop on the IPS radio frequency…”
Every step is a struggle. More than once, someone tries to force their way between us, but Leo holds on so tightly, I worry he will crush my hand. A foot slams into my toes. Teetering on my heel, I grab for Leo’s belt.
My ankle buckles, pain zinging up my calf. My fingers only graze the leather.
An arm snakes around my waist. I’m jerked backward so fast, Leo cannot hold on. He spins—right into a large man in a dark gray suit. In the space of a heartbeat, we’re forced apart. Half a dozen people fill the space between us.
A scream dies in my throat as something sharp jabs my ribs. “Not a sound, bitch.”
I know that voice. “Pinzon,” I whisper. “No…”
In my ear, Leo’s frantic voice calls, “Diana! Diana! Fuck it. Domina, answer me! Jimmy, do you have eyes on her?”
A hand wraps around the back of my neck, squeezing hard enough I cry out. Dark spots swim in front of my eyes. Everything around me fades to a dull roar. Faces pass in a blur. My left ankle throbs, but are my feet even touching the ground?
Leo…where are you?
I try to call out, but my voice fails. Sunlight blinds me. The stench of exhaust fills my nose.
“Check her,” someone says sharply.
My lids are so heavy. The pressure on my neck lifts, and then I’m falling. I land on something hard. An engine vibrates underneath me.
Do something!
I know I’m in trouble. That if I do not move, scream, fight, I will disappear. Or worse.
Hands rove up and down my body. Squeezing. Pulling at my blouse. My skirt. In my ear, Austin, Trevor, and Leo shout, but I cannot make out their words.
The haze muddling my thoughts starts to fade. “Outside!” I scream. The slap sends my head whipping to the side. Rough fingers yank the tiny comms device from my ear.
“She’s wired!” Pinzon. I will never forget his voice. I blink hard, and his angry face swims over me. He tosses the little earbud to someone, and a door slides shut. A van. I’m in a van. But it does not matter now. No one can hear me. “Go, go, go!”
Pinzon flips me onto my stomach. I flail my arms, but he captures my wrists and pins them behind my back. The zip tie digs into my skin. I scream and kick, but Daniel isn’t the only one back here with me. Another man binds my ankles. “That was very advanced technology,” he says. “Leo Basher is not careless. Check her again. Everywhere. I will disable her phone.”
Unlike Pinzon, this man’s accent is lighter. More refined. I struggle to see his face until his words sink in. Everywhere. Pinzon’s hands slide over my calves, between my legs, all the way to my panties.
“Get off me!” I cry. “Stop! Please!”
My tears soak into the rough, gray carpet on the van’s floor. Pinzon chuckles as he squeezes both of my ass cheeks. He stops short of violating me, but this…this is so close, I want to throw up. His fingers dig under the waistband of my skirt, then move to my back.
The GPS tracker. He will find it. How long has it been? Only minutes. They had a plan. They knew we would be at the hotel. Knew we would be together. Knew exactly how to separate us. The van was waiting outside, the engine running.
Pinzon pulls up my blouse, and I squeeze my eyes shut. “What is this?” His hot breath over my cheek makes me gag. Digging under the band of my bra, right against the side of my breast, he finds the small GPS tracker. “Thought we would miss this, Domina?”
He drops the tracker right in front of my face, and the other man—he’s familiar, but fear clouds my memories—slams the butt of his gun down on the small device.
“Please,” I whimper. “Stop the van and let me go.”
“We can’t do that,” the other man says. “Your lover and his friends ruined our best chance to kill Cortez. So we are going to make him do it for us.”
“Leo will never kill Manuel. He is too good of a man.”
Pinzon flips me onto my back. Half a dozen slices from my cactus mar his cheeks and forehead. A bloody stain covers half the white of his left eye. But it is his smile that terrifies me the most.
“He will. Or he will watch you die.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Leo
Someone pushes me so hard, I stumble several steps back. If it weren’t for the crowd, I’d be on my ass. Bodies close in around me. Who the hell let all these goddamn people in here?
“Diana? Diana! Fuck it. Domina, answer me! Jimmy, do you have eyes on her?” The memory of her fingers in mine is still so fresh. Where the hell is she?
