CHAPTER 20
A loud offensive buzzing alarm sounded, abruptly interrupting Daisy’s sleep. She sat up straight, frightened by the foreign sound, unsure what it meant. Panic set in when she looked to her left, and Luke was no longer in bed with her.
Luke rushed into the room and grabbed the first shirt and pair of yoga pants he found, not caring if they were clean or otherwise, “Quick, put these on, baby. We got to go.”
“Go? Luke what’s happening, where are we going?”
“Just get dressed quickly.” He rushed to bathroom, returning with an arm load of toiletries and tossed them in her side of the closet.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
Luke reached inside along the closet wall, beyond her clothes, when there was a noise of sorts. A loud click. Then he pushed on the shelving of the closet organizer and it turned inside the closet hiding her clothes behind a faux wall, revealing a side with all men’s clothes in its place. He reached in along the same wall, another loud click and quick push ensured it was locked in place.
“What the…” Shirt on, she stood with her pants in her hand, stunned. “Where…where did my things go?”
“They’re still in there, we just have to be prepared for anything. Finish getting dressed, we’re almost out of time.” He moved around the room, quickly making the bed to conceal the fact that anyone had been there but him. A small bedside trash can became his next tool, placed at edge of her nightstand. In one swoop, he brushed everything from its surface into the can.
His phone rang, and the alarm silenced. Daisy looked up, as if the sound of the now dormant alarm would somehow reveal itself.
“Yeah,” he answered, looking her way. “It’s cleaning day. Just tidying up.”
Tidying up, Daisy was utterly confused. He looked to Daisy and put one finger over his mouth indicating she needed to remain quiet then continued to move around the room tossing anything that remotely suggested someone besides him had been there, in the trash can. That included the burner phone he had for her and the iPad she had used.
“Yeah, I’ve got a package to deliver, then we can meet in the lair. Yeah, see you then.”
Confirming the call was indeed disconnected, he locked it, before sliding it into his back pocket.
“That was Liam making sure we were on the move.”
“Cleaning day, Luke?”
“We talk in code because we never know who’s listening.” He said matter of factly, trying to keep her informed without frightening her any more than she was.
He removed the trash bag from the can and tied it off, placing the trash can in the powder room near the front door as they went by.
He held his hand out to her, “C’mon baby, time to go. Gibby, c’mon girl.”
Her hand in his, he proceeded to run out of the apartment to the elevator, dog on their heels.
When they approached the elevator, there was an explosion that shook the building. Luke immediately pulled her into his body and leaned over her, shielding her from whatever coming for them.
“Shit!” When the rattle and noise settled he hit the hidden button, the exit sign, indicating exactly where they were going.
“Oh my God, Luke…what’s happening.” Daisy was frantically choking on her sobs, she was terrified.
When the elevator opened, he turned her to face him. With his hands on her shoulders he bent down to her level and told her everything she needed to know. “It’s going to be okay, baby. I promise. You need to go to the vault and stay there until I come for you. Got it? Don’t leave, not even the rooftop, they’re watching.”
“Who. Who’s watching. What about Gran? Oh my God, Gran.”
“Whoever just blew their way into the building. And your Gran is safe. They’re not here for her, okay. She’ll be fine. Now get in the elevator, take this bag with you, they can’t know you were here. We’ll replace anything that was ruined when this is over.”
“Luke! Stop! Please! I’m not going without you.” Another overwrought sob escaped her, and her voice fell to a whisper, “I’m scared.”
He hugged her, dropping a handful of rapid kisses to the top of her head, wishing he had more time to console her. “I know baby. I know. I promise, nothing is going to happen to you, okay. I’m sending you the vault, so they don’t find you. Stay inside.”
“Why can’t you come with me? What about you, what happens to you?”
“They aren’t going to hurt me. I’ll be okay.”
“How do you know? Please come with me. Please.”
“I can’t, and you need to go now before it’s too late.”
“But…”
“Daisy go. They’re here for you, okay? They’re here for…you.” He didn’t want to scare her anymore than she was, but he had to get through to her and fast.
Daisy gasped and stared blankly, the color drained from her face when she whispered, “Oh my God.”
“I love you.” He kissed her one last time, before he backed her into the elevator and hit the hidden vault button in the sign. “I’ll come for you.”
Then the doors were closed, and she and Gibson were gone.
He went back to his apartment, calm and cool. Sat on the couch, kicked his feet up on the coffee table and turned on the television. With his hands resting behind his head, he waited for them to come for him.
And they did.
It had been nearly thirty minutes before his apartment was stormed by men dressed in dark clothing, assault rifles, and combat helmets. FBI was brightly displayed on the front and back of their flak jackets. It looked like Carter was right – they were drawing attention and it was by someone on the committee or close to it.
“Hands where we can see them.” Came a monotone voice.
Luke complied, putting his hands up on display, showing his willingness to cooperate.
“For your safety and ours, we have been instructed to restrain you by way of handcuffs, sir.” Luke extended his hands and nodded. “Just so we are clear, this is an open investigation. You are not under arrest or a person of interest until otherwise advised. You are entitled to an attorney at any time during our search and seizure – a copy of the warrant will be left with you.”
“Well, my attorney is somewhere in the building – don’t suppose you could find him for me?”
“No. We will not sir, we have a job to do.”
“Well, then I guess the attorney spiel is just that if I can’t have him present. Oh well proceed. Don’t let me keep you from your job.” Luke took a seat on his couch and put his feet back up.
Luke sat idly while the men proceeded to go through his home leaving nothing untouched or unturned. Evidence bags remained on the table in which they were originally placed, empty, because they weren’t going to find anything.
It didn’t take long before a familiar face made his way into Luke’s apartment, “Francis, wow, this is coming from the top. Mind telling me why you have men tearing my place apart?”
“It’s Frank. Director Waterman to you, and I know my agents told you what you need to know.”
“Yeah, also told me I could have my attorney present but wouldn’t go get him or let me contact him. Where’s Landry?” Luke didn’t give two shits about having an attorney present because he knew this would go down however the FBI Director wanted it to go down. His concern was for Carter. Whoever abducted and nearly killed him, was behind this and may have another go round with him.
“Carter is with the rest of your brothers, you’ll be joining them soon for transport.”
“Joining them. Huh.”
“So, my men tell me it’s just you here, O’Reilly.”
Luke looks around as if it’s obvious nobody else is there, “Well, Dictator…”
“Director. Watch it O’Reilly.”
“Director…it is just me, as you can see or there might be someone else cuffed next to me. If you’re trying to get me to fess up to a frog in my pocket, it just isn’t going to happen because that big guy is not a frog. And no, I won’t show you.” Luke dropped his tone to dark and menacing, it was time add the dramatics and act offended, “What’s going on, Frank?”
Director Waterman looked at flower petals on the ground between the couch and an end table that Luke must’ve somehow missed. “What are those from?”
Luke laughed, before suddenly turning serious, “Oh wait, you’re serious? Umm…”
Luke pointed, with his cuffed hands, to a bouquet of flowers on a table by the floor to ceiling window that overlooked part of the city. To really sell his act, he gave the Director an are you some sort of idiot look.
“You in the habit of sending yourself flowers?”
“Cute. Really cute. No. Those are from my brother. Well, from his fiancé. They’re getting married in a few weeks, so the florist sent over a bunch of sample arrangements. There were too many for their apartment so she…shared. She’s a real sweetheart like that.”
The Director nodded, buying the story but still suspicious. “How about that box over there – a bunch of candles and stuff. You running a little love nest in here?”
“We both know neither of us do the romance thing – casualty of the job we used to do. Surely you remember that. You’re still single yourself, if I recall?”
“That doesn’t explain why you have all that.”
“Again, the wedding.” Luke hung his head and shook it like the wedding was becoming a source of frustration for him. “Felicity went a little overboard on decorations and asked to keep them here, so my brother didn’t have a panic attack over the budget. Just doing them a solid. I mean, I got flowers out of it so…winning.” Luke was laying it on thick.
When the Director revealed a smarmy smile, Luke knew Francis was about to show his cards, and play what he thought was the winning hand, “Very nice of you. So, are those two used Champagne flutes you doing someone a solid? Perhaps you sampled a little Champagne with your brother’s fiancé too…you know, in the spirit of sampling and the wedding.”
“You’re a dick.” Luke said as if it was a compliment. “But not far off on that one. It was in wedding spirit that I hung out with my niece for a while, so Liam and City could go do some wedding shit. We watched some movie about a girl inheriting a kingdom and being a princess. We drank sparkling cider with our pinkies out…it was kind of a big deal.”
“Pinkies…out?”
“It’s in the movie. Check my trash if you’d like. You’ll find the bottle and probably some left over chocolate covered strawberries. They were good, try one if you find them in there.”
“I’ll pass. You seem to have an answer for everything.”
“Which doesn’t mean I’m doing anything wrong. I’m guilty of being a family guy – lock me up, Francis.”
“That won’t be necessary…yet. I do want to run through all of this again, make sure we didn’t miss anything. You don’t mind joining me and your brothers down at the Federal Building, would you?”
Luke gave the director a shocked look, part of the performance, he expected this. “Not a problem, I’ll say hi to the guys while we’re there visiting, it’s been a while. You driving?”
“The cuffs stay on, O’Reilly.” Director Waterman walked toward the door as an agent led Luke behind.
In a quick motion, the Director turned to Luke with a finger to his temple as if he just remembered something, “Oh. You wouldn’t happen to know where we can find Daisy King, would you?”
Boom. There it was. They were looking for Daisy and it made Luke’s blood boil despite knowing the question was coming, one way or another. He knew how this game worked, how he answered and reacted would be the difference between Daisy’s safety and demise.
In a cool questioning tone, he answered, “Daisy King? Never heard of her. Should I know who that is?”
“Maybe.” The director took a long stare as if it would break Luke and cause him to break. “She’s a fugitive, one of the FBI’s most wanted.”
“Wanted for what?”
“Assassinating Senator Martinez.”
“I thought that was solved – you have guys locked up.” Luke chanted play dumb over and over in his head – get him talking. What does he know?
“No. That was only the beginning. Miss King is the muscle behind it. She has ties to all sorts of organized crime and even political campaigns. She’s as dirty as they come.”
“So why the Senator?”
“That’s what we’d like to know. She’s holding the smoking gun. We want to know why so we can put her and anyone…helping her away.”
Now the part where he plays offended. “And you think we know her and where she is? Have you forgotten we’re on your side? We put the bad guys away. Hell, Carter is handling the case.”
“Not anymore. The White House has assigned a special prosecutor to oversee the case in light of new evidence.”
“Evidence? Evidence that led you here?”
“The kind that has Miss King’s grandmother living in your building. The same building Carter Landry is staying in.”
Luke raised his eyebrows and didn’t say another word. Carter’s plan was working.
The O’Reilly’s sat at the FBI building where they were questioned for hours. Each were asked the same questions over and over, as the agents, tried to trip them up and nail them with something. It didn’t work, the O’Reilly’s were good at the game, hell, they invented. Carter was allowed in the room with each of the brothers at first, then they were all in the same room together in some odd group interrogation method.
Special agent in charge Pete Langley was head of the Portland field office and a good friend to the O’Reilly’s and Carter. He stopped in to check in with the brothers when Director Waterman relieved his agents and left himself to make a phone call. Who he had to call, as the Director, nobody knew, but they certainly found it interesting.
“Look, I had no idea these guys were coming.” Pete said, apologizing for chaos. “They just showed up and took over. I would have given you a heads up if I knew something, but this is big. All the way from the Capitol. DC doesn’t visit often.”
“Appreciate it, Langley. We were expecting them – or someone anyway.” Carter shared.
“What? What kind of bullshit did you get yourselves into?” Langley asked.
“We aren’t entirely sure, but this goes all the way to the top, hence these guys showing up.” Carter answered with confidence because if they knew anything at this point, this was as big, or bigger than originally thought. The FBI Director doesn’t just pop in on raids clear across the country.
“White House top?”
Carter nodded, “We believe it could.”
“Shit. That never ends well. Play it right, guys.” Langley added, in a low timbre. “Let me know if you need any help and I’ll do what I can.”
“Thanks, man, but you need to stay clear.” Luke informed. Langley was a good guy with a family, he didn’t want to see anything happen to him. “It could get pretty ugly.”
“This guy is a fucking prick – I don’t care if he’s my boss. He walked in here and pissed all over the place like he owned it.” Pete added, shaking his head in disgust. “You know how to reach me…”
Director Waterman walked in as Pete was leaving, each of the men nodding a courtesy at one another. “Did some checking and it seems your story checks out for now Landry. Sorry to have…bothered you all. You’re free to go. The tenants in your building have already received an official apology from the bureau, I hope that helps.”
“Thank you, Director. We’ll let you know if we get any leads on the fugitive or related to the investigation. Otherwise – see you in DC.” Carter turned his back to the Director before the obligatory handshake because he didn’t think he had it in him to shake kindly.
“Good afternoon gentleman.” With a quick nod, the Director turned and left the room.
Under his breath, as the door was closing, Wylie mumbled, “Good afternoon to you, Director Prick.”
“What’s the story that checked out?” Luke asked.
Carter dipped his head toward the door, “C’mon, let’s get out of here. I’ll fill you in when we get back to Watermark. City should be waiting outside for us. I gave her a call and had her do some digging while you guys were…busy.”
“Jesus. Watermark was a mess when we left – that’ll be fun to clean up.”
Shaking his head as they made their way through the maze of hallways, Carter revealed, “There’s already a team there working on clean up and repairs.”
“No. Noo, nooo, noooo.” Liam stopped them in the hall, all worked up. “I don’t want his people touching my shit there. Security is tight, and I don’t need them infiltrating.”
Carter leveled his hands in front of him, calming Liam down. “It’s okay. I called in a favor, it’s a clean crew. No affiliation to Director Prick. They’re with me.”