Alex headed back to the bar, Jason disappeared into the night, probably to the black site, and Valeria found herself and Lizzy sitting at the kitchen table researching Roland Westwood until darkness turned into light. Valeria leaned back in her chair and ran a hand over her face.

Grant was asleep on the couch and Dalton had disappeared into the bedroom a couple of hours before. Valeria was beyond exhausted, but she had a job to do. “It would be easier to get to Roland with Sebastian’s help.”

Lizzy shook her head. “You know as well as I do that we don’t know if Sebastian is involved with Mollia Domini. The bank records, the spyware, I don’t know if we can trust him.”

“At the worst, he’s one of the inner circle or even the leader. Sebastian has the power, money, and influence to pull it off. He could be funding us just to keep an eye on us,” Valeria pointed out.

“And at the best he’s someone who doesn’t mind crossing lines to get things done.”

“Isn’t that what we do?”

Lizzy thought about that. Valeria had a point. “Yes, but our goal isn’t self-serving. With Sebastian, I think everything he does is meant for the betterment of his situation. That’s why I worry about turning to him now. There’re times I would swear he helps us, but I’m learning nothing is free with him. If he’s not with Mollia Domini, then he will still expect payment in terms of us doing something questionable for SA Tech. And I don’t know if we can risk turning to him.”

“Well, unless you can think of a way to get into Kerra Ruby’s summer bash, I’m afraid we won’t have a choice. And trust me, and this is hard for me to say because I agree with everything you’ve said about Sebastian, but I don’t know of any other way.”

“We could break into his home,” Lizzy suggested.

“Which one?” Valeria asked, pointing out the difficulty of hunting Roland down. “We know exactly where he’ll be tonight. There’re so many people at these things, it makes it easier to get in and out. As long as we have an invite, we can move freely once inside.”

Lizzy groaned. “I’ll call Sebastian to find out when he will be back in town so we can meet. I find it’s better to try to read him before asking for anything. In the meantime, let’s get some sleep.”

Valeria looked around and settled on a chair in the living room as Lizzy picked up the phone to call Sebastian. He was going to love this early wakeup call. Grant sat up, stretched, and patted the couch for Valeria to lie down. Lizzy watched out of the corner of her eye as Valeria lay down, resting her head on Grant’s tree trunk-sized muscled leg. In seconds, she was asleep with Grant’s protective hand on her hip.

“Hello?” Sebastian didn’t sound sleepy at all even though it was five in the morning.

“It’s Elizabeth. Where are you?”

“I’m in my gym. Where are you?” Sebastian asked, his voice dripping with a mix of seductiveness and demand.

Lizzy wanted to roll her eyes. Sebastian didn’t like giving anything away. “Which city are you in?”

“DC. I got here as quickly as I could after hearing what happened to Birch. The country would be a worse place if Birch weren’t in it. I was waiting to call him to see how he is doing until later this morning.”

“He’s alive, which ruined someone’s plan.” Lizzy tried to be casual, but she was sure Sebastian knew she was acting. “I know he’ll want to see you. I need to see him as well. How about two SA Tech employees visit him this morning? Meet at the hospital at nine?”

Sebastian was quiet for a moment. “I can do that.”

“Good. See you then.”

Lizzy hung up without waiting for Sebastian to say goodbye. She had just enough time to rest for a couple hours before seeing which side Sebastian truly fell on. She sent a secure message to the team informing them of the plan. As Lizzy left the kitchen, Valeria had a hand resting on Grant’s upper thigh. He rested one hand on the top her head and the other on the indent of her waist.

“Come to bed.” Lizzy looked up to see Dalton standing shirtless at the bedroom door. In seconds, his body wrapped around hers as he held her. The warmth and the utter feeling of complete safety had Lizzy instantly falling into a heavy and dreamless sleep.

---

It took Birch screaming at the doctors to get them to leave. His Secret Service had to stand guard on the other side of the thick doors leading to his closed wing. His doctors were great and all, but one, Birch didn’t know if any of them were reporting to Mollia Domini. And two, they enjoyed eavesdropping way more than Birch was okay with.

He had two hours to see both Sandra and Sebastian without anyone coming in. Jason was allowed in with a credential saying he was with the chief of staff’s office. Humphrey joined him as they walked in together wheeling a large suitcase filled with papers to be signed and cards from well-wishers. The suitcase would be checked by his agents before they would be allowed onto his floor.

Humphrey and Jason arrived just as the floor was being locked down. “Did you see that Sebastian is coming in an hour?” Humphrey asked, tossing all the “important presidential papers” in the trash as Jason set the piles and piles of get-well cards on Birch’s table next to his bed and then dragged a chair over toward the door to sit.

“Yes. I hate that I have to do it here. I feel weak in the hospital, but at least I’m getting it over with. I don’t know what I’ll do if Sebastian—” Birch couldn’t finish.

Tate reached over and grabbed his hand. She knew how important Sebastian was to him. He was more than a friend; he was like a brother to him. But brothers could be betrayed as easily as friends.

“Do I need to stay?” Jason asked.

“No. Lizzy will be here.” Jason just raised an eyebrow and continued with his cold stare. “She can handle herself, trust me. I’ve seen video of her in action.”

“No offense, but if push comes to shove, I don’t think she’ll shove as hard as she should.”

“She put a bullet between her ex’s eyes. I think she’ll be fine.”

Jason shrugged. “You’re the boss.”

The door down the hall opened and Sandra stepped in. She looked around as Humphrey hurried from the room. “Ah, Sandra. We’re down here. Sorry, we had to clear the hall so we could discuss any national security issues that come up.”

Sandra walked in with worry written all over her face. Worry for herself or fake worry for him, Birch didn’t know, although he did know she was one hell of an actress. Sandra glanced at Jason questioningly and Jason smiled. For a split second he looked like a kind, caring man. “I’ll be just outside, Mr. Orville.”

“Oh, yes. We’ll head back to the office shortly.” Humphrey smiled as Jason headed to a chair on the other side of the door. He would still be able to hear them, but Sandra didn’t know that. “One of my aides. We had a ton of get-well cards to bring the president.”

“Mr. President, Tate,” Sandra said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe this. How are you feeling?”

Tate smiled kindly. “Thank you for your concern, Sandra. We’re getting there.”

Birch frowned. “Although two very good men of mine and fifteen civilians were killed. But, you know that, don’t you?”

Sandra blinked and then looked sympathetically at them. “Yes, I read that. Are you sure you should be running the nation at a time when you should be focused on getting better? I’m sure the vice president can take of things while you heal.”

“I’m quite all right to run the country. After all, that’s why I asked you here. To get down to business.”

“Right. We need to address the executive order for contracting private security that President Mitchell proposed. Some key embassies have received terror threats recently, and we don’t have enough soldiers to increase security and go after the terrorists. So the State Department has already called in some National Guardsmen to help, but now the states are lacking in security. New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles have all asked for funds to hire private security to help replace the National Guard.”

“Good point. What else do we need to address?” Birch asked, keeping his suspicions hidden. Like hell he would authorize that much power to private security.

“I think we need to address the rumors of our collapsing stock market. I have foreign leaders contacting me about pulling out of their investment in American companies,” Sandra said as she took out her notebook and scribbled some notes.

“Yes, yes. That’s no good at all,” Humphrey bumbled. It seemed to put Sandra at ease.

“Great. Since Tate is here, I’ll put out a press release through her assistant. How is the investigation going on the explosion?” Sandra asked with such concern Birch would almost think she cared. But he knew better.

“Thank you for asking. We’ve made big strides in the investigation.” Birch watched Sandra’s reaction. She seemed surprised but covered it quickly.

“I have heard the Chinese are angry about our ships keeping the peace in the South China Sea. Is it them?”

“No. It’s not the Chinese. In fact, it’s a new group I’ve never heard of before that has been responsible for a number of bombings and assassinations around the world. I’m just their next target.”

Sandra looked shocked. “A new group? Who are they? Syrian?”

Birch shook his head. “No.” Birch looked thoughtful for a second. “We know who they are, but we don’t know how they knew about my plans for that night. They were rather spur-of-the-moment.”

Humphrey bobbed his bald head up and down in agreement.

Sandra looked confused and then horrified. “This group has a mole in the White House?” Her eyes shot around the room. “Who is it?”

“We don’t know yet,” Birch told her sternly. “But we will find out soon enough.”

“How?” Sandra asked.

Birch blinked his eyes at her. “Why, you’re going to tell us who it is.”

“Me?” Sandra asked puzzled. “Oh no. You don’t think it’s Thurmond, do you?”

Humphrey stopped bobbing his head. “Thurmond? Why do you think it’s Thurmond?”

Sandra leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Well, he’s a great assistant, but he is very power hungry. Everyone knows that. I was waiting until the end of the term to replace him. He knows so many people; I have to admit I was lax in letting him go. But I’ve caught him in my office a couple times. I’m suspicious enough that I started locking my office and desk, but I had no real proof.”

“Interesting that you say that because we’ve already talked to Thurmond,” Birch told her, never taking his eyes off hers. Sandra swallowed and closed her notebook.

“You have? Is he the one?”

Birch nodded. “He told us everything.” Sandra went white. He could see her moving her feet to better leap up. She was going to make a run for it. “But here’s the thing. We didn’t need him to tell us anything. We already knew.”

“You knew he was the mole?”

“No. That you were in the inner ring of Mollia Domini.”

Sandra made her move. She threw her notebook at Humphrey as she leapt from her chair. Humphrey let her go. She yanked the sliding door open only to be met with a punch to the face by Jason. Sandra’s head snapped back as her body followed. Gone was the nice, polite Jason. In his place was someone so empty and lost that Birch had had second thoughts about including him in the group. Sandra shrieked as she looked around like a caged animal. Blood trickled from her split lip as she crab-crawled away from Jason.

“Shut up, Sandra,” Birch yelled over her. Sandra leapt up and grabbed at him. Birch grunted with pain as she tried to pull him from the bed. In one long stride, Jason had his hand around her throat and was dragging her off Birch.

“You killed my wife,” he said so softly between clenched teeth that Birch barely heard him. But Sandra did. She stopped struggling and began shaking her head.

“No. You have the wrong person. I didn’t kill anyone.”

Jason squeezed tighter, and Sandra opened her mouth in a feeble attempt to get air into her lungs. “Don’t lie. Phylicia Claymore got orders from you. You are responsible for what happened.”

“Okay, Jason.” Birch didn’t yell the command, but the steel in his voice had Jason loosening his grip on Sandra’s throat instantly. She gasped for air, filling her lungs as Birch watched her mind working.

“You have the wrong person. I don’t even know who Phylicia is,” Sandra cried as tears ran down her wrinkled face.

“You left a print on the message that went into the rock,” Birch said as if he were tired of hearing her excuses. “We know about your meeting on the beach of the Black Sea in Bulgaria. We know about George’s and Helena’s deaths as well. Why don’t you just tell us your side of it?”

“No. You can’t know.” Sandra was breaking quickly. Her body was trembling, her face bloodless. “He’ll kill me.”

“I’ll kill you first if you don’t start talking,” Jason growled at her.

“Why don’t you start with the missing bombs?”

“How?” Sandra stared at him. “How do you know this?”

Birch didn’t answer. Instead he just smiled.

“The bombs, Sandra,” Humphrey said quietly.

Instead of answering, Sandra opened her mouth and screamed for all she was worth. Birch nodded his chin for approval, Jason slid the needle into Sandra’s neck. She collapsed instantly.

“Dammit. She gave us nothing.” Tate stared at Sandra’s body as Jason dragged in the suitcase and folded her into it.

“I’ll get something from her. I know women like her. They think they’re tough. They prepare for the attack, but when all she’s met with is silence, she’ll break. It might take a couple days, but I’ll break her,” Jason swore. “How far can I go?”

“As far as it takes,” Birch decided. He may be violating the very laws he swore to uphold, but if he didn’t . . . Birch took a deep breath. Five more bombs were out there, and he’d do what it took to get them.

Jason zipped the suitcase. “Are you sure you don’t need me to stay and help with Sebastian? What I gave her will have her out for three hours or so. That’s plenty of time.”

“No. Lizzy can handle it. I want you to be with Sandra the second she wakes.” Birch took a deep breath as he looked at the people in the room with him. “Humphrey, can you take Tate for a stroll in her wheelchair? I need a moment alone with Jason.”

“Sure.” Humphrey pushed the wheelchair next to the bed and held out his hand. “Your ride, madam.”

Humphrey angled Tate out of bed and the two of them chatted happily as he wheeled her out.

“Jason, sit down. It’s time we talked as only two men who have lost their wives can.”