Chapter Thirty
Tess climbed into a low-slung Audi and sat back in the seat. She couldn’t bring herself to even look at Mac as he drove away in the Lexus with the other agent.
Alex Parker placed his phone in a holder on the dash, the screen displaying a map with a red dot on it. That red dot was Cole.
Tess’s heart pounded like prey scenting a predator even though Cole was the one they were hunting.
Parker slipped a laptop behind her seat. “You, okay?”
“Only if the feeling of incipient vomiting is normal? You have family, Mr. Parker?”
His grip was loose but competent on the steering wheel. He took his time heading up the ramp onto the street. He was giving her space from Mac. Space she desperately needed.
“I didn’t for many years…” He looked at her with a smile she couldn’t read. “I do now.”
The acknowledgement that family was everything flashed in his eyes.
The panic inside her kept growing and threatened to choke her. “With the exception of my adoptive mother who died last year, Cole is the only real family I’ve had since I was ten years old.” She rubbed her hands together, trying to generate some heat. “I’ve dedicated my life to taking care of him.”
“He’s all grown up now.”
“I know. And I know he’s responsible for his own actions. If he’s involved in these murders or in some crazy plot then he needs to be held accountable.” She sucked in a deep breath. “He needs to go to prison.”
“But you don’t believe he’s involved.” Parker eased through traffic, one eye on the dot. Tess tensed as she watched it, too. Would Cole resist arrest? Probably. He was a belligerent young male. Would they shoot him? Her stomach roiled at the thought.
He was about a mile away. This time on a Friday morning traffic was quiet.
“You don’t think Cole would shoot anyone?” he asked.
She bit her thumbnail down to the quick and winced at the sharp burst of pain. “I know he wouldn’t.”
“Sometimes people have secrets.”
Tess wanted to laugh. She knew all about keeping secrets.
“They hide who they really are even from the people they love.” Parker was quiet for a moment. “It’s not unusual to be resistant to the idea someone might be guilty of killing another human being—”
“I’m not naïve, Mr. Parker. I grew up in a white supremacist compound with a daddy who wanted to murder innocent people and blow up the government for funzies. They beat up and possibly killed anyone who didn’t agree with their ideals, and married their daughters off to perverts to hide sex crimes. I am not one of those females who see the world through rose-colored glasses, or if I do, the roses are blood-red and thorny as hell.”
Parker gave her another considering look. “Call me Alex. And whether Cole is guilty or not, custody might be the safest place for him, right now.” He paused, considering. “If someone is using your father’s doctrine to try and start a war with the federal government then who’s to say they wouldn’t use you or your brother to further their cause—with or without your consent?”
She hadn’t thought of it that way. She frowned as she read the names of the streets they were passing, a memory tugging at her subconscious. “It’s weird the fact I live here now. The only books I was allowed to read growing up were The Bible and The Turner Diaries which is partly set in DC. You ever read it?”
Parker shook his head.
Her mouth went suddenly dry and her heart beat thundered. “It’s hate-filled garbage. The so-called heroes of the book attack FBI HQ.”
Alex held her stare for a full second and she thought they were going to crash. Then he put his foot flat on the accelerator.
Tess held on tight. He started driving so fast she was terrified she was going to die in a head-on collision as he sped down the wrong side of the wide avenue named for the great state of Pennsylvania. The Capitol Building stood like a sentinel in the distance.
She saw it at exactly the same moment Parker did.
“Shit.” He applied the handbrake and managed to screech his car to a halt sideways across the road, blocking two lanes of the four lanes of north bound traffic. He leapt out and ran to a patrol cop, yelling at him to stop traffic. Tess jumped out of the passenger seat and, while Parker had his back turned, she started sprinting toward the white van that was parked outside the visitor entrance of the FBI.
* * *
Mac and Frazer had just turned from Ninth onto Pennsylvania Avenue, hoping to get eyes on Cole Fallon when every molecule of saliva evaporated from Mac’s mouth.
A white moving van sat smack outside the south entrance of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The red dot of Cole’s cell phone flashed on Frazer’s screen in that exact position. Mac called Walsh at SIOC. “Possible truck bomb at FBI HQ. Penn Ave. Tell security and get the bomb squad down here ASAP and move people to the north of the building.” Frazer was on the phone to Parker saying something about getting signal jammers in place. Mac got out of the Lexus and looked around. Tourists dotted the sidewalk. It wasn’t packed, but enough people were around to make a bloody statement. Headquarters had been designed to withstand a bomb blast, but with enough explosives, a McVeigh-wannabe could inflict some serious damage.
It was OKBOMB all over again. In The Turner Diaries, the cocksucker hero attacked this very building. Copying that cancerous narrative was the perfect way for these assholes to try to start their revolution.
He should have guessed.
A flash of red had his heart stopping. Tess was running toward the vehicle. For a split-second he wondered if he’d been wrong the entire time about her being involved. Then he stopped thinking and started running.
Frazer was at his shoulder, both had weapons drawn and civilians scattered and fled. Tess was screaming her brother’s name. Then, when she got about twenty yards away from the truck, Parker tackled her. She was still well within blast range.
Sweat poured off Mac and his mouth felt dry as a furnace. The idea of Tess being hurt or dying was enough to slam terror straight to his marrow.
She was crying out her brother’s name, begging him not to do anything stupid. That train had left the station long ago.
Parker tossed Mac his keychain and he caught it one-handed. The red light was on and Mac remembered what the guy had said about it blocking electronic signals within a small radius. Mac placed the fob on the rear bumper and said a little prayer as he and Frazer approached the driver’s side door.
Didn’t matter your religion or how much training you’d received when faced with a potential IED—you still said a few prayers to the man upstairs.
He pointed his gun at the driver. An open-mouthed Cole Fallon gaped at him. Only the fact Mac could see both hands stopped him putting a bullet straight between the young man’s eyes.
Mac opened the door and hauled him from his seat. Thankfully there was no detonator in sight. But the cold sweat of fear didn’t ease up.
If the explosives were on a timer they all were still fucked.
“Cole, what have you done!” Tess screamed.
Parker pulled Tess to her feet and dragged her backwards, away from the danger. Mac didn’t dare look at her.
Frazer cuffed Cole while Mac held a weapon on him. Then they yanked Cole to his feet.
“What the hell are you doing?” Cole yelled.
“Like you don’t know,” Mac muttered.
“I’m going to have you charged with police brutality. People are filming this.”
Mac glanced around. Sure enough, there were tourists filming the show without a thought to the danger they might be in. Shit. The Feds needed to get a handle on this now. Clear the streets. Shut down the news reports. Contain it.
First, they needed to make sure the bomb was deactivated.
Frazer grabbed the guy’s cell and the keys from his pocket. Then Mac pushed Cole so they moved to the back of the truck. Bomb squad techs came rushing out of the building. He wouldn’t do their job for all the money in the Federal Reserve.
“We have reason to believe there’s a bomb inside,” Mac told the tech.
Cole’s jaw dropped.
“A security expert set up a signal jammer. Open her up. We want to see what’s inside so we know what we’re dealing with,” Frazer said impatiently.
“And let’s get a move on in case it’s on a timer,” Mac added.
The bomb tech shot Mac and Frazer a withering glance. “Yeah. That’s how we all die. Move back to a safe distance and I’ll look inside.”
Mac wanted to argue but wasn’t given a choice. He moved back and dragged Cole with him. Tess was evacuated in the opposite direction and every foot between them seemed like a black hole opening up.
“You guys are going to feel like fucking morons when that guy opens that truck. It’s full of my girlfriend’s furniture. Call her. Carolyn Martin. She works here. I was about to text her that I was here to pick her up.” Cole was laughing, but his voice was high and strained. “Hope the press caught your humiliation on film, assholes.”
The guy sounded like he believed what he was saying. If Mac didn’t know what he knew, he might have believed Cole.
Mac and Frazer took cover behind Frazer’s car and drew Cole down beside them. After a few minutes, the tech slowly opened up the back of the truck and whistled.
They all peeked around the edge of the vehicle and Mac’s heart stopped beating. There were enough barrels of fuel and fertilizer packed into the cargo area to bring down an entire city block. Enough to kill and maim anyone close by.
“What the…?” Cole whispered. His skin took on a milky glow. He swayed.
Mac stared at Tess’s brother and knew they were both about to break her heart. But at least she was alive. At least this fucker hadn’t detonated that truck and her along with it. Mac’s gut clenched at the idea of Tess being caught up in something like that. He wanted to punch Cole in the face for throwing away all the advantages he’d been raised with, but instead he did something better.
“Cole Fallon, I’m arresting you on possession of a weapon of mass destruction…”