“What the hell happened to you?” Andrews met them in the security room and Dane wanted to punch him for the ungrateful crack, but he was already pushing his luck.

“She needs a doctor, you prick. Is there one in residence?”

“No, but we can get one here in a hurry. Where’s the girl, Sassy?”

“We asked her to stay in the car. She’s okay. I can wait until tomorrow to see a doctor. Right now, we need to find the Chambers and I’m the one with the best shot at identifying them.”

“We’ve all seen photos,” Andrews said.

“Sure, except you know they’ll be in disguise and they’ll be damned excellent disguises—like professional movie studio level.”

“How do you know?” Andrews asked, but Dane wanted to know what made her so sure, too.

“They weren’t worried about me getting out of the basement, but they did want us to think they were servers. They weren’t going to be servers, but they were confident that I wouldn’t know who the hell they are when I saw them.”

“Great. So how will you know?” Dane asked.

She shrugged. He let a smile escape. It was his signature shrug, half-hearted and accompanied by an annoyingly overconfident look.

“Not good enough,” Andrews said. “We’re in the process of double-checking all the wait staff and I see no reason to change focus.”

“I see no reason not to watch the guests and double-check them too.”

“What do you want us to do? Start asking to see people’s IDs? They’re already arriving. There’s a steady stream of them now. My agents are the only servers out there with them.”

“Good. I’ll join them.”

“Dressed like that?” Andrews said looking him over as if he were dressed as a circus clown.

“The Governor was kind enough to have my tux sent over. I believe he left it in the first-floor office. Point the way.”

Cap said, “I’ll help with identifying the perps. I’ll stick with Shana.”

Dane looked at Cap. That should be Dane’s job, but they both knew he could be a target for the Chambers and that Shana would be better off with him.

“See that she gets cleaned up and dressed in a cute maid’s outfit with a dark wig and glasses.”

“Where are we going to find a dark wig and glasses?” Cap asked.

“Actually, we do have some wigs and other accessories. The agents have been using them. Third floor. She can get fixed up there.”

“I’m standing right here. I’ll be happy to. Let’s go, Cap. No time to waste.”

“Hold on.” Andrews said and opened a drawer. He took out some wireless earbuds and handed one to each of them. “Communications set for the interior and immediate exterior. There’s a blue and a red channel. The agents are set to blue. I’m blue and red. You all set your channels to red. Everything goes through me.”

“Damn efficient.” Dane took his as did the others.

When Cap and Shana left the security room two agents came in and sat at the desks to man the stations.

“What are you waiting for?” Andrews asked Dane.

“Where’s the President?”

“He’s in his room. Under guard.”

“Any chance he’ll stay there for a while?”

“He gave us until eight fifteen.” Andrews shook his head. “He’s determined to catch them one way or another. He’ll be heavily armored. I think he’s half looking forward to the confrontation and fancy’s catching them himself.” Andrews lifted his wrist to look at his watch. “You have twelve minutes to find the assassins before the President makes himself a target.”

Dane shoved out the door and went in search of the office and his tux. He found the room and dressed in record time even for him. He figured once he got to the ballroom where the guests were milling he’d have three minutes to find the Chambers. Great.

The first person he saw when he entered the main entry way was his friend, Governor Peter John Douglas. Apparently, he was playing host and greeting guests in a very short reception line as people entered. Dane joined him. His original assignment was supposed to be a post at the front door on the outside, but there were already almost a hundred people there, he’d guess, and an endless stream at the door and down the walkway.

Shit. He’d been told the guest list was one hundred and fifty but there looked like more than that, probably because there were at least another fifty federal agents posing as guests and a dozen posing as servers. Then there were the Secret Service agents who were standing at their posts not making any secret about who they were.

The Chambers would never get away with an assassination attempt with this security. Not unless they planned to take a hostage or kill massive numbers of people, for instance with a bomb. The simple explosive device they’d rigged back at the pie shop came to his mind. The collar on his tux felt like it was shrinking and he tugged at it. Trickles of sweat ran down his back under the layers of Kevlar, shirt, and tux jacket.

Keeping his eyes on auto scan without any obvious swivel of his head, Dane stepped in line next to Peter and nodded at the short older woman shaking the Governor’s hand.

“How long have you been at the door?” Dane asked under his breath.

“Good to have you join us. Mrs. Stempel, this is my old friend Dane Blaise.” He handed the bright-eyed old woman over to him and said under his breath. “Not long enough. I missed the first twenty minutes.”

“Oh my, aren’t you the handsome one. You bring to mind a fair-haired James Bond.” She winked at him and kept walking. Dane would have been suspicious of the lady, but she was far too short to be Emeline. That was one important and distinct feature the assassin would not be able to disguise.

“I’ve only seen photos. Glad you’re here to give a closer look. This whole setup makes me nervous,” Peter said.

Dane nodded. Most of the people came in and handed over their invitations to security and walked by.

“Where’s Andrews?”

“Everywhere. Where’s Shana? We need her eyes on the crowd too.”

“She’s dressing. Hiding the bruises and fat lip will take some doing.”

Peter turned to him. “Is she all right? Truly?”

Dane’s gut dipped and rattled. He didn’t like to think about Preston Chambers slapping her around. Not trusting his voice, he nodded. Peter put a hand on his shoulder.

“She’s a tough cookie, Dane.”

“No need to tell me that. She’s so tough she’s agreed to marry the most unmarry-able guy in the world.”

Peter smiled. “Don’t look now but here she comes. On your seven.”

“Is she carrying a tray of food? Because I’m famished.”

“No. Drinks.”

Dane snorted as he watched the next wave of people closely. He turned on his wireless earbud.

“I’m covering the front door with PJD. She-Devil and Captain Kangaroo should cover the crowd in the ballroom who got here early. We missed them.”

“Captain Kangaroo?” Peter said.

He got affirmations from Shana and Cap on the line and turned to Peter.

“You have no problem with She-Devil?”

Peter shook his head. “I’m going to circulate. And then I’m going to speak with the special guest of honor one last time.”

“To talk him out of showing up?”

“No chance of that, but I can buy you some time. Wish me luck.” Peter made a graceful exit from the entry foyer and jogged up the stairs with his usual swift elegance. The man hadn’t lost his touch.

They needed all the extra time they could get. The line of people entering had dwindled and now there were only stragglers. Dane would bet his Kevlar vest that Emeline and Preston were already here, operating in plain sight.

Taking a glass of champagne from the tray of a waiter who he recognized as one of Andrews’s agents, Dane decided it was time for him to circulate. Heading into the ballroom, he spotted Andrews at three o’clock about twenty feet away. Scanning the crowd for tall women, he began eliminating the female guests he passed on his way to Agent Andrews.

Then he paused, only for a beat. Shana’s voice came through his earbud.

“I’ve spotted Emeline.”

“You sure? Where are you?” Dane spoke softly. Adrenaline crashed into his system like a rushing river breaking through a dam.

“Positive. I’m near the French doors along the west wall.”

Changing direction, he kept walking, not too fast, but efficiently through the groups of guests, in her direction. Dane zoomed in and spotted Shana and noticed where she flicked her gaze. He followed the line and then, sure enough, spotted the tallish woman, her back to him.

But he’d recognize the long line of that neck anywhere. People didn’t think about their body structure as dead giveaways, but they ought to. He’d studied the photos, but not the facial features as much as the lines of the bodies and any identifying quirks or measures. Dane scanned the woman and noted the muscular legs, rounded calves. Bingo. The photos they had weren’t full body shots, but he’d had a chance to observe the couple at the airport that day. He’d made the most of the opportunity.

“Keep her in your sights. Is her partner nearby?” Dane studied the men in her circle from close to her and then concentrically outward. On the third ring of her circular perimeter, he spotted his man.

“Got him.”

“You sure?” Shana said.

Then Andrews’s voice came on. “Keep watching but don’t do anything and don’t get too close. I’m moving my men into place now.

Dane circled around the opposite side of the two assassins while Shana stayed in place. He kept them all in his sights.

“I’m approaching from the west through the doors,” Cap’s voice came on.

“Hold your positions.” Andrews’s voice sounded like someone had his balls in a vise and he was having trouble breathing. Dane supposed his balls may as well be in a vise given the situation he was in, the responsibility he’d been charged with.

While Dane circled around behind Preston Chambers, Dane kept Shana and Emeline in his sights. So when Emeline turned toward Shana, he watched as his heart surged into his throat.

He closed in as fast as he could, listening to Andrews swearing in his ear. They could all hear Emeline when she spoke to Shana.

“I see you made it to our party.” She wasn’t surprised. That scared Dane more than anything else. Something was wrong with this picture and he was not waiting to find out what, to hell with Andrews shouting to his people to surround the room and wait.

“The President is coming downstairs now,” Andrews said. That was the last thing Dane needed to hear. He shut down his earpiece and moved in on Preston Chambers from behind, grabbing him so that he twisted an arm around his back as he shoved his Glock into the base of the man’s spine. He was shorter than Dane and smaller, but he was strong. He squirmed until Dane pinched his wrist on a pressure point that he knew would cause excruciating pain. He heard the man groan through his teeth.

They’d planned to take the couple as surreptitiously as possible into a nearby unoccupied room—the office off the front corridor where he’d changed. Andrews demanded that they cause as little commotion as possible. They’d invited lots of press to this party to give them access as promised in payment for their cooperation about the airport incident.

Dane would go along with this directive, but only so far. The minute anyone’s life was endangered, all bets were off.

Andrews had agreed.

It was getting perilously close to that point because Dane feared the couple’s plan in fact counted on chaos. He whispered in Preston’s ear.

“Walk with me or I shoot this gun and you’re either a paraplegic or you’re dead.”

Shana moved in on Emeline and as she got close, it was as if the woman sensed her presence. Emeline turned and recognized Shana instantly. But she didn’t panic as Shana thought she would. She smiled and said, “I see you made it to our party.”

At that moment, Shana watched Dane take hold of Preston Chambers with a gun pressed against his spine.

Nodding her head in the direction of Preston, Shana said, “The party is over.”

Shana watched Emeline turn to see her lover and his face seized in pain as Dane walked with him in a quiet semicircle toward the door. She watched the woman size the situation up and waited for Andrews to give the go-ahead. Shana’s pulse grew loud enough to drown out the party noises. She steadied herself, tunneling in on the woman.

Dane kept moving Preston toward the door.

The beat before it happened, Shana knew. She saw Emeline lose her cool, lose control and panic. Emeline took something from her bag, some kind of plastic. Then Shana recognized the porcelain kitchen knife from Sassy’s shop.

There was no way Shana would allow herself to lose control the way Emeline had. Shana would not panic, but she burst forward the last steps to get herself in position, temples pounding, sweat popping on her forehead. Andrews yelled in her ear and agents closed in around her. Dane was less than two feet away and Emeline was quick footed as she lunged, her arm arcing up over her head with ballerina grace.

Shana saw the deadly move unfold, aware of several agents scrambling in her periphery. No one was close enough. She wasn’t close enough. She watched Preston Chambers duck as Emeline’s knife slashed toward Dane’s neck while he turned.

The scene seemed to be taking place in slow motion in her mind. Slow enough for her to pull her gun from her bag as she watched Preston duck, tugging himself from Dane’s grasp. Slow enough for her to take aim as she slid her finger on the trigger, slow enough for her to squint one eye and target Emeline’s temple from three feet away. She pulled the trigger.

Shana fired the gun at the same instant Emeline’s knife slashed forward arcing toward its target with terrible accuracy and force.

Dane had pulled back when he saw the knife coming, but not fast enough. Shana’s bullet hit Emeline’s temple in the same moment, frozen in Shana’s mind, as Emeline cut Dane’s flesh with her knife.

Blood spattered everywhere.