I looked at Kiera, narrowing my eyes at her. She wouldn’t screw me over a second time. She couldn’t. “Do the right thing, Kiera.”
She didn’t even look at me. She started fucking crying and nodded her head. “Yes,” she gasped. “Yes, it was him. It was awful.”
My heart was pounding out of my chest in anger. Dennick looked down at me and grinned. “See? A nice, pretty little bow.” He bent down and got in my face. “You’re going to jail for the rest of your life. Kidnapping is a felony and since you were already tried for her rape, I’m sure no jury will find any reason to believe that you’re innocent. You’re going away for a long time.”
“I wasn’t convicted of raping her,” I argued.
“No, but there was enough evidence to discharge you dishonorably. That holds more weight in court than just her testimony. I own you now, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll do as I say.”
He stood and walked away as I was yanked up off the ground. “You can’t do this! I didn’t fucking kidnap her!”
But it didn’t matter. He was a fed and I was going down hard.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Blake
I had been waiting for hours for someone to come see me. It was the typical FBI procedure of holding a suspect in an uncomfortable room until they thought you would break. But I knew how this worked all too well, and I wasn’t even close to breaking.
The door flew open and Agent Dennick walked in, grinning at me like the cat that ate the canary. “Blake, I’m so sorry to meet again under these conditions.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I spat.
“Now, is that any way to talk to the only man that can get you out of the trouble you’re in?”
“You’re not here to help me, Dennick. The only person you care about is yourself.”
“Now, that’s just not true. I want to help you, but you have to give me something. You stole something from a lab, and I want it back.”
I leaned back in my seat, my hands still cuffed to the table. “I don’t have it, and even if I did, there’s no way I would give it to a crooked agent like you.”
His face mottled in rage and he slammed his fist down on the table. “Listen, you little bitch, you’re going down hard. You stole information from the FBI. You went on the run and broke into a lab with that meathead you hang around with. There is no way you’re getting out of here. If you work with me, I can make life easier on you, but if you don’t, I have no problem using other tactics to make you talk.”
“You can’t,” I shot back. “I’m not a terrorist.”
He smirked at me, the evil grin spreading wide across his face. “Aren’t you?” he said quietly. “That’s funny, because the newest intel on you is that you stole confidential information from the FBI in an attempt to sell it to a terrorist organization.”
My whole body shook in anger. He was reaching well beyond what he could, which meant that he had someone really high up helping him. Once you were labeled a terrorist, your rights were stripped from you, and there was nothing you could do to help yourself. He was trying to push me. He wanted me to give up Parker and anyone else that was helping us, but that would never happen. It didn’t matter what they threatened me with. There was no way I would do anything to help these assholes. Even if I did, there would be nothing in it for me.
I leaned forward, anger burning through me. “Do whatever you have to. I’m not giving you anything. You’re going down, and it’s going to happen soon. You just don’t realize it yet.”
He shoved back from the table and stalked to the door. He flung it open and yelled at the agent outside. “Get her in chains and ready for transport.”
“Sir?”
“She was helping a terrorist, so now we’re going to treat her like the scum she is. Don’t look at her like an agent, because no agent would ever betray her country like she has.”
I knew it was going to happen, but there was nothing that could prepare me for hearing the words come out of his mouth. My stomach dropped out as I was cuffed and marched out of the room and down the hall to an exit. A van was waiting for me outside. A van that would take me to someplace I would be locked away and forgotten, if I was lucky. If I wasn’t lucky, I would be interrogated as a terrorist. The door slid open and I was shoved inside, then cuffed to a rail. The door slammed closed and the van went dark. This was it. This was the end.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Senator Cortez
I dialed a number that I hadn’t planned on using. I knew this guy would do whatever was needed, but the price would be high. But I couldn’t allow this to go on any longer. We needed to kick this into high gear and get what we needed. Everyone else was playing it safe, but I didn’t get where I was by taking the easy road. Sometimes you had to get your hands a little dirty to achieve your goals.
“Who is this?” the man answered.
“It’s Cortez. Remember that job we were talking about?”
“Yeah.”
“I need it now.”
“What do you want me to do with the package?”
“Move it to a secure location. I may need some follow up with you.”
“How long are we talking?”
“As long as it takes to get what I need.”
“Give me one hour. I’ll call you when we’re secure.”
I hung up, satisfied that we were finally going to make some progress. Everyone else was wrong. They weren’t handling this the way we needed to, but now that I set things in motion, the rest of the project would go
