The noisy wheels then fell eerily silent.
Alex leaned against the wall, resisting the urge to sneak a peek.
What’s going on?
She couldn’t look, at least not yet. There were a number of reasons why the custodian had put on the brakes. Perhaps he’d run into a security guard or another employee, though she hadn’t seen either. Maybe he was resting. At the rate he moved, she was surprised that he was still employed, much less that he could accomplish his assignment efficiently, if at all. Alex felt a conflicting mix of pity for the man as well as anger that he was meddling in her plan, albeit unbeknownst.
The silence was replaced with the jangling of keys, followed by the creak of a door opening. Alex mustered up the courage to look around the corner and watched as he drove his bucket in a nearby room. The door shut with an echoing thud.
Alex darted down the hall and entered the stairwell located next to the elevators. She descended the steps, exiting the building in the second level of the parking garage. She eased along the wall, well out of the view of the sole security guard roaming the premises. She slipped out onto the sidewalk and checked her surroundings to see if anyone had spotted her.
“Finally,” she muttered under her breath. “In the clear.”
She sauntered down the street as if she was coming back from a night of shopping, though a fruitless one based on the lack of bags draped off her arms. With hunger pangs gnawing at her, she decided to go to her favorite restaurant.
Confident that danger had subsided, she hadn’t checked over her shoulder for a few blocks on the sparsely populated Brighton streets. But it didn’t matter, as the person who grabbed her surprised her by coming out of one of the alleyways.
The attacker clamped a gloved hand over her mouth and dragged her off the street.
Alex wanted to scream but something made her reconsider, something about the man’s smell. He turned her around and Alex was face to face with J.D. Blunt.
“You were careless tonight,” Blunt said.
“How did you—” she stammered.
“Never mind that, but we shouldn’t be seen walking together on the street. It’s too risky. Meet me around the corner at the café, Winston’s Place, in fifteen minutes. I’ll be at the table in the back corner.”
Alex nodded and gave him a hug.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” she said. “You don’t know what I could’ve done to you.”
“I’m sure I would’ve been able to handle it.”
“Even with that limp of yours?” she asked, gesturing toward his leg.
“My limp isn’t a handicap, but it is a great way to make sure everyone underestimates me.”
“So your limp is faked?”
Blunt smiled. “See you in fifteen minutes.”
He hobbled out of the alley and started in a direction that was a circuitous route.
* * *
WHEN ALEX SAT DOWN in the booth across from Blunt, she expected him to be excited about the information she’d uncovered on Ackerman and Michaels. She explained how Hawk believed that Ackerman’s security firm was involved with the DOD in some way. But he barely flinched when she told him.
“I didn’t know they were connected, but I would’ve guessed it,” Blunt said. “If there’s a sketchy American in the Middle East who has ties to someone in Washington, my money would always be on Michaels.”
“You don’t look surprised,” she said.
“Not at all. I’ve been around far too long to get genuinely shocked by anything. Speaking of things I’m not shocked by, I’ve got something else I want to talk with you about.”
“Have you heard from my brother?”
Blunt shook his head. “Sadly, I haven’t heard anything on Samuels yet. I’m not sure what’s going on with him. I’ve placed calls to several of my more reliable sources, but so far I’ve come up with a big fat goose egg.”
“So what is it you want to tell me?”
“It’s the real reason I wanted to meet with you.”
“The kind of reason you think was worth taking this kind of chance?”
Blunt nodded. “I know the owner here, but even if I didn’t, I would’ve tried to meet with you.”
“Now you’ve got me worried.”
“You should be, though we also all have a reason for hope as a result.”
“This ought to be interesting.”
Blunt smiled. “I got a tip from one of my insiders about what Michaels is planning on doing next—arming Al Hasib.”
Alex’s mouth fell agape. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“I wish I was, but that bastard thinks selling arms to Al Hasib is the way to keep this conflict fresh in the minds of the American people. The more firepower Al Hasib has, the more damage they’ll be able to inflict on us.”
“And how does this help Michaels?”
“He gets to ride in on the white horse and save the day, just in time for the election.”
Alex crinkled her nose and narrowed her eyes. “That man makes me sick.”
“Well, he’s going to make us all dead if we let him continue this reckless display of leadership.”
“Don’t demean the word leadership by associating it with Michaels’ actions.”
Blunt chuckled. “You seem so indifferent about this whole subject, Alex.”
“If he were here right now, I’m not sure anyone could stop me from taking Michaels out.”
“You’re starting to sound like an assassin. Let’s leave all the dirty work for Hawk since he’s so efficient at it.”
Alex sighed. “This is not right. It’s a heinous crime against the American people. Someone should out him for that right now. Our country deserves to know the truth about the man sitting in the Oval Office.”
“They will—but in due time. We don’t want to alert everyone about this just yet.”
Alex could feel her face getting warmer and was undoubtedly turning red with rage.
“And why not?” she asked.
“This is also our way out, the way we’re
