She scowled. “What on earth for at this time of night? Can’t he meet you during normal hours?”
“This is Washington, honey. There’s no such thing as normal hours.”
“Fine,” she said as she rolled over and pulled the covers taut. “But before you go, can you get me a drink of water? Talking to all those people tonight has left me really parched.”
“Sure,” he said before spinning on his heels and leaving.
Madeline had to make sure there was no chance that he would walk in on her. And with the time it took for him to meander down the hall and get a drink, she’d be able to scramble up onto the dresser and affix the explosive device just like Shane Samuels had instructed her to do. By the time her husband returned, she was propped up by a couple of large pillows leaning against the headrest. Madeline forced a smile as he set the glass on her nightstand.
“Thank you,” she said. “Have a good meeting, and I’ll see you in the morning.”
He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead before exiting the room.
She doubted she would see him in the morning—or ever again. He was always long gone by the time she got up.
This wasn’t how she envisioned leaving him. She wanted to fire both canons of ammunition from a marriage full of disappointment. But in the end, this moment was perfect.
She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep.
* * *
NOAH YOUNG WAS WISHING he was anywhere but in a meeting with Richard Joseph, the magnanimous Virginia senator. Joseph could be obnoxious and nasty when pushed on issues he believed to be important to his party. But for the most part, he was one of the few senators willing to cross the aisle to work with others for the good of the American people. Young was surprised that such a person actually existed in Washington. And it didn’t take long before he counted Joseph as one of his friends.
But several intelligence briefings warned Young about Joseph, highlighting secretive meetings he held with people involved in a number of different illegal trades. Young heeded the advice, keeping Joseph at arm’s length—at least he heeded it publicly. However, Young never liked being told what to do much, especially by an entire agency of people paid to be paranoid. Yet to keep the CIA and FBI brass satisfied, Young decided that he would hold any such meetings with Joseph late at night and out from underneath the CIA’s watchful eye.
“Would you like a drink?” Young asked.
Joseph declined. “Not tonight. I still have some business to attend to after this.”
“Keeping banker’s hours, I see.”
Joseph chuckled. “Only the kind kept by Washington bankers.”
“You know, they called New York ‘the city that never sleeps’, but the Big Apple has nothing on Washington.”
“It’s only because everybody in this town can’t sleep because of what they’ve done. Guilt will keep many people up late at night, tossing and turning in their warm beds while they know full well what havoc they have wrought.”
“Sounds like you’re all too familiar with this,” Young said. “I wish I wasn’t, but it’s one of the hazards of living in this town.”
“And that doesn’t even crack the top ten list of the dangers of living here.”
Young laughed softly. “Is one of those reasons you can’t sleep why you wanted to meet with me?”
Joseph nodded. “It is. I made a mistake, and I need your help to wriggle out of it.”
“What happened?”
Joseph sighed. “Swear you won’t tell anyone, okay?”
Young raised his left hand and held it, palm out. “I swear. There. Happy now?”
“I’m never happy, but that will suffice for the purposes of this discussion.”
“Just get on with it, Senator,” Young said. “I’m getting more antsy by the moment.”
“Okay, okay. Have you ever heard of a group called—”
Before Joseph could finish, an explosion shook the White House. Books toppled to the floor, furniture rattled across the room, the wet bar’s entire glassware shattered as it fell, and a large flash of light followed by a light gray smoke filled the air.
Instinctively, Young dove to the ground and tried to maintain his wits. The White House was obviously under attack. He never took the warning seriously, but he was wishing he had now, though he wasn’t sure what he could’ve done differently.
After the immediate shock wore off, he tried to ascertain the direction of the explosion. When he scrambled to his feet, he noticed smoke pouring out of the residential area. Without hesitating, he raced toward it and started calling for his wife.
“Madeline, can you hear me?” Young called. “Please say something, honey!”
In the moment, he wasn’t thinking about how cold she’d been lately or even the news that she was having an affair. He still cared about her and didn’t want anything to happen to her.
Once he hit the section of the house just outside his bedroom, flames were raging all around him. Plumes of black smoke rolled across the floor, filling the air. Despite his best efforts to keep moving, Young couldn’t move. He stumbled before collapsing to the ground.
The last thing Young remembered was hearing Joseph’s voice.
“Mr. President? Mr. President? Are you all right?” Joseph asked.
Young couldn’t respond in his unconscious state. And he stayed that way as a large pair of arms scooped him up and carried him away.
CHAPTER 27
HAWK AND ALEX WERE still at the office with Black and Blunt when their phones all blew up with text messages at the same time. Hawk scanned the note on his screen and slowly shook his head. He absolutely knew an attack on the White House was a possibility, but he didn’t think it would actually ever happen, especially when their intel said the planned attack wasn’t supposed to happen until the next day.
Blunt snapped his fingers. “Somebody turn on the television. This has got to be all over the news.”
Every
