Chapter 3

Catching Corinna's arm, Ruby halted their progress toward the stairs and tugged her sister-in-law in the opposite direction—past the room they'd just left. "Let's wait here," she whispered, pulling Corinna around the corner with her and out of sight.

"Why?" Corinna's suspicious frown was identical to one Tony often wore.

"I want to hear what they're saying on the way out."

"But what if they catch us?" The young woman's voice conveyed dread.

"We'll say you had to use the ladies' room."

"Me?"

"You're an intern. Interns do stupid things."

Corinna rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath.

Down the hall, the office door clicked open. Ruby peeked around the corner, then quickly pulled her head back. The lieutenant governor was stepping out of the room with David Cullum on his heels, looking distinctly red-faced, like Katz had chewed him out.

"I want to know who's talking to her." Katz's lowered voice just reached Ruby's ears. "Another of the SEALs has gone back on his word."

"I thought we took care of the leak," his staff member muttered.

"Quiet! Don't ever mention that again." Footsteps echoed on the stairs, fading as they descended. The big door at the bottom clanged shut, leaving nothing but silence.

Ruby rounded on Corinna. "Did you hear that?" She resisted the urge to jump for joy. "He knew exactly what incident I was talking about." Now all she needed was for one of the SEALs in the firing squad to back her up. Only that would involve twisting the arms of two of Tony's teammates, who had a tendency to clam up around her.

"We gotta get out of here."

Corinna's anxiety diminished Ruby's triumph. "Yeah, yeah. In ten minutes or so, once we know they're good and gone."

Corinna elbowed her sharply. Looking over, Ruby found her companion staring at the discreet, domed camera overhead.

"Someone could be watching us right now." Corinna hugged her slender frame and gulped. "I can't afford to get arrested. I'll lose my scholarship, maybe even get thrown out of school."

Doubt overtook Ruby's contentment. "Well, you're the one who insisted on tagging along. Fine," she amended at Corinna's outraged glance. "We're leaving. The secret to not getting caught is to look like you belong. Shoulders back, head up. Let's go."

Together they marched down the hall toward the stairs the men had taken, but two silhouettes remained visible through the double-glass doors at the bottom. Both women gasped and quickly retraced their steps.

"Let's find another way out." Ruby marched ahead of Corinna as she searched the maze of hallways for another set of stairs.

At the back of the building, they discovered a fire exit and took it to the lower level. Their footsteps faltered as they both read the sign beside the door warning an alarm would go off if the door was opened.

Corinna whirled on her. "Great! What do we do now?"

Ruby envisioned their escape. "We'll make a run for it. The streets are crawling with people. Who's going to see us if we blend into the crowd?"

"Oh, help." Corinna rubbed her forehead.

Guilt wrung Ruby for causing her sister-in-law such distress. "Listen, we had every right to be in the building, and now we're leaving. It's no big deal. Come on. Just follow my lead. Act casual."

Throwing her weight into the door, she pulled Corinna out into the cold with her. In the same instant, a high-pitched wail floated from the stairwell, alerting the world to their exodus.

Ruby grabbed Corinna's hand and towed her straight into the crowd headed toward the art museum. Corinna's fingernails dug into the back of Ruby's hand, but no one pursued them. No one shouted, "Hey, wait!"

"See, I told you we'd be fine." Prying free of Corinna's death grip, Ruby led the way past the steps toward the far side of the museum. It was there they had parked Corinna's car, in the hotel parking garage where her boyfriend worked as a valet.

Corinna had fallen thoughtfully silent. At last, she looked over at Ruby, one slim eyebrow raised. "Let me guess. You don't want Tony knowing anything about this."

"Right. And if you tell him," Ruby searched her mind for something to hold over Corinna's head, "I won't take you to see Hamilton when you visit over Christmas break."

Corinna's jaw dropped and her eyes widened. "You got us tickets for Hamilton?"

Well, she hadn't done it yet, but she had every intention of buying tickets to the famed musical, which was coming to Chrysler Hall. Hopefully there were still some tickets left. "Yes."

"Oh my gosh, you are such a great sister-in-law. Crazy but great." Corinna grabbed up her arm as they proceeded to their destination. Her expression grew reflective. "And, by the way, that guy was totally lying when he said that story was just a rumor, wasn't he?"

Ruby smiled thinly. "He admitted it on the way out. Now all I have to do is prove he killed that boy and his mother." There had to be some way to get Tony's teammates to talk.

* * *

"You hear that?" On the verge of climbing into his sleek, black Genesis G90, Len Katz stared back at the high-rise building they'd just come from.

"It sounds like the alarm's going off." His assistant appeared nonplussed.

"Why would the alarm be going off? We were the last ones to leave the building."

"Maybe we weren't." Collum pointed toward the crowd emerging from behind the building. "Look. That's the reporter and her intern. What if they just snuck out the fire exit?"

Searching the crowd, Len finally spotted the reporter by her bright-copper curls. He narrowed his eyes. Why the sneaky little vixen! To what purpose had she hidden in the building following their interview? Suspicion furrowed into him. Had she only pretended to empathize about the circulating rumor when, in fact, she'd eavesdropped in the hopes of hearing something incriminating? He recollected Cullum's and his conversation on the way out.

Oh, heavens, Cullum had mentioned the leak they'd already addressed! He himself had said the word "SEALs."

Hurling a curse at his assistant, Len shoved him in the women's direction. "Don't take your eyes off them! Follow them on foot and call my cell when you know which way she's headed." He ducked into the back seat of his car and slammed his door shut behind him. "Mason, drive straight ahead, slowly, and await my orders."

As his elderly Black chauffeur pulled into traffic, Len gripped the seat in front of him, leaving off his seat belt to retain a 180-degree field of sight. Not two minutes later, his cell phone buzzed. "Which way?" he demanded, recognizing Cullum's number.

"They're crossing Pennsylvania Avenue, heading toward Fairmount." Cullum huffed as he tried to catch up.

Len ordered Mason to turn right at the next intersection. The roads were jammed with cars leaving the parade. They couldn't do more than creep forward one yard at a time. "Stay on the line with me, Cullum. Don't let them get away without finding out where that reporter's staying."

"Maybe at the Best Western. She's headed right toward it. Or, maybe not," Cullum added a minute later. "They're going into the parking garage."

Len raked an eye over the fa?ade of the monstrous hotel in front of him. "Where's the parking garage?"

"Right side of the hotel as you face the entrance." Cullum was full-out panting now.

"We'll wait outside for her. Stay on the phone." He ordered Mason to pull into a handicapped parking space along the curb. Cullum would blow it for him if he showed his face. "Don't let her see you. If she drives by you, duck or something. You've done enough damage for one day."

Cullum's dismay was reflected in his silence. Then, finally, "Okay, they're getting into a lime-green Escort. Yes, they're leaving now. You can't miss them when they pull out."

"Back off and wait outside the parking garage. We'll collect you on our way by."

"Yes, sir."

Len put his phone away. Blood thrummed through his arteries; a muscle ticked in his cheek. Operation Lights Out had haunted him from the night it totally backfired. He didn't know if he'd trusted the wrong people or if the assets he'd courted for six months prior to the operation had betrayed him, but either way, he'd messed up.

Gabir al Baldawi hadn't been in the apartment building surrounded by his closest advisors. Instead, the place had been occupied by nothing but civilians. In his outrage, Len had shot some kid who wouldn't stop wailing. The bullet had gone straight through the boy killing his mother, too—so what? Things happened. He'd persuaded the SEALs in his firing squad to report the incident as an accident—either that or it'd be his word against theirs. They'd only agreed to keep silent if he agreed to leave the Agency.

He'd done as they demanded, so why were they betraying him now? Jealousy, no doubt. Maybe they didn't want him becoming their vice president in a year's time.

The vision of a bright-green Escort pulled him out of a cold sweat. "Follow that little green car, Mason." He pointed to it.

As his chauffeur accelerated from the curb, Len spared a glance at Cullum, who hovered just outside the parking garage, expecting to be picked up. The Escort, meanwhile, gained speed, threatening to slip out of sight.

"Leave him," Len decided. Ignoring Cullum's look of dismay, he focused his attention on keeping the smaller car in sight.

Two intersections away, the lime-green Escort turned right onto Arch Street and disappeared. "Drive faster."

They turned the corner just in time to see the Escort veering toward South Broad. When they caught sight of it again, it was turning left onto Christian Street, making its way into the old Italian neighborhood of Bella Vista.

A block ahead of them, it parallel parked in front of a series of row homes. "Pull over, quick. Don't let them see us."

Mason swung the front of the Genesis into the nearest alley, leaving the back end sticking out. Craning to see out the rear window, Len peered down the street in time to see the two women hurry from their vehicle into a clapboard home, painted pale yellow. He waited another five minutes to see if they would emerge again. When they didn't, he instructed Mason to continue down the street.

The number on the door made it easy to find again—769. Now he knew where the reporter was staying.

"Sorry for the detour, Mason." Len sat back in his seat, finally putting on his seat belt. "We can return for Cullum now."

With his jaw muscles jumping, he pondered what to do about the journalist. If he let her live, she might ruin his bid for the vice presidency. He would have to silence her the way he'd silenced the Navy SEAL threatening to expose him. And what about the intern? She was probably too young to be a threat. Certainly, nothing he'd said on camera could be used to implicate him. He could probably let her be. Besides, getting rid of people in ways that couldn't be traced back to him cost a pretty penny. Ruby Bonheur's disappearance would put him back twenty thousand dollars. Blast it!

As they slowed at a stop sign, Len roused from his dark thoughts and glanced at his watch. He swore aloud this time. "Now I'm late for lunch with the mayor!"