Chapter 42

CHAPTER

FORTY-TWO

Heidi paused, giving herself a second to let Rafferty's words sink in.

"You're saying the commander ordered Beau and Donald to be killed?" she asked. "You weren't behind that?"

"I was not," Rafferty said. "And, yes, Billings is the one trying to kill you as well. He had access to everything I did—though I tried to destroy it so he wouldn't have that power. He was able to track your every move through the GPS implanted in your shoulder."

"I thought that was your idea . . ." Heidi murmured.

"No, it was all Billings. He hired the men who flunked out of the program. He recruited them to join Dagger, and then he hired Dagger to kill you. I was trying to save you!"

"Why would Billings go through all this trouble?" Stephen asked.

"Because if word gets out about what the commander authorized through Project Elevate, any hopes he has of winning this senate campaign would die. No one would vote for him."

"So he's trying to kill off everybody who was a part of the program?" Stephen asked.

Rafferty nodded. "Including me."

"So you're trying to kill him first?" Heidi was still trying to put all the pieces together. This wasn't her world. This wasn't the way she operated. The whole situation seemed so horrifying.

"If I don't, then he'd kill us," Rafferty said. "I'm just trying to watch out for my men."

The logic seemed twisted. Part of her admired Rafferty's loyalty to his men. But the other part of her wasn't so sure he was innocent in this.

"So you hired people to assassinate Commander Billings." Disgust lined Stephen's voice. "Then you came here to watch it happen and then fly away."

"As far as everyone at this airport knows, I'm not on this plane."

"Are those snipers yours or the commander's?"

Based on Rafferty's smirk, they were his.

Heidi glanced out the window as the plane taxied down the airstrip, picking up speed.

Her stomach lurched.

No . . .

The last thing she wanted was for them to take off.

Nothing good would come of it. If anything, she would just look complicit in this crime. Stephen also.

Rafferty wasn't going to use Heidi as a scapegoat. Stephen would make sure of that.

She was Rafferty's daughter ?

Stephen's stomach churned with disgust at the thought—not disgust toward Heidi. Disgust toward Rafferty and all the damage he'd caused so many people.

When Larchmont had said that Heidi's mom worked for Rafferty, Stephen had no idea that had led to Heidi being born.

It brought the situation to an entirely different level.

How were they going to get out of this? Stephen couldn't exactly shoot Heidi's father. But he couldn't let this plane take off either.

"You've got to stop this plane," he told Rafferty.

‘That's not going to happen." Rafferty glared at him.

"You're not going to get away with this."

"You might be surprised at what I'm able to get away with."

"Rafferty . . . Dad . . ." Heidi's voice cracked as she said that word. "Please, don't do this."

"There's a target on your head, too, Heidi. If I don't neutralize him, you won't ever be safe. Billings has too much riding on this."

"Don't pretend this is about her. You want to save your own skin." Stephen wanted to end this. Now. Before the man could do any more damage. "Don't you love her? She's your daughter."

"Of course, I love her!" Rafferty's eyes narrowed into tiny slits. "But it's too late. Everything is in place. The commander is dead. If he doesn't already have a bullet in his chest, he will soon. And there's nothing you can do to stop it."