Campaign of Desire (CSA Case Files 4) (40 page)

Without giving himself a chance to think of the consequences, Lach pushed the key into the aperture, turning it quickly and then shoving the door open. He heard numerous gasps and figured he had two seconds before someone came around the corner. The question remained if he or she would shoot first and ask questions later. There was only one way to find out. Slamming the door and holding his hands up in the air signaling surrender, he’d only taken two steps before Austin Bentley appeared holding a weapon in his hands and a surprised look on his face.

The other man wasn’t half as surprised as Lach was to see Steve Johanson lying on the floor with a pool of blood beneath his head. Lach couldn’t ascertain whether or not the other man was dead. What was clear was that Johanson’s weapon was missing from his side holster.

“Hannah!” Austin exclaimed, pulling his finger tighter on the trigger. Lach had been about to use the other man’s shock to his own advantage and rush him when he’d said the young girl’s name. Lach pulled back just in time to realize that something more was going on and he hoped like hell his earpiece was picking this up. It was hard to even his breathing out, but he slowly inhaled to appear composed. “Shit. Hannah, what do we do?”

“What the hell?” Hannah said, holding her weapon up at the same time. It happened to be Johanson’s service issued Sig Sauer P229 in a .357 caliber. “We didn’t say you could come in here.”

“No, you didn’t.” Lach quickly observed the room, ensuring the correct count. Timothy, Phoebe, Kimmie, and Stewart were all huddled together on the couch. His gaze hovered over Phoebe a little longer, taking in anything that might cause him to take this situation in another direction. She didn’t appear hurt, but she did look just as stunned to see him as Austin and Hannah. He wanted to go directly to her but knew that he had to see this through if they were going to live. Now was the time to bluff and he hoped to hell that he didn’t blow them sky high. “Everyone knows. End this before they bring in the snipers.”

“Hannah? You said this wouldn’t happen.” Austin wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and that’s when Lach noticed the sweat. “We’re fucked.”

“No one knows,” Hannah replied, shaking her head emphatically. She twisted and pointed her gun toward the four hostages on the couch. “Give me your weapon or I’ll shoot one of them.”

“I don’t have a weapon.” Lach stayed in his position, wanting to draw Hannah and Austin’s attention into two different directions. “They sent me in to talk to you, that’s all.”

“They don’t know!” Hannah exclaimed, the gun shaking in her hand and making Lach’s discomfort level rise. She would actually pull the trigger. “Austin, see if he has a weapon.”

Austin looked between the two of them in disbelief. “Fuck, no. I’m not going near him.”

“Austin, you really had us surprised.” Lach kept his tone even and deep, wanting the man to know that he was as lethal as Austin thought he was. “Your family is out there. Your mother broke down in tears.”

There was a piece of truth to what Lach just said, but Austin didn’t have to know that. His family had been notified, but due to different circumstances. They thought he was a hopeless hostage at the hands of an unstable U.S. Senator’s son. If Lach kept using Hannah and Austin’s tells correctly, he’d be able to draw them into further believing that their ruse was over.

“Hannah, how would they know?” Austin took a step back, bringing him closer to Johanson’s body. “I didn’t tell anyone. I swear.”

Through Lach’s peripheral vision, he saw Phoebe try to keep Stewart from talking. The kid had attempted to get up from the couch when both sisters tried to keep him from moving. Hannah saw the same thing and stepped closer to where they were situated, which was not what Lach wanted.

“Hannah.” All eyes swung toward the young girl and since Lach had been watching her closely, he caught the sliver of doubt that crossed her face. She’d just given herself away and now Lach needed to capitalize on it. “Your father ratted you out.”

“He wouldn’t have done that,” Hannah said forcefully. “You’re lying.”

“Why the fuck would he lie?” Austin yelled, his mounting fear and panic taking hold. “It’s all falling apart. What the hell are we going to do?”

“Hannah, your dad made a deal with the Secret Service. He negotiated a lighter sentence.” Lach gave time for his words to sink in, trusting that she would lead him down the right path. If he said one wrong thing, they were all dead. Right about now, Agent Robbins was scrambling to get a team set up to come in for when this all blew to hell. “Did you really think he wouldn’t? He’s not stupid. Spending his life behind bars is not an option.”

“I told him that I would get him out.” Hannah’s arm dropped slightly as reality started crashing in. “I told him that once I had enough money I would hire a lawyer to appeal his sentence. Why would he ruin all of this?”

“Fuck me,” Austin said aloud, putting both wrists on his head and finally stopped pointing the weapon in Lach’s direction. “Fuck. I’m not spending the rest of my life in jail. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. I was—”

Bentley backed up a little too far and the edge of his heel caught Johanson’s leg. Austin tried to regain his balance by putting his arms out behind him. The Heckler & Koch USP Tactical .40 caliber S&W with YHM Cobra 40 M1 silencer made the weapon much longer than a standard semi-automatic handgun. As Austin fell, the elongated pistol barrel made contact first, effectively wrenching the firearm from his grip and sending it skidding across the marble floor. Lach didn’t hesitate to go for it. He lowered his body using as much speed as he could muster, reaching out for the weapon and finally making contact.

The motion of events caused everyone to move and before Lach could get a bead on Hannah, she dove for the only woman left standing between the couch and the coffee table. Within a matter of seconds, Hannah had the barrel of her weapon up against Phoebe’s head. Kimmie was far enough to their left that she was out of the line of sight of his weapon. Stewart was doing his best to pull her farther out of the situation while somehow, Timothy had come around the right side and tried to subdue Austin. No small feat as the two men were now struggling.

Not taking his weapon off of Hannah and knowing she had nowhere to go, Lach reached down and wrapped his hand around Bentley’s throat, pulling him up off the ground. Timothy fell back and scampered to pick up his glasses, which had fallen off during the scuffle.

“Timothy, in my back pocket are handcuff zip ties. Do not cross in front of me.” When Bentley started to struggle, Lach used his strength and squeezed the man’s carotid arteries in his adrenaline driven grip. Lach didn’t have to turn his head to see that Austin’s face had turned red and his lips blue from the lack of blood flow. “Now.”

Timothy hurried and did as he was requested. Within moments, Austin’s wrists were bound and Lach released his hold, letting the man fall to the ground like a ragdoll. Gasps of air could be heard throughout the room, but other than those rasps, it was as if time stood still. That wasn’t the case for Lach, though, as orders were flowing through his earpiece. Originally there had been silence, allowing him to do what needed to be done. Now he had to tune out the chaos as he focused on the two women in front of him.

“Hannah, it’s over.”

The door battered against the wall as agents, upon Robbins’ command, entered the apartment. At least six of them surrounded Lach, their weapons pointed at Hannah. Although Kimmie didn’t want to leave her sister, she didn’t have a choice. The room was cleared in seconds, leaving only Hannah and Phoebe on the other side. Lach absolutely refused to allow emotions to reign and kept his sight picture on Hannah.

“I swear I’ll kill her.” Hannah had tears in her eyes and her weapon was pressed tightly to Phoebe’s head, hard enough so that with every word the girl said, Phoebe cringed. Lach again had to ignore the woman who’d come to mean more to him than he could have ever thought possible. “I have nothing left to lose. Don’t you understand? The public was going to sympathize with me. I was going to be their darling and they were going to follow me throughout my career. I could have been the first woman President.”

“Who’s to say they won’t sympathize with you still, Hannah?” Lach asked, hoping to draw the young girl’s attention away from the fact that she was right. “You can still have that, but not if you’re dead.”

“Shut up!” Hannah screamed, yanking back on Phoebe. Lach finally met Phoebe’s eyes, noticing they weren’t anywhere near the color he liked them to be. Fear had taken up residence and when Hannah’s knuckles whitened, he knew she was tightening her grip on the trigger. His heart stopped beating and he felt just as much fear as Phoebe did. “Just shut up!”

“Hannah, I’m the one you want,” Lach tried to reason without sounding desperate, needing to draw the weapon away from Phoebe. He could hear through the earpiece that Robbins was giving specific instructions on what to do if Lach was successful. “I ruined your plan by calling your father. Stewart didn’t have what it took to pull this off. I knew that. Your father admitted to knowing what you were doing.
I
told him the Secret Service would make a deal.”

Hannah’s anger took hold and she did exactly what Lach wanted her to do. She pulled the barrel away ever so slightly from Phoebe’s head and started to point it toward him. Lach heard the Sig Sauer P229 report just before he lost his hearing. Phoebe must have screamed when a bullet slammed into Hannah’s head, from the way she appeared in his suddenly silent slow motion world. The force of the .357 hollow point copper jacketed bullet jerked Hannah’s head ever so slightly backward but not before the girl’s finger had yanked on the trigger. Lach felt a blow to the left side of his chest and unlike what people think happens in the movies, he didn’t fly backwards. He immediately collapsed to the floor, trying to breathe in, but his lungs refused to draw in the needed air.

Lach’s vision blurred as he struggled to inhale. The chaos that he knew was taking place couldn’t be seen. Son of a bitch that hurt. The force of the impact of the .357 round spread across the multiple layers of high tensile strength fibers in the material of his Class IIIA personal protective soft vest. He wrestled to lift his shirt, wanting to remove the Spectra vest but not able to get his numb fingers under the Velcro. He was on his side when his eyesight cleared slightly and he saw Phoebe kneeling in front of him.

“Lach. Oh my God. Lach, say something.” Phoebe’s voice finally broke through on his right side, his left still buzzing from the first gunshot. She was batting his hands away. “A vest? You’re not shot?”

Lach finally drew in some air, but he still couldn’t form words. He struggled to sit up, but Phoebe kept pushing him back down. She’d managed to slide her fingers between the Velcro and undo his vest, removing the constriction around his chest. He leaned up on one elbow, reaching up and grabbing the back of her neck. He pulled her toward him and held her tight.

“Lach, are you sure the bullet didn’t go through?” Phoebe asked a question that would have had him laughing had he still not been in such pain. He didn’t release his hold as she tried to pull away, but instead on his first real inhalation he breathed in her scent. It was the sweetest fragrance he’d ever had the privilege of smelling. He buried his nose into her soft strands of hair. “I need to make sure you’re not hit.”

“Not hit,” Lach wheezed out, sitting up slightly and pulling her with him. “I just need a minute.”

“You are one lucky son of a bitch,” Robbins said, finally making an appearance. He knelt down while motioning with his hand for someone else to come over. It was a paramedic, but Lach waved him away. His action gave Phoebe the ability to sit up, but he quickly grabbed her arm. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight any time soon. “McKinnon, you need to get checked out. It looks like that bullet hit you square over your heart.”

“I’m fine,” Lach replied, his voice coming out a little stronger. “Hannah?”

“She’s a fatality.”

“Johanson?”

Robbins’ mouth thinned out as he silently shook his head. Phoebe’s primary hadn’t survived and there was no consolation that the man hadn’t suffered. He’d been lying in a pool of his own blood for hours. Anguish at such a useless tragedy settled deep into Lach’s bones.

“Can you give us a moment?” Lach asked, finally sitting all the way up and appreciating the ability to breathe. Pain still covered most of his upper torso, but he would live. Phoebe was alive. That’s all that mattered. “I know everyone is going to be debriefed, but I’d like a moment of privacy before the hounds descend.”

Robbins nodded and then took his leave, entering into the pandemonium around them. Lach knew the protocol, although suspected the Secret Service’s procedures were a little more in depth. Nothing mattered right now except Phoebe. He opened his arms and closed his eyes as the warmth of her body enveloped him.

“Leave it to you to put me in the same position, my little socialite.”

“I thought you were dead,” Phoebe whispered, her hold on him tightening. He’d pulled her into his lap and now had his chin resting on top of her head while her cheek rested against the mangled mess of his shirt and vest. He heard the fear in her voice, but it couldn’t compare to the terror that he’d felt this entire afternoon. “When you collapsed, I—”

“Please, don’t go spreading that around,” Lach coughed out, his lungs still trying to work properly. “I wouldn’t want my teammates thinking I’m some kind of pussy.”

“Lach, how can you joke about this?” Phoebe pulled away far enough to look up into his face. Her cheeks were tear stained, but he was pleased to see the color of her eyes darkening ever so slightly. “I love you. You can’t just get a free pass to up and die now. That isn’t an option.”

“Phoebe, I’m not going anywhere.” Lach gently took one hand and cradled his palm against her beautiful face. He could have kept making light of the situation, which was what he and the team usually did to keep the horror from overcoming them during life threatening moments. For the first time since this thing started, he saw his hand shake. Knowing it was the adrenaline draining from his system, he expected the pain to only intensify. The thought of losing Phoebe had pumped his system full of the chemical making him nearly invincible. Now he dropped like a sub fresh out of an intense scene. “What you did by giving me a message that things weren’t what they seemed in here took courage. The truth of the matter is that
you
gave me the strength that no other person could, and no matter what life throws our way I will be by your side. From your independence to your submission, I love every side of who you are. You will no longer be the one who has to take care of everyone else. We will do that together.”