LITMIR.BIZ

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he said carefully. “We want to sift out the rogue operations. We want to make hiring a PMC a bankable option for small countries with limited military capability that might come under attack by a bigger hostile power.”

      She clutched her arms over her stomach, eyes burning with wet emotion. “I…I know all about your quest for legitimacy,” she whispered. “I…I just didn’t know it was you. All this time. You were alive and people were talking about you right there under my nose…my ex-fiancé…my dead fiancé…and I…you never… How could you do that to me, Jack? How could you not let me know you were all right?” She started to shake. “Damn you, Jack Sauer,” she hissed, her eyes bright and wild. “Damn you all to hell.”

      “I’ve been there, Olivia.”

      “You should’ve stayed there.” She swiped at the moisture on her face. “And now you’re telling me President Elliot has hired the FDS? He’s hired mercenaries to operate on U.S. soil, to come after my father and Grayson and some mysterious Cabal?”

      “That’s correct.”

      “But how did he hire you if he’s supposed to be a virtual prisoner like you say he is?”

      He studied her, his heart twisting, aching to comfort her. But he held his distance. This was good. She was asking the right questions. She was taking small steps to acceptance.

      “It’s a good question, Olivia,” he said. “The only man President Elliot has been able to confide in is his private physician, Dr. Sebastian Ruger, an old and trusted military friend.” Jacques wasn’t going to go into the president’s illness. Not yet. She wasn’t ready for that.

      “They’ve been communicating in writing, in the White House medical suite. The president asked Ruger to try to enlist us on his behalf. We’ve done work for him before, through a covert arm of the CIA, well before the Cabal managed to fully infiltrate the organization. He trusts us. Ruger managed to meet with me at a United Nations conference in Brussels just over three weeks ago. I was there to push my lobby for an international standardized code of conduct for private military companies.” He paused. “It’s a close-to-impossible mission, Olivia. But we took the job. Someone had to.”

      “You mean someone had to come after my father. And Grayson?”

      “We’re the last resort, Olivia, the last bid to save democracy. Because if your father and Forbes get their way, there won’t be an election next month. Or for the foreseeable future. They’ll immediately launch the country into a full-scale war with what they claim are terrorists and rogue states. This in turn will give Forbes unprecedented power, and he will use it. He will delay the election indefinitely and war will become his excuse to spark an era of aggressive imperialism expressly designed to feed corporate coffers—like those of your fathers. And this, Olivia, will change the world as we know it.”

      He let it sink over her.

      She shook her head slowly. “You cannot,” she said, “expect me to believe any of this. And even if some of it is remotely true, you cannot expect me to believe that my father is involved in anything like this.”

      “That’s my job, then—to make you believe.”

      Defiance flashed in her eyes. “And if you can’t?”

      He looked pointedly at the cuff.

      “Oh, right,” she said bitterly. “You’ll hold me hostage and threaten my father with my life?”

      “Or you can choose to help us.”

      She glared at him. “My father is a good man, Jack. He…he may have some questionable ethics as far as business goes, but he is not involved in this. He can’t be.” But Jacques could see the nervousness, the edgy flickering questions in her eyes. Olivia knew just how connected and powerful her father was. She knew just how much Samuel Killinger craved power, how ruthless some of his business practices could be.

      “It’s not possible,” she whispered, as if to convince herself. “He’s a good man,” she said again, quietly. “He could not do anything like this.”

      Jacques got to his feet, strode over to her floor-to-ceiling windows and flung back her drapes dramatically. He turned to face her, standing squarely in front of the black window…in full view of whoever was down in the street.

      “What are you doing?”

      “I’m going to show you something.”

      Confusion touched her eyes. The clock in the hall ticked loudly.

      Olivia glanced at the clock. It was almost two in the morning. She’d be expected in the office by nine for a routine start. But there was nothing routine about this day. She fingered the smooth metal cuff he’d locked over her wrist, feeling as though she’d slid into some kind of twilight zone. She was unable to fully adjust to his presence, and she simply couldn’t believe what he was telling her—especially about her father.

      Jack had said the president had been ordered to stand down by October 13. Why did that date feel so familiar? She realized with mild shock that that was the day her father expected her to be on his yacht in the Caribbean for some big Venturion Corporation announcement. The whole board would be there. Her chest tightened. It was a coincidence. It had to be.

      The familiar tone of her cell phone broke the silence. Olivia jumped, confused for a moment.

      The chime sounded again.

      Jack reached down, scooped her phone up from where he’d put it on the table, handed it to her. “Answer it.” His eyes narrowed. “But remember, if anyone finds out I am in town, the bombs blow. People die.”

      She took the phone, flipped it open, checked the incoming number in the display. Her father! Tension whipped through her.

      “Answer it.”

      She glanced at the clock again. Why on earth would her father be calling her at this hour?

      She put the phone to her ear, her eyes fixed on Jack. “Dad?”

      “Olivia, are you all right?”

      No, I am not. Emotion choked her, stealing her voice.

      “Olivia? You still there?”

      “I…I’m fine, Dad.”

      Silence. “You don’t sound fine.”

      She cleared her throat, shoved her hair back from her face as if it would help clear her mind. “I…I was sleeping.”

      Silence. Longer this time. He didn’t believe her.

      “Dad, do you know what time it is? Why are you calling me at this hour?”

      “I was really worried about you, Olivia. I know Grayson was in town, and…and I hadn’t heard from you. Did everything go okay? Did he propose?”

      “What makes you think that?”

      “It was on the news, the speculation.”

      She closed her eyes. It was not supposed to be like this.

      “Did you accept, Olivia?”

      “Dad, I…I can’t talk now—”

      “You’re not alone…are you?”

      Her eyes flared open. He knew. Somehow he knew.

      Her eyes shot to Jack standing brazenly in front of the open curtains. She thought of the men in the street below watching.

      That’s how he knew!

      Her heart bottomed out. They were her father’s men outside. They were watching her window. He knew she had a man in her apartment tonight because they had called him. It was not a father’s business. He had no right to spy on her like that. But why was he doing it? Why was he having her tailed? How long had she been followed?

      A dark and sinister thread curled through

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