Then the phone rang. Jack put it on speaker. Brandon’s voice filled the small area. There was a hint of urgency in his voice. “Good news and bad news.”

  “Hit us with it,” Jack said.

  “The good news is that I got some of what was on Hughes’ computer.”

  “Some?” Bear asked.

  “That’s the bad news. Whoever killed him must’ve uploaded a virus. It was systematically deleting all the information on his hard drive by the time I got in there. If you guys had been even just a few minutes later, we might not have gotten anything.”

  “So, what did you get?” Sadie asked.

  “I managed to download some communication logs, the emails, and a few other things. I’ll have to go through it all before I really know what we got.”

  “And the map with the tracker?” Bear asked.

  “That was the last thing that downloaded before it all went blank. I found the tracker’s history log and plugged in a handful of the coordinates it had visited most often. Looks like Hughes was tracking this person for quite some time without him knowing.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Between the White House and his home address, it could only be one person.” Brandon took a deep breath and exhaled. “The Vice President.”

  36

  Jack had wasted no time pulling away from the curb and heading in the opposite direction of Hughes’ brownstone. As soon as Brandon gave them the coordinates to the beacon’s current location, Jack was navigating side roads toward their destination.

  Brandon told them satellite images indicated it was an abandoned building just outside of the city. The tracker had been there for about an hour already, which meant Adams hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger on Hughes. Instead, he had probably hired the assassin, just like he’d hired the person to take down Hughes’ security system. Maybe they were one and the same.

  Halfway to their destination, they had abandoned the van and transferred everything to a navy blue 2002 Blazer that Sadie had hotwired faster than Bear and Jack could gather their weapons. When they both raised an eyebrow at her, she just shrugged and got behind the wheel.

  Now, they were sitting outside a derelict structure that housed the Vice President of the United States. Bear had a feeling Cara would be inside, but whether she was still alive was a completely different story. Did Adams have a bunch of men with him, too, or was he flying solo? How many people could he truly trust at this stage in his operation?

  After about ten minutes of surveillance, Bear was getting antsy. They didn’t see anyone go in or out. Brandon told them Adams was still inside, but he couldn’t tell them where in the building he was. He might’ve been on the ground floor, the fourth floor, or anywhere in between.

  They’d be going in blind.

  But Bear was good with that. When he told Jack and Sadie as much, they didn’t argue. It was time to stop running and bring the fight to the man who had kept them chasing their tails since they first landed in Costa Rica. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

  Bear tucked his 9mm in his waistband and took a shotgun Sadie handed him. The plan was simple: Go in hot, do as much damage as possible without getting shot themselves, and corner Adams. After that, they’d have to wing it.

  None of them had ever held the Vice President of the United States at gunpoint before. They weren’t sure what to expect. Would he cower, or would he fight back? Adams wasn’t a military man like Hughes, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. Everything that led to this moment had proven he was capable of some truly terrible things.

  Bear, Sadie, and Jack loaded up and hopped out of the vehicle. The three of them exchanged a look but didn’t say anything. They didn’t need to. They had all been in this from the beginning. Jack and Bear had a long history, but now that was intertwined with Sadie, too. Nothing any of them could say would be enough.

  So, they just let the moment hang in the air.

  “I’ll go around back,” Sadie said after their moment of silence. “You two hit the front.”

  “Copy that,” Jack said. “Let’s end this.”

  That was enough of a signal for Bear. While Sadie circled the building and took the back entrance, he and Jack stayed low and approached the abandoned building in front of them.

  It was made of brick and every one of the windows was boarded up. It was four stories high. Bear wasn’t sure if it had a basement, but he figured they’d tackle that problem when they got to it. Right now, it was just about getting inside the door and seeing what they were up against.

  The front only had one entrance, offset to the right. Without any viable windows, they’d be charging in blind, but Jack and Bear were used to bad odds. They’d made it out okay so far.

  Then again, both of them were wanted fugitives. It seemed okay was a relative term.

  They stuck to the shadows until they were flush with the façade. Though the boarded-up windows meant they couldn’t see inside the building, it also meant Adams and whoever else was in there wouldn’t be able to see their approach either. The element of surprise was on their side.

  Jack crept closer to the door and paused. Bear was on his heels and stopped when he did. If there was any noise inside, they couldn’t hear it. Maybe no one was talking. Or maybe no one was on the first floor. Maybe the bricks just muffled everyone’s voices.

  Either way, the silence only served to enhance the eeriness of the building’s broken body.

  Jack held up his hand and counted down from five. On the final number, he grabbed the handle to the front door and pulled it open. It creaked on its hinges, but Bear had expected as much. They weren’t going for stealth this time. They were going for brute force.

  He aimed his shotgun at chest-level and pushed through the door.

  Three men stood in a circle in the center of a room that was devoid of any furniture whatsoever. The boards on the floor were soft with age and rot, and the entire building smelled like mold. The only light came from a couple of bright lanterns tucked into the corners. It was just enough to see by.

  Bear only hesitated for a fraction of a second. He wasn’t going to shoot an unarmed man, but as soon as he saw them raise their weapons, he pulled the trigger on his own. The crack of the shotgun echoed throughout the building, and he immediately heard footsteps above him.

  Bear took down the man on the right, while Jack put a bullet in the head of the man on the left. They met in the middle and each of them got a piece of the remaining guy. He stumbled backward and crumpled to the ground with nothing more than a grunt.

  Sadie made her entrance and the three of them stood in what used to be an apartment building. All the walls had been gutted and now it was just one large room. There was a staircase on each side leading to the next level. They would have to split up.

  “Heard movement as soon as we made our entrance,” Jack said.

  “Me too. Can’t tell how many are up there,” Bear said.

  “There are three SUVs out back, so I’d expect a decent team.” She looked around the room. Doesn’t seem to be any stairs leading down. They’re all above us.”

  “Jack and I will take the left and draw their fire. You go up the right and hit them from behind. We clear the room quickly and keep moving. If Cara is here, who knows what they’ll do once they know we’re after her.”

  Jack and Sadie nodded, taking up their positions at the bottom of the stairs on each side of the room. When Bear joined Jack, he gave the signal and the three of them moved steadily up the staircase. Bear switched to his pistol halfway up. With Sadie on the other side and who knows what else going on up there, precision would be key.

  Jack’s head cleared the landing first and the shooting began immediately. Jack fired two shots in quick succession, and Bear heard bodies drop to the floor. From the other side of the building, he heard Sadie fire another three, followed by thuds.

  By the time Bear cleared the landing and got a good look at the room, most of the team was already down.

  Someone screamed above them.

  Bear didn’t waste any time. While Jack and Sadie finished off the remaining men on the second floor, he launched himself up the stairs. He didn’t know Cara well, but who else could it have been? The scream had belonged to a woman and she sounded terrified. But at least he knew she was alive.

  For now.

  When he cleared the third-floor landing, Bear was met with exactly what he had feared.

  Cara was tied to a chair, her head hanging so her chin rested against her chest. There was blood everywhere, and it seemed like one of her arms sat at a strange angle. Her face was a palette of purple. The only thing that told Bear she was still alive was the subtle rise and fall of her chest.

  A man stood to her left, his knuckles bloody. His grin twisted his face into a mask of horrific glee. Across the room, Adams stood with his back to the other staircase. He looked more angry than scared. It was a telling sign of the man’s character. He wasn’t afraid of Bear; he was angry that Bear had gotten in his way.

  Two men stood between them. Before they could even turn their guns on Bear, Bear put a bullet in their chests. They crumpled to the floor while Adams took a surprised step backwards. It caught him off guard, but it also gave the last remaining goon time to draw his weapon.

  But he didn’t draw it on Bear. Instead, he drew it on Cara.

  Bear had Adams in his sights. One minuscule squeeze of the trigger would end everything. The conspiracy. The attack in the Gulf. And all of Bear’s troubles. Or, at least, most of them.

  But it would also end Cara’s life. There was no way he could take out Adams before the other man pulled his own trigger.

  Adams must’ve come to the same conclusion because he recovered quickly. With a smile on his face, he stood a little bit taller. He even straightened his tie.

  “Her or me?” he said. “Who’s it going to be?”

  Bear didn’t hesitate. He had made his decision when they pulled up to the abandoned building. They knew Adams was here, but they had been hoping Cara was, too. This was a rescue mission. If they took Adams down in the process, all the better.

  So, instead of pulling the trigger right away, Bear swung his 9mm toward the man standing next to Cara and squeezed off two bullets. One tore through the man’s left cheek while the other landed a few inches higher, entering his eye socket and exiting out the other side of his head.

  He crumpled to the ground the same as his comrades.

  When Bear swung his gun back to where Adams had been standing, he was only met with air.

  37

  Bear wanted to take off after the Vice President, but Cara took that exact moment to moan and start coming to. Tears rolled down her face, mixing with the blood and dirt to create a muddy mess. She tried to move, but when she jostled her arm, she cried out in pain.

  Bear knelt beside her. “Don’t move, okay? I’m going to untie you, but you’ll have to stay still.”

  Cara nodded, the tears flowing more freely now. Bear didn’t know what to say. I’m sorry? I told you so? You’ll be fine? None of those felt right and none of them were fitting. He was sorry for what had happened to her, but she had also chosen to walk down this path. He was proud of her for hunting the truth. He was sure she’d be fine on the outside, but the truth of the matter was that her life was forever changed now.

  Bear heard a commotion down the stairs the way Adams had retreated. He pulled his gun back out. “I’m going to be right back, okay? Stay here. Don’t move.”

  Cara looked scared, but Bear liked to believe they had been through enough together that if he told her he’d be back, she’d believe him.

  Bear strode toward the stairs, keeping his gun level. He assumed Jack and Sadie had taken out the rest of the men on the second floor, but there was always the chance that one had gotten away. And he still hadn’t cleared the top floor, though it seemed unlikely there were any stragglers up there since no one had come to their boss’ aid.

  Bear descended the stairs quickly. When he hit the landing, he checked the second floor. The room was filled with bodies, but none of them were Jack or Sadie, so he kept moving.

  As he made his way back down to the first floor, he spotted Sadie on the ground, sitting up against the wall. He took the rest of the stairs down two at a time and knelt by her side.

  “What happened?”

  “Adams came down on my side. Tried to grab him, but he shoved me down the stairs. Jumped over me and went out the door. Jack went after him.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Fine.” Sadie sounded disappointed in herself. She held up one of her elbows. “Couple bruises, but nothing to worry about.”

  Bear stood to follow Jack just as he came back through the door. The look on his face said everything.

  “He got away.” Jack banged his fist against the wall. “Took one of the SUVs and drove off.”

  “It’s my fault,” Bear said. “I had my gun on him, but he would’ve killed the girl.”

  Sadie reached for Bear’s outstretched arm and stood up with a groan. “It’s no one’s fault, okay? We all could’ve done something differently.”

  Jack looked at Bear. “We need a new plan.”

  “I want to help.”

  Bear turned to see Cara standing at the top of the stairs, holding her broken arm in place. Her left eye was already swollen, but she had managed to wipe some of the blood off her face. She looked like she’d been through the ringer, but she still stood tall.

  Bear waited until Jack had helped her down the stairs. They were face-to-face now and he could see the resolution in the young reporter’s eyes. There would be no convincing her to stay behind.

  “Tell us everything that happened since the hotel room.”

  Cara backed up a few feet, leaning up against the wall. She winced when she made contact but adjusted and looked at each of them in turn. It looked like it was hard for her to swallow, but she did. When she spoke, her voice was raspy.

  “I decided to try to sleep a little more, but I was having trouble. Kept going in and out. I heard the door click open and assumed I’d been out longer than I’d realized. But when I sat up, none of you guys walked through the door.”

  “Do you know who it was?” Jack asked.

  Cara shook her head and then had to steady herself before she continued. “One of them was dead up there on the third floor. I assume the other one is, too.”

  “What happened next?” Bear asked.

  “They had guns. Told me to come with them. If I tried to scream or run, they’d kill everyone and take me anyway. I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “It’s okay,” Sadie said. “You made the right choice.”

  “You’re alive,” Bear said. “That’s what matters.”

  “They put me in a black SUV. Vice President Adams was in there. I was so confused. I asked him what was going on, why he had his men point their guns at me. He said they shouldn’t have done that. He said they were all on edge because of everything going on.”

  “He was lying,” Bear said.

  “I kind of figured that part out on my own.” Cara offered a half-smile. “He made it out to seem like Hughes was deranged, like he’d finally gone off the deep end. He said it was time to gather everything we had. He said I made the right call reaching out through the paper, and then asked where I was keeping all the information I had.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “The truth. I said I had notebooks full of information and I had witnesses. He asked who. I didn’t want to tell him. He was insistent. Something felt off. He started to get angry. He hit me and then told the driver to take us somewhere else.”

  “Here?” Bear asked.

  Cara nodded. “We pulled up here along with a couple other cars. Went inside. He took me right up to the third floor and tied me down. Then he left. One of his men was interrogating me, but he must’ve been told not to touch me because he just kept asking me the same things over and over again. I didn’t tell them anything.”

  “When did they start hitting you?”

  “When Adams came back, he was pissed. I heard him say something about how Hughes was dead. I thought maybe it was a good thing, but he seemed even angrier than before. He said he’d kill me if I didn’t tell him where he could find you and Jack. I told him I didn’t know.”

  “He obviously didn’t believe you.”

  Cara shook her head again and lost her balance in the process. Sadie grabbed for her to keep her upright and hit her arm. Cara stifled a groan. Fresh tears fell from her eyes.

  Sadie turned to Bear. “She needs a hospital.”

  Cara took a deep breath. Her eyes were still closed, but her voice was stronger than before. “I want to help.”

  “And you will,” Bear said.

  Sadie scowled at him. “She needs—”

  “A hospital, I know.” Bear ran a hand down his face. “But we have to get ahead of this before Adams makes another move. If he blows those tankers in the Gulf, he’ll hold all the cards. No one will listen to us if we’ve got a war on our hands.”

  Jack crossed his arms. “So, what’s the play, Big Man?”

  Bear looked from Cara to Sadie and then to Jack. “Call Brandon. We can still track Adams. We need to figure out what he’s doing and what his next move is.”

  “I can make some phone calls, too,” Sadie said.

  “No, we need you to deal with the tankers in the Gulf. You said the CIA was looking into it, right? Brandon has those emails from Hughes’ computer. They talked about a lot. There’s gotta be something in there we can use.”

  Cara stood up a little straighter. “And me?”

  “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

  All three of them started talking at once.

  “I want to help—”

  “You’ll be recognized—”

  “It’s too dangerous—”

  Bear held up his hands. “Cara’s at the center of this. She’s a civilian. The public is going to believe her more than they’ll believe a government agent or a couple guys who used to do the government’s bidding. We need to get her in front of a camera.” He turned to the young reporter. “But first we need to make sure you’re healthy enough to do that.”