Heart of Light (40 page)

“It’s okay, Cam,” he replied. “I completely understand his reasoning. He’s just trying to be thorough and doesn’t know who he can trust at this point. What’s your connection to him anyway?”

“A girl I knew was in love with him. And I helped them both out a few years ago, so he kind of owes me.”

“Just remember to be patient,” Greg comforted him. “From what I know of him and his reputation, he’s very good at what he does. You say he’s putting together a small extraction team to get her out. I trust that he’ll be able to follow through on his promises. Just know that I’m more than willing to lend a hand, if need be.”

“Thank you, Greg. I promise I’ll get our girl back.”

“She’s your girl now.”

The men shared a knowing look before Cam made his way toward the airport exit, nodding at the driver dressed all in black that appeared to be able to snap a man’s neck with little effort.

“Dr. Bowen. I’m James and I’ll be taking you to Mr. Burnham’s office.”

“He has an office in Chicago? I thought he lived in Boston.”

“Yes. He has branches of his company all over the world. After receiving your phone call yesterday afternoon, he flew in to plan this operation.” He opened the rear door for Cam. “Sit tight. I’ll get you to him as quickly as possible.”

After a painfully long car ride through heavy downtown traffic, Cam was led into a secure glass building. He was rather impressed with all the security protocols in place. He had no idea about the exact details of the type of business that Alexander was involved in but, by the looks of it, business was very good.

After following James out of the elevator on the top floor, he was granted access past another security door and escorted down a long white corridor to an enormous debriefing room.

Upon entering, all talk immediately ceased and he saw his only hope of getting Jolene out safely, his green eyes full of compassion.

“Cam,” Alexander said, raising his six-foot, five-inch frame out of his chair and meeting him, giving him a brotherly hug. “How ya holding up?”

“As good as can be expected, considering…”

“Don’t worry. We’re working on tactical right now. Here. Have a seat.”

Cam followed Alexander to a large table with eight rather intimidating people, seven men and one woman, sitting around it. The table appeared to be one large computer monitor. On the screen were photos, bios, building blue prints, the works. Cam didn’t know what to make of any of it and was glad that Alexander was there to head the operation.

“Okay. So what we’re looking at,” Alexander began, talking to his team, “is a mostly unarmed extraction from a building that will have hundreds of civilians present. Cora,” he said to the only female, “you’ve secured employment with the cover ID we set up for you?”

“Yes,” she responded in a thick Spanish accent. “I’ll be working as a room service attendant. I did a preliminary survey of the layout and the kitchen may be a solid exit point. There is a service entrance, as well as an elevator just beyond the door leading to the outside. I’m not sure about access, but I’ll know more after my shift tonight.”

“Perfect. Toby…” He turned his attention to a tall man with dark hair and a dazzling smile who looked more like a bachelor playboy than someone that was retired military. “You will check in tonight. Your cover ID is being worked on right now. You know the drill. Observe comings and goings, security protocols, shift changes, anything that could be important. Martin and I will go in on the day of extraction…”

“Hold up,” Cam interrupted. “Day of extraction? Shouldn’t that be today?”

Alexander sighed, running his hands through his dark hair in mild irritation. “We have to be patient, Cam. We’re going to have one shot at getting this right. One shot to get your girl out of there unharmed. This will take planning. We need to know everything about that building. No detail is too small. Toby and Cora will be doing just that…watching security, the staff, every little thing you can think of. They’ll get the layout of the building. They’ll time the elevators. This all requires a little patience on all of our parts. I know it sucks, but it’s the best chance I can give you of getting your girl out in one piece.”

He turned his attention back to his team. “Now, we just have to find out where he’s keeping her and be able to get in there and get her out without raising too much suspicion, if possible.”

“The poker room,” Cam said under his breath. “That’s going to be your best chance.”

Alexander scrunched his eyebrows at Cam. “What goes on in there?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know too much, but the best way will be to get someone into the poker room so you can bid on Jolene and be guaranteed to get her alone.”

“How do you get into the poker room?”

“It’s invite only, so you’ll need someone to vouch for you.”

A wide grin crossed Alexander’s face. He turned his attention to the tall, well-built older man sitting by his side. “Martin, call Senator Murphy’s office. I’ve already been informed that he’s in town right now. Alert his secretary that a very wealthy businessman would like a meeting with him to discuss a potential ten figure donation to his re-election campaign, but that the offer is rather time-specific and we need a meeting this afternoon. Do we still have the office building that we used for the brokerage firm take-down?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Perfect. Arrange the meeting to occur there.” Alexander turned back to Cam. “We’ll get in. And we’ll use that scumbag of a senator to help us.” He winked, a mischievous grin crossing his face.

“You’re having way too much fun with all of this.”

Alexander stood up from the table, several of his team members following closely behind. “Maybe. I just like being able to help out a friend. And I really want to fuck with that senator after what he did to your girl.”

“Thanks, Alex,” Cam said. “For helping. I had no one else to turn to with this.”

“You bet. I owe you after everything you’ve done for me and Olivia. I’m just glad to see you’ve finally found a girl. I swear to you that I’m going to get her back, but I need you to be patient while we plan the extraction. Okay?”

“I’ll try. I won’t like it, but I’ll try. All I can think is that every minute that we wait…”

“Don’t think about it. It’ll eat you up inside if you do. That was the first thing I learned when I was on extraction teams with the SEALs. I had to stop thinking about what was happening to the hostages every minute that we waited. I’ll tell you this much. If we don’t ensure that we have all the intel about what’s going on, the result will be far worse, especially for your Jolene. The best thing we can do is give this Falconi prick a false sense of security. You stay here. We don’t want to arouse the senator’s suspicions yet.”

Cam nodded. “Okay. I trust you. Just bring her back to me.”

“I will.”

“S
ENATOR
M
URPHY
,” A
LEXANDER
SAID
, standing up from a desk. He extended his hand to the senator, shaking it with a firm grip. “Wonderful to finally meet you.”

“You as well, Mr. Fusco,” he replied, trying to place where he had seen the tall, muscular man. “Although, I’d be lying if I said I had heard of your company before my secretary informed me that you wanted to make a substantial contribution to my campaign. I thought I knew all the big players here in Chicago.” He looked around the extravagant office, rather impressed by his surroundings.

“Well, apparently, you overlooked me. But I’d like to rectify that situation right now. Let’s have a chat, shall we?” Alexander beamed his brilliant smile at the snake-like politician.

“Yes. Let’s.”

Alexander gestured to the chair in front of his desk for the senator to take a seat, nodding to Martin.

“Well, I do have a confession to make, David. Can I call you David?”

He eyed him skeptically, but if he was planning to make as large a contribution as he said he was, he didn’t give a fuck what he called him, so long as the check cleared. “Of course, Mr. Fusco.”

“I apologize again. That’s not my real name.”

Alarm bells began sounding in David’s head.

“Truth be told, I’m a friend of a friend of a woman you beat within an inch of her life a few weeks ago. To be perfectly blunt, I can put up with a lot of shit, and I have, but one thing that makes me so angry,” Alexander said calmly, “is a man who abuses a woman.”

David stood up, attempting to flee the room. Martin and several other strong men formed a line in front of the closed door, preventing him from leaving.

“The choice is yours, senator!” Alexander called out from behind the desk. “You can talk to me, or you can try to fight your way out. But, just so you know, those men over there used to work Special Forces. You don’t stand a fucking chance. If you want to walk out of this room with your spine intact, you might want to sit back down and listen to what I have to say.”

“You won’t get away with this!” he exclaimed nervously. “I’m a U.S. Senator, for crying out loud!”

A sly grin crossed Alexander’s face. “Yeah. About that. You won’t be a senator for much longer, so let’s not worry about that too much.” He opened a file and tossed an official-looking document across the desk.
 

David took a few cautious steps toward him and his eyes settled on the court papers in front of him.

“That is an official indictment from the State of Florida,” Alexander began, hoping that he couldn’t tell that the papers were fake and drawn up hastily. “You think you have powerful friends? Well, so do I. That little piece of paper will be signed by a judge tomorrow,” he lied. “And that right there…” He pointed to the file. “That’s your name. And you see all those charges? Well, the American people hate a criminal. But what they
really
hate is someone who deceived them and made them look like fools. So you can minimize the damage to your reputation right now. We will go on record saying that your guilt overwhelmed you and you wanted to do the right thing and save the girl…”

“Girl?” David asked. “What do you mean?”

“That little video you released? Well, the wrong people were able to find her because of it, because of
you
, and now she’s gone. And a good friend of mine is very upset over it. You fuck with a friend of mine, you fuck with me. But I’m willing to control my anger because, and here’s the real kicker… To help the girl, we need
your
help. So for once in your miserable excuse of an existence, we need you to do the right thing.”

“What do you possibly think you could say that will make me want to help? I’m untouchable. No one will believe a word that you or that whore will say. Not after my little pre-emptive strike.”

“You see, that’s the thing about you politicians,” Alexander retorted. He raised himself off his chair and strode over to where David sat cowering in fear, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead. “You’re sloppy. You blow your wad prematurely. You should have paid more people off because that little actress you hired to do a voice over that you said was for a campaign reenactment? Well, she was more than willing to come forward once she learned about what you did.” He took a step closer, leaning into the senator. “That’s the thing about e-mail, isn’t it? You can delete it all you want, but nothing’s ever gone. It’s all out there somewhere, just waiting for the right person to find it.” He grinned when he noticed the senator begin to shake in apprehension. “And I have the right people working for me.” Crossing his arms in front of his body, he pulled back and sat on the corner of the desk.

The formerly confident politician had suddenly changed into a complete coward, his true self finally showing through.

“So here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to get me into Falconi’s little poker room, understand?”

“Or what?” he asked, finding his last bit of nerve.

“Your choice. We go public with your little fetish here and let the American people see the real video that we’ve been able to authenticate by experts who
aren’t
receiving kickbacks from you or any of your buddies. By the way, those kickbacks? You’re very sloppy for a politician. We were able to trace all those illegal donations rather easily. So help us out and we’ll let the American people know what a hero you were in all of this. Or that indictment in front of you gets signed by a judge. From what I understand, prison is no place for a disgraced politician who beats women. So, if I were you, I would choose
very
wisely.”

David scanned the man’s face, wondering if there was any way he would be able to get out of it. His shoulders slumping, he knew it was impossible. He wasn’t cut out for prison.

“Fine,” he said dejectedly. “Let’s go to his hotel.”

~~~~~~~~~~

J
OLENE
OPENED
HER
EYES
, completely disoriented, the familiar sound of Jeff Buckley’s voice echoing through the room. Taking in her surroundings through her heavy eyelids, she knew where she was. She was back with
him
. She tried to move, to run, but her body was dead weight. It was useless.

“Ah, you’re finally awake,” a malicious voice crooned.

Her chin quivered when she heard the one voice she never wanted to hear for the rest of her life. A tear slid down her cheek, and she hated herself for showing emotion so easily. She didn’t want to give him the pleasure of seeing her fear.

“Don’t cry, princess. You’re home. And if you ever run again, I’ll kill you just like I had your mother killed…both of them.”

Her eyes flung wide open in shock.

“Oh, Daddy never told you? Your real mother was a whore, just like you. She tried to run from me so she had to be dealt with. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt right now. Get your rest. Once your bruises are gone, you’ll be back to work. I know you’re looking forward to it. I sure am.”

She closed her eyes just as she felt a cold finger slide down her cheek.

“But first, I need to retrain you to make sure that you remember what is expected of you.”