Page 159 of Enemy of My Enemy

“Call it a fake. Most people won’t believe the pictures, and the ones who do will believe anything anyway.”

“Wait. Just fucking wait.” Scott got between them, glaring. “Are you seriously considering this? Actually seriously considering this? Goddamn it! What would Ethan say?”

“He’d probably try to talk me out of. But, Scott, if he were here, none of this would haveeverhappened. He’d have saved us. Hell, hedidsave me. Who knows where or when she was going to blow?” Jack took a slow breath, his hands on his hips. “The worldneedshim.Ineed him. Ilovehim.” Three simple statements, but they were bedrock truths to the foundations of his soul, the cornerstone of what his life had become. A life he’d made with Ethan. A life he loved and wanted back.

Desperation clawed at him, frantic for action, for the need to run and act and do and fix everything that had gone wrong. There was one road opening before him, one path he needed to tread if he was ever going to be able to live with himself again.

The road back to Ethan.

“Scott, he’s everything to me. I’m better with him, and maybe we’re past where that matters as a president, but it matters to me as aman. And we still need to take out Madigan. So I need to go find him. Find him and never let go. He’s worth everything to me.”

Scott was turning purple and working up to something, some kind of protest, but Jack spoke first. “I love him and I’m going, Scott. I’m going to find him, before it’s too late. Before Madigan finds him first. I buried him once. I won’t do that again. Not if I can dosomething.”

Turning away, Scott cursed and kicked the hospital room’s garbage can. Black plastic flew, smashing into the wall, and paper towels fluttered to the linoleum. “You’re not fucking going alone,” he snapped. “If you are actually going through with this batshit insane idea, then you’re not going alone. Ethan would fucking kill me.”

He scowled at Elizabeth. “Madam President. Permission to accompany this Goddamn idiot?”

“Absolutely. And.” A tiny smile curled the corner of her lip. “I can make this whole thing a secret National Security Presidential Directive. Which means you have a new assignment, Agent Collard. Starting immediately.”

“Guess you’re the new chief, Daniels.” Scott grimaced. “God, it’s going to be a shitshow.”

“You just go find Ethan. I’ll be waiting here for you guys.” Daniels eyeballed Jack. “All three of you, back in one piece.”

“We need to get out of here.” At the foot of his bed, the nurse had hung a plastic bag with Jack’s clothes. They were still drenched in blood. He couldn’t walk out like that. “We need to sneak out before the media descends. Find a place to lay low while we make our next move.”

Scott closed his eyes. “I’ve got somewhere.”

“Elizabeth, I need Lawrence’s information. His phone, his briefcase. Notes he kept in his office—” Jack’s legs buckled, and he swayed against the wall, almost collapsing before Scott and Daniels got their hands under his arms, steadying him.

Scott cursed, scathing fury on his tongue. “You can’t even stand! How are you going to—”

“I will be fine. And, damn it, Scott—”

“Jack.” Elizabeth squeezed his hand, interrupting. “Get a little more rest. You need it. I’ll have Lawrence’s things copied and brought to you, and then you can go. I’ll hold off on the announcement as long as I can. Congress and the Cabinet are both convening now in emergency sessions, so I don’t know how much more time I can buy you. But I’ll give you as much head start as I can.”

Jack eased back into the hospital bed. He ignored the pain shooting through him, the stitches he could feel pulling over his ribs. A near-blinding headache building behind his drooping eyes, and the exhaustion tugging on his soul. “Only an hour more. And then we’re out of here.”

* * *

Chapter 52

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

“The hellyou think you’re going?” Adam bellowed at the top of his lungs, chasing after Ethan.

Ethan grabbed a shotgun and a mandolin of shells. He said nothing.

“You just going to take off?Where? Where will you go where any of this will matter?” Adam’s hands flew wide, gesturing to the pile of weapons Ethan had plucked from the armory. “He’sdead, Ethan! But we still—”

Ethan flew at him, slamming him back against the wall. A picture rattled and fell to the marble floor, glass shattering. “Shut your mouth,” Ethan hissed. “Shut your Goddamn mouth.”

“You’re trying to ride off into the sunset and die.” Adam shoved Ethan back. “Just going to give up? Kill yourself by rushing the enemy?”

Ethan slid two shells into the shotgun and locked the barrel.

“Stay here!” Adam shouted. “Stay here with us! My team is on the way! We can fight together! Actuallydosomething instead of just throwing your life away.”

Ethan still said nothing, and Adam reached for him, grabbing his bicep.