Page 74 of The Press Secretary's Passion

“Thanks, Jake,” she says. “Hug Grace for me.”

“I will,” I reply and then disconnect.

Fuck. This is not good.

“What’s going on?” Grace asks. Shit. She moves like one of those damn cats she loves so much. I don’t even hear her coming anymore, and they callmeGhost. I’m clearly getting soft in my old age.

“Not much,” I lie. “I’m just going to step into the hall and make a phone call.”

“Okay,” she says. “Hurry back.”

“I will.”

I don’t step into the hall, but I do leave the room. I go to a hidden safe I have stowed away in the back of the closet, punch in the code, and pull out an unregistered Colt 45. I tuck it into the back waistband of my jeans and then step out into the hall.

“Sir,” Gus greets me. Thank God he’s here today. He’s one of few people I can trust.

“Ryan can’t get ahold of Jules,” I tell him immediately. “Rick and Ryan are both on their way to her house now.”

“What would you like me to do, sir?” he asks.

“I know you’re on duty today and you can’t leave your post, and I wouldn’t ask you to,” I say. “But could you keep a line of communication open with them?”

“Yes, sir,” he says, and then he leaves the room.

I’m just about to follow him, when the door opens and my father steps inside.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I need you to be quiet and listen,” he tells me.

“There is nothing you have to say that I want to hear.”

“It’s about Jules and Black,” he states, and suddenly I’m listening. He knows he has my attention and smiles. “It’s bigger than you realize.” My father always was a fan of theatrics and drawing it all out. I can’t stand it.

“Get on with it.”

“It was never about her,” he says. “She was just a pawn. Like you were supposed to be, but you won’t play the game.”

“What game?” I ask.

“The one where America falls.”

“You’re a traitor?” I question, and color me surprised. An asshole, sure, but a traitor to his country? I had no idea.

“Traitor is such an ugly word,” he says. “I prefer businessmen.”

“And how do you figure that?”

“Because they pay better,” he replies. “But Jules didn’t play her part, and they’re going to kill her for it.”

“What was her part?” I hope to God I can get the information out of him before it’s too late.

“She was supposed to marry you, and when she couldn’t seal that deal, she was supposed to marry me.”

“And what would that have done?” I ask as the door swings open and a gun goes off. I watch in shock as my father falls to the floor with a hole in his chest and dies.

I look to the door where Mark Jeffries stands with a gun in his hand, staring at where my father had been previously standing.