HelenKay Dimon - Gunning for Trouble

John put out his hand as if to stop Trevor’s movements. “This relates to work outside Bram’s job as U.S. Representative.”

“Former.”

“What?”

“My brother died saving a member of his office staff.” The kidnapping of Mia Landers by her abusive ex, the shoot-out, the inevitable death toll even Trevor could not hide. It all played out exactly as Bram had planned, except for where he got caught in the cross fire. That had been a possibility, but a remote one. “As such, my brother is no longer a member of Congress. Or of anything else, for that matter.”

At least that was the carefully constructed story Trevor had sold to the world with the cooperation of the Recovery Project agents, the very men who killed Bram.

John’s squirming started right as expected. “Yes, well, I am aware of that.”

“Then you also know my brother and I kept our respective careers separate. Since I deal in government contracts, it would have been a conflict of interest for Bram to be involved in my business and vice versa.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” John said under his breath.

“Why?”

Russell opened the mysterious file in front of him. “We have some questions relating to the congressman’s role in the Witness Security Program.”

“Witness protection? Isn’t that your specialty? Both of you.” Trevor let his gaze travel over the two men, hesitating just long enough to make sure they understood who controlled this conversation.

Trevor knew Russell wrongly believed he had the upper hand. His attempts at blackmail had proved that much. Trevor admitted to the serious miscalculation in letting Russell worm his way into his private life. Trevor vowed never to make that mistake again.

“It would seem your brother also had an interest in WitSec. He made several inquiries prior to his death, some through proper channels and others not,” Russell said.

Trevor had warned Bram not to dig, or at least to be careful when he did. One of his brother’s many failures had been his oversize ego and naive belief that his office would protect him no matter how egregious the offense. Trevor knew better. He had seen dictators of small countries fall, even helped make it happen, so he understood the devastating impact of poor choices and emotional thinking.

“I’m afraid I can’t help you,” he said.

John shifted to the front part of his chair. “Is it possible the congressman sought information about witness protection on your behalf?”

“No.”

“You’re sure?”

“Quite.”

John frowned. “Yet you’re not offended by my question.”

“You learn many things when you lose a sibling. You understand that no matter what you’ve achieved in this world or how much power you command, some things remain out of your final control.” Trevor leaned back in his chair. “Except my temper. It would seem that is the one thing I can control.”

Russell closed his file without ever reading a word from it. “Maybe if we looked through your correspondence we might see something you didn’t.”

“That is not possible, as I’m sure you know. Not with the confidential nature of my work. I have clients, and their needs must be protected.” But now Trevor knew the real reason for the visit. They wanted free access. John suspected him, of what wasn’t clear, but Trevor knew the groundwork once laid could be a significant problem.

“I was hoping to handle this privately,” John said.

“I believe we just did.” Trevor stood up and tugged on the bottom of his suit jacket to make sure it had fallen back in place. “Now, if that’s all, gentlemen?”

Russell took the hint and rose to his feet. “Of course. We won’t take any more of your time.”

Trevor had to bite back a wave of bile whenever he looked at Russell. He was the worst kind of man—one dripping in weakness who wrongly believed he possessed strength.

He paid Russell well to make sure meetings like this never happened. Looked like the man needed a reminder of the terms of their deal. “Nonsense. I am always available to government officials.”

“We do all want the same thing here,” John said.

Trevor seriously doubted that. “And what would that be?”

“Justice.” Russell fumbled over the word. Not a surprise since as far as Trevor could tell the man did not have any concept of the word.

“I’ve always found that term somewhat elusive. After all, we don’t all agree on what’s just, now do we?” Trevor let the words sink in before he headed for the door to show them out.

John hesitated for a second but then followed. “If you think of anything, you will let us know, correct?”

“Of course.”

Russell nodded. “We would appreciate that.”

Trevor decided Russell would do more than that. He would have a front-row seat to what happened next. “Rest assured I will do everything necessary to resolve our issues.”

They climbed down the fire escape on the outside of the building, Adam behind her and Caleb in front. Caleb tried to think of another way to hide Avery, but he suspected her pursuers would start going door to door and keep coming. That meant they had to get out and away as fast as possible. Since there were police cars and fire trucks downstairs, their options were limited. Almost nonexistent, actually.

“Where are we going?” Avery asked as she carefully placed her feet on the metal rungs.

“Anywhere but here.”

She shot him a frown over her shoulder. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

“No.”

She stopped ten steps up from the street and stared up at him. “You could try answering the question without being a jerk.”

He knew he should, but something about her brought out the worst in him. So did being woken up in the middle of the night to go running all over his condo build ing, dodging men with guns. “You’re the one being followed.”

“Because of Rod.” Her knuckles turned white where they held the strap to her shoulder bag. Any tighter and she’d cut off circulation.

Adam popped up next to her. “Uh, kids. I get that you two have some history and all, and I want to hear about it, I do, but we need to keep moving.”

Caleb heard the warning behind his friend’s joking tone and heeded it. “Right. We can fight about this later. Preferably when we’re out of earshot of anyone holding a weapon.”

“Fine.” She sounded anything but.

“Fine.”

Adam nodded. “Happy to hear we’re all fine. So, can we get moving?”

“One question.” Avery pointed at the side of the build ing. “There are cameras all over the place. Won’t the attackers look for us and then follow?”

“I cut their access,” Adam said. “Anyone checking the security monitors is seeing an endless loop of barren hallways and quiet outdoor areas.”

Caleb clicked the bottom button on his watch and showed her Adam’s tech handiwork. “See? There’s nothing on there that can help them or hurt us.”

Adam tapped a finger against his forehead. “Computer genius.”

“But, when did you manage to do all of that?” she asked.

“I set up the program the day we moved in and check it every week to make sure I’m still dialed in and can take over if needed. When the silent alarm went off, I switched the security monitors to my loop and have been sending the real footage to my off-site computer so I can analyze it later. The only potential problem is that the police will check it and know someone tampered with it.”

“You?”

“Oh, they won’t trace it back to me.”

She smiled for the first time all evening. “I guess you can do more than grab women and scare the crap out of them.”