At the Pleasure of the President (The Perfect Gentlemen 5)

“I know.” Had she hurt the baby?

As the question pelted her brain, Sara gasped and cradled her stomach.

Holland seemed to understand her panic. “You’re fine. The baby is fine. You’ve just had a shock. You’re at Camp David in the Aspen Lodge. You’re safe here. Nothing can harm you.”

The president had the largest of the eighteen cabins that made up Camp David. She understood that. What she hadn’t known about Camp David was it apparently could bring back the dead.

Her brother stared down at her, concern etched on his face. “Sara? Are you all right?”

“Well, her blood pressure is great. The baby’s heartbeat is strong and well within normal range. Seriously, she’s fine,” Holland reiterated. “At least physically. Emotionally, well, I’d like to murder all of you because how could you break the news to her this way?”

“Drama,” Gus said with a shake of her head. “The Perfect Gentlemen all love drama.”

“We didn’t mean to spring Mad on her,” Roman argued. “Gabe was supposed to tell her gently. And Mad wasn’t supposed to be outside. Did you forget that part, dipshit? Marines are crawling all over this base, securing it. You can’t possibly have every one of them on the payroll the way you do the Secret Service.”

Mad groaned. “Thomas is not on the payroll. I don’t have a damn payroll. Did you forget the outhouse story?”

“I doubt the marines patrolling this area read tabloids,” Connor pointed out with a raised brow. “None of them will recognize Mad without a martini in one hand and a hooker on his arm. He’s also lost weight and his hair has grown out. I think we’re safe, but he’s got to be better about staying inside.”

Sara tuned out because none of this chatter explained how and why Mad was here. He’d been dead. The FAA had even sworn his remains were among the wreckage. She’d finally gotten to a place where she could breathe and now…

He was back. Alive. Real.

Where had he been all this time?

She forced herself to remain calm. She couldn’t pass out again. She couldn’t afford to be weak.

“I need a moment alone with Maddox.”

Gabe took her hand. “I’m really sorry. I meant to intercept you before you came inside. I was going to ease you into this.”

“You’ve known all this time?”

Somehow the idea that Gabe had been in on whatever scheme this was felt even worse than Mad’s betrayal. Gabe had been her rock. He’d been the one person in the world she could count on. If he’d kept the truth from her… Sara couldn’t fathom it. She would be utterly alone.

“He didn’t,” Mad insisted, still kneeling beside the bed. “No one did. I couldn’t tell any of you.”

“Why don’t we let them talk for a bit?” Zack was a calm presence in the midst of the chaos. “Apparently Freddy has been located. Presuming Thomas can adequately calm Mad’s paranoid friend, they should be here in ten minutes.”

She didn’t know who Freddy was and had no idea why the man should matter. She didn’t care right now. “I’d like for someone to explain what’s happening. Gabe, could you?”

“What? Sara, I’m here. I’ll tell you everything.”

Gabe squeezed her shoulder. “You should talk to him. We’ll give you two some privacy. But to answer your question, Sara, I’ve only known that Mad’s alive for an hour and a half, and I’m still processing myself. I’ll be outside if you need me.”

Slowly, they all walked out until she was left with the man who’d broken her heart.

Sara hated how vulnerable she felt around him, how unsure. She didn’t know what to say. She had no idea what Mad wanted. Why was he even bothering to talk to her when he’d made it crystal clear he was done with her and wanted nothing to do with their baby?

When he tried to take her hand, she jerked away and swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. The last place she wanted to be with Mad was flat on a bed. It had always been way too easy for him to talk her into one.

Mad stood and started crossing the floor in long, rapid steps—a sure sign that he was disconcerted. He always paced like a lion in a cage when he was nervous or unsure how to handle a situation.

Then he stopped in front of her, fingers curled into fists. “Sara, I know you’re confused right now.”

She was, and even though she had moved on for the sake of her sanity, she felt torn between the traitorous urge to throw her arms around him and the desire to punch him in the face. Instead, she steadied her breathing to keep herself calm. “I wouldn’t say confusion is all I’m feeling, though I would like an explanation. Did you get into some trouble that forced you to fake your own death?” A million scenarios ran through her head, all of them bad. “Did you sleep with someone’s wife? Owe someone money? Oh, god, don’t tell me there are problems at Crawford. What did you do to the business?”

He frowned at her, the formidable expression doing nothing to lessen his fallen-angel good looks. “No. I put the business in Gabe’s hands because I knew if I didn’t come back, he would turn it over to you. I didn’t bequeath it to you directly because you’re pregnant and didn’t need the stress. And the press would have gone insane with speculation. I tried to think about you.”

“You broke up with me via text.”

His face flushed. “I had to. I did it to protect you.”

“Protect me?” Who was he kidding?

Was he claiming that he’d been cruel to be kind? That vicious text had been his way of keeping her safe? She didn’t need that kind of protection. She’d needed a partner, and he had proven a poor one.

“Sara, I was investigating something fishy at Crawford. Do you remember Tavia Gordon?”

Tall, gorgeous, always fashionable. “She was the head of public relations at Crawford.”

“She also ran an organization that supported women and educated girls across the globe,” Mad reminded her.

Sara was well aware of the woman, mostly because Mad had slept with her in the past. “Yes, the International Women and Girls Education Foundation. It died off when she was killed.”

“And also because it was a front for the Russian mafia.”

She shook her head, trying to absorb Mad’s claim. “What?”

“Yeah. I knew something was off,” he said quickly, as though he worried she wouldn’t stay around for his explanation. “A worker at the foundation anonymously sent me a note telling me that a surprising number of the girls the foundation helped went missing every year. When I started looking into it, I realized quickly that Tavia was selling those girls and had rigged a financial component for their operation by using the funds from the annual gala the company held to support it. I intended to fire her.”

“That’s horrifying, but what does any of this have to do with us?”

Mad sidled close to her, sinking to one knee again. “Because the night before I broke up with you, the head of the Krylov syndicate came to see me.”

A chill went up her spine. “What happened?”

His gaze shifted away. “Let’s just say my body was black and blue for at least two weeks. There were moments I was sure I was going to die.”

Krylov had viciously beaten Mad? Even the thought made her sick to her stomach. She hated that some criminal had damaged both his body and his spirit. He’d always been so larger than life that it was sometimes easy to forget he was just a man. But that didn’t really explain anything.

“Why didn’t you call the police?”

“A lot of reasons. Mostly because Krylov alluded to the fact that Zack was involved with their plot. He intimated that if I brought him down, I would be taking Zack down, too.”

“What?” Zack was one of the most honorable men she’d ever met. He was stalwart and stable. Solid. He would never be involved with anything criminal.

“I know. It threw me for a loop, too. So I did what I had to do.”