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

Roman cursed. “Tomorrow, we’ll talk to Holland and find out where her car has been and who might have had access to it.”

“I’m not sure it matters. According to Elizabeth, next time Krylov will use a bomb.” Zack pushed aside his dark thoughts and tried to concentrate on the investigation. “Do we know anything useful about him or his whereabouts?”

“Krylov is definitely in the States,” Connor confirmed. “I called a contact I still have at the Agency and they say he’s been in the US for two weeks, but according to them he’s been taking meetings in New York.”

That meant nothing. It was easy to get to DC from the city. It wouldn’t be hard at all for Krylov to hop on a train or even to drive down.

“How did he know when Liz would be home? After all, she hadn’t been there for a while.” Gabe asked. “Does he have ESP? Had he been sitting in her living room for days?”

Or had Elizabeth simply called him?

“He couldn’t have waited for long.” Connor turned the laptop in front of him, flashing surveillance pictures. “He was seen in Manhattan yesterday. The FBI had a couple of agents tracking him, but if he’s in DC, then they lost him sometime between now and then. According to the agents, he’s been in his hotel room all day, which they admitted they found odd. From what they say, he’s very social when he’s in the city.”

“Or he’s still in New York and Liz is lying to us.” Roman always had to play devil’s advocate. It was his calling in life.

“Why would she lie?” Gabe was the naïve one. He’d played corporate games for years, but those never had stakes as high as world domination.

“Because she’s working with Krylov,” Connor said. “Or at least that’s what’s going through Roman’s head. And if it’s going through Roman’s, it’s going to infect Zack’s thoughts if it already hasn’t.”

Infect might not be the right word, but Zack was certainly being forced to consider the possibility that his beloved Elizabeth was a traitor. “What did you find out about the security at her apartment building?”

“The CCTV only covers the exterior entrances, front and back,” Gabe explained. “The manager let me see today’s footage. No Krylov or anyone who looks like him. But this guy is smart, right? Hasn’t he been eluding the authorities and their surveillance for decades? Certainly, he could manage to avoid some rudimentary building cameras.”

Obviously, Gabe was Team Elizabeth.

Zack frowned. “Did you show the manager Krylov’s picture?”

Gabe’s tight jaw told him the answer even before he said the words. “He said he’d never seen the man before. But again, that doesn’t mean Krylov didn’t find another way in. It also doesn’t mean the manager remembered or that he’s telling me the truth.”

“Why would Krylov flash his mug all over Manhattan but avoid the cameras in DC?” Roman asked. “Why would he treat a visit to Liz’s building differently than any other meeting?”

“Because he wants to fracture us,” Connor supplied. “It’s what I would do if I were running this op. If he’s able to split Zack off from his closest allies, it leaves the president—his target—vulnerable. In Krylov’s shoes, I wouldn’t go straight after Roman, but I would have studied Zack’s inner circle thoroughly, certainly well enough to know that Roman questions everything. So my goal would be to make Roman believe the woman Zack cares about is duplicitous. It’s the most likely thing to cause trouble between the two of you.”

“It’s my damn job to question everything.” Roman glared Connor’s way. “It’s always been the way I protect us. Do you think I enjoy being the damn Eeyore of the group? Mad and Gabe were the partiers. Dax and Connor were always thinking about freaking sports, and Zack had a future. I had to be the one who watched our backs when it came to stuff like this.”

“All I’m saying is, if I were Krylov, I would know that,” Connor replied.

“Let me get this straight.” Zack took charge of the meeting so it didn’t drag on for hours. “Elizabeth told me Krylov was in her apartment this evening, but we have no proof. If he didn’t waltz in through the front or back entrance, how would he have gotten into the building? And do we have any proof that he forced his way into Elizabeth’s unit?”

“I didn’t find anything to indicate that he’d picked the lock,” Connor admitted. “Usually that kind of thing leaves trace evidence behind, but it also wouldn’t be terribly hard to steal a key. The manager has a master, I’m sure. I would have gone after that.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that no one at all saw him,” Roman maintained.

“Do we have any reason to think Freddy might have some Dark Web, back-door connection that could provide additional information?” Zack felt like he was grasping at straws.

Connor shook his head. “He’s really been an asset to me in reverifying all the White House staffers and Secret Service agents. And with all due respect, that’s more important than checking up on your girl’s story right now. Liz’s guilt…it’s just a theory.”

“It’s a well thought-out suspicion,” Roman corrected. “Don’t you also think it’s interesting that the two times the syndicate has directly sent a message to us, they’ve used Liz Matthews?”

That fact had been tormenting Zack for hours. “According to Elizabeth, the syndicate is merely a go-between for a faction of the Russian government. SVR runs the show now, but this plot was hatched by a bunch of KGB men back in my grandfather’s day. They’ve been biding their time until they could get a Hayes in the White House.”

Roman sighed. “And why would he have told her that? Why explain his whole plan to Liz? And not one of us?”

Zack knew the answer to that question. “Because I would tell any one of you to suck it up and stop worrying. I can’t do that with her when she’s afraid for me. That man terrorized her.”

“Or she’s incredibly smart and she’s using your relationship to manipulate you into doing exactly what they want,” Roman pointed out.

“What is that?” Gabe asked.

“She wants me to cancel the interview Roman and Gus were going to give about Roman’s ‘relationship’ with Joy.” And since Krylov’s visit, Elizabeth had more ideas about how he should call off the dogs. “In fact, she wants me to deny the story altogether. She also asked me to put off any decision about the pipeline unless I’m willing to scrap the whole thing.”

Actually, she’d pleaded tearfully with him, swearing that if he didn’t do what Krylov wanted, the syndicate would kill Zack the same way they had Joy. She’d looked terrified. He’d had to hold her until she finally calmed.

Around Zack, the room had gone quiet, each of them seemingly lost in thought.

Was it possible Elizabeth was a Russian agent? God, he was an idiot. It wasn’t merely possible; it was the explanation that made the most sense. He’d been trained all his life to think logically, to rationalize his way through a situation and come to the most reasonable conclusion. Now, he had to stop being a man, start being a president, and look at the hard facts.

One, Elizabeth had worked closely with Joy. In fact, Joy and her father had encouraged him to hire Elizabeth.

Two, the order to call off the FAA investigation had come from the press office, which Elizabeth ran.

Three, the initial blackmail threat had been delivered to Elizabeth’s room in London, and the threat against her had neither been directed her way nor difficult to deal with.

Four, he’d given her—and her alone—information about the fake “secret” meeting that had somehow leaked out.

Five, now that they had found a way to minimize the threat of blackmail, Krylov had an unverifiable chat with Elizabeth—and no one else—and he magically said the perfect words to make her beg Zack to put himself and his presidency in a corner.

Damn it, if he denied the story about Joy and Roman he’d planted, not only would he look like a fool when the Russians released the evidence, he would be vulnerable to them again. They would continue to maneuver

the situation in unpredictable ways to forward their game. Could they somehow manipulate matters to ensure Mad couldn’t emerge from hiding, leaving both Zack and Gabe in the crosshairs?

Zack didn’t doubt they had a solid-as-hell plan. He was tired of running blind, always two paces behind.

Of course he’d thought they had a good strategy themselves. But the moment he’d made a move, they had plunked the queen squarely in front of him. His queen. They were neatly forcing him into an untenable position, one he couldn’t get out of without hurting her or someone he loved dying.

They’d been playing this decades-long game so cleverly. They’d placed Joy at his side. But when she’d been unable to manipulate him as needed because he’d never felt true passion for her, why wouldn’t they have tried again with a different type of woman? After all, when they’d expended Joy to put him in the White House, they’d still had a woman on the inside, one poised to manipulate the president of the United States.