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

Would Elizabeth be the first?

“I know that was rough, but you had to do it.” Roman’s voice brought him out of his thoughts.

“Did I? I couldn’t have talked to her beforehand? Given her even a five-minute heads-up that we’d decided to completely change the game? Or how about simply sitting her down, showing her the evidence we have against her, and asking her flat out for an explanation?”

Roman sank into the chair across from him with a sigh. “You know why that’s a bad idea.”

Because if she was working with the Russians, Zack’s element of surprise would be blown.

“I hate to admit it, but in this case Roman is right.” Connor paced the Oval Office.

“Thank you.” Roman waved a hand, looking relieved that someone backed him up.

Connor stopped, sending Roman a glare that could freeze fire. “Not because I’m saying Liz is an operative. And consider that if she even gets a hint that Zack thinks she’s working with the enemy, she’ll do something stupid like run off on her own, either to lick her wounds or to prove her innocence.”

“And if she is working for them, worse things than her telling them all our secrets could happen,” Roman shot back. “Do you think I’m such an asshole that I’ve given zero consideration to her welfare? I don’t know why she’s behaving this way or allowing herself to be manipulated into it, but have either of you thought about what happens if she’s no longer of value to the Russians? Hear me out. They killed Joy. We’re absolutely certain of that. They probably killed her because she was worth more to them dead than alive. They’d already determined she couldn’t manipulate Zack the way they’d hoped a wife could, so they waited for a moment her martyrdom would have maximum impact and pulled the trigger. But they probably knew a few years into the marriage that Joy had no sway over Zack, so they came up with a plan B and moved Liz into place.”

“We don’t know that.” Zack hated how certain Roman always sounded when he talked about Elizabeth working for the enemy. He knew Roman always operated from his convictions, and it had served them well over the years. Today, it rankled.

“We do know that these men will discard her if they think for a second she’s outlived her usefulness, whether or not she understands she was ever their tool.” Roman seemingly tempered his words. He’d always been good at reading Zack’s cues and adjusting. It was one of the reasons they worked so well together. “This is the best play. It protects her, too.”

Connor shrugged slightly. “It will tell us quickly how they’ll respond if we refuse to play along. We have to be ready for almost anything. I’m moving in this afternoon. Lara’s already picked out a bedroom.”

They’d decided to move everyone into the White House for the time being. If anyone asked, they would give some excuse about the preparations for Roman and Gus’s wedding. It wasn’t as if Zack hadn’t had guests before. He was a bachelor, so the staff was used to him having his friends stay for the company. Now, though, they all had wives or fiancées.

Would Elizabeth be around a year from now? How about six months? He’d meant what he’d said to her. No matter what happened, he would protect her. He would never allow her to be hurt or arrested.

He might have to question her at some point, though. Intelligence and surveillance both indicated that Krylov had never left his hotel yesterday. This morning, he’d been walking around New York as though nothing at all had happened. When the feds had brought him in for questioning, he’d claimed he’d spent the entire day in his hotel room, sick after eating bad sushi the night before. They’d been forced to let him go. For now.

If that was true and Elizabeth wasn’t working for the Russians, why would she lie?

Zack couldn’t think of a single reason.

Suddenly, Roman clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t lose faith now. I know that was a pretty intense conversation you and Liz were having in the hallway. If she’s innocent, she’ll get over it.”

Easy for Roman to say. He didn’t have to sleep next to her.

“How did she take the sudden turnaround?” Connor asked.

“It wasn’t a turnaround. I never intended to shut the pipeline down forever. It’s a good project.” Zack hated being forced to wait and see what the other side would do, when the other shoe would fall. “She was surprised I hadn’t told her. I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled that I made it look like she was on the outside before I took over her briefing. She’s not the only one. Gus was giving me the glare. I could feel it from across the room.”

Roman winced. “I’m not looking forward to facing her tonight. Sometimes I’m worried she’ll manage to find a way to shoot lasers out of her eyes and deball me. She wants kids, though. That might save me.”

“I’ll talk to them both,” Connor offered. “I’ll explain it from an intelligence perspective. After what happened last night, we had to come back with a strong counter move or we seemed weak.”

Zack peered at Connor, who’d been in this business for a very long time. “Do you think she’s working with Krylov? I know we’ve talked about this, but now we have more evidence and I want to hear your perspective again.”

Connor ran a hand over his short hair, the gesture looking deeply frustrated. “Obviously the evidence points that way. If she’s innocent, then the fact that they’ve communicated through Liz both times is definitely an odd coincidence.”

Connor didn’t believe in coincidences. And he would have sucked as a politician.

“They communicated with Mad.” Zack stubbornly looked for any way around Connor’s logic.

“No, they beat the shit out of Mad, while Liz emerged from both of her encounters without a single hair out of place,” Roman pointed out. “Everything seems to flow through Liz, and I would love to know why she was in the Treaty Room the day we left for Camp David. And she spends time with your father. Think about that.”

“She checks on him for me because she knows I hate being in the same room with the old bastard.” Zack knew he should be a better person. His father was sick now, but he couldn’t see an invalid sitting there, just the tyrant who had pushed and pushed and pushed.

“Or she has an ulterior motive for talking to him, and Frank isn’t as mentally gone as we think,” Roman countered.

“I’m looking into his doctors.” Connor started pacing again. “Who picked these specialists?”

“Joy handled it in the beginning. And then, when we were in the middle of the campaign, Elizabeth took over those visits.” He’d been depending on Elizabeth for a long time. Both he and Joy had.

The sad truth was he’d taken Joy’s advice a lot of the time. She’d been his friend, a partner as much as Roman had been. They hadn’t been in love, but they’d had a shared goal and she’d been smart, competent, and quietly ambitious. Joy had been by his side when he’d won the senatorial seat on his first try, her steady head leading the parts of the campaign he hadn’t enjoyed or understood.

There was a hard knock on his door, then Thomas stepped inside.

“Mr. President, the vice president would like a moment of your time.” Thomas’s expression was the same stoic blank he always wore. “He’s rather insistent.”

Zack stifled a groan. He should have known this would happen. “I don’t suppose I can put him off.”

Thomas shrugged a single broad shoulder. “I can absolutely explain the situation to him in vivid detail, sir.”

That might be fun to watch, but it would only cause more trouble down the line.

Zack shook his head. “Let him in. I might as well get it over with.”

He stood, walking to the desk that dominated the Oval Office. The Resolute desk. It was fitting for him to sit behind it now as he faced down a man who’d never liked him.

Wallace stormed in. The man had taken the VP slot because he’d known he had nowhere else to go. The campaign had almost certainly been the last time he would be able to credibly run. It had made them wary partners.

“What can I do for you, Wallace?”

“You can tell me what the fuck is going on.” He glared, taking in the men in the room with a frown, then pointed at Connor. “You should leave. I need a moment alone with the president.”

Connor simply sat on the couch, bracing his ankle over the opposite knee in a casual manner that did nothing to disguise his predatory nature. “But I’m so comfortable here.”

“You think I don’t know who you are?” Shorn said. “I might have to put up with Calder’s ever-looming presence, but you’re not a part of this administration.”

“I assure you Mr. Sparks is, in fact, a trusted member of my administration, and he has all the security clearance he needs. You should feel free to say anything around him.”

“What? He’s nothing but your old drinking buddy,” Shorn said scornfully.

“Oh, the president and I haven’t merely imbibed together,” Connor replied. “We’ve also handled problems together. In fact, that’s my function.”

Shorn scowled. “No, that’s Calder’s.”

“Roman handles the legal issues. I make things disappear.” Connor sent him a wolf’s smile.

“Are you threatening me?”

Zack sighed. “Mr. Vice President, could you please tell me why you’re here or get the hell out of my office?”