Chapter 4

She looks so peaceful lying there, I thought to myself as I kissed her forehead. My beautiful wife, blonde hair spread out over the hospital issued pillow, looks beautiful. There's not a mark on her other than a bump on her thick head.

I can't help but sigh as I sit in a chair at her bedside. I hold her perfectly manicured hand. If I could, I would handcuff myself to her so she's never out of my sight again. My headstrong, reporter wife, makes Lois Lane appear downright docile. What I wouldn't give to see her green eyes open, even if she were pissed off at me and glaring at me. It would still be better than her eyes being closed. I'm lucky. I know it. My wife is like a cockroach – she can survive anything. At least that is what Ethan says about his little sister. What I wouldn't give to see her go head-to-head with my brother again right now. They are the two most thick-headed, stubborn people I know. While I want to cringe every time they have a knock-down drag-out argument, I also find it funny, but I know if I laugh they will team up and bust my balls. Heck, there are better things my balls can be used for. Yeah, I glanced at my wife again with that thought – sue me, I'm a happily married man.

Kate is like a bloodhound – once she gets wind of a story, she just can't let it go. I begged her to let this one go when she started. It was hitting too close to home – GEH vs. KMA, my construction business building not just KMA headquarters, but all of the facilities on Luke's new properties, along with the renovated office space on the top four floors of her father's media building. The NDA I signed for Luke's build was very specific. I did everything I could to keep Kate away from the facility plans a year ago, yet, I married a reporter. Let me rephrase that – a damned good, ridiculously tenacious reporter. I should have known she would be nosey. I knew Luke's company was more than what it outwardly looked like. I didn't know particulars and frankly, I didn't care – yet my wife naturally did, and so her digging began. Forget the shovel, when my Katie dug, she used a backhoe loader.

Kate and Ana thought of Luke Sawyer as yet another big brother. He was different from Christian's other security guys – even Taylor. Even after he left GEH, Kate and I kept in touch with him. It started out as him and I over business meetings, then it was dinners and Kate joined us. She's like whirlwind – she works multiple stories from different angles. If there is a common thread, she will find it and I can't help but feel she found something big this time.

From what Christian told me, she found something today and it almost got her killed. Hell, it got a dozen people killed, and dozens more injured. Now I know exactly how Christian feels about Ana – he has to keep her safe. I need to do this for Kate, but apparently whatever this is she's gotten herself mixed up in is bigger than anything we've ever seen. I've got to protect my wife and daughter.

My thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the door. I tell them to come in. I turn to see Jose Rodriguez standing in the doorway. His head is bandaged and his arm is in a sling. I knew he was shot saving Kate. He looks better than I thought he would. I get up and shake his hand. "Thank you for getting Kate out of there."

He smiles gently at me. "This is what family does for one and other."

"You look a bit loopy. Have a seat." He does. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore," he replies as he stares at Kate with concern. "Has she woken up yet? I don't know what those assholes drugged her with, but she went out in a split second."

"What were you doing there?" I couldn't help myself. I had to ask.

"Luke and I were at a brunch meeting across the street when we saw Kate arrive at the office. We thought it was odd that she was there on a Sunday afternoon; and then a bunch of guys followed her in. We felt like something was wrong," he explained. "So we followed them in and all hell broke loose. Did Luke get out okay? He was in bad shape when he found us. He got us out of there."

Fuck! He doesn't know and they are in business together, I thought to myself. "From what I understand he didn't make it after the second blast went off."

I watched as Jose slumped in his chair. I knew over the past few years he'd developed a good friendship with Sawyer that evolved into a profitable business partnership. His color was off from his injuries but this news drained the little color he had left.

"I need to find Abby, Javi and Luke's fiancé," Jose stated flatly as he gets to his feet. Between the medication, his injuries and the news, he swayed slightly when he stood up.

"Abby knows. She called Hannah, who isn't handling this well. She went into labor and is on the L&D pending delivery."

"Luke's little boy is going to grow up without his father," Jose sighs sadly. "Let me know how Kate is when she wakes up. I'm going to watch over Abby and Hannah."

Once Jose leaves all I can do is hold Kate's hand and wait. All I want to do is hold my wife and daughter in my arms and never let them go. Now I know how Christian felt after Hyde's attack on Ana. Feeling fucking helpless sucks!

If I had to sit here for days waiting, I'd go insane. I'm turning into my little brother as I repeatedly run my fingers through my hair in an attempt to relieve stress. I could have lost my wife today. The only woman I've ever really loved. Kate Kavanagh – reformer of Seattle's most notorious man whore – okay and Portland's too. I haven't looked at another woman since I laid eyes on her in Portland. Now Kate and her mini-me, my little Ava are my life. If you'd told me a few years ago I'd be a family man, I would have laughed in your face, then fucked all of your sisters and maybe your mom if she was hot just to prove you wrong. Now… well now, I worship my wife.

My thoughts are interrupted when the door opens and Christian, my dad, Taylor, and Welch enter. Welch has a laptop at the ready.

"We've got the security footage," Welch informs us as he sets the laptop down onto the tray table. "Thankfully it's stored both on and off-site plus we have some sound."

Welch presses play and we watch as Kate enters her penthouse office and immediately turns on her smart board. She tosses her jacket onto a chair, and then sits on the edge of her desk as she waits for the board to power up. With a swipe of her fingers two circles appear at the center of the smart board screen – one GEH, the other KMA. A moment later, she taps the screen a few times and a picture comes up on the board along with a timeline for Tina Mubarek's life. They watch as she stares at it briefly, then steps back never taking her eyes from the screen.

After a few seconds, she tilts her head back and closes her eyes. This is how my Kate organizes all the data in her head, by imagining it as a new universe and she's the black hole in the middle that sucks in the data as she processes each bit. She opens her eyes with a smirk on her face and turns to open a safe hidden behind a portrait. From it she pulls out a thumb drive and plugs it into the smart board. With a few taps of her fingers, the screen splits in two and Luke Sawyer's name appears on the bottom portion of the screen. Another tap and Kate grabs her phone and dials Christian and a second later they hear her gleefully yell "I got it. I found the link." Immediately she's grabbed from behind by a mountain of a man wearing a suit. They watch as he covers her mouth with a rag, before injecting her in the neck with a syringe. "Let go!" she screamed before losing consciousness and is roughly tossed to the floor.

"Sorry Grey, you're collateral damage now. Say good-bye to your friends. Leave her here, this building is going to blow in five minutes," one of the men says.

"Fucking bastards!" I snap bitterly and my brother, who never could handle being touched, what does he do? He puts his hand on my shoulder. That's my baby bro!

They watch as the man begins downloading information from the smart board onto the thumb drive then puts it in his pocket. He glances at his phone, mumbles under his breath and turns to leave as the first shots are heard in the background. He turns to leave the room.

The view changes to another area in the penthouse – the main reception area. Four men are in the room, armed and appear to be standing guard. The timestamp indicates this is the view of this room while Kate's attack is taking place.

"Guns down gentleman," we hear Luke's calm voice.

"Well if it isn't the cast away," the tallest man replies with contempt. "You went rogue and were thrown out – a disgrace to the agency. Everyone knows it. You're on our watch list now, right up there with Al-Qaeda leaders and other terrorists. We're just waiting for you to fuck up Sawyer. Whoever nails you gets a promotion. If we bring you in dead, we go up two levels – fucking traitor."

We are surprised to hear Luke laugh. "I'm ready to die and take as many as you assholes with me. I'm at peace with my fate – are you at peace with yours?"

"Fuck you Sawyer – fucking holier than thou asshole," one of the guys replies bitterly. "You could have had it all – fucking prodigy. What do you do? You sell what's left of your soul for the other team."

Again, we hear Luke laugh. "All I want is Kavanagh. You give me her and I'll let you get out alive. Given who her father is, she's worth money to me alive – Not to mention the Grey family."

"You always were a pompous ass Sawyer. So what does a trust fund kid need more money for? Forget I asked that," another of the guys laughed. "This place is going to blow, so unless we all move now, we're going to be dead in a few minutes."

"If you want out, you'll have to get through me first. Death is the next big adventure and I'd love to send you on your way," Luke replies. "Don't forget your sunblock and marshmallows because the ride you'll be taking is down, not up."

"Five loyal agents against one traitor," the guy that knocked Kate out informs him as he enters the room. "Your odds don't look so good."

"Well, well," Luke laughs. "Hello Crowley – fucking idiot. I look forward to putting a bullet into your head."

"Why did you do it Luke?" Crowley asked taking a step forward. "They said you'd be running the place, yet you went rogue. Who's lining your pockets?"

"If you did your homework, which clearly you don't, you'd know I don't need the money. I like a challenge. I do what I think is right, regardless of what others might believe is right," Luke replies. "Being worth nearly a billion dollars and having an IQ over 170 will do that to a person. I made my choices and am ready to live with the consequences of those choices. If you eviscerate the lynchpin, can you live with the consequences and sleep at night? Or do you not have a conscience?"

"Your ex wants to be the one to put the bullet in that thick head of yours. She's the one pushing for a kill order on you," Crowley taunts.

"She's too much of a daddy's girl to do it herself. Have her text me a time and place so she can take her best shot," Luke replies with a smirk. "Oh yeah, that's right, she doesn't get blood on her hands."

"We have just over two minutes until this place blows Luke. Quit stalling," Crowley orders, though some of the confidence is out of his voice. "Clear out or we'll clear you out. The odds aren't in your favor."

The sound of a door closing behind the men makes some of them turn. We watch as Sawyer makes his move and with six quick shots, four of the men are dead from bullet wounds to the head and Crowley is on the ground with a bullet to the leg. Luke is also on the ground with at least one bullet in the shoulder.

We watch as both Luke and Crowley attempt to get to their feet, each with a gun in hand and both clearly in pain. "Just over one minute asshole," Luke reminds him with a pain-filled smirk. "Are you ready to meet your maker? I am."

"Fuc-

Crowley's swear is interrupted by a shot from Luke's gun, right in the head. His body falls to the ground with a thud. Luke steps over him and heads into another room without so much as a glance at the body.

Again we watch as the camera view changes. They watch as Luke stumbles into the elder Kavanagh's office; his left shoulder bleeding profusely. He pushes a button on an intercom mounted to the wall. "Jose – do you have Kate in there?"

"Got her," came the reply. "Is it clear?"

"Just hit the down button and get her and yourself the fuck out of here. The safe room will take you down a few levels. There are only enough explosives to take out a few floors and there are still gunmen in the building."

"But you need to be in here with us," Jose's pleading response came though the speaker.

"Hit the down button or so help me if that door opens I'll put a bullet in your fucking head. You're running out of time. Trust me I'll get out of here."

"Be careful."

With that we heard the shrill of a mechanical device and Luke relaxed as he allowed himself to sink to the ground. "Sorry Abby," he muttered looking around the room. A moment later, he smiles and states, "Kavanagh you paranoid asshole. If I get out of here I'll bow to your fat, pompous ass."

We watched as Luke slowly made his way toward a book case. As he got to his feet, he pulled on book after book until one triggered the book case to open, revealing a stair case. Just as Luke was about to take the first step, the first explosion sounds knocking him against the wall and the security camera goes dead.

"What the hell did they mean by the lynchpin?" I asked unable to pull his eyes from my wife's unconscious form.

"Lynchpin theory is basically finding the one event that would trigger a series of other events that would give you an outcome you desire," Welch informs him. "It sounds simple, but there are intelligence think tanks in this and other countries dedicated to just that - to find and protect the potential lynchpins to prevent wars and other political catastrophes. Sometimes it's a matter of triggering a lynchpin to get what your government desires. It actually gets quite complex."

"So rather than Luke trying to protect the lynchpin, could he have been trying to trigger it or maybe protect it?" I asked in disbelief.

"Depends on the desired outcome of triggering or not triggering this lynchpin," Taylor explained as Ryan entered the room. "Based on the conversation that took place, he disagreed with his agency and went rogue."

"He didn't just go rogue," Ryan offered. "A friend at the bureau did some checking for me, he took his entire African intelligence network with him. They completely turned against his agency and shut them out. Luke built the network and spent well over a decade nurturing it. The network chose its side and they chose with Luke. All the major agencies have been watching Luke like a hawk for over a year. They are worried he'll head to Africa and slowly start civil wars that won't be beneficial to the best interest of our country. What the FBI finds amazing is with all these different agencies keeping him under surveillance, they can't find any evidence of wrong doing, so they can't touch him. From what I hear, he's covering his tracks well and driving them crazy along the way – it's almost like he's taunting them. He also has some supporters at different agencies so the FBI, CIA, and NSA are for the most part sitting back and watching it play out. You see, the mainstream agencies don't work well with the elite agencies, so they don't mind seeing one of the elite's fail."

"Why would the CIA or FBI want to harm my wife?" I ask. "I mean really, she's a reporter at a city newspaper, not an agent."

"The guys that were pulled out before the secondary blast had CIA IDs on them, but they weren't CIA," Ryan informed us. "Kate must have stumbled upon something or they knew she was close to finding something. Luke's former agency is the elite of the elite special black ops forces in this country – perhaps the world. They play by their own rules – not our laws. Hell, his agency doesn't even have a real code name. They don't appear in any federal budget documents. You can't apply to work there – you're covertly recruited. Luke was recruited as a teenager due to his IQ and the way his mind works. They made sure he got all the education and training he wanted or needed. When you have a ridiculously high IQ, it generally comes with some manner of social impairment – now imagine rain man but with a normal personality and a higher IQ – that's why Sawyer was recruited. His code name allegedly was anomaly."

"What have we found out about KMA? Anything new? Can they be tied to this agency?" Christian asked. "I mean, it would explain why we couldn't find the source of Mubarek's funding."

None of us missed the fact that both Welch and Taylor looked nervous. "What?" I asked unable to keep the irritation from my voice. I'm just too fucking tired at this point. I just want my wife and my quiet life back.

Welch and Taylor looked at each other, but it was Taylor who broke the uncomfortable silence. "If that's the case, then that would somehow make GEH or one of its subsidiaries the potential lynchpin or at least a piece of the puzzle."

"It would validate that the entire reason Sawyer took the job at GEH, so he could determine if whatever they were looking at was in fact a true lynchpin," Welch informed them. "It would mean, Luke Sawyer played me and I vouched for him."

"We vouched for him," Taylor corrected his friend.

"This is so fucked up," I muttered. "We need to sleep on it and reconvene on it tomorrow." Yes I was dismissing them. It's after midnight and I just wanted to turn my brain off, hold my wife's hand, and wait for those precious green eyes to glare at me because I'm being over-protective.

Leave it to dad to get to his feet first and announce he was taking Taylor to radiology to get a few x-rays and then have his hand set. Ryan offers to take Christian home, and then return for Taylor.

"Welch, can you take a look at my place and enhance security?" I ask. "Also, hire a team for us. I don't want to take a chance with my family."

"Will do," he replies before he leaves.

I feel Christian place his hand on my shoulder. I know he knows what I'm going through, but I just don't want to hear it. All I want is to hear my wife beg me to take her shopping or bitch about something. "What Christian?" I finally ask exasperated.

"When Kate is discharged, please come and stay with us on the Sound. Move in with us until this blows over or at the very least until you get your security squared away."

"We'll seriously consider it. Just let me see what Welch says tomorrow."