Innocent People's Lives

Chapter Eighteen

"You can do this," he said, kissing her cheek.

Back in her business clothes, her armor, she almost believe him. Almost.

She wasn't as confident as he was. Even though the plan was partly hers, she still didn't trust the others working with them. But he did. And she trusted him with her life.

"I'm scared."

"I'll be with you the entire time. I'm the little voice in your ear. I'll hear everything you do. I won't be far away. I promise. Just say the word and I'm there, Leese."

She closed her eyes, knowing he was right. It was perfectly safe as far as operations went. He would be right there and she did have a tiny earpiece in. A transmitter and a receiver, all in one. The audio was being recorded on a device in Jackson's possession. He had to stay within so many feet of her for the signal to transmit correctly.

He'd also given her a gun.

She took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and looked right at him. "You swear?"

"On my life. I won't let anything happen to you."

She nodded, giving him a quick kiss. "Okay. I'm ready."

As soon as she walked into the building, she received an escort of concerned people. No one bothered to pat her down – she suspected they all had orders – and led her right upstairs. She could hear Jackson breathing over the comms in her ear and knew he was working his way through the building himself. He was stopping in the server room with Mark's keys to swipe some drives. She'd told him where the logs were kept.

The office door opened and she stepped into the room just like she had a million times before.

"Lisa? Are you alright?" Charles got up from his desk and crossed the room to pull her into a hug. Lisa stood there with her arms at her side, stiff. The door closed behind her with a loud click.

"Is it true?" she asked, avoiding his question.

He frowned. "Is what true?"

"Sarah. Did you have her killed? Did you try to have me killed as well?"

He took a step back and looked at her. "Have you been talking to Rippner?"

"Is it true? Did you hire me to keep an eye on me? To use as a pawn later? Is that all I am to you?"

He shook his head. "You have this all wrong, Lisa. Rippner has been lying to you. You can't trust him."

She shook her head at him sadly. "I don't know who to trust anymore, but I'm sick of the lies. Tell me the truth, Charles. You owe me that much."

He sighed. "I never meant for you to get mixed up in this business. That was never my intention, Lisa. You need to trust me on that."

She stared at him. "What business? What happened to you?"

He sighed and took a seat, gesturing for her to do the same. "It's a long story. There's really no good way to tell it. It's complicated and messy."

"I'm imagining the worst. Please, tell me something. Help me understand."

Charles shook his head sadly. "I made some mistakes when I was younger. Big mistakes. I should have known better, but I didn't. They have haunted me for fifteen years."

"What did you do?"

"It's not that simple. It's a series of decisions, each with devastating consequences. One of which being Sarah's death. It was not my idea to kill her, but they need me in the White House."

"Who does?"

"My wealth didn't come easily. I needed capital, especially to make a presidential run. I've been backed by unsavory types before. Most politicians are. It's part of the nature of the game."

Lisa nodded. She'd known Jackson had been trying to find links between Keefe and the criminal underground. There had been suspicions, but Keefe had covered his tracks well, usually by killing off underlings, such as Jackson's Florida crew. It made it hard to link anyone.

"Who has been supporting you? Have they been asking for favors?"

"Everyone asks for favors. For every friend you make, there's another one who is an enemy. It's part of the political game. There's no good excuse for what I've done."

"I still don't understand what this has to do with Sarah," Lisa said. And with me…

"The polls indicated that I needed something to catapult me to the top of the running. It was decided that a sympathy vote would do it."

"A sympathy vote?"

"Sarah. If she died in an act against me, whether it was murder or terrorism, the country would feel for me and my loss. It would up my status and gain me more supporters. It was a necessary sacrifice. The other option was my children."

"And you decided there was no other way?"

"It was decided for me. They wanted to kill my entire family. So I compromised. I gave them you as well."

"What?" Lisa asked, stunned. All this time they'd been operating on the assumption that Keefe was the one who wanted her dead. That he was pulling the strings. What would it mean if he wasn't the one in charge? What would that change for Jackson's investigation? Who else would be after them if Keefe wasn't the top man in charge?

"You see, they never liked you working for me. They thought you could compromise all of our work. I convinced them that having you close meant we could keep an eye on you. We could control you. And I proved that was true. You were a valuable employee, until they decided you were worth more dead than alive."

She shook her head. "Who decided that? You?"

Keefe sighed. "It was above my pay grade. I'm a foot solider. I carry out their plans."

"Who are they? Why exactly do they want me dead?"

"If you're looking for a way out, I don't know of one, Lisa. I am so sorry."

"No, if you were truly sorry you even wouldn't have dragged me into this mess. If you really cared, you would have stood up to them and said no. No to killing me. No to killing Sarah. But you didn't. She's lucky she's dead – she didn't have to see what kind of snake you really are," she said, shaking her head as she stood up.

"Wait…" he grabbed her wrist. "Lisa, give me a chance…"

"No. I did nothing wrong except trust you and now you want me dead. We're done, Charles."

"I know Jackson Rippner put you up to this. I know he goaded you into confronting me. I've been trying to figure him out all these years. I thought he would jump at the chance to kill you after how you humiliated him. Instead, he jumped at the chance to save you. How long have you two been working together?"

She frowned. "We don't work together. We're not friends."

"Yet you're still breathing when I specifically told him to kill you. How did you bargain your way out of that? I know you don't have the money to buy him off. I also know you were with Mark. There's nothing about my staff that I don't know," he said, smirking.

"Then you know Mark is dead."

He nodded. "A tragedy. I should have known that it would take more than one man to take down Rippner. He's almost invincible."

"Jackson didn't kill him. I did."

Author's Notes:

Finally, we're going to get some answers. And it's getting bumpy, so fasten your seatbelts.

Also... I learned how to GIF. There's links to the two sets I made in my profile. You're welcome.

Please keep reviewing! Even anonymously - it helps remind me that people are reading this and pokes me along to update faster. Just saying... plus I usually respond to reviews, sometimes with little hints of what's to come. I will respond to all the anonymous ones by the end of the story, too.