All the King's Men Read online

  “You flatter me, Mr. Matthews.” Rose grinned, her perfect teeth nearly blinding, too.

  Charlie was way too good with this, Danika thought, but that was to be expected from someone who worked among the sharks and snakes every day.

  Charlie pulled Danika over, “Oh, yes. Councilman, this is my fiancée—”

  “Danika Carlisle.” King finished for him, giving that predatory smile again. “Well, aren’t you a vision. Thank you for coming, though it’s a shame your parents couldn’t be here tonight.”

  How does he know me… or my parents? And who the hell leads with that sorta shit?

  “Councilman. And a pleasure to meet you as well, Mrs. King.” Danika responded after taking a beat to compose herself, locking her eyes with King in a fixated standoff. “Nevertheless, I’m sure they would be here if they could, offering you their full support.”

  He grinned back at her forced smile. They both knew she was lying. Her parents were against everything he stood for, including some of the policies he spoke for on the city council.

  “He knows you?” Frost asked.

  “Probably through me. It’s fine. Stand down, everyone.” Morgan’s voice instructed from their ear-pieces. His military background was the downside to trying to remain discreet, and he knew it.

  Olivia softly added, “Bravo Team still at work. Carry on, guys.”

  All the chatter didn’t distract Danika, since she was lost in her head; she had already killed King three times, three different ways. The first, thrown off the roof of the building. The second, she’d used the Gale to blast him through the stained-glass window at the top of the stairs. And the third… well, she’d gotten a little creative with the cocktail fork that was tucked away in Charlie’s coat pocket. Her heart was beating so fast. To be this close to someone as vile as King, knowing his agendas of the past and present and not be able to do anything about it, because it was too public? Hell, she’d need to go for a run later, or punch something. Or just yell at Morgan for putting her in this vulnerable position.

  “What a wonderful event to celebrate your… campaign.” Danika added with a bite in her forced, honey-sweet voice.

  Arching a thick brow, King shrugged. “Oh, I can’t take all of the credit for this. It was a cooperative effort, but it was mostly my right hand, Christophe, who handled the arrangements.”

  “Then kudos to him.” Danika replied, flatly. She could feel the rage burning in her mind. It hurt to smile; she was showing her teeth and everything. The trick to schmoozing with bigwigs like this meant a bit of pain, and she hid behind her drink to bring the down the stress.

  “Mr. Matthews, I do hope the folks at Brightman, Bullock and Co. are treating you well?” King shifted his attention back to Charlie as his forefinger lightly tapped on the goblet in his broad hand.

  Charlie nodded, “Yes, actually. They’ve been more than accommodating for someone taking on a junior level position, and it’s been a great venture to say the least. I can’t think of a better firm to have landed in than theirs.”

  “My my, Matthews, you are really good at this, aren’t you?” Olivia mused, echoing Danika’s thoughts precisely as she sipped her wine with Morgan at the bar.

  “…And as long as my Dani is happy with the new place keeping me busy, I’m sure it’ll be splendid.” Charlie gave an answer aimed at King but suitable for Olivia, as he put his arm around his “betrothed” and squeezed her waist. She turned toward him and on a whim, Charlie smiled and pressed his forehead against hers. Surprising herself with a faint giggle, Danika scrunched her nose as she returned the rather amorous gesture, and he kissed her on the cheek.

  “Seriously guys, blech.” Frost chimed in.

  Once more, Danika was caught by surprise, but this time it took her breath away. There was a flash of the future: Charlie, his stable career at his firm. They had a beautiful house outside of the city with the white fence out front, blue paint, white trim, and a deck where she’d watch him from her chair playing with the dog…a husky. It made her smile, though this time it wasn’t a chore to do so. She was nearly convinced they were a couple.

  My Dani… he’d said.

  “Package secure. You’re clear, over.” Erik finally broke his radio silence, bringing Danika right out of that daydream.

  Charlie squeezed her waist. He’d heard the cue. “We should get going, right darling?”

  “Right, sweetheart.” Danika smirked, and turned to the King and his queen, Primrose, to dip her head in respect. “It was wonderful meeting you, sir, and of course Mrs. King. We wish you the best on your campaign.” It was a sentiment in passing, half-hearted as shit since Danika didn’t care for the bastard or his wife, even if she seemed to have a good heart.

  “Well, congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” Rose said with a forced smile that seemed just as eerie as her husbands. If Danika didn’t know any better, she could have been a damn robot.

  “Same to you. Best of luck on your campaign.” Charlie responded, bowing his head gracefully at the host and hostess.

  The King’s nodded, and moved away to find another couple to grace with their regal presence.

  Danika was just glad to have gotten out of the realm of small-talk, especially with him. She wasn’t even sure they were out of earshot before saying, “God, Mrs. Stepford really gave me the creeps.”

  “Dani.” Charlie whispered at her, tugging her along the way as he spotted the nearest exit.

  “Alright, the eagle has landed or whatever. Rendezvous at HQ. Everyone knows the drill, leave separately, in intervals. I’ll have the doors prepped at base. See you soon, over.” Frost called out the mission as a success, and moved to round everyone up.

  “Copy that.” Morgan chimed in first.

  “Copy…” Erik responded.

  As everyone checked in with Frost, Danika and Charlie were outside waiting for their car at the valet podium. She’d made some passing comment about being cold so he offered his jacket. Impressed by his chivalry, Danika blushed, but quickly shoved that away as she wiggled her nose and pinched her cheeks. “I think my face is going to get stuck like this if I keep doing it.”

  Charlie snickered. “Or, you could always keep smiling since it suits you, how about that?”

  She tilted her head slightly and shook her head. “Never gonna happen.”

  “I wouldn’t say never.”

  This might have been a sweet moment if not for the pitiful feeling she had in her head. This was the first date she’d had in a while, but it was all fabricated, a cover story for a mission, in a fake, forced relationship with her recruit, Charles. It was far better than the alternative of online dating or blind dates, but as it started its gradual fall into the inevitable denouement, Danika found herself enjoying it for what it was worth.

  “Take her out.”

  “Did you say something?” His neck tilted as if he’d heard something that sent a chill to his spine. Charlie started to search the area on the ground level for anyone suspicious.

  Danika shook her head, pulling the sleeves of Charlie’s coat over her arms. “No, but I was just going to tell you, if I had to smile any longer talking to emperor King back there, my teeth were going to fall out.” She laughed, but that wasn’t enough to keep Charlie distracted from the next call.

  “Got her.” The low, hoarse voice was impossible for anyone to pick up other than Charles, but it was spoken from a distance that made his head spin.

  Charlie searched up and down the street and thought to elevate his eyes, only to find the red dot shining on Danika’s chest. “Dani, get down!”

  The crack of what Charlie identified as a .50 caliber round ripped through the air like a thunderclap. The single shot sent the mass into a frenzy. Screams and cries from passersby; the party’s attendees that had been trickling out like a slow drip were now scurrying away like a flash flood, erratic, rushing away in every direction.

  Danika’s dark orbs peeked up at him, full of
tears. A breath shot out of her as she gasped, the wind knocked out of her when she was pulled down in the chaos. Streaks of mascara dripped down the side of her face as she lay back, flat on the pavement. “Charlie?”

  Charlie was kneeling above her, acting as her shield. “Shooter. I didn’t get a good look, but I heard him.” He brushed the hair out of her eyes, tracing his fingers down to caress her face. “But you’re fine—”

  “Ch… Charlie…” She said again, her voice faint, her fingers losing their strength as her arms weakly fell to her sides. A burst of pain rippled outward from her core and then faded, as her body fell numb. “What… happ…”

  As he sat up, Charlie brought his hand to pat the front of his shirt, feeling a thick, damp substance on the fabric.

  Blood.

  “No… No!” The lack of a bullet hole on him meant the blood wasn’t his.

  Danika had been shot.

  “Dani!” Charlie hollered, quickly settling on his knees to cradle her head in his lap. He screamed for assistance into the hustling crowd, trying to find someone he’d recognized from the team. Morgan, Olivia, Erik, Koa… no recognizable faces from the blur of people rushing by. Everyone looked like a smear of black and white, tuxedos and gowns swooping by in a rush to get out of the area.

  “Charl—wha—happen—can—hear—” The comm picked up pieces of Frost’s words but it was all garbled under static.

  “Frost? Frost if you can see this, hear this, I-I need Aldo—I need…No…Dani, stay with me, okay?” Charlie almost forgot he was still wearing the glasses so even without a direct audio link he was sure it was being viewed. He wiped away the tears in her eyes with his trembling hands and cradled her in his arms. He rocked her softly, trying to keep her awake and alert. Charlie was nearly in tears himself as he looked to anyone for assistance.

  “PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!” Charlie exclaimed, and a heavy gust of wind started to blow in for a moment.

  No one cared to stop. No one even gave him so much as a glance.

  “Charlie!” Olivia emerged from the chaos, with her heels hitting the pavement in a rapid rush toward them. Olivia’s long mane of mahogany tresses starting to brighten into her natural red hair, not worrying about masking it since no one would notice the subtle shift in the commotion. “Shit.” She uttered, as she fell to her knees beside Charlie. Pulling off the shawl she had around her neck, Olivia bunched it and placed it over the gunshot wound and applied pressure.

  Sloane wasn’t too far behind her. He had his cellphone pinned between his cheek and shoulder as they approached.

  “Olivia—I-I don’t know where the shooter is, it happened so fast… Fuck!” Charlie cursed.

  Sloane paced and barked into the phone as soon as he got in touch with a dispatcher. “I need an ambulance. We’re at King’s Grand Regal—North entrance, 2121…”

  Olivia searched for the shooter, her eyes darting from rooftop to rooftop, and then back down to Danika on the pavement. Looking at Charlie with a sideways glance, she kept the pressure on Danika’s bullet wound. “Did you see anyone?”

  “No.” Charlie frantically shook his head.

  “Please hurry!” Sloane shouted. The phone vanished into his jacket pocket and he bent down to put his fingers to Danika’s neck to check her pulse. He too looked over at Charlie with a wary expression, one that seemed like judgment, ready to place blame.

  The wind was now at a steady howl, rustling the trees and the fallen leaves in the streets. Charlie was shaking; angry, terrified and frustrated that right now, his abilities were no good. He felt so helpless that he couldn’t fly, or run as fast as Erik, as he would have wanted to pick up Danika and just sprint to find The Ward—just like she had the night she’d found him. His heart was racing with a fear that would not subside as he watched the blood spilling out of the wound beneath Danika’s gown, and onto the pavement.

  “It’s going to be fine… Dani, you hear me? You’re going to be fine.” Olivia said, with Sloane standing beside her.

  The sirens were in the distance, responders coming straight from the hospital just down the street. Aside from the mass of pedestrians heading away from Grand Regal, traffic seemed light, so they hoped they would arrive soon.

  Danika couldn’t hear anything as she lay there with her head in Charlie’s arms. She stared at the black sky, as the crowd pushed by in a blur. When she could focus on his face, her staggered breathing made it difficult to smile but she mustered up enough strength to do so.

  “Hey… stay with us Dani.” Charlie whispered.

  “Eyes u-up…” Danika was weak. She put her hand along the scruff on Charlie’s cheek, and left a streak of blood onto his face.

  “Dani? Dani!”

  Stay Alive

  “Dani, we’re here, okay?” Olivia had completely reverted to her normal self, having shifted back to her bright red hair and those gorgeous eyes Danika remembered. Her gown had been ruined, coated from neck to chest in blood, as she’d helped Charlie and the others get Danika to safety.

  Sloane, Charlie, Olivia and Morgan were jogging to keep up with the paramedics as they rushed the gurney inside, with Danika strapped to it. Blood was pooling around her and dripping down, leaving a trail on the concrete, through the sliding doors, and into the hospital.

  “We need a doctor here!” Charlie exclaimed. He fiddled with his bowtie, letting it fall loose around his neck. His coat was strewn about somewhere, covered in Danika’s blood as she’d been wearing it when the shot occurred. Even without the bloodstains, it had been ruined by the bullet hole that ran through the back. Charlie didn’t care. He hated this suit anyway, and there were more things to be concerned with at present.

  “Is it… b-bad?” Danika asked, barely holding onto consciousness. Her eyes were heavy, and she peered up at everyone through her eyelashes.

  The team was blocked at the doorway to the trauma room by a nurse while people in scrubs streamed into the room and began working on Dani, cutting through her expensive gown, starting IVs, wiping away the blood to see exactly what they were dealing with. The monitors were going wild.

  Morgan was not going to be stopped so easily. “I’m her uncle! Let me through!”

  “I need to be there too, she’s my fiancée!” Charlie saw no reason to stop playing the role that he’d been in all evening.

  The nurse relented, telling them to stand to the side of the bed and let the professionals work before addressing Sloan and Olivia. “Come with me, I’ll show you where you can wait.”

  “Step aside, Charlie.” Morgan rushed into the room, his footsteps urgent. He moved toward Danika immediately.

  “No.” Charlie insisted, keeping pace with him, his eyes fixed on Danika.

  Morgan was taken aback, and his brow furrowed. “No?”

  There was a lot of activity in the emergency room, so Charlie had no trouble ignoring Morgan, even with his Powered hearing.

  The staff was calling out to each other as they worked; the doctor interjecting with orders.

  “Her blood pressure is dropping, pulse is thready. Heart rate is elevated. We need IV access!”

  “Oxygen saturation is in the mid-80s and dropping.”

  “I’ve got a line, I need saline!”

  “No, let’s go with Lactated Ringer’s instead. She’s in hemorrhagic shock. And get me that thoracotomy tray!”

  “Put a pressure bag on, get those fluids in faster.”

  “Oxygen sats are in the 70s, heart rate is 160.”

  “She’s crashing!”

  “I’ve got another IV over here! Hanging another liter of LR now.”

  “I have to do a needle decompression, get me a 16 gauge and some Povidone, now!” The doctor barked.

  The chaos in the emergency room blew past him like the Gale; the staff speaking so fast and in terms Charlie couldn’t understand, they might as well have been speaking another language. It made it difficult to concentrate, but he fought to shift his focus onto Danika as things seemed to be rapidly det
eriorating. Despite the nurse’s instructions, he and Morgan rushed straight to the bedside.

  “Dani? Dani stay with us alright? It’s gonna be okay!” Charlie called out, but was edged aside by a nurse.

  “Out of the way!” She barked, as she splashed amber liquid over Dani’s side, while the doctor readied the needle. Charlie winced as the doctor stuck the needle between her ribs, which elicited a long groan of pain, and bloody air sprayed onto the sheets of the gurney, and the plastic gown covering the doctor.

  “She’s got two liters of fluid on board now. B/P is on the still low side but improving. Heart rate is back down below 120.”

  “O2 sats are back up. Holding in the high 80s.”

  “Alright, good job guys.” Relief filled the doctor’s voice. “We’re not out of the woods yet but we can do a proper chest tube now.”

  “What h-happened?” Danika’s voice wavered, the undertones hovering somewhere between delirium and euphoria. The meds were flowing into her veins, working through her fast. She gently squeezed Charlie’s hand as her eyes fell halfway closed, fighting the sedation.

  Charlie breathed out, relieved to hear her voice. “You were shot. Sloane, Olivia, they called the ambulance. You’re in the hospital.”

  “Hospital? No… I-I need to g-go home.” The pallor of her skin made her almost ghostly, with her lips once a brilliant red to go with her attire now thin, dry, and pale. She was perspiring profusely, sweat and tears dripping down the side of her face. The wound in her chest bubbled with every shallow breath as she tried to speak.

  Charlie shook his head as he wiped the sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief. “Shhhh, easy now. It’s gonna be okay.” Charlie’s soft voice cooed, the accent was easily recognized by Danika and she smiled.

  Danika’s eyelids fluttered as she struggled to keep them open.

  “Danika, I’m going to put a tube into your chest to help your lung open up again, ok? We’re going to give you some medicine to help with the pain.” The doctor said in a soothing voice.

  Danika gave a brief nod as the doctor addressed the staff. “Give two milligrams of Versed, slowly, and get ready to bag her if she stops breathing. Someone call the OR and make sure they are getting ready for us.” He began unwrapping a package wrapped in sterile blue paper containing the necessary instruments.