Page 85 of Rescuing Erin

“Please, come down and join us,” the man said.

“Not a fucking chance. Why don’t you come up here if you’re so eager to meet me?”

“You’ve gone through so much trouble and you don’t want to watch the main event?”

A crackling sound filled the basement, right before an unmistakable sound of an electrical arc penetrated through the ringing in my ears.

“Holy shit,” I muttered, just before a guttural scream came from below.

“Fuck this!”

This wasn’t good. I knew Zane was gonna take the bait and go down the stairs.

Goddamn it!

Without a plan, Zane rushed the door. He couldn’t fucking help himself. I hurried down after him and felt Rocco on my six. One hand was on my shoulder, and he used the other to point his weapon over the banister.

I damn near ran into Zane’s back when he stopped short. I hadn’t yet seen what had halted him and the moment I stepped to his side I wished I hadn’t.

Tom Anderson was tied to a chair. His white, button-down shirt was torn open and covered in blood. His face had been beaten to a pulp. I had to blink a few times to recognize him. Three square electrodes were placed on his chest. How the sticky pads adhered to his skin with all the blood dripping from his nose, down his chin, and onto his chest was beyond me. A car battery sat on the floor at Tom’s feet and the man held a cattle prod in his hand. A little over-dramatic, if you asked me. One or the other would’ve done the job. Using both on the president was overkill.

Zane hadn’t spoken, hadn’t even breathed.

Rocco had taken aim on one of the two men in the room.

“What do you want?” Zane finally spat out.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? All of this and you want nothing?”

“I already have what I came for. There’s nothing I need from you.”

“Bullshit. I don’t believe, for a second, Tom would’ve told you anything.”

“Tom?” The man chuckled. “Yes, I had heard you’re a presumptuous prick that thinks he’s one of President Anderson’s men. One of the anointed few he’s on a first name basis with. It’s a shame you’re so late. You missed all the good stuff.”

Was that jealousy I’d detected? The man sounded positively envious that Zane and the rest of us were on first name terms with the president. Something all of us had struggled with, but something Tom Anderson had demanded. There wasn’t a damn speck of pretense when it came to the president. Those closest to him, the ones he respected and trusted were asked to check the presidential title when speaking to him.

“Do it,” Tom slurred.

My gut clenched, and I tried to work out what Zane was going to do. He was the wild card. Then there was Tom. I wasn’t sure if he was taunting the man into telling Zane something.

Goddamn clusterfuck of epic proportions.

“You have to know you’re not leaving here alive,” Zane told him.

I was taken aback by my boss’s uncharacteristic calm demeanor. Zane Lewis didn’t talk. He didn’t negotiate. He simply walked into a room full of hostiles and started taking them out.

“I hadn’t figured I would. Of course, the hope was I’d live, but there are somethings a man’s willing to give his life for.”

“And what is it exactly are you willing to die for?” I asked.

“Sometimes a reminder is needed. We are the whole of everything, in all ways, all places. No one is beyond our reach, not even the President of the United States.”

“Omni.”

“Do it,” Tom slurred again, this time more forcefully.