She let out a breath, knowing that it wouldn’t be that simple, but she could do it. And she would. She would do anything to protect Lucy, even if it meant breaking her oath to the President.
“You know that you’re protecting the President by keeping him in the dark until we figure out how to fix this, right?” Jason said quietly, reaching out in the darkness and squeezing Kate’s hand.
When he didn’t immediately let go, she looked at him in the darkness, shocked by the tender gesture. He smiled, then released her hand without another word.
“You’re right,” she said. “If I want to protect the President, I can’t let him know about Marissa.”
“So, stick with the plan, and as soon as Lucy and Anna are safe at home, we’ll come back with reinforcements, and we’ll take care of Marissa,” Eli said.
“Help take care of her,” Kate said.
Eli chuckled, but he didn’t argue.
“If you want to be involved, I’m not going to argue. This is your fight, too.”
“Thank you,” Kate said. “I truly appreciate it.”
“I’m not going to take over your turf. I’m not King of New Hope.”
“You could be,” Kate said before she thought better of it. “The world as it is now isn’t good for anybody.”
The truck was silent as they absorbed her words, and Kate brooded over the reality of her life there in New Hope. Despite her high rank and the power she held, she would still never be more than a servant of the one percent, and that wasn’t what she wanted for her life. Before, she’d been happy. After a rough start in life, she’d worked her way through the ranks, earning back the money her family owed, then paying off her own debts and becoming financially stable in ways that most soldiers never managed. Caleb had done the same, but his arrogance and a few badly timed mistakes had ruined that, and he found himself almost breaking even at this point, stripped of his accomplishments in the blink of an eye. Though he’d made mistakes, Kate had never agreed with how he’d been treated, which was why she’d given him another chance on her base away from his reputation and the fallout from his rash choices.
I don’t want to stay here, she thought, but she pushed the thought out of her mind. She’d been happy before, and when things were resolved and everything was back to normal, she would be happy again.
But she wasn’t convinced.
She slowed the truck, turning off the tarmac and down the quiet residential streets in the darkness. She turned down Caleb’s road and pushed the remote to open the garage. Parking inside, she killed the engine and got out. Jason was right behind her, sliding across the seat as he had before and standing close as she closed the door and made her way into the kitchen.
The house was quiet. A quick glance at the clock made her realize that it was quite late, and she wondered if Anna and Lucy had gone to sleep in the back room.
She walked down the hall, stomach sinking with each step. Before she even got to the last door, she knew that no one was home. The house was too quiet, and Kate knew the feeling all too well. There was no one in this house, and there hadn’t been in the past thirty minutes or so.
She opened the door anyway, flipping on the light switch and gasping when she saw Anna there, tied to the chair and limp, a gag in her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. Kate yelled out to Eli, and the three men came running at once. Eli pushed past Kate, going to Anna and shouting her name. Anna didn’t move.
Kate was shaking when Jason’s hand touched her shoulder and turned her around.
“Kate?” he asked, his face a mix of fear and confusion.
“They’re gone,” Kate said, her voice barely above a whisper as Eli worked Anna free behind them.
“What do you mean, ‘they’re gone?’” Jason asked, his voice soft despite the desperation she heard in it.
“He took her,” Anna said from behind Kate.
Kate spun around, relieved to see that Anna was alive, though her face was bruised where someone had punched her to disable her before tying her up.
“Who took her?” Kate asked, afraid she already knew the answer but hoping that she was wrong.
“Caleb,” Anna said, sobbing against Eli, her angry fists clenched at her sides. “As soon as you left, Caleb took her.”
“Do you know where they went?” Eli asked.
“He said he was going to get his life back, whatever that means,” Anna said, still trying to contain her despair.
Kate closed her eyes and shook her head, the reality worse than she thought.
“What?” Jason pressed, his hand still on her shoulder, his presence as gentle as always, even in the middle of so much upheaval.
Kate let out a shuddering breath, then opened her eyes, wishing that she didn’t know exactly what Caleb was doing. But she’d known him practically his entire life, and his plans were clear as day. She looked at Eli then Anna, her expression apologetic. She should have known that Caleb would pull something this stupid, but she had never imagined that he would put a child’s life in danger, even for himself.
“He is going to prove to President Pearce that Marissa is a dragon and that she’s manipulating him into doing things that go against every treaty for the past fifty years.” She took a short breath before delivering the final blow. “And he’s going to use Lucy to prove it.”