Page 82 of Shadowed Agenda

He grabbed her neck. Regan slashed at his face. He shrieked and let go.

“You bitch!” Gage bellowed.

Regan looked up as Gage scooped Blaine’s gun off the floor.

“You. You’re ruining everything,” he shouted, pointing the gun at Regan. “Drop the knife.”

Regan wasn’t that stupid. She crawled off Blaine and threw it across the room, out of everyone’s reach.

“Wila,” he said as Regan stood. “We can still make this work.”

Wila hadn’t moved from her place on the couch. Her confident demeanor had disappeared. Rage was written across her face and in the shaking hands clenched at her sides.

“Gage,” the Senator said, his voice trembling. “Put down the gun.”

“Shut up and don’t move.” Gage shifted the gun and pointed it at Blaine. The man was struggling to get up. Gage shot him in the chest. He slumped to the floor. “We’ll adjust the story.”

Regan watched Wila’s expression change to one of delight as she quickly worked through the change in plans.

“Regan lunged at the assassin as he raised his gun to shoot the Senator,” Wila began recounting what every newspaper and TV channel would report later that day. “Alas, she was too late.” Wila placed her hands over her heart, mocking Regan. “His gun flew out of his hand, but not before he’d shot Regan. Gage scooped up the gun and killed the assassin.”

“It won’t work,” Regan said, stalling for time. She needed time to think. “The forensic evidence won’t support your story.”

“Oh, Regan, you are so naïve,” Wila said, laughing. “People will do anything for the right amount of money. Including tampering with forensic evidence.”

“And we all live happily ever after,” Gage added.

Everyone except Regan and the Senator.

Chapter thirty-eight

“They’restandingtooclosetogether,” Talia’s voice whispered through Pavlo’s earpiece. “I can’t get a clear shot.”

Pavlo eased the back door shut and headed for the hallway past the laundry room. It would take him directly to the sunroom. Talia had guessed it was where everything would go down. She had claimed it was a gut feeling. He didn’t question it. She’d been right.

“Shit,” Talia’s voice exploded in his ear. “Regan’s engaged with the tango. “

“What do you mean, engaged?” Pavlo asked as a man’s scream carried down the hallway. He quickened his pace.

“She’s got a knife,” Talia said as Pavlo reached the sunroom’s door. Someone on the other side of the door shrieked in pain. “Crap.”

“Talia,” Pavlo growled. Regan was in that room, and he didn’t know what was happening. Raised voices penetrated the door. Pavlo could only catch a word or two, not enough to decipher the conversation behind the closed door. He knew better than to piece things together from the fragments. It could lead to the wrong conclusion.

“Tango down. Get ready to move.”

Down? Pavlo placed his hand on the doorknob and checked to ensure it would open on Talia’s command.

“Now!” Talia shouted.

Pavlo burst through the door as one of the ceiling-to-floor windows cascaded to the floor. Talia’s bullet hit Palmer before Pavlo could pull the trigger.

He dove for the floor as Wila Aster raised the gun in her hand. Pavlo’s bullet hit her shoulder before she had time to fire. The gun dropped to the floor.

Wila looked at him, dazed. Blood ran down her shoulder. “You shot me.”

“Yes, ma’am, I did,” Pavlo said, and she fainted.

Senator Aster stood three feet from Gage’s body, sprawled on the floor. Regan sat on the floor, covered in blood. The man sprawled beside her had been stabbed several times. He’d taken a bullet to the chest. Blood flowed down his face from a long gash.