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The Best Laid Plans
Ryan
“Are you looking forward to today’s public inquiry, Prime Minister?”
The question was hollered from the other side of Downing Street as I stepped out of the famous black door of number ten. Eying the pack of journalists briefly, I dismissed the query and headed for my waiting car. I never answered questions that were screamed at me by the pack of bloodhounds who regularly frequented my doorstep, and I had less than no desire to engage about the ordeal awaiting me that day.
“Good morning, Prime Minister.”
The driver smiled as he opened the door for me, and I nodded in acknowledgment. The sooner I got away from the throng of flashing lenses and microphones, the better.
“Get me out of here.”
Muttering the instruction, I slipped into the back of the leather interior of the enormous car and waited as he closed the door after me.
“Ryan.” My special advisor, Adam, grinned from the opposite seat. “How are you?”
“Thrilled.” My hissed response conveyed my true feelings. “This inquiry is a total waste of my bloody time.”
“It’s a necessary evil.” Adam flicked through the pile of paperwork on his lap as I fastened my safety belt. “Put on your best show for the cameras, fudge the truth, and get it over and done with.”
“Easy for you to say.” I threw him a glare. “You’re not the one who has to feign contrition, and frankly, it’s not my style.”
“You don’t say.” Adam stifled laughter. “It’s part of the job, though, and you know that.”
“Surely not.” Tutting, I glanced at the building that had become my home. “I’ve been doing this for too long to have to perform for the cameras. It should go without saying that I got things right, and even where I might have made a mistake, it wasn’t my fault.”
Adam shook his head, a wry smile painting his face. “As I said, it will all be over soon enough. Let’s just get you there, and while we drive, I’ll go over the key points one last time.”
“We did all that yesterday.” Closing my eyes, I threw my head back against the leather head support. Even with my police escort, the London traffic would mean it took an age to get me to the inquiry. Could I really cope with another deluge of the same useless information he was about to offload? “How about some peace instead?”
“I think it’s important to rehearse this, Prime Minister.” He’d taken on that imperious tone, the one that sought to herd me into action. “We want to get it right.”
“Do we?” Lifting my hand to my temple, I rubbed at the tension building there. It was going to be an exceptionally long day.
“Yes.” He sighed. “So, let’s start with the first few questions pertaining to what you knew in the run-up to—”
He was cut off by the insistent low thrum of my phone, which was vibrating in my inside jacket pocket. Suppressing my snigger, I reached for the device. Whoever was calling could save me from the dullest journey of my life, and I made a mental note to reward them in some way.
“I’d better get this.” I didn’t bother to turn and meet what I knew would be Adam’s disgusted expression. “It could be important.”
“This is important!” His retort echoed from my side but was muted as I surveyed the incoming caller’s identity.
Baron.
The guy was in charge of my security teams and had been instrumental in ensuring my irritating half-brother was out of the picture. Seeing his name on the screen flooded my system with concern about the job I’d assumed was already taken care of.
“Baron?” I spat his name, lifting my hand to order quiet from Adam. I know he was paid to coach me through the farce of yet another public inquiry, but I had more significant things on my mind than another whining group of lawyers. “What’s wrong?”
There had to be something amiss. Why else would he be calling so early?
“It’s about—”
“Nathanial.” I didn’t even allow him to finish the sentence, because instinctively, I knew the answer. “What the fuck has he done now?”
The dick had been nothing but a pain since the day I’d found out he existed. My father had kept his dirty little secret hidden for a long time, but I still recalled the day he’d told my mother about his latest whore and how she’d managed to get pregnant. The fallout had been cataclysmic. My mother was used to his endless string of affairs, and I was sure she knew about most of them—she was tedious, but not stupid. This one was different, though. This one had produced another son, and I vividly remembered how my mother had raged when she’d received the news. Father had insisted she should calm down, but she never did. On the contrary, her anger and bitterness at the prospect of my half-sibling only growing as the years passed.
I’d kept a wary eye on Nathanial, watching as he moved from the crappy college he attended to train with the police. It wasn’t that I was interested in him or his inane career, but I sensed the latent threat he signified and wanted to know my enemy. I supposed my mother had infected me with her acrimony, poisoning me against him and everything he stood for. Logically, I understood he’d done nothing more than being born the illegitimate son of my father, but the damage had been done. I hated him, and all the self-righteousness his profession represented. I desperately wanted him gone for good.
“He’s gone, sir.”
I tuned into Baron’s words as the car pulled out of the end of Downing Street.
Gone? My brow furrowed at the news. “What do you mean, gone?”
“He slipped away from my men yesterday, sir.” Baron laid it out for me in layman’s terms, his explanation ricocheting around my head as I tried to make sense of the enormity of the fuck-up. “And we haven’t seen him since.”
“For God’s sake, Baron.” Gripping the phone harder, I tried to think. “When did this happen? Where did he go?”
“We think about nine o’clock yesterday morning.” Even Baron sounded sheepish at that admission.
“Nine o’clock?” Indignation flared. “You mean the bastard disappeared almost twenty-four hours ago and I’m only hearing about this on the way to the public inquiry?”
“I wanted to see if I could handle it, sir...” Baron hesitated, presumably realizing the assertion meant confessing that he hadn’t handled it. “But we lost him at King’s Cross Station.”
Fuck. Pressure tightened in my stomach until I shifted in my seat.
“Tell me everything.” Evidently, I’d put far too much trust in Baron and needed to know every detail of the blunder in case it came back to bite me.
What am I saying? I heaved in air, redirecting the flow at the back of the car toward my face. This is Nathanial. Of course it will come and bite me.
“Yes, sir.” Baron took a breath, and instantly, I knew whatever he said next would be one long list of missteps and oversight—an array of people I’d need to fire to iron out the issue—and even their departures didn’t guarantee Nathanial’s return. “He was last seen in custody at nine yesterday morning. It seems he attacked two of my men and stole a phone.”
Shit. “Who did he call?” I sensed Adam fidgeting at my side and knew he was going to have questions, but my priority was hearing Baron out before I gave him the dressing down of his life.
“The first call was traced to Laura Chambers...” Baron’s hesitation tore a hole through any reassurance I’d experienced when I didn’t recognize the name.
“Who is she?” I demanded, feeling the throb in my forehead exacerbate.
“A colleague of his.” Wariness resonated in his voice.
“A detective?” The unease inside me furled.
“Yes,” Baron confirmed. “After that, he called a number we’ve traced to another woman, Emelia Reynolds.”
This is getting better and better.
“She’s one of the ones we had in custody from the motel, sir.”
“Yes.” My tone was weary. “I know who she is.” I thought I’d heard the last of her when I’d given her a case of cash and put her in a fucking car, but apparently not. I should have known better. Should have realized loose ends need to be tethered. “How does she link to King’s Cross?”
“It seems that’s where she was when he called her, sir,” Baron bleated. “We have CCTV footage of him meeting her there. They boarded a train to Edinburgh Waverley with another female, presumed to be Reynolds’ daughter.”
“Edinburgh.” I murmured the word as I glanced out at the gray streets of London. “Why Edinburgh?” I was talking to myself more than Baron, but the buffoon answered me anyway.
“We don’t know, sir.”
Rolling my eyes, I prayed to the god I didn’t believe in for patience. Of course he doesn’t. “What happened to them after that?”
“That’s unknown, sir.”
“What do you mean ‘unknown’?” I snapped. “They have cameras at Edinburgh, don’t they?”
“Yes. But I’ve been busy accumulating this information for you, sir, and since the target isn’t technically under arrest, I wanted to speak to you to find out how to proceed.”
“How to proceed?” The pain in the side of my head was getting worse. “For fuck’s sake, I ordered that he was extradited from the country, man! What more do you need?”
“To follow him around the country, sir, I need the appropriate authority.”
“Is that right?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Why the sudden pang of conscience?”
“My men only act in response to direct orders from you, sir.” Baron sighed, as though he was somehow exasperated with me. “Without that authority, they’re breaking numerous laws. We can’t do that.”
“For fuck’s sake.” ‘Can’t’ wasn’t a word I was used to hearing. “You should have called me sooner!” Obviously. “You have my authority, Baron. Get after them! Find out where they went after Edinburgh and send your best men after them.”
“Understood, sir.” Baron’s voice was monotonic. “You want all three brought back into custody?”
“No.” I had no more time for games. Both Nathanial and Emelia had been given opportunities to leave with their lives and it seemed both of them had turned the other cheek. That was not how I’d expected things to go and I didn’t like it. I’d wanted Nathanial out of the UK for good, but losing control of the situation had provoked my legendary mean-streak. Now, they would both lose. “I want them eradicated entirely.”
“Eradicated, sir?” Baron paused. “To confirm, do you mean terminated, sir?”
“I do, Baron.” Resolve washed over me as I imagined the outcome I wanted. “These people are enemies of the state. They have no place in the criminal justice system.”
“Ryan!” Adam hissed, gesturing to the driver. “Be careful what you’re saying. The walls have ears, remember?”
Clenching at his warning, I turned away. I knew he was right, but I was damned if I was going to admit it.
“Just get it done”. I growled the instruction. “I want proof in my encrypted inbox by tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Baron sounded frantic. “But, Prime Minister, we haven’t even found them yet. We don’t know whether—”
Ending the call, I stared at the screen in my hand as the car moved through London.
“Sounds like a problem you need to update me on.” Adam’s tone was serious.
“Not now.” Locking my phone, I slipped it into my pocket. “I need to think first.”
“Good idea.” His sardonic tone was far from appreciated, but the questions looming in my mind were louder than his nagging voice.
How had this happened? I’d thought I’d put the matter of both Emelia and my annoying sibling to bed, but I’d been something I could rarely be accused of being—naïve. Somehow, the two people who had both the motive and means to bring me down had managed to collide and were now somewhere in Scotland together.
“Shit.” Slamming my fist down against the leather seat, I fought for composure. It wasn’t like me to fuck things up so audaciously. I was usually so damn self-assured.
“Whatever it is, we’ll sort it.” Adam’s tone had morphed into the reassuring one I knew. “Don’t worry about it now. You have to get through the inquiry first.”
“Oh, fuck the inquiry!” I wanted to laugh at his so-called priorities. The ghosts of my past had returned to dance on my fucking grave and Adam was worried about some waste of time public appearance. “This is critical and time-sensitive.”
He frowned at my outburst. “I shouldn’t need to remind you that you have a legal obligation to attend today, Ryan.”
“And yet you have anyway.” How had I ended up surrounded by such idiots?
Once upon a time, I’d spent most of my days with Eddie, Sam, and all the old cohort. Sure, they’d been a grating mix of sadists and sycophants, but we’d found our groove together and we’d created magic. In those days, I’d imagined being in charge of the country would be an invigorating ride, yet it had turned out to be an endless ream of meetings and press conferences. The truth was I’d never been more bored in my fucking life. The only reason I clung on was because the idea of giving up power was even less appealing than hanging onto it.
“Fine.” I imagined snatching the pen he was fiddling with and shoving it down his throat. The idea was comforting. “I’ll go to the fucking inquiry, but after that, get me on a jet to Scotland.”
“You have a full afternoon, Ryan.” Adam looked at me as if I was mad. “You can’t just go jetting off on a whim. People will notice. They’ll ask questions.”
“Just. Do. It.” I was tired of his bullshit and everything it represented.
I was the fucking prime minister. The idea that I could be hauled in front of an inquiry was laughable. I made the rules, didn’t I? Even though I’d been slowly sculpting them to my will for years, there was still a façade of accountability in public life, as though I was somehow culpable for my actions.
“Things are going to change around here,” I vowed as the car pulled up outside the inquiry. “The sooner, the better.”