Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(27)

“Okay, Jason.” Birch didn’t yell the command, but the steel in his voice had Jason loosening his grip on Sandra’s throat instantly. She gasped for air, filling her lungs as Birch watched her mind working.

“You have the wrong person. I don’t even know who Phylicia is,” Sandra cried as tears ran down her wrinkled face.

“You left a print on the message that went into the rock,” Birch said as if he were tired of hearing her excuses. “We know about your meeting on the beach of the Black Sea in Bulgaria. We know about George’s and Helena’s deaths as well. Why don’t you just tell us your side of it?”

“No. You can’t know.” Sandra was breaking quickly. Her body was trembling, her face bloodless. “He’ll kill me.”

“I’ll kill you first if you don’t start talking,” Jason growled at her.

“Why don’t you start with the missing bombs?”

“How?” Sandra stared at him. “How do you know this?”

Birch didn’t answer. Instead he just smiled.

“The bombs, Sandra,” Humphrey said quietly.

Instead of answering, Sandra opened her mouth and screamed for all she was worth. Birch nodded his chin for approval, Jason slid the needle into Sandra’s neck. She collapsed instantly.

“Dammit. She gave us nothing.” Tate stared at Sandra’s body as Jason dragged in the suitcase and folded her into it.

“I’ll get something from her. I know women like her. They think they’re tough. They prepare for the attack, but when all she’s met with is silence, she’ll break. It might take a couple days, but I’ll break her,” Jason swore. “How far can I go?”

“As far as it takes,” Birch decided. He may be violating the very laws he swore to uphold, but if he didn’t . . . Birch took a deep breath. Five more bombs were out there, and he’d do what it took to get them.

Jason zipped the suitcase. “Are you sure you don’t need me to stay and help with Sebastian? What I gave her will have her out for three hours or so. That’s plenty of time.”

“No. Lizzy can handle it. I want you to be with Sandra the second she wakes.” Birch took a deep breath as he looked at the people in the room with him. “Humphrey, can you take Tate for a stroll in her wheelchair? I need a moment alone with Jason.”

“Sure.” Humphrey pushed the wheelchair next to the bed and held out his hand. “Your ride, madam.”

Humphrey angled Tate out of bed and the two of them chatted happily as he wheeled her out.

“Jason, sit down. It’s time we talked as only two men who have lost their wives can.”





12





Lizzy walked into the hospital two steps behind Sebastian. Sebastian exuded power and control as he walked in his form-fitting black suit and dark gray tie—a dark gray tie that matched his eyes perfectly. Humphrey was waiting at the door to the hospital room for them. He greeted them in his typical bumbling way, but Lizzy knew he was more than the snoring, drooling, blundering man he projected himself to be. Just as she knew the man they’d passed in the parking garage wasn’t some assistant delivering letters, but Jason taking Sandra away.

“Tate and I are heading out to pilfer the ice cream while the nurses are off the floor. Do you want anything?” Humphrey asked as he pulled Tate’s wheelchair out of the room.

“No, thank you,” Lizzy said, smiling at them both as Sebastian just shook his head. His eyes were locked on Birch’s as he took in the wires, the IV, and the bruises. Lizzy closed the door. Humphrey would be right outside as a last resort if she needed help.

“Shit, Birch,” Sebastian whispered with more emotion than Lizzy had ever heard from him. Sebastian stood rooted to the floor as Lizzy took a seat at Birch’s bedside. She sat unobtrusively between them, preventing Sebastian from touching Birch unless he allowed it.

“Yeah, it’s hard to fight someone trying to kill you when you don’t know who it is. In war, we know who they are. With this, they are all around and you would never know.” Birch kept his eyes locked with Sebastian’s as well.

“What can I do?”

“You can cut the bullshit, Seb.”

Sebastian didn’t react. It was an art, really. Only the tiniest flare of Sebastian’s nostrils showed he was affected by Birch’s words.

“How so?”

“Stop being Sebastian Abel, tech genius, business mogul, billionaire. Be the man I grew up with. Be my friend.”

“I’m always your friend, Birch.”

“See, I don’t know if you are. You’re so caught up in this God complex, thinking you should be running the world, that I’m not quite so sure you are my friend anymore.”

Sebastian blinked. Birch’s words hit harder than Lizzy thought they would.

“How can you say that? I’m funding this whole secret mission you have going on and don’t know a thing about it. I hand over my planes, my connections, my money . . . all because you’re my best friend. Shit, you’re my only friend.”

Birch sat up and stared at his friend. “Then why are you using my agents to spy against your rival, Bertie Geofferies? And why are your name and your money showing up in the records of the largest drug dealer in the world, a drug dealer who just so happens to be funding Mollia Domini? Now, I can forgive the fact that Roland Westwood is your private banker. After all, he’s known for making his clients a lot of money. However, he’s also known for being ruthless and power-hungry, just like you have become. And he also is a member of Mollia Domini, the same group that tried to blow up your supposed best friend. And you had to know that. I know you better than anyone, and you never go into anything blind.”