Collateral by De'nesha Diamond

Author:De'nesha Diamond [Diamond, De'nesha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2020-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

29

The White House

“Have you seen the news?” Davidson marched into the Oval Office without knocking.

Kate glanced up from her phone call with Senator Scott Presley bitching in her ear and welcomed the excuse to get off the phone. “I appreciate you talking to me about the party’s concerns. I will take it all into consideration. We’ll talk again soon.” She hung up and expelled a long breath before turning her attention to the television. “Okay. What is it now?”

Her chief of staff, Haverty, and senior advisor, Gohl, breezed into the office next. “Madam President, there is something you need to see—oh.” They stopped short at seeing the television already on CNN.

“What am I looking at?”

Davidson rushed to answer first, “There’s been a shooting downtown with multiple car pile-up.”

“Okay. This is a local matter.”

“Abrianna Parker was smack-dab in the middle of it,” Haverty informed her.

“What?” She stood from behind the desk just as her phone rang. Instead of answering the call, she buzzed her secretary. “Diana, hold my calls.”

“It’s Mr. Washington—”

“HOLD. MY. CALLS.”

“Yes, Madam President.”

Kate directed Davidson, “Turn it up.”

“Witnesses describe the shooting as something straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. A multicar accident quickly escalated into a wild shoot-out with assault weapons near Logan Circle. So far, there have been no fatalities, but two people were critically injured, according to police. There are others wounded, and as we reported earlier, one of those people who was injured in the chaos is Abrianna Parker. Many know Ms. Parker in recent months with her involvement in solving the late house speaker Kenneth Reynolds’s death, and her participation in exposing collusion between the late chief justice Katherine Sanders and President Daniel Walker. In recent days, Ms. Parker gave a bombshell interview claiming the private military company T4S was behind missing reporter Tomi Lehane’s disappearance. Back to you, Anderson.”

Davidson muted the television while all eyes turned to the president.

“Holy shit.” The president crossed her arms. “The bitch might be telling the truth,” she concluded.

“A lot of people are going to be thinking that now. A wild shoot-out with assault weapons? They aren’t exactly subtle, are they?” Gohl asked.

Kate agreed with her senior advisor.

“What’s even better is Hardy sticking with his support for T4S,” McMullan added, waltzing into the impromptu meeting late. “Where are we in getting Ms. Parker to visit the White House?”

“No change,” the president admitted. “Clearly, she’s been too preoccupied to return my message.”

“We need to call again. If Abrianna won’t come to us, then we’ll go to her if need be. We just need reports of your concern,” McMullan rattled off while typing notes into his smartphone. “We need to strike while the iron is hot.”

* * *

The moment Abrianna returned to the apartment, Daishan rushed to check her over. “Oh, you poor thing. Are you all right?”

Abrianna tensed from the unexpected concern and then recovered with an awkward smile.

Kadir’s mother tsked under her breath. “That’s a nasty gash.” She attempted to examine Bree’s bleeding hairline, but Abrianna stepped back.

“Oh it’s nothing.

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