Page 139 of Broken Wheels

“It was around this point where he got his idea about doing what he felt you should have done—grab power. To that end, he plotted, planned, and schemed until he came up with what he was certain was the best way to go about it. Instead of taking the long road, rising up through the ranks as most do, he would start at the top and show them what an iron will combined with an iron fist could accomplish.”

Oh, for the love of God….

“You’re not saying any of this was my fault?” Josh gasped.

She shook her head. “I doubt it. Although I wasn’t a member of his inner circle at the time, I think he was looking for something to excuse his craziness.” Kathy shrugged. “You just happened to be what he latched onto.”

Josh wanted to beg her to stop, to tell him all this had been a nightmare. He knew better. “I’m sorry, please go on.”

“I’d been working for him for a year, but it wasn’t until this point that he brought me in on it. He fed the pain and anger I’d lived with my whole life. He stoked those fires until the day he told me he could help me get even with the people who’d hurt me so badly. Of course, thinking about my father, of everyone who’d tossed me aside? That, more than anything, fanned the embers of pain into a nuclear storm of hatred, anger, and rage. He promised he’d make things better. And I believed him. But I was just the first. Then came the others, each of them with reasons to hate because of how they were treated. And every one of them fell for his ideas that he would change the world and make it right for all of us and people like us.”

People like Josh had once been. Angry. Bitter. Looking for purpose.

The difference was, he would never have helped kill anyone.

Would he?

“Then one of the others mentioned Porter.”

Beside him, Gary stiffened but remained silent.

“He was exactly the kind of person Spencer was looking for. Greedy, with secrets he could exploit. Willing to do anything for a price. For a few years, Porter acted like the perfect little soldier in the military, doing as he was told, all while selling them out. Then his team got obliterated, which cast a shadow over what he’d sold to others, and Porter became toxic. His benefactors cut him loose, and he drifted around for a while, hoping to make contacts that could help him get back the wealth he’d lost. During that time, one of our people found him.”

She turned her attention to Gary. “Porter had the stench of failure on him, and ordinarily that meant Spencer would have passed him over—until he found out that he had worked with you, Mr. Cross. Suddenly Spencer wanted him, badly.” Kathy leaned back. “It was as though everything gelled right there. The plan he’d had simmering in the back of his mind had to have been like a prophecy. Since Porter had something to do with this tangled mess Spencer was creating, he told them to put Porter to work. That brought him back into your lives.”

Gary growled, and it vibrated through Josh. He laid his hand on his arm. “Gary?”

“I’m fine,” he snarled.

It was clear to Josh he was anything but fine.

“Get on with it,” Gary said through gritted teeth. “What’s his grand plan?”

Kathy tapped her index finger absently on the desk. “Initially, the idea was to plant bombs in Chicago, similar to the ones he’d used to kill the board. They’re primed with a virulent toxin that kills within seconds. I don’t know the formula, or if there’s a way to stop it from killing people, but I do know they die horribly. I saw the faces of the board members, and even though they died quickly, their faces showed such pain.”

Josh had witnessed the same reaction from the people who’d died as a result of the airplane attack. That brief exposure made them claw at their skin, leaving deep, bloody divots on soft flesh. He couldn’t imagine the fear as they scraped away, trying to escape what they had to know was their death.

He locked gazes with her. “And how do I fit into his plan?”

She flashed that cool smile again, and it creeped Josh out even more. “You? You’re like the anti-Spencer. He wants power and control, whereas you’re more interested in helping people out. He doesn’t understand you, so that leaves him only one option—to destroy you. Initially he was going to kill you, then claim to have discovered you were part of a group that wanted to take over the government.”

Josh let out a derisive snort. “And we all know how that went.”

She nodded. “Somehow you survived his attempts, so he revised his plans and made you the fall guy. It was perfect as far as he was concerned. You take the blame for his actions, becoming probably the most hated person in the country, and at the same time, adoration increased for him.”

Josh blinked. “So what you’re saying is we ruined his plans.”

She scrunched her face. “Honestly, I don’t think so. Spencer will never admit he’s wrong, at least not out loud. It’s his plan, so it has to be foolproof. I can’t see him deviating from it, even at this point.”

Cold flushed through him. “You mean he’s still going to attack Chicago? You said there wasn’t a date on it.”

She gave a quick nod. “That’s right, there isn’t, but yes, he will definitely attack Chicago. And judging by how you’ve thrown him off his game, he’ll likely move it up to capitalize off whatever he’s going to do.” Another shrug. “After everything you’ve done to thwart his plans, maybe now it’s a case of sooner rather than later.”

“You said initially he was going to plant bombs? Does this mean he’s changed his plan of attack?” Gary demanded.

Kathy frowned. “Look, I don’t know, okay? I’m not in the loop anymore, remember? He could have devised a whole new plan when everything went tits-up.”

“Do you know where he intended planting the bombs?” Josh’s heartbeat raced. They needed something to work with, for God’s sake.

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