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“Peter! No. Please don’t do this,” Carrie cried after him. But he did it anyway. The door slammed in her face and Carrie collapsed in the entry.

Gage came rushing in when he heard the door slam. Dropping to his knees, he pulled Carrie up and into his arms.

“Carrie, honey, what happened?”

Her sobs wracked her body and she couldn’t get the words out. Gage sighed. “I’m gonna kill the bastard.”

Carrie shook her head as she continued to cry. “No. He thinks I’m betraying him like Gina. I don’t know why but he does and that’s why we can’t be together. It would always be like this,” she said through hiccups and blubbering wails.

Gage rocked back and forth with her in his arms. “How do I help sweetheart?”

Carrie took a deep, shuddering breath as she tried to stop the tears. “Just help me do my job and prove the colossal idiot wrong.”

“Sure you don’t want me to kick his ass? I love him like a brother, but I would love the chance to knock him around. I’m sure Ripley would join me.”

Carrie laughed and wiped at her eyes. “Thanks Gage but that wouldn’t help fix any of this.”

All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball somewhere and cry for a few days, but she had a job to do and there was no way in hell she was going to let the way he’d gutted her get in the way of that. Not after all the blood, sweat, and tears she had poured into this assignment. That didn’t stop her from wanting to give him a piece of her mind.

Not that you’ll believe me, but I was talking to Gina because I want her to do a feature on Lola’s story, and I want her to put names to some of the other women as well. I can’t work on it because I have… or had… to many personal feelings invested in this.

She typed the angry message into her phone but didn’t hit send. He didn’t deserve to hear from her so quickly. Letting her anger drive her, she marched back into Gage’s kitchen and picked up her pen. “Let’s write this fucking story boys. Do you have any Red Bull?” she asked.

Gage and Ripley both looked at each other and shrugged, and Tom just scratched his head. Lola had gone to one of Gage’s guest rooms for a nap. Over the next four hours, Carrie got the full story on paper. Tom had already called the Washington Post and secured a front page spot for Carrie’s written piece. It would go to print just a few hours before Gina broke the story on UNN. Corbit Upwood had been turned by a corrupt member of Colombian intelligence and had been aiding in the trafficking of women from both the U.S. and Colombia. At first, it was just in the form of using his connections to fast track visa’s for girls he claimed were assets to the CIA and needed protection. Once he was named director and got control of the CIA budget, most of which was part of the black budget with little oversight, he began funneling money into Diego’s operation so they could traffic even more women and drugs. While no one ever quite knows what motivates a person to betray their country, money likely played a huge role. It was obvious that Corbit Upwood was living well above his means.

“So why the recent attempts on his life?” Carrie asked.

“The current administration is favorable to Upwood. However, the next administration wouldn’t be. There’s only a year until the next election. Upwood wanted to retire. Diego wasn’t having it. When he started trying to blackmail him into continuing his aid, Upwood refused. I guess he grew a conscience in his old age?” Ripley shrugged.

“That’s when Diego started trying to take him out. When that didn’t work and the press started digging too closely into the bombing attempts, he decided to just try to frame him for murder. Savannah was one of his favorite girls. He was a sick fuck who had her on his payroll as a housekeeper but from the talk I heard from her, he was pretty depraved in the things he would make her do when Mrs. Upwood and the kids weren’t home.”

Carrie felt intense rage over the girl’s death again and she was even more determined to make sure this article took Corbit Upwood down.

A laptop sat in front of her as she went over each detail with Tom and Ripley, while Gage stayed largely out of the way. Her fingers flew across the keys as she typed up the article outlining everything. She left spaces where arrest information would go once it happened. As long as everything fell into place, this story would be on the front page of the next edition of the Post and would get picked up by every paper in the country in the coming hours and days. When the article was as complete as it could be, she passed the laptop to Tom.

“I’ll let you do the honors.”

They sent it via e-mail to the FBI, and the White house press secretary, while Gage and Ripley both made phone calls each armed with the same script. If arrests weren’t made in twelve hours, The Post was running with the article as is in the next edition, and UNN would run the story 24/7 until an arrest was made. It could be framed in such a way that the U.S. government was aiding in human trafficking, or it could highlight what the government was doing to clean this corruption up, starting with arresting Corbit Upwood and asking Colombia to waive diplomatic immunity for Diego Carrasco and allow his prosecution. Attached to the e-mail was the story and the documentation backing up the claims.

Within minutes of sending the e-mails and making the phone calls, phones began to buzz. Carrie watched Ripley’s face turn pale.

“Carrie, where did Peter say he was going?” he asked, his voice tight with apprehension.

“His apartment. What’s wrong?”

“Diego has him.”

***

Carrie’s world became a blur. Gage leaped up at the news that they had taken Peter and immediately began making phone calls, but she didn’t hear what they were saying because she just felt numb. Someone, maybe Tom, led her to one of the living room couches and brought her a cup of coffee. It sat untouched on the end table as she waited for word about Peter.

Ripley sat on the couch next to her. “Hey, you OK? We’re gonna get him back.” Carrie heard the front door slam.

“What’s happening?” she whispered hoarsely.

“Gage and Reggie are going after him.”

Carrie looked around. “Why didn’t you go with him?”

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