Deceived Read Free

grabbing the first shirt he saw and wadding it up. Blake cried out when Luke pressed the shirt to his wound. “Hold this,” Luke ordered Maddie. When she took over, he rummaged through his bag, quickly locating the field first aid kit.
    â€œWhat the hell have you gotten yourself into, Blake?” he muttered, waving Maddie back from her father. He tore open the senator’s shirt and quickly assessed the damage, checking for an exit wound. The bullet must still be inside him. Luke tore open a packet of quick-clotting powder and poured it onto the wound to slow the bleeding, ignoring the senator’s pained cry when the chemicals made contact.
    Luke placed a thick gauze pad on top of the hole in the senator’s chest near his shoulder and pressed down hard with a glance at his watch to mark the time. “Who else knew you were meeting us here, Hal?”
    â€œJesus Christ,” Maddie hissed at Luke. “Do you really think now is the best time to question him?”
    Luke met her gaze, not bothering to sugarcoat it. “Might be the only chance we get. Unless you want to start talkin’ for him.”
    The divider window came down at Luke’s angry outburst. “Lay off, Rogan.”
    â€œBullshit!” Luke shot back. “I don’t know what kind of grab-ass side action you’ve got going on with the senator’s daughter, Jack—”
    â€œHey, screw you!” Maddie snapped, talking over his tirade. “My relationship to Jack is none of your goddamned business!”
    â€œâ€”but somebody just took out the guy we were sent to get a confession from,” Luke continued, ignoring her. “And then the senator tells me the bullet was meant for him and not Richter. So somebody want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
    Jack glanced over his shoulder at Maddie, who immediately looked away and turned her attention to her father. “Dad, who do you think shot you?”
    The senator’s face was growing dangerously pale and his eyes were losing focus, but Luke could see him trying to hang on. “They’ve been hounding me for months,” he panted. “Threatening violence if I didn’t give them the locations.”
    â€œLocations of what?” Luke asked.
    The senator’s gaze shifted to meet his. “The treasures.”
    Ah, fuck.
    Senator Hal Blake wasn’t just a friend to the Alliance; he was one of them, one of their most loyal operatives embedded in the government to help guard the freedoms and liberties that the Templars were sworn to protect. He was also one of the Guardians of the various treasure caches that funded the Templars’ operations. If he was getting threats of any kind, why the hell hadn’t he said something about it?
    Luke shook his head, his mind racing as he tried to make sense of it all. Maybe Blake had said something about it—that kind of shit was way above Luke’s pay grade. Somehow one of the most loyal Templars in the Alliance had been compromised. And they needed to find out how. Stat.
    Luke lifted his eyes and briefly met Jack’s in the rearview mirror. “End of conversation, Jack,” he warned with a significant glance toward Maddie. Then he added the code phrase they used when there were civilians in the room. “ Silence is golden. ”
    Maddie met his gaze. “Speech is silver.”
    Luke’s eyes narrowed. She’d given the answering response, a quote from Thomas Carlyle’s poem. She knew. She knew all about them—or at least about her father’s involvement with them, which made him wonder exactly what the hell else she knew. It wasn’t uncommon for the offspring of a Templar to be brought into the fold at some point. But considering the knowing glances between Jack and Maddie, Luke was beginning to wonder who exactly had been her source.
    â€œWho’s Elijah?” he demanded.
    â€œMy nephew,” Maddie gasped. “How do