Betrayal

Betrayal


Marcus's POV

The gun hit my head so hard I saw stars.
I crashed to the warehouse floor, blood running down my face. Three guys in black suits grabbed my arms and dragged me to a metal chair. My wrists burned as they tied thick ropes around them.
"Well, well," said a voice I knew too well. "FBI Agent Marcus Webb. Finally caught."
Vincent walked out of the shadows, smiling like he'd just won the lottery. But Vincent was meant to be tied up. Vincent was supposed to be our prisoner.
What was happening?
"Confused, Marcus?" Vincent laughed. "Let me help you understand."
He walked over to where Emma's real mother was pointing a gun at Alexander Cross. With one quick move, Vincent grabbed the gun from her hands.
"Thanks for the weapon, Maria," Vincent said. Then he shot Emma's mother in the chest.
She fell to the ground, dead.
Emma screamed. "Mom!"
My heart felt like it was breaking. Emma had just found her real mother, and now she was dead too.
"Vincent!" Alexander Cross shouted. "We had a deal!"
"We did," Vincent agreed. "But deals change."
That's when I realized the awful truth. Vincent wasn't just working with Alexander Cross. Vincent was the real boss.
"You see, Marcus," Vincent said, turning to me. "You've been hunting the wrong man. Alexander Cross is just middle management. I'm the one who really runs this company."
I tried to break free from the ropes, but they were too tight. "You're lying."
"Am I?" Vincent pulled out his phone and showed me pictures. Pictures of me at the FBI building. Pictures of me talking to my boss, Director Johnson.
"Your boss has been working for me for three years," Vincent said. "Every case you've been assigned, every lead you've followed - I approved all of it."
My blood turned to ice. "That's impossible."
Vincent laughed. "Director Johnson needed money for his sick wife's cancer treatments. I offered to help. In return, he gives me information about FBI operations."
I thought about all the cases that had gone wrong. All the times we'd been just a step behind the criminals.
It all made sense now.
"Your entire mission here was a setup," Vincent continued. "I wanted Alexander Cross eliminated, so I had your boss send you to catch him."
Emma was still kneeling beside her dead mother, crying. Jess and David had their hands up, surrounded by Vincent's men.
"But why kill Cross if he works for you?" I asked.
"Because he was getting sloppy," Vincent said. "Too emotional. He revealed his whole operation just to save his daughter."
Alexander Cross was looking at Vincent with pure hate. "You used me."
"I used your weakness," Vincent amended. "Real leaders don't have weaknesses."
Emma stood up. Her face was covered in tears, but her speech was steady.
"You're wrong," she said. "Love isn't weakness."
Vincent pointed his gun at Emma. "Is it? Because your father's love for you just got him killed. And Marcus's love for you is about to get him killed too."
My heart stopped. "What are you talking about?"
Vincent smiled. "Did you really think we didn't know? You've been in love with Emma Martinez since the day you started investigating this case."
He was right. I had fallen for Emma. Even though I knew it was wrong.
"That's why you're here," Vincent continued. "You're here because you couldn't stand the thought of Emma being in danger."
"I'm here to do my job," I said softly.
"Your job was to report back to Director Johnson every night," Vincent said. "Your job was to tell him everything Emma said, everything she did, every place she went."
My world crashed down around me. "What?"
Vincent nodded. "That's right, Marcus. You've been watching on Emma this whole time. Every text you sent to your boss - you were helping us track her."
Emma turned to look at me, her eyes wide with shock. "Marcus? Is that true?"
I wanted to lie. But I remembered all the papers I'd filed. All the information I'd shared with Director Johnson.
"I didn't know," I whispered. "Emma, I swear I didn't know they were using me to hurt you."
"But you were reporting on me," Emma said.
I hung my head in shame. "Yes. But I thought I was saving you."
Emma's face went through ten different feelings. Anger, hurt, deception.
"Everyone I trust betrays me," she said softly.
Vincent clapped his hands together. "This is exactly what I wanted. Emma Martinez, totally alone, with nowhere to turn."
"What do you want with her?" David asked.
"Simple," Vincent said. "Emma is going to take over her father's criminal outfit. But she's going to run it for me."
Emma shook her head. "I'll never work for you."
"Won't you?" Vincent walked over to me and put his gun against my head. "You work for me, or I kill Marcus. Then I kill Jess. Then I kill David."
Emma was looking at me, trying to decide if my life was worth saving.
After everything I'd done wrong, she was still thinking about saving me.
"You have ten seconds to decide," Vincent said.
Emma looked around the building. At her dead parents. At her friends with guns pointed at their heads. At me, tied to a chair with blood running down my face.
"Five seconds," Vincent said.
Emma closed her eyes.
"Time's up," Vincent said, and started to pull the trigger.
"Wait!" Emma shouted.
Vincent stopped.
"I'll do it," Emma said. "I'll work for you. Just don't hurt them."
Vincent smiled and moved the gun away from my head. "Smart girl."
But then the building lights went out.
Everything went black.
I heard gunshots. People screaming. Footsteps running.
Someone cut the ropes around my wrists.
"Marcus," whispered a voice I didn't recognize. "Can you walk?"
"Who are you?"
"Someone who's been hunting Vincent longer than you have," the voice said. "We need to get Emma out of here. Now."
More bangs. Someone screamed Emma's name.
"Emma!" I called out in the darkness.
No answer.
The emergency lights flickered on.
Vincent was gone. His men were gone.
And Emma was gone too.
All that was left was a pool of blood where she'd been standing.
"No," I whispered, falling to my knees.
The person who'd freed me put a hand on my shoulder.
"She's not dead," they said. "But Vincent has her."
I looked up to see who was talking to me.
It was Director Johnson, my FBI boss. The man who'd been cheating us all along.
But he was pointing a gun at Vincent's remaining guys.
"I don't understand," I said.
"Vincent killed my wife," Johnson said quietly. "He offered to pay for her cancer treatments, but he lied. She died while I was working for him."
His face was full of pain and anger.
"I've been waiting for the right moment to destroy him," Johnson continued. "Tonight is that moment."
Jess and David ran over to us.
"Where's Emma?" Jess asked.
Johnson pointed to a door at the back of the building. "Vincent took her that way. He's probably taking her to his boat."
"What boat?"
"Vincent has a yacht docked in the harbor," Johnson revealed. "If he gets Emma on that boat, we'll never see her again."
I felt sick. After everything we'd been through, Vincent was going to win.
"Actually," said a new voice behind us. "There is something you can do."
We all turned around.
Standing in the warehouse opening was someone I'd never seen before. A woman with short gray hair and cold, scary eyes.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The woman smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile.
"I'm Rebecca Martinez," she said. "Emma's cousin. The one who's supposed to be dead."
My brain couldn't understand what I was hearing. Rebecca Martinez had been killed months ago.
"That's impossible," David said.
"Is it?" Rebecca walked closer to us. "Did anyone actually verify that the body was mine?"
She pulled out a tag. FBI.
"I've been undercover for two years, infiltrating Vincent's organization," Rebecca stated. "The woman who died in my apartment was another agent who looked like me."
"Evidence of what?" Johnson asked.
Rebecca's smile got bigger and more dangerous.
"Evidence that Vincent isn't just running a trafficking ring," she said. "He's running a government conspiracy that goes all the way to the top."
She looked straight at me.
"And evidence that Emma Martinez isn't just a random victim," Rebecca continued. "She's the key to bringing down the most powerful criminal organization in American history."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Emma's father was gathering blackmail material on every powerful person in the country," Rebecca said. "Names, dates, pictures, recordings. Everything."
My heart started pounding again.
"Where is this evidence?" Johnson asked.
Rebecca pointed at Vincent's boat in the distance.
"Emma has it," she said. "It's hidden in something her father gave her when she was a kid. A charm around Emma's neck. It contains a USB drive with enough proof to destroy half the government."
I watched Vincent's boat pulling away from the dock with Emma on board.
"And if Vincent figures out what that locket really contains," Rebecca continued, "he'll kill Emma and use that information to control the entire country."
The boat's engines roared to life.
We were too late.
Emma was gone, holding the most dangerous secret in America around her neck.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
Rebecca looked at me with those cold, dangerous eyes.
"Now we start a war," she said.