Page 13 of Marshall

“You lie.”She just sat back.Michael looked over at Marshall.“Is she going to be speaking for you for the rest of your time here?Don’t you have anything to say to me about how she is wrong?”

“Nope.”Micheal waited for more but Marshall seemed to have said all he thought that he needed to.When he sat up straighter in his seat, Michael felt his body stiffen.Here it comes, was all he could think about.

The men who entered his office came in like there might be a sniper in the room with them.He didn’t speak to them as they pointed their laser, which was attached to the biggest guns he’d ever seen, to his chest.Dropping the map as well as his cell phone out of his hand, Michael raised up his hands and watched them very closely.

When Collin, a man that he despised more than he thought that he did anyone at this moment, he asked him about his vacation.The trip that he’d never given him permission to take.

“I was asked to come to the Perry house so that I could be briefed on the things that were going to be happening today.”Collin, the man who should have had his back, told him that he was ashamed to call him a friend.“That is, if we ever were.They also found a contract on myself and my children.How could you?My baby is only four months old.Surely he couldn’t have made you so pissed off that you’d want him dead too?”

“It’s an election time.What can I say?”One of the men who had him marked peeled off from the rest of them and told him that he was being arrested for treason.Also a plethora of other things that they were still finding.“Isn’t it a little premature to be arresting a man when you don’t have everything lined up?You, of all people, MJ should know that nothing is final until the paperwork is signed off on.You should have thought of that.”

She stood up.When she skirted around the coffee table between the two couches, he smiled at her.Why?He didn’t have any idea.Perhaps it was because she was about as beautiful of a woman that he’d ever seen.Maybe that when she was dressed as she was right now, his dick got hard.The low growl from the vicinity of her husband startled him.

The hit to his face, and it hadn’t been a girly hit either, knocked him back and off his feet.Why did she do that?Didn’t she understand that he was, until they told him anything different, he was her boss.The second punch to his face knocked him out.

When he was coming around, he saw that he’d been out long enough for medics to come to his aide.He tried to get them to help him, telling them that he was being held against his will.But the sharp nudge to his head, like a muzzle was being shoved into his brain, told him that he was to lie still or have no brain.

“He’ll live.While I believe that his jaw is broken, I don’t think that where he’s going, it will make all that much difference.”He asked where it was he might be going.The medic, no name on his shirt simply laughed.“You should also know that while you were out, we took blood samples to run tests on.There is a rumor, one that I’ve heard several times, that you might well have AIDS.”

He couldn’t deny it.As it was, his mouth didn’t work all that well, and he had no proof that he didn’t.Michael thought perhaps that he was going to get some treatment for it once he was out of office on the government dime, but as it looked right now, that wasn’t going to happen either.

Someone put out their hand, and he instinctively took it.He’d been a politician for far too long to not take the hand that was offered to him.As soon as he was jerked upright, he felt his shoulder pull out of its socket.It was a sickening feeling one that he’d never gotten over when he’d been in college.This time, when things blacked out, he didn’t care if he ever woke up.

His thoughts, most of them centered around the fact that no one was going to cut him a break,moved around his brain.Whatever he thought of, it would be forefront of his mind then something else would take its place.Never anything good, however.As his wife told him, when he’d killed her two weeks into the campaign trail to become president, he was going to get what he deserved, and she was going to stand over him and watch him fail.

She’d been right in saying that he was going to fail.However, she didn’t get to stand over him and tell him so.The fact that she’d died on the trail had given him the votes he needed for the swing states.He didn’t mind at all that he had only won because of the fact that he was a widow.That had been the plan with MJ.She was going to be his ticket for another four years when the nation mourned a fallen hero, General Brandon.

“Mr.Lowery, it is my greatest pleasure to tell you that you’re not going to be taking up a lot of the taxpayers’ money by having a long and drawn-out trial.VP Court has already been sworn in, and he’s making changes to your schedule as we speak.”He asked the man what he was talking about.“Didn’t anyone tell you?Why you died about an hour ago in your office.You fell back, hitting your head while talking to the Generals that you had called to pin the medal of honor.Right shame, I guess that you never got to do that.But Collin?He’s a good sport and did that for all the country to see right there in the Oval Office.Believe it or not, your blood was still on the carpet, and the body bag that had your remains in it was being taken away as they were being congratulated by Collin.Yes, sir.A fine but also sad day today.I’m so happy, no, I mean sad that you didn’t make it out of office.”

Without speaking, unable to still, he tried to make the man understand that he had information that could get him out of trouble.He didn’t, of course, but he wanted to hang on for just a bit long.Then it dawned on him what had happened.They’d killed him off.He wasn’t going to live past today if he didn’t miss his bet.

~*~

Marshall didn’t mind being dressed up.In fact, he kind of liked it now that he wasn’t required to stand like some kind of pretty boy while shaking hands with the fucking bastard that had been in the White House during a photo opportunity.To him, they were just suck-up pictures and he had always thought of them being a complete waste of time.But this reception, one that Collin had asked for to congratulate the two of them for all their hard work.

There were other servicemen there as well.It wasn’t as if the two of them had been singled out.But he knew from the new president that this was the only way that he could get them both back here and be able to speak to them.It was a nice little party, too.

“General Morton?”He turned to the voice and smiled at Collin Court, president Court, he supposed now.“MJ was just telling me that she’s going to retire soon.I had no idea that she had that many years in to be able to retire with all her benefits.I’m glad for the two of you, but she doesn’t look old enough to…she is a beautiful…I didn’t think she was old enough to be retiring.”Marshall laughed.

“It’s not as if she’s going to retire today.She told me that she has one year and three months to go to be eligible for her benefits.Unless you know someone who can take care of that for her.We’ve been talking about starting a family now that we’ve taken care of Lowery.”Collin told him that they owed the two of them a great deal for their part in bringing down the previous administration.“I don’t mean to be rude, but you are sitting where you are only because of us.”

“You’re a very shrewd man, Marshall.I should have remembered that about you.How old are you now?I’m thinking since I was a kid and you were my teacher, it’s been at least forty-five years or so?”He said that it was rude to ask someone their age.“You’re not a woman.That’s the only sex that I’ve ever heard of that you can’t ask.”

“This was all open fields and I had a hand in helping put the first brick in.”Collin whistled.“I’ve been around when land was cheap, and a handshake was good enough to keep a promise, too.”

“I wouldn’t envy you being older than that.I do envy the things that you would have seen however, I don’t think that I’d want to be around even as long as I know you have been.That’s just…” He smiled at him.“Perhaps you and I can sit down, and you can go over history books together about what really happened.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I were to tell you.”Collin told him that he was right.He probably wouldn’t.“I was semi-kidding about you releasing her.I think that she’d still work it out even if you were to give her all that she’s working for.Meggie is a diehard American, and I love her to pieces for that.”

When dinner was called, he found Meggie in a heated discussion with a sergeant.While he knew what was the topic of discussion, he knew enough about his wife to understand that she was just a few seconds away from pulling out her gun.That was when he noticed that no one was armed but himself and her.The Secret Service who were milling about, too, but theirs were more obvious.

“Meggie.”She turned to look at him, and he thought perhaps he’d missed the mark a bit.She had her hand on her weapon and the tab broken on her holster.“Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse us, I think that dinner is about to be served.”

Gently pulling Meggie to his body, he could feel the heat of her anger in the stiffness of her body.She was ramrod straight and hard as a stone.Kissing her on her mouth, he asked her if she was all right.

“He asked me if I was mourning the loss of Lowery.When I told him not particularly, he launched into some of the things that he’d done for the country and died much too young.I was this close to handing him his brain.”She put less than an eighth of an inch up with her fingers.“Why are idiots who can’t hold their own in a conversation here anyway?I thought that it was supposed to be for men of caliber who were here.I doubt that idiot has a single brain cell that tells him when he has to piss.Moronic fucking douche noodle.”His laughter burst forth as they were seated at the long table.He was glad that they were at the head with the president.They’d be able to talk to him easier.

“Douche noodle?Let me guess.You’ve been hanging out with Lauder and the other women again, haven’t you?”She laid her head on his shoulder and told him that she loved him.“In actuality, I taught that to them.You’ll be hearing a lot of unusual swearing techniques soon.I spent those two weeks on the ground out of the country, and the men there have been holding out on their own leader.”

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