frightened. No wonder his hands were still shaking. If Robert Allen was faking his emotions he deserved a goddamn Oscar, because Caroline sure as hell couldn’t tell. “When you first sat down you made it sound as if you were here of your own volition. Were you yanking my chain, Mr. Speaker?”
“They told me they’d let me go. They promised me,” he said. He kept rubbing his hands together, but the shaking intensified. “I know you, Caroline. You’re a good person. You won’t let them kill me.”
She couldn’t keep the tears out of her eyes either. Her voice was unsteady. “They wouldn’t do that, Bob. They couldn’t.”
Lies. Damn, fucking lies. As if she didn’t know better. Apparently Bob agreed. He reached across the table and grasped her wrist and twisted, and she cried out.
“You have no idea what they are capable of,” he whispered, his eyes wild.
“Bob, please. I can’t-”
His voice rang through the room. “Tell them what you know, Caroline!”
Caroline wrenched away from him and covered her face with her hands. “I can’t,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry.”
“Caroline.” Bob’s voice was quiet.
She kept her hands over her face.
“Pumpkin.”
She clenched her hair in her fists. Like she was really going to respond to that.
“Representative Gerard,” he said sharply.
She wiped her eyes and looked up at him. Not a single soul had called her that since her last day in office. Except for him. And always, always with affection. But not now.
“You will tell them what you know, pumpkin,” Bob said. “You are a proud American. You have served this nation for your entire professional career. You will not sell your country out because you’ve been tricked into believing a pack of lies.”
“Bob-”
“It was that husband of yours, wasn’t it?” He shook his head. “Fucking McIntyre. Always such an asshole. He’d believe anything that he reads about our president. He brought you into this, didn’t he? It’s okay. He’s very charming. And you’re so trusting, so sincere, so easily duped.”
Could he be any more insulting? “I-”
“Where is he, Caroline?”
Her resolve broke, just a little. “I don’t know.” She finally said out loud what she often thought during the hours she spent trapped in her cell, when her deepest fears tried to drive out the light. “He’s probably dead.”
“What did he know? What did he tell you?”
“Nothing!” she cried. “He knows nothing. The same as me.”
“You know damn well he engineered this entire thing. And he’s probably forged documents, he’s spread untruths, he’s built up his own little army, all so he can bring down a man who wants to do nothing except bring the United States toward a brighter future. Tell them what you know. Tell them where he is.” Bob’s voice was starting to weaken. “Tell them.”
“I can’t,” Caroline repeated. “I’m sorry.”
“Just think about it, pumpkin. Tell them what you know and they’ll get you out of here. I swear.”
More goddamn lies. This place was full of them. No truth to be found, not even in the darkest corners. “I find that doubtful.”
“They have all sorts of positions that a qualified woman like you could fill. Think about it. You could go back to civil service, doing much, much more than you could when you were in Congress. You’d have power beyond your wildest dreams. So much better than that joke of a job you had playing tea party and singing Kum-Ba-Ya to schoolchildren as First Lady of Pennsylvania.”
He said such hateful, demeaning things. It pissed her off. His mood swung back and forth so quickly that she started to think he’d been drugged.
“Bob, stop. I’m not going to tell them anything. I know that’s why they brought you here.” She looked up at the cameras. “Nice try!” she yelled. “It’s not going to work. Stop using him.”
“Just think about it, pumpkin. That’s all I’m asking.” He grasped her hands again. “And forget what I said earlier. I’m an old man. I’ve lived a good life. Don’t worry about me.”
“But I will,” she said. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. I know what they’ll do to you because of me.”
“Then talk.” The words sounded genuine, earnest even, but they didn’t match the vacant look in his eyes.
Caroline knew she could only do one thing to ease his pain, even if she was lying through her teeth. “I’ll think about it,” she said.
They heard a noise outside and the guards came back into the room. One of them pulled Bob up roughly, and Caroline winced. He really was frail. She