Read Not if I Save You First
FOR MADELEINE ELISE BROCK,
THE ORIGINAL MAD Canis familiaris
CONTENTS
Championship PAGE
DEDICATION
Affiliate one
Chapter 2
Affiliate three
CHAPTER four
Chapter 5
CHAPTER 6
Chapter 7
Chapter eight
Affiliate 9
Affiliate x
Affiliate 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
Chapter 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER xix
CHAPTER twenty
Affiliate 21
CHAPTER 22
Affiliate 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
Chapter 29
CHAPTER 30
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
Beloved Maddie,
In that location's a political party at my firm tomorrow night. Mom said I can invite a friend if I want to.
So exercise you want to come?
__YES
__NO
__MAYBE
—Logan
Madeleine Rose Manchester had absolutely no intention of invading the White House. But she knew seven unlike ways she could do it if she'd wanted to.
Later on all, Logan had lived there less than a year, and already he and Maddie had plant four tunnels, two pseudo-secret passageways, and a cabinet well-nigh the kitchen that smelled faintly of cheese and merely partially blocked an old service elevator that really wasn't equally boarded up as everybody thought.
"Charlie?" Maddie asked the big human in the rider seat of the night SUV. He turned to look at where she sat, her seat belt snuggly around her, even though everyone knew silk wrinkled and Maddie had never had a silk dress before.
She'd already complained virtually it, but Charlie had told her that it was either wear a seat belt or walk, and her black leather shoes were new and they'd already started to pinch her feet, and Logan had told her at that place might be dancing later.
Maddie dearly, dearly hoped there would be dancing …
"Whatcha need, Mad?" Charlie asked while Walter kept driving.
"Did y'all know there'due south a place under the stairs in the East Wing that's total of spiders that died during the Nixon administration? Do you think that's truthful? I don't think that's truthful," she said without actually waiting for Charlie to answer.
"I could ask Dad," Maddie went on. "Merely he didn't work here so. At least I don't retrieve he worked hither then. I mean, I know he'southward old. Similar, really, really erstwhile. But is he that former?"
Charlie laughed, but Maddie wasn't exactly certain what was so funny. "I'm not certain, Mad, simply yous should say information technology exactly like that when you inquire him."
This sounded like a very good thought to Maddie. "Thanks, Charlie. I'll do that." She thought for a moment, then went on. "Did you lot know it's possible to crawl all the way from Logan's dad'south office to the press room using the air ducts?"
"No." Charlie shook his head. "It'south not."
"Sure it is," Maddie told him. "Logan bet me five dollars that I couldn't practise it, so I did it, so he gave me 5 ones instead of one five because Lincoln is his favorite."
"You can reach the Oval Part via the air ducts?" Charlie asked, spinning to await at her.
"Aye. Simply I ruined my favorite pinkish leggings."
"Then yous should definitely tell your dad that."
"He doesn't care virtually my leggings," Maddie said, and Charlie shook his head.
"Not almost that. About … Never heed, Mad. I'll tell him."
When they finally reached a pair of tall fe gates Maddie couldn't aid but swing her legs and nervously kick at the back of Charlie'due south seat, but Charlie merely rolled down his window and told the man with the clipboard, "We accept a VIP guest for Rascal."
The baby-sit looked in the back seat and smiled when he saw Maddie. Through the tinted windows she could see other guards circling the vehicle. Dogs sniffed around the bumpers, but the guard kept his gaze trained on her.
"Looks like a high-risk aspirant to me, boys. I don't know if we should allow her in."
"Hey, Felix," Maddie said, leaning frontward. "Did you know you can fit ii kids and iii kittens in the piffling compartment underneath Logan's dad's desk? If the kittens are tame, that is. I wouldn't want to try it with hateful kittens."
"Neither would I," Felix said, merely as ane of the men outside announced, "You're clear!"
And so Felix stepped back and waved them through the gates. "Have fun at the political party!"
Logan never had fun at parties. In his experience, they very rarely meant pizza and bounce houses and water ice cream. Non anymore. Sure, there was usually cake. But they were always fancy cakes that were tiny, and Logan's mom commonly gave him The Look if he ate more than iv. And ever since the time he asked the prime number minister of Canada if she was going to eat her cake he hadn't been allowed to sit down at the table with his parents.
Which, in Logan's opinion, was just likewise.
"Is Maddie here still?" he asked his mother.
"I don't know. Is she nether the bed?" Logan'due south mom grinned and glanced through the bath door at the behemothic canopy bed upon which Logan lay.
"No. Nosotros don't fit."
"I am non going to enquire how you know that," his mother said, then went back to fixing her makeup.
When the phone rang, she reached for it, and Logan heard her talking.
"Yes? Excellent. Ship her up."
"Is Maddie—"
"She's on her way up," his female parent told him, and Logan bounded off the bed, ran out into the hallway, then flew down the large stairs of the residence.
The further he got from his female parent, the more chaotic everything became. At that place were people with huge bunches of flowers, and staffers running up and downwardly the stairs in high heels.
Only all Logan really saw was Maddie.
"Mad Dog!" Logan screamed from the top of the stairs, racing to join her on the landing below. "Y'all wait …"
"Is my apparel too wrinkled?" Maddie blurted as if the answer really, really mattered.
He shook his head. "It's … No. I don't think so. It's …"
But Logan trailed off as he followed Maddie's gaze through the bulletproof glass. The chaos of the edifice all but disappeared every bit, exterior, a helicopter landed on the lawn. A group of men and women were running toward the house, crouching depression beneath the helicopter'southward spinning blades.
Simply the terminal two men off the chopper walked upright, laughing and talking as they strolled toward the doors.
Maddie turned to Logan. "Dad'southward dwelling."
Maddie couldn't be sure if she was talking nearly Logan's begetter or her own. The argument was truthful in either case. Merely there was no denying that, as the ii dads came into the house, the place went a piffling more—and a little less—crazy.
There was an energy that e'er surrounded Logan'southward father. Some people stopped. Some people stared. Merely at that place was some other group of people who seemed to constantly swirl and swarm around him, like a hive of bees caught inside a serial of very tiny tornadoes, spinning in his orbit while everyone else hurried to go out of the way.
Everyone except Logan's mom. She didn't spin or rush or stare as she walked toward her husband, her carmine dress flowing behind her as she moved down the stairs.
"You're late," she said.
"Mr. President," one of his administration cutting in. "The speaker is waiting for you."
"He can expect until the president has kissed his wife and hugged his son and … inverse into something decent," the kickoff lady told the woman. And with that, the tiny tornadoes moved on to some other part of the White House.
"Hello, darling," Logan'south dad told the showtime lady as he leaned down to kiss her. When he pulled abroad she made a confront and said, "You smell." Then she shifted her gaze onto Maddie. "What are nosotros going to practice with them, Mad?"
Maddie could only shake her head. "Boys always smell," she said truthfully.
"You get used to it, sweetheart," Logan's mom told her.
Merely Logan's dad didn't seem to listen. He but reached for his son and said, "Hey, kiddo." And so he turned to Maddie. "Kiddette."
Maddie dropped into a curtsy. "Information technology'south a pleasure to see you over again, Logan's dad."
"And you lot, Manchester's daughter." The president bowed at the waist. "You lot are a far lovelier sight than your father, I can clinch you."
"Cheers. My clothes wasn't wrinkled when I put it on, you should know. The wrinkles are entirely Charlie'south fault."
"I'll have a word with Charlie," the president said as Maddie's dad tried to pull her into a hug.
"Come up here, Mad."
She pulled abroad and looked at the first lady. "You're correct. They do stink."
"This is what I go for keeping the president safe?" Maddie's father asked.
"From treasonous deer? Information technology's hard work, I'm sure." The first lady turned to her husband. "Now practice I need to remind the pair of you that the Russian prime government minister and his entire entourage, your entire cabinet, and all 7 viewers of C-SPAN are expecting our very first state dinner to embark in forty-five minutes?"
Logan's dad cutting a look at Maddie's. "Save me from her, Manchester."
Only Maddie'south father just shook his head. "Distressing, Mr. President. This fourth dimension y'all're on your own."
It wasn't until the showtime lady dragged the president upstairs that Maddie felt Logan stir beside her. He'd been perfectly tranquillity—perfectly still—equally if content to exist a mere wing on the wall in the president'south presence.
Then her father asked, "How y'all doing, Rascal?" and Logan's eyes got bigger.
"Did my dad really kill a deer?"
"No." Maddie's father crouched against the windowsill, bringing himself downwardly closer to Logan's level. "Your father and a senator from Kentucky and I sabbatum in a tree in the forest for seven hours, hoping to impale a deer."
"And you lot didn't meet one?" Logan asked.
"No." Maddie'due south dad shook his head slowly. "We saw one."
Logan's eyes were wide. "And my dad didn't shoot it?"
"No." Maddie's dad sounded like he was carefully because the respond. "Your dad was more interested in getting a vote out of the senator from Kentucky."
Logan yet looked confused. "Yous had a gun. Why didn't you lot shoot it?"
Maddie'south begetter seemed to think this was an excellent question. He leaned a little lower. "Because when I shoot, information technology isn't for fun."
"Information technology's because y'all take to," Logan said.
Maddie's father nodded. "And what's more important than shooting, Rascal?"
Logan only had to think most the respond for a moment. "Making sure you don't have to?"
Maddie's dad tousled Logan's pilus. "Proficient chore."
When Maddie'south male parent tried to pull her into another hug, Maddie pushed abroad fifty-fifty though her dress was already wrinkled. "You really do odor, Dad."
"Okay, Mad Dog. I give up. I'll go shower." He started down the stairs. "Now what are you two going to do in the next forty-1 minutes?"
Maddie and Logan looked at each other and gave almost identical shrugs.
"Fine," her dad said. "Don't tell me. Merely stay in the house and stay out of the mode. It'south kind of crazy around here."
He was almost out of sight before they said in unison, "We noticed."
Maddie was used to being pseudo invisible, but Logan had been in the spotlight and then often in the past year or two that she could tell information technology was something of a new, but not entirely unwelcome, feeling as they walked through the chaos of the White House.
Doors slammed and phones rang, but no ane noticed the first son and his friend, fifty-fifty when Logan said "In here" and punched numbers into a keypad beside a door that Maddie had never noticed earlier. When the door sprang open, he pulled Maddie into a hallway that was totally and completely silent.
"That's better," he said, so smiled at her.
"Are we supposed to be in hither?"
Logan shrugged. "Probably not. Merely if they really wanted to keep the states out, they shouldn't have let me see them punch in the lawmaking that ane time."
Maddie idea he made a very excellent point. Everyone knew that Logan was actually practiced at remembering things. All the things. Like phone numbers and access numbers and where the White Firm stored its chocolate.
It had been Maddie'south experience that the White House maintained a supply of excellent chocolate. And that'southward what Maddie was thinking about when they found themselves in a long, empty hallway that ran from the loading docks to the kitchen. They walked in silence for a long fourth dimension, until they reached a place where the hall branched, and Maddie knew they should plough around. Her dad and Logan's parents were going to be looking for them soon.
She was just about to drag him back to the crowds and the people and the noise when 3 men came rushing down the corridor, pushing a big rolling cart, almost oblivious to the two ten-yr-olds who stood in their way.
Logan said, "Excuse me," because he was a adept kid that fashion.
Simply Maddie'southward dad'due south chore didn't depend on her being overnice to strangers, so she said "How rude!" as they passed.
For a moment, she and Logan stood together in the corridor, a petty scrap stunned. And then something about the men and their location within the White Business firm made her stop. Wonder. "Are they supposed to exist here?" she asked.
Logan grimaced. "Russian security. The Russian delegation said they would only eat their own food prepared by their own chefs. They had to bring it in and keep it under armed guard and everything."
Maddie fabricated a face up. "I wouldn't like that. Eating cold food just because someone might want to kill me."
She was just starting to say something else when, suddenly, Logan reached into his pocket and blurted "Here!" as he thrust a modest blue box toward her.
"What is it?" Maddie asked.
"A gift," Logan said. "For y'all."
"Y'all got me a gift? Why?"
Logan looked similar he wanted to whorl his eyes, merely he didn't. "Because you're my friend."
"Did y'all go something for all your friends?" she asked him.
Fifty-fifty in the as well-vivid fluorescent glare of the hallway, a shadow seemed to cross over Logan'south face.
"Y'all're my merely friend," he said, and Maddie didn't ask any more questions.
She reached for the parcel slowly. Reverently. And then she pulled on the petty white bow and opened the box. A moment later she was looking down at a piece of aureate.
"It'southward so shiny," she said.
"It's a bracelet. Do yous like information technology?"
"I love it."
Logan helped her put it on, and Maddie turned her wrist, letting the light reflect off the delicate chain and dangling charms.
"It's a piddling big," he told her. "Just I wanted yous to be able to wear it when you get older."
"I'll never take information technology off," Maddie said, and in that moment she had never meant annihilation more.
A silence stretched between them, and Logan had to await away, similar staring at Maddie and her shiny gilt bracelet was like staring at the sun. He blinked and said, "Well, I suppose we should go—"
"What are you two doing downward here?" The first lady's voice echoed down the tile hall, cutting Logan off.
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"We're staying out of the fashion," Maddie announced equally she spun. She was very proud of that fact and thought it was high time some grown-upward bragged virtually them for their discretion.
"That'southward a good plan," Logan's mother told her. "Information technology'due south a zoo out there."
"Mom, do Maddie and I have to go? Couldn't nosotros just watch Boob tube in the residence or something?"
When the first lady looked at Logan her optics were a little distressing, like part of her wished that she could requite him a normal night in a normal house. But Logan was never going to exist normal ever again, and she couldn't bring herself to lie about it.
"You could lookout man TV," the kickoff lady told him. "But I'm afraid tonight is very important for your begetter. Our relations with Russia are … strained. And he thinks that if you lot and I become, information technology might be more of a family thing than a political thing. Does that brand sense?"
Logan nodded grimly. "Yep. Information technology does." So he looked at his female parent as if he were seeing her for the outset fourth dimension. "Why are y'all down here? Were you looking for us?"
"No." She smoothed the part of his hair that never did prevarication apartment. "The kitchen called. There's some sort of problem, though why they need me I'll never know. I like your bracelet, Maddie."
Maddie hid her blush.
"I like your apparel."
"Me too. Mainly considering information technology does this." When the kickoff lady started to spin, the wisps of red fabric floated around her like a deject.
"It'due south a twirling dress!" Maddie wanted to clap.
"I know!" the outset lady sounded like a ten-twelvemonth-onetime herself.
Logan looked like he would never, ever understand girls, but he didn't bother to say so.
"Well, I'd better go see what they desire so we can become this bear witness on the route. Yous two should caput that way. Nosotros'll be starting soon."
"Aye, ma'am," Maddie said as the offset lady walked away, leaving Maddie and Logan alone.
They'd been alone virtually a m times over the past twelvemonth, just when Maddie moved, her bracelet jingled and it felt like a unlike kind of alone than they had ever been before.
"Then …" Logan said, looking at her.
"So …" Maddie said back, considering what else could she practise?
He held his arm out. "Shall we, my lady?"
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