Flashback by Justine Davis (classic reads .txt) 📕

of the question. And she could hardly ask Sylvia Barrett, who hated the city, anyway, to drive all that way from the farm and then make the trek through tourist central.

Ruth? A possibility, although if she did that she’d have to give her all the details, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to send the woman into a situation when she didn’t know all the ramifications. Especially since whoever was behind this, whatever it was, obviously was aware of things going on in D.C. and so possibly located there.

So she needed someone who could handle the unexpected. Who knew enough about D.C. to get around and along, depending on what they encountered.

Jim Hernandez, head of Forsythe Mills security maybe? He could—

The obvious answer finally flashed through her mind, in what she called a “Well, duh!” moment.

Justin.

“You’re an idiot,” she told herself as she grabbed up her phone. She’d have to analyze this sooner than she thought, so she could figure out why she was so wary of letting this man have what he’d made it so clear he wanted; to be part of her life.

“Cohen.”

“Hi. It’s Alex.”

“Alex! Hi!” His pleased tone made her feel worse for not thinking of this sooner.

“Are you in the middle of a session?”

“No. Lunch break.”

“Quantico?” That would make things difficult; the FBI facility was forty-five minutes away from the National Mall.

“No. Hoover.”

She let out a relieved breath. FBI headquarters, the famous Hoover Building, was only three blocks from the FTC office. He could walk it easily, a good idea along always-congested Pennsylvania Avenue.

“How much time do you have?”

“Ninety minutes.” His voice changed. He’d clearly sensed there was more than casual interest in her inquiries. “What do you need?”

It was an effort not to just blurt it all out in an emotional rush. When it came to her beloved grandfather and a possible threat to him, her professional composure was hard to hold on to.

“I need you to go to the FTC.”

The pause was brief enough to make her grateful. “And?” he asked.

“My grandfather’s supposed to be in a meeting there. Something’s…come up, and his phone’s off, and he’s not answering my page.”

“The Apex Building? Three blocks up Pennsylvania?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Give me a minute to make a call and I’m on my way.”

Obviously he was changing lunch plans. No questions asked. Alex felt a tug inside, a combination of warmth and something else even stronger, something she didn’t have time to dwell on right now.

But she realized she’d better tell him a bit more about what had happened, so he’d be prepared. Just in case. She gave him a quick-and-dirty version. And again he was right there with her.

“I’ll make my phone call on the way,” he said, quickly adjusting his plan in response to her urgency. “And I’ll call you back as soon as I lay eyes on him. Do you want him to know?”

Bless you for understanding that, Alex thought. “Not unless it’s necessary.”

“All right.”

To her surprise she realized she felt no need to elaborate. She trusted his judgment on when it might become necessary. She wasn’t sure she’d ever trusted anybody outside of Athena that much. Not with G.C.

“Thank you, Justin,” she said, letting every bit of the emotion she was feeling into her voice.

“You should have called me right away,” was all he said.

After they’d disconnected, Alex sat there nearly shaking in relief. It was a new feeling for her, to have someone besides G.C. and her sister Athenas to depend on. It was also a new feeling for someone who had fought for and prided herself on her independence for so long. It had never occurred to her before, that perhaps she’d gone too far in that quest for self-sufficiency. That in her quest for that independence she’d shut out the rest of the world. That perhaps it wasn’t so bad to occasionally lean on someone.

That it was a man who made her knees wobbly was a side issue she’d have to deal with eventually.

Well, maybe sooner than eventually.

Calmer now that she’d know about G.C. soon, she called Kayla.

“Hey, girlfriend. Eric being helpful?”

“Yes,” she said. “He’s going to have the original file pulled out of storage, hopefully without raising any red flags.”

“I got the feeling you wanted a low profile, so I stayed out of it. I wasn’t even here then, so I thought my asking for it might raise an eyebrow you didn’t want raised.”

“Thanks,” Alex said, “you’re absolutely right. But something else has developed.”

“Oh?”

“A threat, of sorts.”

“What kind of threat?”

Alex heard the sudden sharpness in Kayla’s voice, the sudden protectiveness in her tone, and smiled inwardly. It was so good to have her dear friend back in her life. And it seemed only natural when she found herself pouring out every detail of what had happened.

“Anything I can do?” her friend asked as soon as Alex had finished.

“Everything’s on hold until I’m sure my grandfather’s all right.”

“I understand,” Kayla said quickly. “Shall I make some inquiries at the hotel?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to say no, she’d take care of it. But the revelation she’d just had about her own independence stopped her. Sometimes she literally couldn’t do it all herself. She had someone she could trust; she should accept the offer.

Not to mention that it couldn’t hurt to have the weight of Kayla’s local badge behind any questions asked. Besides, she had a lot of reading to do here.

“Would you?”

“Of course.”

Kayla sounded both surprised and pleased, confirming to Alex that perhaps she had gone a bit too far on the independence front. She had the feeling this might be behind the impression others had told her she gave off, of being aloof. Just perhaps she’d gone all the way into stubborn.

Like G.C., she thought with an amused quirk of her mouth as she again disconnected her call.

As it had all her life, anything that pointed out similarities between herself and her grandfather made her proud.

A memory hit her with vivid clarity then, of herself as a