Flashback by Justine Davis (classic reads .txt) 📕

inside the house, from the intercom that signaled someone at the gate. She glanced at her grandfather, who shook his head and said, “Sylvia will get it.”

“Expecting someone?”

“Yes,” he said. “Someone helpful. Now then, where were we?”

“Gossip,” Alex said, wondering who would be coming out here at this early hour, helpful or otherwise.

“Ah. I can at least tell you that the references to Marion are accurate, on the surface at least. She did expose Corbin’s putting our troops at risk, and Collin’s fraudulent voting plan. It was quite the buzz at the time, both times.”

“Do you know how angry they really were?”

“Quite. Angry enough to kill? I don’t know.”

“She wasn’t killed until a couple of years after,” Alex pointed out. “Three years, in Corbin’s case.”

“A long time for the heat of passion to cool.”

“Do either of them have the mind-set to act that coldly, so long after the fact?”

“Someone once said revenge is a fruit you must let ripen,” G.C. said, leaning back in his chair, steepling his hands before him. “Do either of them have the patience to wait that long? Corbin, I’d say yes. He’s had to wait a long time for his company to get back to even a semblance of what it once was. Bryant Rollins? He’s—”

“—a politician. Of course he has patience.”

Alex wheeled around in her wicker chair, startled. There was no mistake, as there had been no mistaking that deep, masculine voice.

Justin.

“What—” she began.

“—am I doing here, I know.”

“Besides finishing everyone’s sentences, that is,” Alex said, her mouth quirking.

Justin grinned, walked over to stand behind her, then bent to plant a soft, tickling kiss on her ear. Involuntarily she flicked a glance at her grandfather, who seemed unmoved.

And unsurprised.

She wondered again what they’d discussed during those talks Justin had mentioned. Wondered what Justin had told G.C. to so obviously win him over.

“So? What are you doing here?” she asked. And why can’t you at least look tired, after taking what had to be a redeye flight?

An instant later she belatedly made the connection between Justin and G.C.’s expected guest. She whirled on her grandfather.

“You called him?”

“I did,” G.C. said calmly. “I thought you’d prefer him to a hired bodyguard.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard,” she yelped. “I’m a flippin’ FBI agent!”

“Yes, you are,” Justin said. “But as you have pointed out, you’re not a field agent.”

“I’m part of Athena Force,” she snapped as she shifted her attention back to Justin. “I don’t need to be a field agent.”

“I freely admit you’re much more capable than the average scientist would be,” Justin said, “but that doesn’t mean you should try to handle this alone.”

“You already had a narrow escape because of this,” Alex said, voicing something that continued to bother her. “I don’t want to be responsible for another close call. Or worse.”

“That’s not your call, sweetheart.”

Before she could react to the unexpected endearment, her grandfather spoke.

“The waters you’re stirring up aren’t just muddy, Alex,” he said. “They could easily turn bloody again. So just you let your old grandfather do what little he can to help you stay safe. I only made a couple of phone calls, after all.”

“A couple?” Alex glared at him with as much umbrage as she could muster, given how much she adored the man. “Justin and who else?”

“It doesn’t matter,” G.C. said.

“I’m here for as long as necessary,” Justin said.

Alex glanced from her grandfather to Justin and back again. She’d grown up with her family’s prestige and prominence and, after her grandmother’s death, had played hostess for G.C. more than once. And more than one of those excursions into formal hostessing had included the president. So she was well aware of how much clout her loving grandfather had.

She also knew how his mind worked.

“So, did he call the attorney general or just go straight to the director?” she asked Justin.

Justin blinked, apparently startled. Whether at her asking him instead of her grandfather or at the question itself she couldn’t tell, but it seemed he might as well find out now what he was dealing with.

Welcome to my world, she thought. Would he be able to deal with it? She hadn’t thought of that. Emerson had been born to this world, but Justin had grown up far removed from anything like it.

He did, however, recover quickly. “Don’t know, don’t care,” he said lightly. “All I know is my boss told me to get on a plane. So I did.”

“So all of a sudden you’re a rule-following kind of guy?” She was still a little peeved, and it rang in her voice.

“I’ve always been a rule-following guy,” he said softly. “They’re just not always your rules.”

G.C.’s approving chuckle told her she’d been over the line. And it didn’t take her long to realize that it was the idea of her grandfather and Justin in collusion about her that had her so unsettled and on edge. She wasn’t sure of all the reasons why, and didn’t have time to dwell on it now.

First she had to figure out who had so much to lose that they’d risk repeated attempts to murder federal agents to stop their investigation.

Chapter 17

“You ever get the feeling it’s right there in front of you, if you could just see it?” Justin said glumly.

“I’ve felt that way for days now,” Alex agreed, stopping in her pacing of the length of the porch.

She scratched absently at her arm, where the cut she’d received in the attempt at the country club was already healing and thus beginning to itch. She became aware of what she was doing and stopped. Then she turned around and went back to the table where they’d been working.

Her grandfather had left them to wrestle with things, his only advice to work out anything personal when it was over. The subtext of “and you’re both still alive” wasn’t spoken, but they heard it nevertheless.

“I feel like picking all this up—” he gestured at the pile of papers that had become