Love Inspired Suspense June 2015 - Box Set 2 of 2: Exit StrategyPaybackCovert Justice

by Shirlee McCoy

  Jeffrey Harrison’s recovery had been remarkable, but Heidi could see how Caroline would take his health issues to be one more sign that she needed to stay close and focus on the family rather than on herself.

  “I’m sure someone will come along and realize what a prize she is.” That’s how it worked, wasn’t it? Not that she would know from personal experience. She had a gift for terrifying men into running for their lives long before she ever had a chance to determine if they were worth hanging around. The only one who’d stayed long enough to see what the Kovacs had done to her had skipped out soon after, confirming her suspicions that there was no point in pursuing relationships. They never worked. At least, not for her.

  Not that it mattered. She’d known since the day the Kovacs had scarred her for life that her purpose here was about one thing. Stopping them from ever hurting anyone again the way they’d hurt her.

  Anyway, the dating scene had never appealed to her. Why would she waste her time with boys who had no idea how dangerous the world was? She’d spent her college summers learning how to run surveillance and slip in and out of buildings undetected. She’d spent hours mastering Hungarian, years pushing every selfish impulse to the side so she could someday take the Kovacs down.

  And that’s what she was going to do.

  *

  Blake pulled into the parking lot of their largest supplier and cut the engine. He’d been looking forward to having this time with Heidi, and it had been enlightening. He had many more questions, but he could tell when she’d said all she would say and he had enough sense to know pressing her would be counterproductive.

  Trying to understand where she’d draw the line on what she would and would not discuss was giving him a headache. Or maybe the headache had already been there. He’d been up late last night, but even his morning Mountain Dew hadn’t helped him perk up. Good thing he’d brought another for later.

  “Are you okay?” Heidi’s eyes narrowed in concern.

  “Yeah.” No way would he own up to how miserable he felt. Not when he knew she’d been out running around all hours of the night doing who knew what to keep his family safe, and she sat here all bubbly and energetic. He might have to cave and try drinking some of her fancy-pants tea. “I’m good. Let’s check this place out. If we get done early enough to beat the rush, I’ll take you to a great burger joint a couple of miles from here.”

  “Sounds good.”

  They toured the plant, Heidi introducing herself as a quality consultant interested in learning how much variation could be expected in their raw materials. The engineer tasked with giving them the tour looked like he’d graduated a week ago, and it took Heidi less than three seconds to wrap him around her little finger. Poor boy didn’t know what had hit him.

  They finished in plenty of time and when they walked back to the car, Heidi held her hand out. “Why don’t you let me drive?”

  “Why?”

  “You look awful.”

  He opened the passenger door for her. “Thanks a lot.”

  She climbed in. When he slid into the driver’s seat she made a show of buckling her seat belt. “Maybe awful’s the wrong word. You look…off. I can’t put my finger on it. Is something bothering you?”

  “I have a headache.” He reached into the cooler he had in the backseat and pulled out another Mountain Dew. His mouth felt as if he’d been snacking on cotton balls. “This should help.”

  She laughed. “You never did tell me about your obsession with Mountain Dew.”

  “It’s no big thing. We have Coke products at the plant because that’s what Dad and Caroline prefer. But there’s nothing quite like a Mountain Dew to get your morning off to a great start.”

  He took a long drink. “A couple of years ago, they gave me the fridge and stocked it with Mountain Dew for my birthday. I keep a few bottles in there all the time.”

  He took another swallow. “I’ve cut back over the years. I only drink one a day.”

  She pursed her lips and eyed the bottle he held in his hand.

  “Two in cases of emergency.”

  She shook her head. “As I recall, you had a Mountain Dew the night I showed up at your house. Your one-a-day rule seems like it might be more of a guideline.”

  That memory of hers was going to get him in trouble.

  “That one was your fault. I think most people would agree that the FBI knocking on your door constitutes an emergency.”

  She was laughing as he pulled into the restaurant parking lot. He killed the engine and watched for Heidi’s reaction. This place was a dive. The kind of spot a tourist wouldn’t even notice, unless they bothered to pay attention to the parking lot overflowing with everything from beat-up pickups to shiny luxury sedans.

  Heidi looked around and then back at him. “You sure know how to impress a girl.” Amusement shone from her eyes. He’d picked this place on purpose. Partly because he loved the food and made it a point to eat here whenever he came to town, but also because he wanted to see how she would react. He’d learned a long time ago that the best way to get to know someone was to take them out of their comfort zone. The way people treat others who are different from them was a solid indicator of their character.

  He hadn’t paid it much attention when he was dating Lana, but later he’d noticed how she mocked others for things as simple as what type of music they enjoyed or where they shopped. He was convinced it was her lack of respect for others that had allowed her to make the decisions that led to her choice to embezzle the money. She could have told him the truth. Told him about the drug addiction. He would have helped her. Five years later, and he still didn’t know what he’d done wrong.

  Shaking off the memories didn’t prove as difficult as it usually was. When he was with Heidi, and even when he wasn’t, she took up all available brain space. As they sat down to lunch, her face glowed with obvious delight over the crowded picnic-style tables, the no-nonsense waitress, the cross-section of society represented. He’d have enjoyed her reaction more if he hadn’t been counting the minutes until he could go home and lie down.

  They ate their cheeseburgers and hand-cut fries, while he gulped three glasses of tea. She chatted with the people around them and kept him from having to do anything more than focus on breathing, chewing and swallowing. He didn’t argue when she popped her last bite into her mouth and suggested they leave. He agreed on the pretense that they should free up the table space for the people waiting to get in before the food ran out.

  But the truth was, he was feeling so sick he thought he might collapse.

  She reached for the keys when they got outside. “You have to let me drive.”

  He hesitated. He didn’t want to admit how wretched he felt. His head throbbed and once during lunch, he’d thought there were two of her sitting across from him. “Fine.”

  He slid into the passenger seat and closed his eyes. Heidi cranked the car and drove them straight to the interstate without asking for directions even once. “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Remember how to get to the interstate.”

  “I paid attention on the way here. It’s never a good idea to drive off into the boonies and not have a handle on how to get back to civilization.”

  Made sense. In a weird, creepy way. “Do you ever relax?”

  “No.”

  She laughed, but Blake had a feeling she wasn’t kidding. He tried to swallow. Why was his mouth dry? This was embarrassing. Spend the day with the FBI agent and instead of being witty and impressing her with his skill and knowledge, he could barely hold his head up. He tapped the button to lower the temperature on his side of the car.

  “Are you hot?” Heidi asked.

  “You aren’t?”

  “No.”

  Were they going faster? She should slow down. She’d get a ticket. Or would she? Did FBI agents get tickets? Maybe she had some special Get Out of Jail pass in her wallet.

  Why was she yelling? Was she yelling a
t him? Or someone else?

  He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but his tongue refused to cooperate. He should tell her he thought he might be having a heart attack. Nothing was working right. What was happening to him?

  NINE

  Heidi paced the emergency room, thankful she shared it with no one but a young family waiting with their eight-year-old sporting a black eye and a broken nose. She gathered the boy had been in a fight and his fellow combatant had already been taken back with more significant injuries.

  The boy was explaining his side of the story to his father, complete with sound effects, when her phone rang. Max.

  “What’s the status?”

  “They have no idea at the moment, but I suspect atropine poisoning.”

  “What?”

  “He has classic symptoms. Flushed skin. Dry mouth. Got a little loopy on me. Mumbled something about having a heart attack. When I got him in here, his pulse was sky-high.”

  “Let me guess, you read about this once when you were twelve.”

  “Twenty-three. In a manual you should have read, too, on different poisons and drugs and their side effects.”

  “Not all of us remember everything we’ve ever read.”

  She ignored his sarcasm.

  “Why do you think someone tried to poison him?”

  “I don’t know. It’s ridiculous. I can’t even figure out how the poison was administered. Maybe I’m wrong about the atropine. I’m hoping we can chalk it up to stress. Or maybe even too much caffeine.” He did consume a lot of caffeine. “Something weird is going on. If he’d been driving…”

  She didn’t want to think about it.

  “This is twice in less than two weeks.”

  “I know.”

  “Why now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  A nurse poked her head through the door. “Ms. Zimmerman?”

  “Yes.”

  “You can come back.”

  “Max, I have to go. Call you in a few.”

  She followed the nurse through the doors. Blake lay still, skin flushed, hooked up to an IV. The nurse nodded in his direction. “We’ve already done an EKG and he’s stable. The doctor will check back in a few minutes after we get some labs back. You can sit with him if you’d like.”

  Heidi approached the bed and Blake’s eyelids fluttered open. “Hey.” The word came out as a whisper. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  “Thank you. Again.”

  “For what?”

  He gave her a withering look. “Please. I’m not an idiot.”

  She leaned close. “Let’s save our debate on that point until after you’re home.”

  His eyes flashed, but he smiled. “Any idea when that will be?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure if they’ll let you go or keep you for observation.”

  “What do you think they should do?”

  Good question. Hanging around hospitals was never fun, but if someone had poisoned him, they’d done it either in his home or office. Home might not be a safe place for him, after all.

  “I think you need to rest. When you feel up to it, you need to think through every single thing you’ve done since yesterday. Everything.”

  “Why?”

  “We’ll need to check your house, your office—”

  “Wait a minute. What are you thinking?”

  “We need to think of something you would have ingested. Only you. So it can’t be the coffee at the office or last night’s supper.”

  “You don’t think this is a fluke?”

  “Do you?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I heard one of the doctors say it looked like a panic attack.”

  “You aren’t the type to panic.”

  “How would you know? Maybe I freak out all the time.” He kept his tone light, but Heidi could hear the undercurrent. He might need some encouragement.

  “I’ve seen you in a life-or-death situation. You handled it fine. And while it is normal and expected for you to experience some physical ramifications from the stress levels you are operating under—”

  “Such as?”

  “Upset stomach, headache, tight muscles in your neck and back, short-temper, disturbed sleep.” She ticked the list off on her fingers. “All normal.”

  She tapped the edge of the hospital bed. “Flushed skin, not being able to get enough to drink, feeling dizzy and having a sky-high pulse are indicators you’ve ingested something that has messed with you in an unpleasant way. And since I’ve been with you all morning and I feel fine, it has to be something only you have—”

  “My Mountain Dew.”

  “What?”

  “I guarantee you it’s the Mountain Dew.”

  “Blake, a sealed bottle of Mountain Dew would be hard to poison.”

  “Not that hard. I saw it on one of those forensics shows on TV. You stab the top of the cap with a strong syringe and pull the plastic back through. It wouldn’t be noticeable.”

  “You watch too much TV.”

  Not that the criminals couldn’t get their ideas from television, too. He was watching for her reaction. She didn’t like it, but it was possible.

  “I was fine this morning before I left the office. Things got weird after I drank the first Mountain Dew, and after I finished the second one… I honestly don’t remember how I got here.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “How did you know to bring me here?”

  “It didn’t require much in the way of specialized training. Aside from the physical symptoms, you kept saying you could see two of me. Taking you to the hospital seemed like the most prudent course of action.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I am thankful you let me drive.”

  She glanced around. The nurse would banish her if she caught her using the cell phone, but this was worth the risk. “Max, I need someone to meet me in the hospital parking lot. I want labs run on Blake’s Mountain Dew.”

  “His what?”

  She explained Blake’s theory. “He wasn’t feeling well this morning, but he got significantly worse after he drank the second one. They came from his personal stash. Everyone at the plant knows he drinks one every morning.” Meaning Markos would have known.

  “All right. I’ll call you when we get there,” Max said.

  Blake sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t like this.”

  “You deserve an award for your skillful use of understatement.”

  Blake didn’t laugh. “Someone poisoned me, didn’t they?”

  Heidi held his gaze. He deserved the truth, even if it terrified him. “I don’t know, but it looks that way.”

  *

  It was 7:00 p.m. when Heidi drove up the long Harrison driveway with a grumpy Blake in the seat.

  “You’d better go straight to Mom and Dad’s,” he said. “They will want to see for themselves that I’m okay.”

  “No problem.”

  They went inside. Eleanor Harrison grabbed Blake and squeezed him close. “Honey, we were so worried.” She turned to Heidi and pulled her in for a hug. Eleanor Harrison was the huggiest woman Heidi had ever encountered. “Thank you for staying with him, dear.”

  “It was my pleasure.” No need to mention that nothing could have forced her to leave.

  Eleanor and Jeffrey had taken the news of Markos Kovac’s presence far better than she could have hoped for.

  For that matter, they’d taken her presence far better than she could have hoped for.

  Jeffrey had only been home a few hours when Blake and Caroline had filled their parents in on the Kovac situation.

  Heidi had planned to fly under the radar as much as possible. She hadn’t wanted to cause any more stress than was absolutely necessary.

  But Jeffrey and Eleanor had other ideas. Both parents had insisted on meeting her immediately. She’d kept her visit short, but somehow, that had been enough for Eleanor to start treating her like a member of the family.

  Jeffrey
spent hours each day in therapy and hadn’t yet returned to the office, but Blake and Caroline paid him daily visits, both to check on his progress and to share any updates on the case.

  Heidi had seen stress pull more than one family apart, but in the face of crisis, the Harrisons seemed to be growing closer by the hour.

  And pulling her along with them.

  “You’d better go speak to your father, dear,” Eleanor said to Blake. “Since he heard you were in the hospital, he’s been as skittish as a cat on a porch full of rocking chairs.” She clucked her tongue and went into the kitchen. “You’ll stay for dinner, won’t you, Heidi? Caroline took Maggie to basketball practice but they should be here any minute. I know Maggie will want to see you.”

  “Thank you, ma’am, but I should—”

  “Nonsense. You need some decent food. I hear you live on ham sandwiches.” She gave her a look indicating her extreme disapproval of Heidi’s nutritional choices. “I’ve been cooking since we got home from the doctor and there’s a gracious plenty.”

  The house did smell amazing. Her grumbling stomach sealed the deal. Another hour of hanging out with the Harrisons wouldn’t hurt anything. She texted Max to let him know her plans and then settled onto a bar stool as Eleanor Harrison rolled out a batch of homemade biscuits.

  *

  Blake tapped on his dad’s bedroom door.

  “Come in,” Jeffrey said.

  Blake pushed the door open and found his dad sitting in one of two recliners in the sitting area of the massive bedroom. His face broke into a huge smile when he saw Blake. “You’re okay?”

  Blake gave him a hug and then flopped in the other chair. “I’m fine, Dad.”

  He could tell his dad didn’t fully buy it, but he hadn’t decided what he should share. He and Heidi had gone back and forth about it the whole drive home. No evidence had indicated his dad’s stroke had been anything other than a tragic natural event, and his recovery continued to be swift and remarkable.