by Rebecca Deel
A handful of people approached his mother and brother. The one woman from the group hugged his mother. The men spoke quietly to Porter. From the way Nate eased a couple steps closer, Alex knew they were part of the political system.
“Staffers,” Rio whispered in through his ear piece.
“No sighting,” Quinn said. “Evan’s in the wind.”
Alex wasn’t taking any chances. “Continue surveillance. Josh, when Ivy’s ready, move out.”
“Copy.”
One by one, the staffers moved in Alex’s direction. “Stay alert,” he murmured to Aaron.
The woman reached Alex first. “You must be Alexander. I’m Elise Fredrickson. I was Senator Morgan’s personal assistant.”
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Fredrikson. How long did you work for my father?”
“Please, call me Elise. I worked for nine years in the senator’s office.” Her smile wobbled. “He was a good man.”
“I think so, too. I know now is not a good time to talk, but I would like to speak with you about my father.”
“Of course, but why?”
“You worked with him every day, knew him better than most people. Frankly, I missed years of his life. Anything you can tell me about him, his interests, the causes that mattered to him, personal stories I’d greatly appreciate. I want to know the man my father became after I left home.”
Compassion clouded Elise’s face. “I’ll be happy to share. I loved your father, loved working for him. I’m going to miss him.” She dug a contact card from her purse. “Call me. I’ll help however I can.”
Alex thanked her, turned and introduced the Cahills. He had to shake his head at the southern warmth exuded by Liz and Aaron. They might be from a small Tennessee town, but they had old world manners down to a science. After listening to them interact with people for the last three hours, Alex believed they would be comfortable with the highest political movers and shakers. No one seemed to intimidate them. Of course, with Aaron’s position as president of the Otter Creek Bank, he encountered his fair share of important people. He was sure a natural at handling them.
“On the move,” Josh said.
“Copy.” Alex turned to greet the next staffer, a tall, muscular man in his late thirties. “I’m Alex Morgan. Thanks for coming.”
“Sean Pierce, senatorial aide.”
“How long did you work for my father?”
“Ten years.”
“You must have worked closely with him. I’d like to talk to you soon about him.”
“Why?” Suspicion darkened his countenance.
“To see my father through your eyes. I missed a lot of years with him. I want to know the man he became while I was gone.”
Surprise lightened his expression. “He was a great man, well loved by his constituents.” A small smile curved his mouth. “I have some great stories I can share about incidents that happened on the campaign trail.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
After he introduced Sean to the Cahills, Alex turned, greeted the next staffer. Anthony Wells, a short, stout man with a head of steel-gray hair, introduced himself as his father’s research analyst and easily agreed to spend some time with Alex. “Your father saved my life after my wife passed away.”
“No kidding. How?”
A chuckle. “Dragged me kicking and screaming from a bottomless booze bottle and put me to work. James and I were friends as boys. We kept in touch over the years. When Gladys died, your father recognized the downward spiral I was in, poured gallons of coffee down my gullet, and took me to his office every day. Inside of a month, I caught the research fever and never looked back.” His face saddened. “I don’t know what I’ll do with myself now.”
“Research analysts are valuable resources.” Alex dug his contact card out of his pocket. “If nothing turns up for you soon, call me. We’ll talk about a possible job for you.” Fortress always needed help with research. Their tech geeks were overloaded all the time. “Would you be willing to move if a job opened up?”
“Sure. Gladys and I never had kids. It was just us. There’s nothing holding me here.”
“Send me your work history. I’ll pass the information along.”
“I appreciate the help. I’ll email the details in a few days, give you a chance to rest after this ordeal.”
He introduced Aaron, then turned to the final waiting staffer. “I’m Alex Morgan. Thanks so much for coming today.”
“Ian Rhodes. I’m the public relations guy.”
“That’s right. I saw one of your news conferences. Dad was lucky to have someone of your skill work for him.”
Rhodes’ cheeks flushed. “I don’t know about that, but I enjoyed my work. Your father was a good man to work for. He always treated the staffers like family.”
Which one of his “family” had betrayed him? Josh and Stella returned to the viewing room, flanking Ivy and Del. “I’d like to talk to you about my father. I want to know who he’d grown to be over the years since I lost touch with him.”
The staffer leaned closer. “James told me about the blowup when you left. He was so proud of you, Alexander. He wouldn’t say so publicly as he didn’t want to alienate Cynthia.”
As soon as Ivy reached his side, Alex settled his arm around her waist. He expected to feel her trembling. Instead, she was rock steady. He smiled at her, winked. “Sweetheart, this is Ian Rhodes, Dad’s public relations man. Ian, my girlfriend, Ivy Monroe.”
He shook Ivy’s hand. “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Monroe.”
“How long did you work for the senator, Mr. Rhodes?”
“Almost ten years.”
“You must have started working when your were twelve years old.”
Rhodes laughed, his blue eyes twinkling. “Trust me, I’m older than I look.” He shifted his attention back to Alex, handed over his contact card. “Call me when you want to talk. I’ll be happy to share stories and give you a glimpse of the real Senator Morgan.”
“I appreciate that.” Alex introduced him to Aaron Cahill. Once the staffer was occupied, he turned to Ivy, cupped her face between his palms. “Are you okay?” he murmured.
“I’m fine, I promise.”
He leaned over, kissed her. “You are better than fine, angel. You astound me with your strength.” Alex glanced around, noted Josh was close while Stella had stationed herself on the perimeter, watching the crowd as a whole. The latest visitors had yet to reach his mother. “Show me the text.”
Ivy dug out her cell phone, called up the text, handed over the phone.
He scowled at the message. Had Evans done enough research on Ivy to dig up her experience with Lee? His texts were growing more and more graphic, hinting at caging her in the dark, threatening to gut Alex and make her watch him bleed out in front of her.
He shifted his focus to the picture, scanned the room, zeroed in on the small alcove on the left side of the room. With the crowd so large, it had been easy for Evans to slip into the alcove and observe. “Stella, he was in the alcove. Check it out.”
“Copy.”
Stella made her way around the edge of the room until she reached the alcove.
“You figured out where he stood just from the picture?” Ivy asked.
He leaned over until his mouth was by her ear. “The skill goes with being a sniper, baby.”
She turned her head, kissed his jaw. “Handy.”
“Alex,” Stella said over the team’s comm system, “There are two things in the alcove. A copy of Katherine Hall Page’s book, The Body in the Basement, and a toy rat.”
Anger knotted his gut. So Evans knew about Ivy’s worst nightmare and had decided to torture her with the memory. He glanced at Josh. His friend’s face showed his fury. “Hang on to them.”
“What is it?” Ivy whispered. “What did she find?”
“A book and a toy.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Maybe a child left it behind.”
He shook his head. “The book and toy
are meant for you, angel.”
“Do I want to see them?”
“Not right now.” He turned to greet the next group. Two hours later, the funeral director informed them there were no more visitors to be greeted. As soon as the last of the visitors left the viewing room, Alex sent the Cahills on to their hotel, then escorted Ivy to their SUV, Josh and Del trailing them.
Once their entourage was on the move to the house, Del said, “Okay, enough with the cloak and dagger thing. What did Stella find in that alcove?”
Alex glanced at Ivy. “A book, the Body in the Basement, and a toy rat.”
Ivy’s head jerked around to face him. “He dug into my history with Lee?”
“It appears that way, angel.”
“What’s the point?” Del asked. “That incident had nothing to do with Evans.”
“Intimidation, baby,” Josh said. “If Ivy panics, he assumes one of two things will happen. One, she’ll run which will cull her from the herd of protectors and leave her vulnerable to attack.”
“Ivy’s too smart for that.”
“Agreed. Two, if Alex becomes too angry at his girlfriend’s distress, he’ll be more likely to make mistakes and become an easier target.”
“That’s not happening, either,” Ivy said. “He’s too much the professional to fall for that.”
“Don’t be too sure,” Alex said. He captured her hand with his. “It took me a few minutes to get past the raw fury at Evans’ latest move. Josh pulled my head back in the game.”
“Returning the favor,” his friend said. “You kept me on task when Del was in danger.”
“The point is,” Ivy said, “you did get it together and force yourself to think. You didn’t react as Evans hoped you would.”
“This time.”
“Ever.” Her chin lifted. “He’s a two-bit thug. You are a professionally trained soldier. I’d place my confidence in you any day, anytime.”
Alex opened his mouth to reply when his cell phone vibrated. He touched the Bluetooth button on his steering wheel. “Morgan.”
“Alexander, it’s Clay Shannon.” His friend’s voice filled the SUV’s interior.
“What’s up?”
“Just got the preliminary autopsy results on your father.”
“And?”
“Senator Morgan didn’t die from complications of the gunshot wound.”
“Then what killed him?”
“A massive dose of potassium chloride. Your father was poisoned.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ivy tightened her grip around Alex’s hand. His father had been poisoned. How? The FBI had been standing guard on the room. How could the killer have gotten in?
“How long until the poison took effect?” Alex asked.
“With that amount in his system, a couple minutes, maybe less.”
His hands clenched on the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip. “Does the hospital have security cams on that floor?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just as Ivy and I reached the hall outside Dad’s hospital room, a man dressed in hospital scrubs left his room. The guy hadn’t gone ten feet before Dad coded.”
“And the feds let him just waltz past them?”
“You’ll have to ask them.”
“You better believe it. Unbelievable. I’ll get a warrant for the video footage, see if we can get a look at his face.”
“I can already tell you it wasn’t the man who shot Dad. This guy didn’t move the same way the shooter did on the security footage at the house.”
“Great. So we have two guys that wanted to kill the senator. Anything else going on I need to know about?”
Alex gave Clay a summary of what they’d discovered since they’d last seen him and what had happened to Ivy.
Clay whistled softly. “Send me what you have, including a picture of Evans. I’ll pass it along to the patrol units. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Fat chance. So far Neil Evans was leading them on a merry chase not to mention the Morgan family drama. She glanced at Alex. How much more could he take?
“I won’t let Evans hurt Ivy,” Alex said. “If you want a crack at him, you’d better find him first.”
“If I had heard that comment I would be obliged to tell you this is a police matter and to let the professionals handle it.” He paused. “But I didn’t hear anything. Keep your cop friend, Cahill, in the loop. Need this to be clean. I don’t want to see a friend behind bars. Get me?”
“Yep. Keep me posted on anything new.”
“Same. Later.”
Alex sighed. “Suggestions?” he asked.
“As your teammate, not a cop,” Josh said, “I recommend you get Fortress to hack into the hospital’s security system for the video feed of the hallway. The sooner we get an ID, the faster we can wrap up one of the threats to Ivy. Shannon can get the video feed the old fashioned way with the paper trail. His method will hold up in court.” He grinned. “Ours will garner results faster.”
Ivy twisted in her seat to stare at Josh. “What do you mean, one of the threats to me? I thought I only had to worry about Evans.”
“He is the most pressing threat since his goal is to hurt Alex through whatever means he can find. The poisoner, on the other hand, isn’t a direct threat to you, but he may turn into one when he realizes we’re on to him. This guy doesn’t want to go down for murder. Durango will be hot on his trail. What better way to make Alex back off than target you?”
“But it won’t work,” Ivy insisted. “Alex is too smart for that.”
“The poisoner doesn’t know my partner as well as you do. If anything happened to you, Alex would never stop hunting until he’d run the poisoner to ground. That man wouldn’t see the inside of a jail cell.”
Alex said nothing, simply raised her hand to his lips, and placed a gentle kiss on her palm.
That was just great. Not only did she have to watch out for Evans, some other bozo might join the pursuit party. How did life get so complicated? Grim resolve stiffened her spine. She wasn’t about to be a sitting duck while Durango and the cops chased down leads. “Is there a place nearby where we can work out?” she asked Alex.
“The house has a large workout room in the basement.” He glanced at her. “A finished basement, angel.”
“Excellent. I need some more training.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Tonight? I thought you’d be too tired.”
“Evans and the poisoner won’t hold off until I’m rested to up their game. I need more moves in my arsenal to protect myself. Durango is amazing, but even the best security measures aren’t perfect. Something could happen, one of the men could slip through. I never want to be caught unprepared again. I might go down, but I’m going to make them hurt before I do.”
“Good job, kitten.” Josh reached over the seat back and ruffled her hair. “There’s the spirit I’ve been waiting to see.”
“Go, Ivy,” Del said, grinning.
If she’d had any training before Lee entered her life, the basement imprisonment might never have happened. Besides, Alex wasn’t always going to be in town. At some point soon, Durango would be sent on a Fortress assignment. In order for him to do his job without distraction, Alex needed to know she could take care of herself. The last thing she wanted was for him to be in danger because he was worried about her safety.
“If that’s what you want, angel, I’ll teach you a few more techniques.”
The caravan parked in the driveway of the Morgan home. Alex waited until his mother and brother were inside before coming around for Ivy. Wise. They all had been through enough emotional turmoil today with more coming tomorrow. The Morgans needed a break from the tension and each other.
Ivy’s request for more training was not only to help her confidence. After standing and talking to so many people, her boyfriend needed to do something constructive, preferably something physical to burn off the excess emotions. She didn’t claim to know him inside and out, but Alex was an ac
tive man. Doing nothing when he spent his days physically training bodyguards in top shape must be driving him crazy.
In the entryway, Alex cupped his palm around her nape. “Do you need to eat anything before we get to work?”
She wrinkled her nose. “After, please. Some water would be great, though.”
“I’ll take care of it. Go change and meet me in the kitchen.” A quick kiss and he headed toward his father’s office.
Ivy hurried up the stairs. In her room, she changed into her yoga pants and fitted workout shirt, always mindful of Alex’s warning not to wear something too large because it gave the enemy something to hold on to. A shirt too loose could be used to yank her back into danger. She tied her tennis shoes and left the room. Halfway down the stairs, she met Josh and Del coming up, hand in hand.
Josh tapped her nose with his finger. “I don’t know what you did after Alex’s mother laid into him, but it worked.”
Del laughed, her eyes sparkling.
Her husband frowned. “What am I missing?”
“I kissed the stuffing out of him,” Ivy said with a grin.
“Now that’s a therapy I heartily support.” He wound his arms around Del. “We should practice that to make sure we get it right.”
“On that note, I’m leaving.” She continued to the kitchen and found Alex had already changed into his workout gear. Four bottles of water waited on the counter.
“Ready?”
“Let’s go.”
Alex led her to a door off the kitchen she hadn’t paid attention to. She thought it was a walk-in pantry. Not so. The door opened to reveal stairs leading down. He flipped on a light. At the bottom, Ivy stepped into a fully-equipped gym, complete with mirrors to check for form and workout mats. State of the art treadmill, elliptical, heavy bag. Wow. She wondered who used the equipment.
He set the water on a nearby table, opened one, handed it to Ivy. After drinking half, she set it aside.
“Let’s stretch a little first, warm up your muscles after standing so long. We don’t want to strain anything.”
