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threatening to kill a Naval officer if I don’t back down. What’s the simplest explanation for that?”
“That my boss doesn’t wish to be exposed for his part in this situation and he’s prepared to do anything he must to stop it. Now, you can choose to go home and tell your boyfriend everything I’ve told you. He’ll be brave. He’ll stand firm and eventually he’ll have some accident that you won’t be able to pin on anyone in my organization. Or you can do the smart thing and tell him you found proof that his father committed suicide. He’ll be depressed, but somehow I think you’ll find a way to bring him out of it.”
Anger flared inside her. This asshole wanted to corrupt justice. He wanted Dax kept in the dark . . . or dead. She had to get out of here without getting shot. The minute she could get away from these assholes, she would arrange to view the parking lot’s security tapes and ID these men. “I’ll take it under advisement.”
“See that you do.” He nodded to his henchmen and backed toward a black SUV. “And, Special Agent, I believe you’ll find the cameras have mysteriously malfunctioned. It’s a shame that technology doesn’t always work.”
She gritted her teeth, fearing the power he must have. “I can still figure out who you are.”
“Then I’ll have some sort of ‘accident’ and they’ll replace me. I know how these things work. My boss will simply hire someone else and the business will continue.” He paused, regarding her with a shrewd stare. “You’re not convinced, so I’ll prove my point. If you don’t shut down the investigation, we’ll start small. Maybe simply scare the captain. After that he will receive the photos of his father. If that doesn’t convince him he’s on a witch hunt and the investigation still doesn’t cease . . . then we’ll start eliminating the problems. You’ll be last so that you can watch them all fall. How will you live with that, I wonder? Will that ‘justice’ you’re seeking have been worth the price? Think about it. Good evening, Special Agent Kirk.”
He slipped into his vehicle and was gone. She memorized the plate number but wondered if it would mean anything. After a quick call to the prison, she learned the cameras had indeed been shut down briefly for a software issue.
So whoever this man represented was powerful enough to have someone on the inside.
Shock rolled over Holland as she climbed into her car and sped away, trembling fingers gripping the wheel. She had no idea what to do now, what to say to Dax. But maybe she knew one person she could trust who would give her straight talk.
Flipping a U-turn, she headed to her uncle’s office.
* * *
Dax glanced at the clock. Almost lunchtime. He hated the fact that Holland was investigating the case alone while he was stuck in the office talking about procedure and processes.
“I think this wording really works,” Courtney said, peering at her computer screen.
“Good.”
She looked at him, a frown on her pretty face. “You’re really distracted. Is there anything I can help you with, Dax? Your brain has been somewhere else all morning.”
Courtney was an attractive girl with a waterfall of dark hair and hazel eyes. If he didn’t have Holland, he might have been interested. She was sweet and funny, but she didn’t have Holland’s grit or acerbic wit.
His brain had been on Holland. All day. All week. Ever since the day he’d come back into town, he’d been able to think of little but her. “Sorry. I’ll be better this afternoon.”
After he knew Holland was out of that prison and back at her office. Though her job was always dangerous. Somehow it was easier not knowing exactly where she was. He could pretend she was comfy and cozy in her office and not tracking down some crazed bitch who’d likely sold her daughter for cash.
Courtney’s eyes narrowed. “So everything is going well? I know the answer to that question since I haven’t heard from Holland. We usually have lunch a couple of times a week but I’ve barely heard from her.”
Because he’d consumed her every spare moment. His lunches were all scheduled here. If she could, she met him. Twice she’d been called away on assignment, but he understood that. “Sorry. We’re a new couple. I’m sure we’ll hate each other soon.”
Not if he had his way. They would be one of those couples that couldn’t get enough of each other, the sort who annoyed everyone around them because they were so deeply entwined.
“I don’t know about that.” Courtney looked back at her computer with a sigh. “I think I’ve pretty much lost my best friend.”
Damn. He hadn’t meant to come between Holland and her friends, especially one with whom she was so close. Dax knew well how important it was to have people he trusted. After Joy’s death, Holland needed friends more than ever. Courtney seemed a little frivolous for Holland. The girl was smart, no doubt. And funny. But she spent an awful lot of time talking about her nails. Still, maybe Holland had needed someone lighter in the wake of her grief.
“She’s not ignoring you. I’m just a possessive bastard and I’ve stolen all her time for myself.” He tried to give her a reassuring smile. “She’s talked about you, but I don’t know how the two of you met.”
Courtney smiled with the memory. “She was working a case involving some serious procedural problems during a training exercise. I’m kind of the expert, so she talked to me to make sure she fully understood what was expected. I deal with NCIS on a regular basis. About half of them are non-military based, so I’m a fairly good translator.”
The military had its own language and sometimes civvies got a little lost. Sailors tended to speak in an odd mixture of acronyms and slang only other sailors understood. He could definitely see where someone like Courtney could be an asset. She’d grown up in the military but had her schooling in the civilian world. “You two hit it off?”
“We’re both civilian females in a military world. No offense, but this is still a man’s turf.”
The landscape was changing, slowly. “I can understand that.” Though they seemed like opposites, the women were apparently fast friends. “Holland really likes you.”
Courtney smiled, her eyes lighting up. “I like her, too. She can be so serious sometimes. She needs someone to pull her out of herself. Her job can be a little grim, you know. She needs to be reminded that there’s fun in the world, too. I force her to go out a couple of times a week. Well, I did until the last few weeks.” She shot him a wry grin.
He’d been greedy about his time with Holland and he didn’t intend to change. While he was here, he intended to have Holland to himself as often as he could. “I don’t suppose you could tell your superiors we need another six months or so to get this manual done, huh?”
She leaned forward, a sympathetic expression softening her face. “You don’t want to go back to your ship, do you?”
“I don’t want to leave her.” But he had responsibilities. No matter how much he wanted to stay, he owed his ship and his men another year. He was due to report back in two weeks.
The thought of leaving Holland kicked him in the gut.
“She’ll be fine. I’ll be here and she’ll have her work. The time will fly by. When you get leave, you’ll come back.”
“Do you think she can be happy in that kind of relationship?” It was a question he’d been asking himself nonstop.
“I think she’s capable of handling anything she wants to.”
There was something about the way she phrased that answer that set him on edge. “If she wants to?”
Courtney paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. “I think she’s never seen herself as a military wife. Her mom was, and from what I can tell, it didn’t work out so great for her. I was actually surprised she gave you a chance. And I can’t see Holland dealing well with all the press you get.”
“I don’t get too much.” After those first photos of them entering Antoine’s weeks ago, they hadn’t encountered any more press. The paparazzi had moved on to more interesting prey, including his friends. M
ad and Gabe were back on a supermodel kick, and it seemed to satisfy the tabloids. He was fairly certain they were doing it to give him a little cover.
“You will as time goes by. I can’t imagine the president isn’t going to give you some high-profile job.”
Zack knew better. He’d already told his friend he refused to be turned into some kind of politician. If he left the military, he would go into private security or some other field. He was not about to get stuck in D.C. No way. No how. “I won’t be taking any high-profile jobs. That’s not for me.”
“Really?” Courtney asked, one brow raised. “Because having the president as a childhood friend usually means a career in politics at some point. I’m sure he needs people around him he can trust.”
Zack needed that badly, and Dax felt a bit guilty for refusing his buddy. He knew Zack had intended for his father to sit on the Joint Chiefs. Dax was lucky he wasn’t eligible due to his rank or Zack and Roman might have browbeaten him into it. Still, maybe he should think about taking a position with Zack. If he couldn’t get a more stationary position with the Navy.
God, he’d just decided. He would leave the Navy for Holland so they could build a life together. He didn’t want to spend years away from her, never sure of when he might see her again. He was at the tail end of his contract. If he didn’t re-up, he could be in D.C. by this time next year. Holland could apply for a transfer and never have to leave NCIS. They could get married, buy a house, start a normal life.
Somehow that didn’t sound so scary anymore.
Courtney was wrong about one thing, though. “If I decide to work for Zack, that will likely be the end of my paparazzi days. No one cares about old married people.”
“Married?” Courtney’s eyes had gone wide.
He nodded. “Yeah. If I take a job with Zack, it’s because I’m going to get married and start a family, and I don’t want to miss out on my kids’ childhoods. My dad did. He got back as often as he could, but he still missed things. I want to be there for every minute. I can find a way to serve my country and still have my family the way I want it.”
He could do it. He and Holland could make it work.
Courtney sat back. “Wow. I didn’t expect that so fast. You’ve only been with her for a few weeks.”
“But I’ve known her for years. We’ve been circling each other the whole time. This is finally the right time for us.”
“Well, I hope so. She’s not big on marriage. I hope she says yes.”
He was going to make sure she did. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Dax sat back with a smile. He was going to change his whole life for her—for the better. “She will. She doesn’t know it yet, but she loves me.”
Courtney stood up. “You’re a good man, Dax. I hope she realizes what she has in you. I’m going to go and file this.”
Her eyes were suspiciously red as she walked out.
Dax frowned. He did not understand most women. The good news was he did get Holland. And only she mattered.
He picked up the phone to call his mother. He had an engagement to plan.
* * *
Do you have a description of this man?” Her uncle had gone utterly still the minute she told him about the man who’d been waiting for her in the prison’s parking lot.
She nodded. “I talked to him for probably ten minutes. I can definitely describe him. He had two other goons with him, but I didn’t see them as clearly.”
“He didn’t disguise himself? Didn’t wear sunglasses or a hat?”
“No.” She understood why that disturbed her uncle. The guy in the suit had behaved like a man who didn’t have anything to worry about, as if he was above anything she could do to him. She’d worked law enforcement long enough to know that was a possible scenario. There were places she couldn’t go, things that were classified. She wasn’t naive and she certainly understood that powerful people sometimes went to very long lengths to keep secrets hidden.
With a deep sigh, her uncle walked to the window on his left. His office had windows on three sides. He’d always told her he liked to be able to intimidate his men at all times. Now he slowly approached each window, closing the blinds and sealing them in.
“What haven’t you told me?” she blurted. Her uncle would never have closed those blinds unless he was about to say something he didn’t want other people to witness.
“As a result of my investigation, I found some pictures I didn’t release to the press. Pictures that came to me after Admiral Spencer killed himself.”
“Of what?”
“Images taken from a hidden camera on Amber Taylor’s purse.”
Holland blinked in shock, cold washing through her. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Honey, because you’re in love with that man’s son and seeing those photos could hurt his family. From what I’ve been able to piece together, the entire thing was a blackmail scheme gone wrong.”
“You believe the Russian mob used Amber Taylor to blackmail Admiral Spencer?” Dax had never said a thing about a blackmail threat. “Why would the Russian mob give a shit about an admiral? I know the Spencer family has money, but surely they’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
“Maybe it wasn’t about the money. Maybe it was about his connections.”
“But who? The admiral had run with the same friends for years, so why now?”
Her uncle sat forward. “Because someone figured out his weakness and decided to exploit it shortly after the admiral made a brand-new connection, thanks to his son. A lot of ruthless people wouldn’t hesitate to use that relationship to their advantage.”
“What . . . Oh, god. Zack. I mean President Hayes. You think they were trying to use him to get to President Hayes?”
Beau sat back, shaking his head. “It’s still hard for me to believe you can legitimately call the president of the United States by his first name, but yes. The admiral died six weeks after the election. You can’t tell me the timing isn’t interesting?”
No, she couldn’t. Holland swallowed and sank into her seat.
“Those are some serious people you’re involved with, honey. And they come with serious enemies. In my opinion, someone connected to the Russian mob wanted dirt on Admiral Spencer. It would have come in handy later when he almost certainly would have been appointed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
She closed her eyes, the gravity of the implications crushing her. The Joint Chiefs of Staff advised the president, senate, and congress on all matters military. They had enormous influence.
“But wouldn’t it have all come out when the White House vetted him? Surely they would have discovered his penchant for teenaged girls?”
“If these people are powerful enough to hold a man like Admiral Spencer in the palm of their hand, it stands to reason that they can coerce other powerful people to keep their secrets,” her uncle reasoned.
True. “So why kill him even before Zack’s inauguration?”
Her uncle approached and wrapped a hand around hers. “They had no reason to since he hadn’t had the opportunity to prove himself useful yet. I think they blackmailed him but didn’t have anything to do with his death. After all, they lost a big fish when the admiral’s aide turned him in. I also believe that’s why the Navy shipped Peter Morgan out and put him on a classified mission. They were protecting their informant.”
“I don’t have any record of that.” She shook her head at the statement. “Which naturally I wouldn’t because it’s classified.”
It connected a whole lot of dots. It explained why she couldn’t contact Admiral Spencer’s aide. The Russian mob’s role and motive was enough to make her gut churn, but it made sense.
“You saw the pictures?”
Her uncle closed his eyes briefly. “I did. I hoped you wouldn’t have to. Do you need to? I can have them retrieved. I kept them out of the public eye because there was no need to hurt the Spencer family further.”
“You’re sure Dax’s father killed himself?”
He nodded. “I can’t see another scenario, Holland. We never found a note, but I think the old boy couldn’t take it anymore. All that press. His whole life’s work thrown down the toilet. His wife filing for divorce.”
“What?”
“She hadn’t filed, but she had visited a divorce lawyer the day before he died. You can’t know the true measure of a man until he’s placed under pressure. I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing.”
“But Dax is so sure. I know the admiral loved his children.”
“Yes, but he was still just a man. And at some point I’m sure ending his life seemed like an act of mercy to spare them what would have been a horrible trial that would have kept the sordid affair all over the media. The Spencer family would have been dragged through the spotlight at the exact moment President Hayes was appointing his cabinet. His friendship with Dax would have
