Red After Dark (Blackwood Security #13) - Elise Noble Page 0,7
mind to it, but Alaric liked how she was so openly awkward in private. There was no second-guessing with her. She wore her heart on her sleeve, or at least, what was left of it after her prick of an ex-husband had done his worst. Alaric had messed up too when they first met—they’d gotten too close, too fast, and he’d taken a hasty step backwards before he ruined her. With his reputation still in tatters and his wanderlust unsated, he was in no position to consider a relationship. And Beth was too fragile for a fling.
That didn’t stop Alaric from feeling like a shit for sleeping with Ravi two nights ago, though.
He blocked the memories out as he bent to kiss Beth on the cheek. “Anything you’d care to cook will be superb.”
This wasn’t a regular presidential phone call. Emmy, Black, and Alaric clustered around a tablet in a conference room at Riverley while Harrison was on a couch in what looked like his personal study, the space devoid of the usual hangers-on who sat in on his calls. Was anyone else listening from the situation room? Black got straight to the point.
“Is this a private call?”
“Does it look as if I’m on official business?”
Not in jeans and a faded Def Leppard T-shirt, no. Alaric noted that Harrison sidestepped the actual question, but Black seemed satisfied with the answer.
“You remember Alaric McLain?”
Harrison gave him a tight smile, a day’s worth of light-brown stubble speckling his jaw. “How could I forget? You’ll be pleased to hear the Secret Service has tightened up its procedures.”
Good news for the country, bad news if Alaric wanted to bypass security again. “Excellent.”
“And I never did thank you personally for the information about Likho.”
Ah, yes. The supervirus Emmy had tangled with. The dirt had come from Naz, who was a treasure trove of secrets. When he quit his job at SVR—Russia’s foreign intelligence service—he’d walked away with more than a stapler and a “Good Luck” card. The Russian government would still be trying to kill him if he hadn’t faked his own death.
“Forget it.”
One of Alaric’s own sources had heard that the reason the FBI hadn’t pursued Alaric to the ends of the earth was because Harrison had whispered in the director’s ear. At the behest of Emmy, undoubtedly, but he’d still taken the pressure off. Alaric had owed the man a favour.
“It’s late,” Black said. “Shall we get on with this?”
Harrison shrugged. “Emmy? Why were you asking about Kyla Devane? Are you looking at her for some reason?”
“We’re looking at Irvine Carnes, and Devane’s name popped up as an oddity. Why’d he endorse her?”
“Why are you looking at Carnes?”
Emmy jerked a thumb at Alaric. “We’re still after those bloody paintings from the Becker Museum raid, and we’ve got reason to believe Carnes’s assistant picked one of them up in London the Wednesday before last. Either he’s masquerading as an art thief in his spare time, or he was there on Carnes’s behalf.”
“Carnes was always a straight shooter. I can’t see him getting involved in a robbery.”
“You also couldn’t see him endorsing Kyla Devane, right? And what would you say if I told you he once tried to buy this particular painting from the museum?”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, that’s about where we got to. I’m heading to Kentucky tomorrow with Alaric, but I want to get an idea of what we’re walking into. Forewarned is forearmed.”
“If I could tell you, I would, but quite honestly we’re scrambling here. The Devane thing blindsided everyone. But holy shit, we need to keep her out of that seat.”
“Why?” Alaric asked. He’d looked Kyla Devane up before the call, but he wanted to hear Harrison’s reasoning. “Forgive me, I haven’t been following that particular race. Isn’t she running as an independent?”
Since Harrison was the country’s first independent president, logic said he should be on her side. His victory had come after a vicious, mud-slinging battle between the Republicans and Democrats left the populace jaded, and a clever campaign coupled with people’s apparent desire for change had enabled Harrison to slide through and claim the top job. Which was pretty much the path Devane seemed to be following. Oh, and it didn’t hurt that both of Harrison’s main rivals had been tainted by scandal right before the election. A call girl for one and association with a white supremacist group for the other if Alaric recalled correctly.
“She’s unpredictable. Her policies are all over the place, and since the senate’s split forty-seven Republicans, forty-eight