LITMIR.BIZ

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was still in school, had fired all their imaginations and been so deeply etched into her mind that…

      It suddenly struck her that he knew more about cold cases than she did on a very personal level.

      “You never gave up on your sister’s case,” she said. “You became an agent because of it.”

      He never liked talking about the reason he’d joined the FBI. She never doubted the death of his sister was the reason, but that kind of obsession was too Mulder-ish, he’d joked.

      But she knew it was true. She knew he’d been driven, some even said possessed, so much that she’d been a little concerned about what would happen, what he would do when his quest was finally over. And last year it had ended, as triumphantly as it could for him. But he seemed to have settled nicely into the life he’d carved for himself by sheer force of will and determination.

      Perhaps in the process of his quest, he’d found his true calling. She hoped so.

      After that moment’s inner acknowledgment of his success, she went on. “Even when everyone told you there was no case, that she had simply died in surrogate childbirth, you kept on. For nearly twenty years.”

      He sat there for a long moment. Alex guessed he was thinking, as was she, of the huge, frightening mess his sister had been devoured by—the mess she and the Cassandras had recently exposed. Since it had directly involved Athena, the Cassandras had vowed not to stop until the truth was uncovered. When it finally had been, the ramifications were so broad she still had trouble taking it all in.

      “That was personal,” he said at last.

      “So is this,” she said.

      “What? Your federal cold case is personal?” He seemed surprised.

      “It is. It’s connected to Athena.”

      “Isn’t everything you do?”

      His tone was wry, but he was grinning. Justin had come to know a great deal about Athena and the kind of women it turned out in the past year and a half. He knew what the school meant to all who attended, and Alex knew he’d come to appreciate the strength of the bond between the graduates and their alma mater.

      “Yes,” she said without embarrassment. “But this is different. It’s not just the school. This has to do with the…creator of Athena.”

      His brow furrowed. “Allison’s mother?”

      He’d met Allison Gracelyn during the unraveling of the mystery surrounding Lab 33 and its genetic experiments, the motive behind Rainy’s murder. Rainy had found out that the lab had used her for an experiment, back when she’d been an Athena student. And when her adult investigation had threatened to expose them, they’d killed her. Alex felt the usual pang the thought of Rainy, and how much she missed her, brought on. But she buried it for now; there was another Athena murder to unravel.

      “Yes,” she said. “Marion Gracelyn. Senator Marion Gracelyn.”

      His forehead cleared. “Ah. Hence the federal investigation.”

      She nodded.

      “Didn’t they determine she’d interrupted a burglar?” he asked.

      “That’s what they said,” Alex agreed, her voice neutral.

      “But you’re not buying it.”

      “I never did,” she said. “There was no reason an ordinary burglar would have broken into Athena.”

      He considered that for a moment. “Can’t argue with that,” he agreed. “It’s too far out, too isolated, and there wasn’t enough to steal—except maybe some hard-to-fence lab equipment and computers—to make it worthwhile.”

      She smiled, grateful he had so quickly seen the facts. His eyes widened, and she thought she heard him suck in a breath.

      “Whatever brought on that smile, tell me so I can do it again. And again.”

      Alex fought down the heat that threatened to rise in her cheeks. He always managed to do that to her. He was so…blunt, sometimes, about how much he wanted her, and wanted her to feel the same way. It was such a change from Emerson Howland’s cool, unaffected manner. It was taking her a while to adjust, to trust that it was real.

      She pushed thoughts of her former fiancé away, along with any effort to respond to Justin’s unexpected request. She knew she was going to have to quit putting it off soon, but now was not the time. She had too much on her plate right now.

      “There’s new evidence,” she said.

      He seemed reluctant to accept the change back to the original topic, but at last nodded at her to go on. She told him about the letter. And again he wasted no time with trying to explain things away.

      “So she knew someone—or maybe plural—was after her. And those supposed accidents were just failed attempts.”

      She nearly smiled at him again, but stopped in time; she wasn’t ready for another round of dealing with his ardency just now.

      “Exactly,” she said.

      “How long’s the list?” he asked.

      “Of suspects? Lengthy. I was thinking I’d start with the ones here.”

      “Here? You mean in D.C.?”

      She nodded. “There are a few of them who didn’t want to see Athena even exist, let alone succeed.”

      “Which it has, and then some. It’s a force to be reckoned with these days.”

      Athena Force. The new nickname they’d chosen for their expanding group of crime-fighting Athenians echoed in her head. The warmth of belonging to such a stellar group—and of having Kayla, one of her closest friends—back in her life, filled her.

      “Given the circumstances and that a lot of those people are still here, that’s where I’d start,” he said.

      “But?” she asked, hearing the unspoken qualifier in his voice.

      “In the end, I think most cold cases are solved at the scene, or in the place most closely connected to it.” He shrugged. “That’s why I kept going back to Athena over and over again after Kelly died. It was the only connection to her death that I was sure of.”

      She’d already had the feeling that she was going to end up back in Arizona. It all seemed to come back to that. As before, Athena seemed at the center of the storm. Marion had to have known she’d be stirring up things when she’d begun the academy for young women, but Alex wondered if she’d ever imagined just how much. Or how far and for how long the ripples would spread.

      So, she’d be going back. She hadn’t expected to be investigating another murder so soon, but when it came to her beloved school she’d do whatever had to be done. Any Cassandra would.

      “Anything I can do to help?”

      At Justin’s words she snapped back to the present. She appreciated the offer, but this was Athena, her home and her problem. Or theirs, she amended. She figured she’d end up calling on some of her fellow Cassandras before this was over and done. And Allison, of course. She was first on the list.

      But she’d leave the door open, she thought.

      “Not yet,” she said.

      He nodded as if he understood.

      And perhaps he did, Alex thought. He seemed to understand a lot. Perhaps it was just his innate knowledge and acceptance of the concept of loyalty. She knew he had it; the man had spent half his life pursuing the truth about his sister’s death. They’d been closer than most siblings, the barely legal Kelly having fought hard to keep her teenage younger brother with her after their parents had died. And Justin had never lost his determination to see through the last and only thing he could do for his beloved big sister.

      Would he be that dedicated and loyal to anyone

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