“I just—I guess I’m concerned that there might have been more than one person.”
At that, Levi slowly tilted his head. “And why would you consider that?”
“Seriously, just because of—never mind. Is anybody close to this Maxwell guy?”
“I pulled the files, and I sent it all to your phone. And I put a paper copy on top of your bed.”
“Okay, I should be looking at that now then.” He hesitated and glanced at the gym.
“Go ahead and get a workout in first,” Levi urged. “You know that’s good for mental fitness too.”
“My mind is going in a million directions right now.”
“So, make it a short and intense workout and then go over the material in the briefing.”
“Or I do a longer workout and you tell me.” And that’s what they did.
Levi filled him in on details. Maxwell’s wife had died, so his son was everything. “He’s in construction, has been for twenty-plus years.”
“But in Australia, right?”
Levi nodded.
“So why is Maxwell here in the States?”
“I actually looked into that as well. No clue but he arrived four days ago.”
“When did she arrive?”
“Two days ago.”
“Do you think it was a coincidence?”
“I have a hard time with those in general,” Levi said. “With the publicity for this international conference that Di is part of, I think Maxwell saw her photo, as one of the speakers, in an ad somewhere, and he traveled here specifically to target her. No proof, just my gut talking.”
“Sucks,” Noah murmured, “because we don’t have anything definitive.”
“We don’t. But I expect you’ll probably see him somewhere close by.”
“Stalking her?”
“Just as a threat on the outside.”
“Unless they followed us here.”
“And that’s possible too. We have a full alert on. Remember that.”
“Good thing,” he said. “Not too many people are set up for a deal like that.”
“I suspect he won’t come here in a full-on attack. It would be a lot easier for him to pick people off in town, where it’ll be more one-on-one.”
“That sucks too. What about the women?”
“All the partners are accounted for and are under lockdown as well. They won’t leave their businesses or work without their partners or another one of us there to pick them up.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” Noah said. He chose a machine, set the weights on, and got to work. By the time he finished his first set of reps and went through the second one, Noah was wiping down his face and shoulders.
“Other than that,” Levi said, “not a whole lot there.”
“I just wonder why here.”
“Because Ice is here. Because I’m here,” Levi said.
“Still,” Noah said, with a frown, “that’s a long way to come from Australia, without a plan.”
“Oh, he’s got a plan. Now, whether seeing Dianne changed his plan or was a part of it, we don’t know,” he said. “To just run into her in a secluded spot like that, I don’t buy it. Even with this conference being a big international deal, maybe advertised in all countries, even then, how would Maxwell know? His forte is construction, not healthy cooking.”
“I don’t like the whole thing,” Noah said. “I hate it when we have no answers.”
Levi laughed. “Most of the time we don’t have any answers. All we ever have is more questions.”
Noah nodded, and, at that point, with the briefing finished, Levi got up and left. Noah quickly finished his workout, working harder and heavier than he had before, while listening to Levi’s briefing. By the time he was done, it was shower time. He headed up to his room for a quick shower, noting the file on his bed. Dressed again, he dropped off his laundry and headed back down again, this time adding the file to his travel bag.
He walked out to the pool to find Di, sitting up and scrubbing her face. “You want to shower now or back at the hotel?”
She sighed and said, “Back at the hotel would make more sense, since all my things are there.” She got up, leaned over, gave Ice a big hug, and said, “Love you to bits. I’ll see you this weekend.” And, with that, she grabbed up the clothes she’d borrowed from Ice to replace her bloodstained ones from the attack and said, “I’ll just go get changed. Thank you for the loan. I’ll bring these back.”
As Di left, Noah sat down beside Ice. “How’s she doing mentally?” he asked.
“Honestly I think she’s doing pretty well. She’s aware it’s still a highly dangerous situation, but she’s determined to go back.”
He nodded. And they sat in comfortable silence, as he stared around at the gorgeous outdoor spa area that they had built, with beautiful palm trees and plants of all kinds. “You’ve really got yourself an outdoor oasis here.”
“We need it too,” she murmured. “Just so much wrong is in the world, so we need to come home from time to time and regroup and rebuild, mending from the inside out. It takes a soul space to do that.” He nodded.
Just then Di walked out, took one look at the two of them, and said, “I’m ready.”
He hopped to his feet. “Let’s go then.” They walked back through the front hall, where he grabbed his bag and said, “Come on, out to the same truck.”
She frowned. “Do you always just give orders?”
“It’s easier,” he said.
She rolled her eyes. “We’ll get on a whole lot better if you just ask.”
“Please, would you get into the truck?” he said very nicely, … too nicely.
“Okay, that’s worse,” she snapped. She hopped up into the truck and slammed the door hard.
He got up into the driver’s side. “Maybe so, but that’s what you asked for.”
“Well, just go back to being an ass then.”
“Perfect,” he said, “that’s much easier.” And, with that, he started up the engine and headed back to town.
Chapter 4
Dianne sat quietly the whole way back to town. Noah looked at her a couple times, and she noticed it, but just sank lower and lower into a fugue, as she got closer to where the attack occurred. When they came up to the parking lot, she stiffened. He reached over, linked his fingers with hers, and gave a gentle squeeze. She was surprised at his understanding and the gentleness of his touch. She sighed. “I didn’t realize how much it would bother me.”
“You wouldn’t be human if it didn’t bother you,” he said. “It’s all about the trauma.”
“I didn’t think it would bug me,” she said, with a shake of her head, as she motioned at the car park. “I honestly thought I would just park in a different place, and it would all be fine.”
“Maybe to a certain extent it would be,” he said. “But now you’re thinking about it because you’re not driving, so you’re not focused on everything else.”