Aftermath

by Vanessa Kier

  Her new lover must be amazing.

  That was something else different. Faith claimed that for security purposes, she couldn’t tell Siobahn the name of the man she’d fallen in love with. All she’d say was that he had played an important part in helping rescue Toby. Apparently, until any fallout from that situation had been dealt with, the man needed to remain anonymous.

  Denying Siobahn information was the surest way to drive her to distraction, but at the same time, she completely understood the need for privacy. Particularly when it came to romantic relationships. She might have been something of a serial dater back in her day—ugh, that made her sound like some aging grande dame—but she’d never gone around flaunting her conquests. She’d only shared the details of her love life with a select group of friends.

  Faith had always been one of those confidants. Yet Siobahn hadn’t told her about Ryker. Yes, she was certain her friend knew that Ryker had spent the night twice, but since Faith hadn’t brought it up, Siobahn had been unwilling to do so. After all, what was she going to say? I think I’m falling for Toby’s new boss? And oh, by the way, the sex was amazing?

  She didn’t even trust her own judgment. What if these feelings for Ryker were simply a result of stress combined with burnout? Was this her midlife crisis? Did women in their late forties even qualify for the term midlife crisis?

  Muttering curses under her breath, she shut off her office light and headed into the nearly empty maze of cubicles. Alain McCormick, the SSU agent who’d been guarding her all day, detached himself from the wall he’d been leaning against. With his military short dark hair, his black t-shirt and cargo pants, and his sleekly muscled physique, his appearance screamed bodyguard. More than one female colleague had stopped by Siobahn’s office today, ostensibly to find out what was going on with Siobahn in the aftermath of the FBI’s raid. But in truth, Siobahn’s colleagues had just wanted to ogle McCormick. The man handled the attention with surprising good humor, flirting back without losing his focus.

  If she’d been younger and hadn’t already met Ryker, Siobahn would have staked her own claim on her sexy protector. But while she appreciated McCormick’s hotness factor, he didn’t fire up her libido the way Ryker did.

  “Ready to go home?” McCormick asked.

  Siobahn shook her head. “I have a meeting with a contact.” She gave him a stern look. “The person I’m meeting is skittish, so you’re going to need to stay hidden, okay?”

  “I’m not going to put your life at risk, Ms. Murphy. Director Ryker would have my hide.”

  Siobahn blinked. Hmm. What was Ryker like when he lost his temper? She’d bet he got all quiet, chilling the other person out, in stark contrast to the fiery eruption that was the standard Murphy way of displaying temper.

  “I’ll explain to Ryker that any harm that befalls me is entirely my own fault,” Siobahn reassured him.

  “Sorry, ma’am, but that’s not good enough. If I determine the location is too much of a security threat, I will prevent you from entering. Even if I have to knock you out and drag you to safety.”

  God, he sounded just like one of her brothers. “You take your duty seriously, don’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Doubly so, since it’s obvious the boss has a…um…personal interest in your safety.”

  Well, didn’t that just make her blush. Angry that she felt embarrassed over his knowledge of the growing relationship between herself and Ryker, Siobahn strode down the walkway that separated the two rows of cubicles. A few distracted good-byes and good nights from late-shift reporters followed her out.

  “Where are we headed?” McCormick asked.

  “The National Museum of Lab Detectives up on Seventh.”

  “Aren’t they closed?”

  “Yes, that’s the point.” With the popularity of interactive museums like the International Spy Museum and the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, the National Museum of Lab Detectives had opened last year, documenting forensic and medical examiner techniques used in solving crimes. Because the museum displayed actual forensic samples from some very high profile cases, the security around the building was excellent. “My contact, Dr. Robert Penfield, works part-time at the museum.”

  What McCormick didn’t need to know was that Siobahn had met Robert while dating his younger brother. She’d ended her brief affair with the brother years before, but she and Robert had remained friends.

  She also wasn’t sure how much McCormick knew about the mystery surrounding the death of MacAdam, so for now she wasn’t going to tell him that Robert had been a member of the team analyzing samples from the former president’s body. According to the panicked phone call she’d received earlier, he’d been trying to isolate and identify an unknown substance found in the President’s blood.

  “I’m scared, Siobahn,” Robert had admitted. “I think I’m being followed, so I’ve been living at the museum and using their state-of-the-art facility.”

  Because Robert had given her a tour right after the museum opened, Siobahn knew that at the end of the final gallery a one-way mirror overlooked a forensic lab, allowing museum patrons to watch the scientists and doctors at work. However, deep in the bowels of the museum where the public wasn’t allowed, there was a second, highly sophisticated lab that handled confidential and complicated cases. That would be where Robert had holed up.

  “I think I’ve finally identified a marker that indicates where the unusual substance in MacAdam’s blood might have come from,” Robert had added. “You’re the only one I trust to help me get this information to someone in authority who isn’t involved in the cover-up.”

  So Siobahn had promised to meet him tonight.

  Siobahn strode across the brightly lit parking garage, McCormick by her side. With the threat against her unresolved, Ryker had insisted that she was safer driving to work than taking the Metro, as she preferred.

  When they reached her car, McCormick held out his hand for the keys.

  “No,” Siobahn said. “I’ll drive.”

  “Wrong. It’s safer for me to drive. I’m trained in defensive driving.”

  She smirked. “So am I.”

  If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. “Bet my rating is more recent and higher than yours. Give over.”

  “Damn you.” She blew out a breath and dropped the keys into his hand. Because she didn’t drive much these days, she hadn’t taken a refresher course recently.

  McCormick accepted his win without gloating, which she appreciated. Her brothers would have crowed with triumph and continued to rub it in for hours.

  The museum was in a part of the city occupied mostly by office buildings, which meant that at this hour the streets were nearly deserted. The lack of activity gave the neighborhood a slightly sinister feel and Siobahn had the fleeting thought that maybe she should have told Ryker about this meeting. But, she really didn’t want to scare Robert off. And the museum sounded like a secure enough place to meet.

  Ten minutes later, McCormick found a parking space one door down from the museum’s front entrance. Holding back her impatience, Siobahn waited while McCormick spent several minutes visually inspecting the street before he declared it safe.

  The second he gave the all clear, she jumped out of the car.

  “I’m accompanying you, else you’re not going in,” McCormick warned as he checked out the front of the building.

  “I—” Siobahn glanced through the plate glass windows and frowned at the pitch black interior. “That’s odd. Robert said that the light over the ticket sales counter was always on.” Her hand reached for the door handle but strong masculine fingers closed over hers.

  “It’s better if you don’t leave any fingerprints.” Ryker’s hot breath against her ear sent her body into overdrive.

  “Where the hell did you come from?” she demanded on a shaky breath.

  Her only response was an amused burst of air against her temple. “Don’t think you’re going to get all my secrets, Ms. Murphy.
” The tip of his tongue briefly touched the rim of her ear and she shivered. “Not yet, anyway.”

  “Sir!”

  As Ryker stepped away, Siobahn shot a glare at McCormick and narrowed her eyes as Ethan Davies moved into position on McCormick’s left. Ethan must have accompanied Ryker.

  “When did you have time to call them?” she demanded of McCormick.

  “I listened in on your conversation this afternoon and passed the information on.”

  “Why, you sneak!”

  McCormick shrugged unrepentantly. “Just doing my job.”

  “You should have contacted me yourself,” Ryker chided. “I thought you knew better than to put yourself in danger.”

  “I—” Siobahn scowled. “It’s— Oh, forget it.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Someone should have been protecting Robert and the others who were analyzing—” She cut her eyes over to McCormick and Ethan and shut up, in case they weren’t supposed to know that MacAdam’s samples had been sent to multiple labs. In fact, she didn’t even know if Ryker was aware of that fact.

  Ryker gave her a nod. “You’re right. That aspect of security was being handled by a different group. Since we’ve seen no signs of other security personnel, that makes this situation even more dangerous.” He tugged her away from the door. “McCormick, we’ll follow you inside.”

  “Right, sir.” The man removed a pair of thin leather gloves from his jacket, pulled out a compact flashlight and tried the door. “It’s unlocked, sir.”

  Ryker tensed beside her. “Ethan, call in a break-in. You might not be able to get police support, given tonight’s concert on the Mall. So tell Alpha Team to mobilize and head over here. Then guard the entrance. Siobahn, I want you—”

  She pushed past him. “Ro—” Before she could finish calling her friend’s name, Ryker put his hand over her mouth.

  “Don’t announce that we’re here,” he said softly, “in case Dr. Penfield isn’t alone, or this is a trap.”

  “Oh,” she said against his fingers. Then, in retaliation for his earlier tease, she licked him.

  Her reward was a sharp inhale. “Vixen,” he murmured against her cheek with enough sensual promise to make her squirm.

  McCormick cleared his throat, but his voice still sounded faintly strangled when he spoke. Whether he was biting back shock or amusement, Siobahn didn’t want to know. “Ah…which way Ms. Murphy?”

  Cheeks heating, Siobahn pulled away from Ryker. In an attempt to regain some control of the situation, she reached into her purse for her mini-flashlight. Shining the light around the lobby, she tried to orient herself. “The whole place must have lost power,” she whispered. Not even a glimmer of light shone from the corners of the room. “But shouldn’t the emergency exit signs still be lit? Wouldn’t they have a separate power source?”

  “Yes. Those would have to be disabled separately.” Ryker’s flashlight beam combined with the other two to provide a sufficient amount of light for navigation.

  Siobahn walked slowly over to the ticket counter. Robert had met her in the lobby before taking her through the public part of the museum, which started upstairs on the right. So which way was the lab from here?

  Memory slowly returned. “If we go through the gift shop, there’s a staircase to the lower level. I think there’s a back door on the second landing that leads to the private labs.” She’d been surprised to learn that actual forensic work took place behind the scenes. Work that the public never saw. Robert had explained that taking cases for overworked law enforcement departments provided much needed cash while the museum built its reputation as a must-see tourist destination.

  “Which way?” McCormick asked.

  “Left.”

  “Siobahn, stay next to me,” Ryker said.

  “Okay.” Since she didn’t particularly want to end up grabbed by a bad guy in the dark, she had no problem agreeing. And she would totally ignore the fact that being ordered around by Ryker turned her on.

  As they navigated between the gift shop display cases and racks holding museum themed t-shirts, Siobahn didn’t mind admitting that she felt safer walking between Ryker and McCormick. There was just something primitively scary about walking through the dark, silent room.

  “There,” she said quietly, pointing to the doorway to their right. A metal gate about seven feet tall stopped visitors who hadn’t paid the entrance fee from taking the back way into the museum’s galleries. Ryker pushed on the gate with his flashlight. “Locked. Probably frozen when the electricity cut off.”

  “There should be a manual override, sir.” McCormick ran his hands over the gate. Then, grunting softly, he put his body weight into pushing against something Siobahn couldn’t see. A second later, the gate popped opened.

  McCormick walked through first. Siobahn and Ryker followed him onto a square metal landing that formed the focal point for two staircases. The stairs on the left led up to the observation window and the back end of the final gallery of the museum. The stairs on the right descended to the lower level where the restrooms and special exhibits were located.

  “Which way Ms. Murphy?” McCormick asked.

  “Down.”

  Siobahn started to follow McCormick down the stairs, but stopped when the click of her high heels ricocheted through the stairwell. “Sorry. Should have thought of that,” she said sotto voce, bending to remove her sandals and placing them on the landing. The metal treads were cold underneath her bare feet as she moved down the stairs, and she missed the height her heels had given her. But at least if I have to run, my heels won’t trip me up.

  “Uh-oh,” Siobahn whispered when they reached the second landing. The hidden door to the back rooms was cracked open.

  “McCormick.” Ryker took hold of Siobahn’s arm as if he didn’t trust her not to charge in.

  The man was too smart for his own good.

  “Yes, sir.” McCormick slipped past Siobahn.

  She held her breath. Please let Robert be okay. Please let—

  Several interminable minutes later, McCormick returned. “Sir, we’d better call 9-1-1.”

  “No!” Siobahn surged forward, breaking free of Ryker’s grip.

  “Dammit Siobahn, wait! You don’t know what’s—”

  Fear drove her forward. Robert couldn’t be dead. He’d said the museum had excellent security. That he was safer here than he was in his university’s lab. Yet she hadn’t seen any extraordinary security measures. Hadn’t the three of them practically waltzed right in? Or had Robert forgotten to take into account the damage a power outage could wreak?

  “Ms. Murphy, you don’t—”

  Siobahn rushed past McCormick, the beam from her flashlight bobbing erratically on the corridor floor and walls as she ran toward the glass enclosed lab in front of her.

  “Don’t open the door!” McCormick warned. He reached her just as she jerked to a halt. The lights were off in the lab and the beam of her flashlight barely picked up the crumpled form of Robert in the middle of the room. He lay in a fetal position, one hand up to his throat.

  “Robert!” She lunged for the door, but both Ryker and McCormick grabbed her arms and pulled her back. Then Ryker’s arms encircled her from behind, trapping her against his body.

  “Siobahn, stop a moment and think, damn you. Did Dr. Penfield tell you what he was working on?”

  Her chest heaved with the effort it took not to let the gigantic sob out of her body. Robert was such a smart, sweet man. She’d often thought it a pity that it had been his narcissistic, playboy brother that she’d temporarily fallen for. But there’d never been anything between her and Robert except the deep friendship of two like-minded people.

  “Siobahn. Answer me. Nod if you know what Dr. Penfield was working on.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then nodded.

  “Okay. Think. Use that investigative brain of yours. What do you see when you look into the lab?”

  McCormick shone his flashlight through the
window. Its beam reached farther into the darkness than her less powerful model, revealing broken equipment scattered across the worktable and floor. “Signs of a struggle,” she choked out. “But no signs of blood.”

  “Right. Put two and two together and what do you get?”

  “Body looks like it spasmed and froze in that position,” she said mostly to herself. “Some kind of gas or chemical attack?”

  “Most likely. Which is why we need to get out of here. Several developmental neurotoxins have gone missing from one of the DOD’s labs.”

  “But…but what if he’s still alive?” She dug her nails into Ryker’s forearms where they crossed over her belly. “We can’t just leave him to die!”

  She felt Ryker turn his head. “McCormick?”

  The other man walked along the lab’s window, moving his light up and down as he searched for something. He shook his head. “I don’t think this was rated as a hazardous materials lab, sir. I don’t see a protective suit. But wait… Here’s an intercom button.”

  Ryker’s arms relaxed their grip and Siobahn hurried over. “Let me try talking to him.” She nudged McCormick out of the way. “Robert? Robert, can you hear me? It’s Siobahn. Siobahn Murphy.”

  She stared at the crumpled form, willing Robert to move. Holding her breath, she waited for a response. Afraid to even blink in case she missed a signal from him. “Come on, Robert. Answer me. Show me you’re alive.”

  When Robert’s arm twitched, she thought she’d imagined it. Then his hand moved and he tried to raise his head. Thank you. Thank you.

  “Siobahn? Is that you?” His voice was hoarse and he gave a dry, rasping cough.

  “Yes. Robert, I’ve brought help. Tell us what happened. Are you hurt? Is it safe to enter the lab?”

  “Get…out…of here Siobahn. Not…safe…some sort…of gas…trap…”

  “We’re leaving.” Ryker yanked on her arm, but she twisted free.

  “Robert, how can we help you? Tell us what to do!”

  “Too…late…he’s going…to disperse it…through the…museum’s…vents…run…”