Page 117 of Broken Wheels

He looked Dixon in the eye. “I have an idea. You’re not going to like it, but?—”

Dixon barked a laugh. “I haven’t liked any of this since the beginning. Why couldn’t we just meet, fall in love, and run off together?”

Right then, that sounded far more pleasant than what was running through Josh’s head.

“A good dream, but…. It’s not going to work out now.”

“Doc, you’re scaring me.”

He shivered. “Not half as much as I scared myself when I realized what he’s up to.”

Dixon frowned. “You think you know?”

Josh nodded. “They’re going to blame me.”

“What?” Dixon gaped at him. “How the fuck can they do that?”

Josh leaned against the countertop. “It’s the only theory that makes sense. Think about the timeline. They’ve tried to kill me at least three times.” He scowled. “Why? I mean, I don’t know much, so why am I such a threat?” He took a breath. “Then it hit me.” Josh counted off on his fingers. “I stole the files. I had the formulas. I could easily have replicated them. I could even have been working on the toxin to make it more or less lethal, especially with the samples they claim to have found in my old place.”

“But you didn’t. Spencer, on the other hand….”

Josh nodded. “Spencer knows I’m a threat to his plan, and that means only one thing.” He locked gazes with Dixon. “He had to eliminate me. Well, he’s tried that, and it didn’t work, so he changed his tactics and dropped hints that they knew who was responsible.” He forced a grim smile. “I’ll bet you anything you like he’s gonna tell the world I’m the bad guy.”

Dixon stared at him, aghast. “C’mon, Doc. That can’t be right. Can it?”

Josh didn’t break eye contact. “We’re in his way. He hasn’t been able to kill me, so this is the only avenue open to him. You wait and see. Any day now, someone will come on and accuse me of being the mastermind behind this attack. I don’t know the reason they’ll give, but I’ve gone over it at least a hundred times in my head, and I keep coming to the same inescapable conclusion.”

“They want you out of the way.”

“That was it initially, but now I think they also want me as a scapegoat. Spencer is going to use me as his first step to legitimacy. As for my would-be assassins, I think he killed them. Not because they failed, although that was part of it. He’s removing the blocks. Anyone, even those involved tangentially, who knows what he’s done will wind up dead. If he wants to be respectable, he can’t have anyone knowing the truth.” He grimaced. “Spencer is going to leave a trail of bodies on his way to the White House, and he fully believes no one will be any the wiser.” He paused. “There’s something else we need to consider. We have to stop him, because if they arrest me, I can guarantee you, I’ll be the next Porter when I turn up in prison with a gunshot to the back of the head.”

“No fucking way. We’ll end him before we let it get that far.”

Josh gave another nod. “So no, I don’t want to sleep. I need to get back to working out exactly where Spencer was when all these attacks took place.” He peered at Dixon. “So make me something to eat, why don’t you? Man cannot live on coffee alone.”

“Only if you promise to eat it this time.”

He chuckled. “I promise. Now let me go prove I’m a genius.”

Josh was more tired than he’d admit, but he needed to achieve something before he gave in to fatigue.

Spencer is dirty. I know it in my bones.

Now all he had to do was find the evidence.

Dix walked behind Doc’s chair and kissed the top of his head. “Time to call it a day, Doc.” He’d let Doc spend way too long focused on his laptop.

Doc stretched, his arms above his head. He gave a weary chuckle when Dix grabbed his wrists. “Well, I can’t very well work like this, can I?”

“I’ll let you go—only if you switch that off and come eat dinner. And before you ask, it’s quesadillas.”

Doc’s stomach gave a loud grumble. “Anyone ever tell you that you fight dirty?”

“All the freakin’ time. Now shut. It. Down.”

“Can I at least show you what I’ve discovered?”

Dix sighed. “Go on.”

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