Page 26 of Insidious Threats
He took one final look at the game in progress, gave his head a rueful shake, then turned to smile at his wife. His smile faded at the sight of her pale face and tight expression. She locked the door and secured the deadbolt with swift, efficient movements. She flipped on the motion-detecting floodlights outside and hurried to the picture window behind the couch to check the locks on the frames.
“Hey, what’s going on? Is everything okay?”
She gave a short, decisive shake of her head. “No. Not really. I’ll fill you in when the twins are in the bath. Let me get my coat and shoes off. Then I’ll get the cocoa started and check the doors in the back of the house. Will you go upstairs and get your gun out of the safe? Please.”
“Whoa, hang on. Not a chance. Give me the short version, at least.”
If Sasha McCandless-Connelly was asking him to remove his Sig Sauer from the gun safe where she insisted it remain at all times, something was very, very,verywrong. But he couldn’t assess the threat unless he knew what it was.
“Fine.” She unbuttoned her coat and shrugged out of it. Then she dropped her voice low, just above a whisper. “It turns out Leith Delone’s lawyer really is like a consigliere. She was waiting for me in the back of the car when I left the restaurant, and she threatened me.” She paused, her coat draped over her arm. “I think it was a threat.” After a moment, she nodded. “Yeah, it definitely was a threat.”
He held out his hands for the coat, and she passed it to him. While he hung it in the closet near the stairs, she kicked off her shoes, aiming them toward the general vicinity of the closet. He scooped them up and placed them inside, lined up neatly next to his boots.
“She threatened you? What kind of threat?”
She dragged her hand across her mouth in an agitated gesture. “I don’t know, Connelly. Mickey Collins ordered the station to pay Maisy in full, tomorrow. Delone’s lawyer lost her sh … shirt—”
“—They can’t hear you.”
“She lost her shit. She made a huge scene. Stormed out of the conference room. It was embarrassing to watch. She was, as the kids say, cringe.”
“Not everybody loses with dignity.”
“This took being a poor sport to the next level. But the part where she intercepted my car? That’s invasive, creepy, stalker behavior.”
“How did she even do that?”
“One of Delone’s companies owns Dryve Time. Actually, he owns all three of the ride-share services in town. So, I guess she was watching—or had someone watching—to see if any of us ordered a car. When she saw me using the app, she redirected the car to pick her up first and told the driver she was meeting me at Saffron. She was sitting in the shadows of the back seat when I got in. It was like something out ofThe Godfather.”
“That’s disturbing,” he agreed.
“It really was. And now she—not to mention Delone and who knows who else—knows where we live. So, please, go get the gun.”
The hairs on Leo’s arms stood up on end as the full weight of her words landed on him. They’d taken extraordinary precautions to keep their home address out of public records. Given the array of enemies they’d amassed over the years, a dollop of paranoia was advisable.
On a handful of occasions, someone had breached the fortification they’d built up around their family. Each time, Leo shored up their defenses further.
But this intrusion—someone gaining access to a mundane app—was an invasion he hadn’t anticipated, and it made him wonder what other vulnerabilities existed that he hadn’t considered, what other insidious threats might lie in wait. Would their paperless utility bill lead an old foe to their door? Or their digital library cards? How many ways could someone with sufficient motivation find them?
He pushed the terrifying question out of his mind, swallowed around the tightness in his throat, and took the stairs two at a time up to the home office, where his biometric gun safe sat on the highest shelf in the closet. As he removed his weapon, his gaze fell on the document safe, the safe that held Landon’s perplexing note and impenetrable drive. Suddenly, their presence in his home felt like a provocation—or an invitation to danger. He needed to deal with it. Soon.
But now, he needed to find out just what kind of threat Amanda Teale-James represented to his family. He confirmed that the safety was on, grabbed a loaded magazine, and slid the magazine into the gun before holstering it at his waist and pulling his sweater down over the bulge.
* * *
When Connelly paddedinto the kitchen in his socks, he bypassed the hot cocoa topping bar that Sasha’d set up, complete with whipping cream and sprinkles, and went straight to the back door.
“It’s locked, and the lights are activated.”
He shifted his head a quarter-turn to acknowledge that he’d heard her but tested the lock anyway. He peered through the window out into the dark night, scanning for some unseen threat. Then he checked the window over the sink and the one in the adjacent laundry room. She didn’t try to stop him. She understood that he, like she, was trying to tamp down the fear that they’d overlooked something that would leave their little family exposed, a soft target.
When he’d satisfied himself that they were as secure as they could be, he joined them at the round kitchen table with an easy smile.
He was good at hiding his worry. Or at least better than she was. So she was glad he’d offered the twins the hot chocolate despite her feelings about too much sugar. Enthralled by the unexpected treat, they might not notice their parents’ tension—or so she hoped. They weren’t so easily distracted anymore. They were perceptive and attentive. Finn, in particular, was adept at picking up on other people’s feelings. And as far as Fiona was concerned, no question was off limits.
“So, Maisy won? The case is over?” Connelly asked casually.
“Mmm-hmm,” Sasha said, sipping her herbal tea.
