Page 28 of Lethal Game

"I won't touch anything, but I'm going to stay with her until she's moved. If there's no danger to her, there's none to me."

He didn't look happy at her response, but he gave a quick nod of resignation and walked away. She opened the door and walked into her mother's room.

The first thing she did was open the window. It would only open a few inches for security reasons, but the small crack allowed some air to flow into the room.

Then she moved to her mother's bed and checked her monitor. Her pulse, heart rate, and oxygen saturation were stable. Her mother was sleeping peacefully.

She was careful not to touch anything. She didn't even want to sit back down in the chair. So, she stood watch over her mother, wondering what the hell her family was mixed up in and what fresh horror might come next.

Two hours later, Jason had his team working in a half-dozen different directions. Alisa's mother had been moved into a new room upstairs, where the air had been tested for toxins and every surface had been wiped down and sterilized. In the room that Pamela had left, a forensic team was still conducting tests to determine where she might have been exposed to a toxin.

Flynn had volunteered to speak to the fire investigator about the fire at the Hunts' home and would send an agent there to see if there was anything salvageable.

Savannah and Nick were still trying to trace Novikov's route after leaving the fast-food restaurant. And Beck was looking into Dan Hunt.

Victor Kashin still wasn't talking, but he would be transferred from the hospital to a holding cell later this afternoon.

There were a lot of balls in the air, and Jason was happy to see his new team jumping in wherever he needed them. But they were still a long way from figuring out why Novikov was in LA, what he planned to do, and how they could stop him.

When he walked down the hall to Pamela's new room, he saw a security guard outside her door. After showing his badge, he entered the room and found Alisa with her mother. Pamela seemed to be confused by the move, but she was more alert thanshe had been previously, which would hopefully give him a chance to ask her some questions.

Alisa gave him a tired smile. She looked as ragged as he felt. Neither one of them had showered or changed out of their dusty clothes, and he didn't know about her, but he had some aches and pains that were getting worse as the day went on.

But there was no time to rest or think about any of that. It was now almost four o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday, and Novikov had arrived in town on Tuesday night. That was almost forty-eight hours, an amount of time in which he could have done many things and met with many people. Unfortunately, there had been no sightings of him and no chatter in any of the underground networks. But he was somewhere, and he was planning something, and hopefully finding out more about the Hunt family would provide vital clues.

"What have you learned?" Alisa asked as she stood up.

"An orderly wearing a mask delivered the vase of flowers next to the bed," he replied. "No one on the hospital staff could identify him, and the security footage of him didn't reveal his face. He was in the room no more than two minutes and left about fifteen minutes before you arrived yesterday."

"So, the flowers were poisonous?" she asked.

"Wait—what?" her mother interjected, surprise in her gaze. "What are you talking about?"

"You haven't filled her in yet?" he asked.

"I was just about to," Alisa said.

"Fill me in on what?" Pamela asked as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, but she was still so weak, she immediately slid back against the pillows. She struggled again to sit up.

"Mom, just rest," Alisa said.

"No. I need you to talk to me, Alisa," she said firmly, getting herself upright again. "What's going on?"

"Dr. Grayson believes your symptoms are because of some type of toxic exposure or poison," she said.

Pamela's eyes widened. "What on earth? Are you serious? Someone has been poisoning me? How is that possible?"

"That's what we're trying to find out, Mom. That's why we moved you to this room. It's been cleaned and sterilized. There's a guard outside the door. And no one will come in or out without us knowing. We're going to limit outside food as well until we know what's going on."

"I can't believe this." Pamela's gaze moved to him. "You said you were Alisa's friend, but I can't remember your name."

"Jason Colter. I'm not just Alisa's friend; I'm an FBI agent."

"Oh," she said, her gaze turning wary. "I see. Did you make my daughter eat something?"

"Not yet, but I will," he said, giving her a smile. "First, I have some questions for you."

"I don't think I have any answers. I can't believe someone would poison me. And I got sick at home, so…"

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