Chapter 5
"JD," Buck called.
JD stopped and turned.
Buck gestured with his head for JD to follow him. The others had gone home after the game and Morgan was upstairs, so now was as good a time as any for Buck to get JD to help him out.
He ushered the kid into the den and Chris closed the door behind them.
"What's going on?" JD asked.
Buck gave him a little push toward his laptop. "We need you to do some research."
JD looked between the two men. "What's going on? Did we get a new case?"
"Something like that," Buck said. He opened his laptop and scooted it closer to JD.
JD shook his head as he sank into the chair in front of the computer. "I don't know that your computer has the programs I need. What am I looking into?"
Buck paused. "Some records at the University of Nevada."
JD's brow furrowed. "University of Nevada?"
Buck waited and then saw when the light bulb when on.
"Is Morgan in trouble?" His gaze swung between the two men standing over him. Neither one answered.
Buck was relieved when the kid started typing, pulling up web pages, moving through them too fast for Buck to see what he was looking at. He watched intently, waiting for something, hoping he was wrong and everything was fine with Morgan. Maybe she really had just wanted to take a long weekend and come see him. Maybe she had every intention of making up missed assignments when she went back to school. Maybe she had even brought her textbooks with her. Her bags were sure heavy enough.
He had himself nearly talked into that scenario when JD finally stopped typing and started reading.
"What is it?" Chris asked.
JD was frowning. He scrolled down the page, opened another page.
Buck leaned in, trying to read as fast as JD seemed to be, but all those years at MIT on scholarship seemed to have paid off as JD kept flying through pages before Buck could see what he was looking at.
"Um, Buck?"
"Yeah?" Buck braced himself for whatever JD was going to say. He held his breath.
"You're getting a little close."
Buck looked over and realized he had leaned down until his chin was practically resting on JD's shoulder. He jerked back.
JD shifted like he was settling back into having breathing room before he started typing again.
"Found it."
Buck couldn't look at Chris. He waited.
JD scanned the rest of the page. He turned in the chair. "It says she was expelled."
That was when Buck realized he didn't know what he had been expecting to hear. Definitely not that. Morgan had two semesters left until graduation. She had made it through three years of school, making the dean's list every semester, and she was expelled in her senior year?
"Does it say anything more?" It was Chris asking and Buck was relieved his friend seemed to be still functioning enough to get more details.
JD glanced at Buck, worry on his face, but he nodded, then looked to be choosing to focus on Chris. "For harassing another student…" His voice trailed off as he read. "It must have been bad. They redacted the other student's name. I don't think they put this other kid's name anywhere in the system."
"No," Buck finally shot out a denial. "That's not Morgan. She wouldn't do something like that."
Chris was quiet and Buck turned on him. "You know her! She might not think things through, but she wouldn't harass anyone. She's not mean-spirited."
"She's not," Chris finally said.
Buck gave JD a poke in the back. "Look some more. There should be more. Something that explains how this is a big misunderstanding."
JD turned back to the computer screen. His brow wrinkled as he read. Finally he shook his head. "There's nothing more. Just that she set out to slander another student, disrupting this kid's life. After multiple warnings, the kid's parent threatened legal action against her and the school expelled her."
Buck started shaking his head.
"Buck," Chris said, clear warning in his voice.
"Something ain't right," Buck said. He started to move. A couple long steps toward the window, a fist bouncing against his jean-clad thigh. A couple steps to carry him back to Chris and JD.
"You're right," Chris said. "But Morgan's not going to tell you anything if you come at her."
Buck knew that. He knew Chris was making sense.
"Take a day. Settle down before you talk to her."
That made sense. It sounded logical. Buck nodded in agreement, having every intention of approaching his sister sympathetically and with a level-headed coolness. He'd be the picture of brotherly concern and rational discussion.
#
Morgan stood outside the Federal building in downtown Denver. The uber had dropped her off five minutes earlier, but she hadn't managed to force herself into the building yet. She ran a hand through her hair, no longer caring if she messed it up. She had carefully pulled it back into a neat bun, donned a pair of cropped pants and heels for a professional look, and still been turned down for every job she had applied for. She had no references, all her recent job experience was through the work-study program at school and there was no way she would get any kind of good word from them.
"Problems?"
She closed her eyes at the familiar voice.
"That bad?"
She opened her eyes, huffing out a breath. She met Vin Tanner's eyes and forced herself to not feel a flutter in her stomach at the sight of him. Or at least not acknowledge the feeling.
"Shouldn't you be working or something?" she asked.
He didn't look ruffled by her tone. He held up the cardboard tray of drinks. "Walked down the block for some good coffee. It ain't good for your health to ride a desk all day."
Yeah, well it wasn't good for your health to be unemployed and homeless either. Morgan reined in her errant thoughts.
Vin's brows knit together and he searched her face. "Are you sure you're ok?"
"I'm fine," she snapped. Vin didn't look like he believed her, but he didn't argue, either.
"You here to see Buck?" he asked.
She nodded and Vin started toward the building, holding the door open for her with his free hand. He flashed his badge at security and vouched for Morgan, earning her a visitor's pass with more ease than her last visit.
Vin led the way to the elevator and jabbed the button. When the doors slid closed on them, he held the tray towards her. "You want coffee? You can have Buck's."
Morgan felt her lips move slightly towards a smile, but shook her head. She looked at the numbers, climbing closer to the seventh floor. She needed to get herself together. She ran her fingers through her auburn hair again, this time to try to get it under control, rather than in frustration. She schooled her face to hide her frustration of another day of dead ends in her job search.
The elevator doors slid open as she smoothed her blouse. She ignored Vin even as she followed him towards the bullpen for Team 7. The click of her heels was sharper than the muted steps of Vin's boots and drew the men's eyes up.
"Brought coffee," Vin said. "And found a visitor on the way."
She gave JD a wink she didn't feel. He was already blushing and fidgeting nervously before the wink. He determinedly looked back at his computer screen.
She hadn't seen him or Buck the day before. JD had plans with his girlfriend again and Buck had left her a note that he was at the shooting range with Chris for the day. Left to her own devices, she had filled out the job applications she had spent the morning following up on today. Buck hadn't come home until she was already asleep.
Thoughts of her failed job hunt, of how the events of Vegas were following her even to Denver, preventing her from a fresh start, had her squaring her shoulders to keep anyone from seeing the despair that threatened.
Buck was studying her intently and she shot him a questioning look. She had agreed to meet him for lunch when she got his text a little while ago thinking Buck's perpetual cheerfulness would give her a break from her current failures.
Buck frowned slightly, barely acknowledging Vin when he handed him a cup of coffee.
"Are you ready for lunch?" she asked.
"Yeah, sure," he said, still looking at her with a look like he was trying to read her thoughts.
Morgan made sure none of her thoughts showed on her face. "It's my treat. I've got a fifty burning a hole in my purse," she said, glancing toward Ezra to see him wince and flash him a little quirk of her lips.
"Yeah," Buck said again, not sounding like he was listening. He stuck some papers to the side and shut his computer off before standing. He just stood there, though.
"What's wrong?" Morgan asked.
Chris came out of his office then. He took in the look on Buck's face and sent him a warning look that Morgan didn't understand.
"So we can go?" she asked. She glanced at the other men in the office, wishing she could get away from the audience before Buck got any weirder.
"Sure," Buck said, still looking anything but agreeable. His face was growing more and more tense. As he came around his desk he finally burst out. "When were you planning to tell me you got yourself expelled from the University of Nevada?"
Morgan caught herself before she rocked back on her spiked heels and took a step forward instead. "How do you know that?" she exploded with her own question. "Were you checking up on me?"
Buck's face turned red. "If you don't tell me what's going on, I don't have much choice!"
"You could choose to respect my privacy!" She matched Buck's volume, feeling her blood start to rush through her veins in a mix of anger and fear.
"Let's just calm down here," Chris said, stepping between the Wilmington siblings.
Morgan didn't have to connect any dots to see that Chris wasn't surprised by anything Buck was saying. She stared at him in disbelief. "And you let him do this?" She didn't know why she was surprised. For all she knew, Chris had been the one to suggest they snoop into her personal life. She could only imagine all they had found.
She looked between Buck and Chris, her fury building, spurred on by the panic in her chest. "Are you kidding me?" Chris was closer so she gave him a shove.
She felt more than heard, the collective intake of breath from the rest of the team. The room grew deathly still and Chris stared down at her.
Morgan could read the room and she still didn't care. Months of buried anger forced to the surface, she smacked her hands against Chris' chest, giving him a harder shove. She nearly lost her balance on her heels and felt a steadying hand on her.
She shook Vin's hand off her, but he didn't leave her side. Josiah had stood and approached Buck and Chris. His voice was mellow. "Let's talk about this," he said.
Morgan did jerk away then, glaring at Buck and Chris. "There's nothing to talk about!" She spun around and stormed out of the office. She bypassed the elevator and headed to a stairs. Her heels clattered in the deserted stairwell.
She couldn't believe Buck had tried to find out what had happened in Vegas. Worse, she didn't know what he had actually found out. It didn't take long to get to the ground floor and rush through the lobby. She was outside before she realized she still had her visitors pass clipped to her shirt. She yanked it off and tossed it back toward the building.
She had seen the job posting multiple times during her search. She hadn't given it much thought, hadn't even considered applying, but now she didn't know why not. The sooner she could get out of Buck's house, the better.
She pulled her phone out and scrolled through the job listings on the local website until she found the address. Without slowing her pace, she pulled up the Uber app and saw at least three cars near her.
Morgan was just getting into the car when she saw Chris coming down the street. It fired up her anger anew and she slammed the door, giving the driver the address she was headed toward.
It was pure anger that propelled her out of the ride without giving much of a look around her at the less than prosperous block of businesses, mostly liquor stores.
She stopped at the front door of the nondescript brick building.
Her mom and all her mom's friends had danced on the stages in Vegas in not much more than feathers and sequins. Morgan had never thought twice about it, growing up backstage surrounded by showgirls.
She pushed open the heavy windowless door. A strip club wasn't that far from a Vegas stage. And they weren't likely to be as picky about references and experience. Anything to get away from Buck and Chris.
#
