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the kitchen, where Cody and Brianna were still helping Kayla by setting the table.
    Shelby lifted her gaze to his. He wasn’t looking at her, though, but stared thoughtfully into the fire. When he wasn’t ordering her around, he was very attractive, not that she had any business noticing. He wasn’t at all her type, even if she wasn’t interested in men, which she wasn’t. Considering her past experiences, she didn’t trust men on a personal level and that included Alex. “They won’t hear us if we’re quiet. Be honest with me. Are you in law enforcement?”
    “Sort of.” He shrugged and glanced at her. “I work for the government.”
    Her eyes widened. “FBI?”
    He shook his head. “DEA. Shelby, you’ll need to keep everything I tell you confidential. Your life and Cody’s depends upon it.”
    She swallowed hard at the seriousness of his tone. “Okay.”
    Alex took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “How much do you know about your father’s shipping business and the marina?”
    “Not a lot. Most of my time is spent running my day care center.” Shelby wrinkled her forehead, realizing she’d have to call her assistant soon to let Debbi know she wouldn’t be there on Monday. “Trina and Stephan manage the marina.”
    “I know. Trina was helping us, providing inside information.”
    Shelby frowned. “Like what?”
    “Details that may be pertinent to us finding the drugs being smuggled into the U.S. from Canada through the Great Lakes. Names of ships, routes, etcetera. We’re trying to find the identity of the mastermind behind the drug smuggling operation. We knew there were several insiders, including one in customs, but we needed to find the guy in charge.”
    “Drugs? On my father’s ships?” She stared at him in shock. “You can’t be serious.”
    “Shelby, I saw the shipments firsthand. I was working undercover as a longshoreman, reporting to Bobby Drake, the warehouse foreman and your father’s right-hand man. During the time I spent on the docks, I discovered drugscoming in on your father’s ships over and over again. That much is fact. What we don’t know is who’s responsible.”
    She sucked in a harsh breath. She’d had no idea. “You think my father is involved, don’t you?”
    “I saw him on the docks a fair amount. He kept his hand in every aspect of his business. Russ Jacobson was especially interested in the cargo on the ships that traveled from Sault Saint Marie to Green Bay, with the final destination being Chicago. The same ships where we found drugs.”
    “No!” Shelby jumped to her feet, her hands fisted at her sides. “I’m telling you, Alex, my father isn’t involved in drug smuggling.”
    “Shh.” He frowned at her, and then glanced over his shoulder toward the kitchen where the kids were playing with Clyde. “Calm down. Trina felt the same way you do. Yet we have no choice but to treat everyone as a suspect, until proven otherwise. You wanted to know the source of the danger, well this is it. Whoever hurt Trina must have figured out she was feeding us information.”
    “Dinner’s on,” Kayla called.
    Alex glanced toward the kitchen. “We’ll discuss this more later.”
    Shelby didn’t want to discuss it later. She wanted to talk about it now, so she could show Alex he was wrong. Yet in spite of her instinctive defense, she felt uneasy. She wasn’t an idiot. Her father’s shipping company dominated the Great Lakes shipping business. How could drugs be on his ships without his knowledge? She shoved aside the shimmer of doubt. She didn’t know how her father had missed what was going on, but she was relieved to hear Trina believed in their father’s innocence, too.
    She was tempted to insist he tell her more, but bit her tongue, in deference to Cody. The poor child had been traumatized enough. He didn’t need to hear his aunt arguing with his other dad.
    “Yes. We will talk more later.” Her gaze warned him that she expected answers. He