Hold On To Me

CHAPTER TEN

A wave of steam preceded Mitch when he stepped out of the bathroom after his shower. The room was dark, the TV was off, and the only people he could see were Simone and Shannon, asleep on the leather sectional.

Emotions rolled through his chest. His body urged him to go over, gather them both in his arms, and hold them close where nothing could hurt them. But his pride and that searing betrayal still simmering in his gut wouldn’t let him.

The light in the adjacent conference room was on, so he moved that way. Through the glass doors, he saw Ryan sitting behind his laptop, the screen reflecting in his reading glasses as he pointed to something for Kate, who was standing next to him, her arms crossed over her chest, her head dipped low.

He didn’t like that worried look. His sister had already been through too much. And he disliked the serious expression on Ryan’s surly face even more.

Pushing the door open, he forced his shoulders to relax and tried to keep things light. God knew they’d all had too much heavy to last them the rest of their lives. “Something tells me you’re not watching porn in here.”

Kate’s head shot up, and she quickly masked the fear in her eyes. She dropped her hands. “How are you feeling? Are you okay? Do you need me to rewrap that bandage?”

The last thing he needed was her fawning all over him. “No, I’m fine. Though I could use some of that coffee you brewed earlier. I don’t think I’m sleeping much tonight.”

She smiled, but it wasn’t one of her normal happy smiles, and that dimple they both shared didn’t even wink his way. “I’ll get it.” She turned to her husband. “Babe?”

“Yeah, I’ll have another cup.”

She grabbed his mug from the table and crossed the room. When she reached Mitch at the door, she rose on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gave him a tight hug. “You scared me. Don’t do that again.”

He hugged her back. “I’ll try not to.”

She dropped to her feet, smiled again, then disappeared out the door. When they were alone, Mitch looked at his best friend and frowned. “Your acting skills suck. I can totally tell whatever you found is gonna fuck up my life even more.”

Ryan leaned back in his chair and chuckled. “I never claimed to be Oscar worthy.”

“Woulda thought you’d picked something up, all those years dating models and actresses.” He crossed the room and looked at the screen over Ryan’s shoulder.

Ryan swiveled his leather chair at the head of the conference table and glanced up at Mitch. Behind him, out the wall of glass, city lights twinkled against a black sky. “They weren’t exactly giving me acting lessons.”

No, they hadn’t been. In the years after they’d all thought Kate had died, Ryan had gone through a two-year depression where he hadn’t done much of anything besides work. Then, after much prodding—mostly from Mitch—he’d started dating again. But he hadn’t gone for normal women. No, the women he’d picked had all been flashy, self-centered, and not a single one had lasted more than a few weeks. He’d done his best to date every single woman who was the opposite of his dead wife, and not a single one had done anything to make him forget.

A lot like Mitch had done by bringing that girl, Lara—no Clara—home from the bar.

The memory of Simone finding that girl’s earring in his bed flashed in his mind. He knew she thought he’d slept with her, and the decent part of him whispered he needed to come clean. But another part—the part that was still really pissed at her—wouldn’t let him.

He focused on the screen. “What did you find?”

“Pull up a chair.” Ryan angled the laptop so Mitch could see it. “Simone told me her husband’s name before reidentification was Graham. I did a search, and this is what came up.”

He paged back up to the top of the article. It was dated over ten years ago and had been written by a reporter covering the case against Reynolds, Palmer, and McMillian, a high-powered law firm in Hartford, Connecticut. Mitch scanned the article, which outlined the state’s case, including charges of racketeering. The article mentioned Simone’s late husband by name as the accountant for the firm, and that he’d agreed to turn state’s evidence against his employers in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

It was the same information Simone had told them earlier. With two exceptions. This made it sound like Simone’s husband had received immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony, and the article hinted at a link between the firm and a secret organization with ties to the “power elite.”

A buzzing sounded in Mitch’s brain. The article was familiar. Too familiar. He read it from the beginning again, scrolled down, then froze when he saw the sketch the reporter had done of a symbol linked to this “power elite.”

Everything inside him went cold. Ice cold. He stared at the image of the three daggers, one pointed down, the other two perpendicular to the first, both pointing outward to form a cross, and above, a circle at the top, filled with two numbers and one letter.

“Oh fuck,” he whispered. “Fuck me.” This was not happening. No way was this happening.

“What?” Ryan asked.

The air closed in around Mitch. He pushed back from the table and dropped his head between his knees, focusing on drawing a breath. Simone’s panic attack suddenly seemed like nothing compared to this.

“Mitch?” Ryan asked again. “What the hell’s going on?”

Without lifting his head, Mitch turned the laptop so Ryan could see the screen.

“Yeah? So?” Ryan said. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

Slowly, because his hands were shaking, Mitch unlatched the watch he always wore on his left wrist and lifted his arm so Ryan could see the mark—no, not a mark, a brand—he kept hidden.

The room went stone-cold silent for several seconds, then Ryan whispered, “What the fuck is that?”

Mitch strapped the watch back to his wrist and pushed back from the table. He couldn’t sit. He had to walk. He had to think. “You know exactly what it is.”

Ryan sat stunned in his chair while Mitch paced the length of the conference room. “You joined a secret society? When did this happen? And why the hell didn’t I know about it?”

“Because it was secret, dumbass. That’s the whole point of a secret society.”

“But…how? When—?”

“In college. And you didn’t know because you were too busy hitting on my sister at the time to give a rip about what I was up to.”

Ryan was silent for a minute and then said, “You got tapped by a secret society our senior year?”

“That’s usually when it happens.”

“Why you? I mean…I was the one involved in a dozen different organizations on campus. I was the one with the higher GPA. I was the captain of the baseball team, and the one—”

“Holy hell, Harrison. Get over yourself, would you?” Mitch stopped and stared at his friend in utter disbelief. “This isn’t a competition over who was the better man in college.”

“They obviously thought you were if they tapped you and not me,” Ryan muttered. “Man, they really screwed the pooch there.”

“Son of a bitch.” Mitch raked both hands through his hair. “Focus, moron. This is fucking important.”

“Yeah, yeah. Okay, sorry.” Ryan held up a hand. “I’m just…surprised, that’s all. I mean…wow. They tapped you. I seriously did not see that coming.”

Ryan’s jealousy was the least of Mitch’s worries right now. “Trust me, it hasn’t been a cakewalk.”

“What do you mean?”

Mitch glanced through the glass doors toward Ryan’s office, where Simone and Shannon were sleeping. The room was still dark, and there was no movement, so he doubted they were awake, but he lowered his voice just in case. “Look, it was a trip senior year, even I’ll admit that. Money, parties, girls… They lavished it all on us. But once college was over, things got real.”

He turned to face Ryan and gripped the back of a chair in front of him. “The Cyphers are not nobodies. They’re exactly what that article states. The Power Elite. Three of the last twelve US presidents have been members of Cypher and Dagger. Company CEOs, research specialists, military leaders… If you can think of a job that’s important in this country and has the power to shape society, odds are fairly high a Cypher’s in one of those key positions.”

Ryan looked back at the symbol on the screen and drummed his fingers on the long table. “How do you figure into all of this?”

“I’ve not been an exemplary member. The Cyphers got me my job with PreCorp, but once they started pushing me up the ranks, I found reasons to turn down the promotions, which pissed them off. See, they want people in power positions so the Society can dictate policy, and an oil-and-gas conglomerate? Nothing shapes the direction of the world more than oil. But you know how much I hate being behind a desk. I like being out in the field, traveling, and being on site with my team when they’re in the identification stage of an oil reserve, even when they’re doing the initial excavation. I wasn’t built to be a suit. So by turning them down, I was putting myself in some hot water with the society.”

“What happened?” Ryan asked.

“What happened is…we lost Kate.” Mitch looked at his friend. “This is going to sound really shallow but when Kate’s plane crashed, that gave me a reason to stick close to home. You and Julia needed me, and I was able to convince my boss—who also happens to be a Cypher and is my contact within the company—that I needed to stay close to home.”

“Wait. Chris Murdoch’s a Cypher?”

Mitch nodded. Ryan had met Chris, the president of the US division of PreCorp, a dozen times. They’d even all gone to a few ball games together.

“Shit,” Ryan muttered.

Shit wasn’t even the half of it. Mitch resumed pacing. “I do the bare minimum. I go to one meeting a year, and I schmooze it up like I’m supposed to, but then I come home and pretend like it didn’t happen. And most of the time I convince myself they don’t care about where I am or what I’m doing. But that’s obviously not the case anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Mitch said, turning to face his brother-in-law. “I don’t think Simone was the target tonight. I’m pretty sure it was me.”

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Hold on a minute.” Ryan tugged off his glasses and pushed out of his chair. “Simone’s late husband turned state’s evidence against these people. Even if they are linked to the Cyphers, which this article can’t even confirm, that doesn’t mean someone coming after her has anything to do with you.”

Mitch closed his eyes and pressed his fingers against his suddenly aching forehead. He’d give just about anything to go back to that drunken state of oblivion he’d been in earlier tonight, but he knew now that was no longer an option.

“You don’t get it.” He dropped his hand. “I remember this case, Ryan. I remember it because the society made sure every member learned a valuable lesson during it. All three of the managing partners of that firm were Cyphers, and they got caught doing something illegal. The Society didn’t care whether they broke the law or not. They only cared that the Society’s name was tarnished in the press because of it. They cut those three loose. And I don’t doubt they put out a hit on Simone’s husband if he was the one who turned over evidence against them. The Society comes before everything else—work, family, women—and those three went against the code. You don’t go against the code. Ever.”

Ryan leaned back against the table, fingering his glasses. “So you’re saying—”

“I’m saying, if the Cyphers were watching Simone, wondering if she knew something, or if Steve had given her something that could still implicate them in some way, then they’d know I was dating her. And I’m already a fuck-up in their eyes. I don’t think that hit was meant for her. If it was, they could have taken her out at any time at her own house. I think they came after me. Because I got in too deep with the enemy. I went against the code.”

“But you didn’t. Not knowingly, at least.”

Mitch sighed. “They won’t see it that way.”

Ryan pursed his lips and looked at the computer screen in stunned silence. After several moments, he lifted his head and pinned Mitch with a determined look. “We don’t know that for sure. You and Simone have been dating for over six months. This still could be about her.”

“Not if they just now caught up with her. She was in the WITSEC program. Even though she left, she didn’t assume her old identity. It’d make sense it would take them time to track her down.”

“Maybe.” Ryan shook his head. “But it’s still just a guess. There’s no logical reason for them to want to get rid of you. You didn’t technically do anything against them.”

Ryan saw things in terms of profit and loss. He was a numbers guy, always had been. But Mitch knew how these people worked. To them, there was always an acceptable loss, no matter the cost. “I thought for myself. I’ve already gone against what they want dozens of times. They’d see my dating Simone as the final straw.”

Ryan frowned and tossed his glasses on a stack of papers on the table. “I don’t buy it. I still think there’s something else going on. I’m gonna give all this info to my PI and see what he can find. There has to be more to this than just you.”

Mitch wasn’t sure what Ryan thought he’d find, but the emotional toll of everything was starting to take effect. He pulled out a chair and dropped into it, resting his elbow on the arm and rubbing his head. “It’s a waste of time.”

Holy hell, he couldn’t believe he was thinking it, but disappearing into the witness protection program wasn’t looking like such a bad idea anymore.

“Time’s about all you’ve got left,” Ryan said. “Let me research this before you do something you can’t undo.”

Ryan obviously knew what he was thinking. Mitch leaned his head back and stared up at the ceiling. In one night, his life had been shot to hell, just like his house. Reluctantly, he nodded.

The door pulled open, and the scent of fresh-brewed coffee filled the room. Kate set a mug in front of Mitch. “I had to brew a second pot. Sorry it took me so long.”

Forcing a smile he didn’t feel, Mitch looked at his sister, then reached for the steaming cup. “It’s okay. Thanks.”

Kate handed the second mug to Ryan, then looked between the two, her brow wrinkling with every passing second. “What did I miss?”

Ryan glanced at Mitch. Lifting the cup to his lips, Mitch shook his head. He didn’t want Kate worrying more than she already was, and diving into the whole Cypher connection? Yeah, that would only stress her out more.

Ryan’s features softened when he looked back at his wife. Reaching for her hand, he squeezed her fingers then pulled her close. “Not much. I’m going to have my PI do some digging. In the meantime, until we figure out what’s going on, Mitch is going to take Simone someplace where no one can find them.”

Mitch’s head came up. He looked over the mug toward his brother-in-law. “I’m what?”

Ryan grinned, clearly in CEO mode. “Kendrick has that house in Tahoe he just finished building. He and I talked a lot about it because I was thinking of doing the same thing for Katie and the kids.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “You were?”

One arm wrapped around her waist, Ryan smiled down at her. “Surprise. I’ve been shopping for some property up there. Figured it’d be a good place for us to get away from the city.”

“It’s too expensive.”

“Babe.” A you’re worth it smile spread across his face. “There is no such thing where you and the kids are concerned.” He leaned down and kissed her.

Mitch glanced quickly away, refocusing on his coffee. Most days he was thrilled the two had found each other again and that they were so happy, but tonight all it did was remind him he was never gonna have that. At least not with the woman he was still pathetically in love with.

Ryan looked toward Mitch again. “Kendrick’s house isn’t listed under his name. He bought it through a shadow corporation so his crazy stalker fans couldn’t find him. There’s no way anyone would link you to Kendrick at the house. It’s the perfect place for you two to hole up until I can gather more info.”

Hiding out in a snowy cabin in Tahoe with Simone. A place deep inside Mitch leapt with excitement over that thought. Another place urged him to run now. He was still pissed at her for everything she’d done and omitted, but now that he knew what was really going on, he just couldn’t blame her. And when he thought about the fact she could have been killed tonight, all because of him, a knot of regret lodged in the middle of his chest and made it hard to breathe.

“Simone will argue against this,” he said quietly

“Probably.” Ryan slid his free hand into the pocket of his jeans. “But if she knows we’re working on a solution that could keep her in San Francisco so she doesn’t have to run, I think that’ll change her mind. Because I get the impression she doesn’t really want to leave.”

“Me too,” Kate said. “This is home for her now. She’s having a hard time with the thought of leaving. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, Mitch, but it’s killing her. She doesn’t want to go, and a big part of that has to do with you.”

That knot twisted tighter. Mitch didn’t want her to go either. Regardless of whether or not she loved him, she obviously felt something for him. She wouldn’t have come to his house tonight if she didn’t.

“I don’t think Shannon should go with you,” Ryan said. “Until we know what’s really going on, I think it’s safer if she’s not even in the picture.”

Mitch agreed. “What are you thinking?”

Glancing down at his wife, Ryan said, “I’m think my parents should disappear with all the kids for a while. Kendrick gave me the name of an elite security firm he’s used. They’re supposed to be the best of the best. I want them where no one can find them.”

Ryan had obviously already realized the Cyphers would make the connection between Mitch and his brother-in-law. And having lost his family once before, he wasn’t about to let it happen again.

“Are you sure about this?” Kate whispered.

He leaned down and kissed his wife’s wrinkled brow. “Don’t worry, Katie. Nothing’s going to happen to the kids. And I’m pretty sure my folks will be thrilled to have them all under foot for a while. Even Shannon. They adore her.”

“Simone will never agree to letting Shannon out of her sight,” Mitch cautioned.

“Yes, she will,” Ryan said. “If we all convince her it’s the safest thing for her daughter.”

Kate wrapped both arms around Ryan’s waist. “I’m ready for things to just be normal, you know?”

“You and me both.” He hugged her back. “And they will be. Soon.”

She drew back, ran a hand over her curly hair, and sent Mitch a weary look. “I’m gonna go lie down. Something tells me I’m going to need my rest for tomorrow.”

Ryan reluctantly let go of her hand and watched her leave the conference room with a sappy, I’m head over heels in love look on his face.

When the door closed behind her, Mitch asked the question that had been foremost in his mind since Kate had stepped into the room. “What about her?”

“No one’s touching her,” Ryan said with dead calm. “She and I’ll get out of the city until we know more too. I’m not about to let anything happen to her either.”

Mitch glanced down at the half-empty cup in his hand. Ryan’s plan made sense, but there was one very major flaw.

“You have to tell her the truth,” Ryan said quietly.

Yep. That was the flaw. Mitch knew Ryan was talking about Mitch’s association with the Cyphers, but right now all he could think about was the look of utter betrayal on Simone’s face when she’d found that earring. “I will.”

“I’m serious, Mitch. If you’ve learned anything from me, it’s that secrets—big ones like this—can destroy everything. I nearly lost Katie because I thought I was protecting her by not telling her the truth. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Tell Simone everything. Up front. No holds barred. She’ll understand.”

Mitch wasn’t so sure. And he couldn’t take the risk. Not yet. The first thing he needed to do was get Simone to agree to leave with him so they all had time to figure out what was really going on. If he let loose about his association with the Cyphers too soon, she’d cut and run faster than Speedy Gonzalez.

“I will.”

“This is important, Mitch. You gotta tell her everything.”

He looked up. He and Ryan had been friends for years, since long before Ryan had started dating his younger sister, and in all those years, he’d never flat-out lied to Ryan. But tonight he did. Because telling Simone the truth wasn’t an option. At least not yet.

“I will,” he said again. “I’ll tell her everything. Don’t worry. I’m not as dumb as you.”

A sad smile spread across Ryan’s lips. “You are. You’re just too stupid to realize it. Now, let’s call Kendrick and wake his ass up so you can get into his house.”