Hold on to Me (35 page)

He crossed to the watch, picked it up, and carefully picked out the glass and thin, broken face, which was already falling out. Behind that, the gears shone up at him, along with one small black computer chip that had no business being in an analog watch.

Holy shit
.

He lifted his cell and dialed. Three rings went by, and his heart lurched into his throat. On the fourth, Ryan’s groggy voice came through the line. “I’m up. I was going to call you in the morning. Did you find it?”

“Where are you?” Mitch asked.
Please say you’re in San Francisco
.

“Home. Katie and I came back last night.”

Thank God
. “They’ve been tracking me with my watch. There’s a GPS chip inside.”

“Shit. Are you sure?”

“Pretty damn. They gave me a watch to cover the brand when I was first inducted. Every couple of years we get an upgrade. Dammit, I should have known. I’m leaving it here. I don’t want them to know I know, but Ryan, I need you to get to Mill Valley before she leaves.”

“Before who leaves?”

“Simone.”

Fabric rustled, followed by footsteps and Kate’s sleepy voice asking, “Who is it?”

“It’s Mitch,” Ryan said softly. “Everything’s okay. Go back to sleep, babe.” Footsteps echoed again, then a door softly closed, and Ryan’s voice came back stronger. “I thought Simone was with you.”

Mitch raked a hand through his hair. He had a giant
I told you so
coming from Ryan, but he didn’t care. “She just left. She’s heading for a storage unit.” He read Ryan the address as he shoved his feet into his boots near the front door, grabbed his jacket from the chair where he’d tossed it, then moved into the garage. “You’ve gotta get to her before she takes off for good.”

He flipped a switch on the wall. Light flooded the garage. Mitch looked around the empty bays, and another shot of panic rushed through him; then he spotted the motorcycle leaning against the wall under a drape.

“You didn’t tell her, did you?” Ryan asked.

Here came that
I told you so
. He crossed to the bike and tugged off the drape. It was a Honda, red, old, beat up from off-road use, but his saving grace at the moment. “She saw the mark on my wrist before I could.”
Please let there be gas
…

“Dammit.” More rustling echoed over the line, followed by Ryan’s distant voice again. “Dude, wake up. We’re taking a drive.”

“Now?” a sleepy voice echoed. “Will there be hot chicks? If so, I’m in.”

“Kendrick’s there?” Mitch asked.

“He came down with us. Was worried about you, with good reason. What’s in the storage unit?”

Mitch found the helmet, opened the garage door, and rolled the bike out into the rain. “Whatever evidence her husband stashed. Ryan, if you get there first, you can’t let her leave. I’m at least fifteen minutes behind her.”

“I’ll do my best. Mitch, one thing before you go. That reporter? The one who wrote that article about Steve? Katie and I did some checking. Her source was the US marshal assigned to Steve’s case. Holdt. She was dating him. He was a Cypher.”

“Shit.”

“It gets better. You know how Katie discovered there’s a whole faction in your organization who wants to see Dobbs taken down?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have any idea who’s in line to take his place if he falls?”

Mitch wiped the rain from his eyes, seriously tired of the twenty questions. “No, who?”

Ryan sighed. “It amazes me how little you pay attention.”

It amazed Mitch too. If he’d been tuned in to what the hell had been going on in his own organization, he’d have known they were looking for Simone right from the start. “Just tell me, dammit. I don’t have time to play games.”

“Chris Murdoch.”

It took a full second for the name to register, but when it did, disbelief followed quickly on its heels. “
My
Chris Murdoch? As in…my boss?”

“One and the same.”

Mitch glanced from the puddle in the drive to the street, empty and dark but for an orange triangle of light from the lamp above, illuminating a section of shiny pavement. Chris wasn’t protecting him. Not like he’d said. He wanted Simone’s evidence. And that meant he could be watching this house and was probably—right this minute—following Simone, hoping she’d lead him to it.

A new sense of panic clawed at Mitch’s soul. “Ryan, you gotta get to that storage unit.”

“We’re heading to the car. Relax, Mitch. We’ll get her.”

Mitch couldn’t relax. Not until he knew Simone was safe.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

S
imone pulled into the dark parking lot of the storage facility and reached for her bracelet from the passenger seat. She stopped at the gate, rolled down the driver’s window, and looked at the engraving on the inside of the bracelet, hoping the numbers she was focused on were an access code and unit number.

Holding her breath, she punched the code into the security panel and waited. A hum echoed, then the gate began to roll to the right. Pulse racing, she pulled through the entrance and watched the gate close behind her in the rearview mirror.

She’d called Ryan’s parents’ cell phones, but neither had answered. Frantic, she’d left messages telling them not to let Mitch or Ryan take Shannon anywhere if they came after her. She knew she’d sounded paranoid, and that once they woke up they were going to wonder what the hell was going on, but there was nothing she could do about that now. First she had to get Steve’s evidence, then she’d head right to the airport and get on a flight. And in a couple of hours, she and Shannon would be as far from this nightmare as they possibly could be.

Her eyes searched numbers on the buildings as she passed, her windshield wipers brushing the raindrops away. Her hands grew sweaty as she swept by unit after unit. She didn’t have time to waste looking. She needed to get it—whatever it was—and leave. Her pulse shot up when her gaze landed on 27B, and she slammed on the brakes.

Steve’s unit wasn’t one of the outside ones with the giant garage door. No, of course it couldn’t be that easy. Frowning, she shoved the car into park, killed the ignition and grabbed the keys. After pushing the door open, she ducked her head in the rain, slammed the door, and raced toward the main door in the middle of the building that led to the inner units.

Luckily, the outer door was unlocked, the entry illuminated by fluorescent lights above. Stepping inside, she shook the rain from her hair, then quickly scanned the cement walls and headed to the right, looking for 27B.

Locked, silver garage-style doors lined both sides of the hall. She searched numbers, not finding hers, and reached another heavy steel door.

She pulled it open and reached for the light switch on the wall. Lights clicked on in this section of the building, illuminating the next hallway. She took two steps, then spotted it, three doors down on the left.

Her pulse was a whir in her ears as she reached for the lock waist-high on the edge of the door. There were no other numbers on the inside of the bracelet. Hands sweating, she dialed in the same access code to the storage site, hoping it worked on the combination lock too.

The lock clicked and slid open. Surprised, she pulled it from the hook, grabbed the handle near the floor, and tugged the door up and over her head.

The unit was empty but for one box sitting on the cold concrete in the middle of the massive room. She moved inside, slid the bracelet onto her wrist, and swiped her sweaty palms against the thighs of her jeans.

Emotions swirled inside her—anger for what Steve had put her and Shannon through, betrayal that he could have kept so much from her, stupidity that she’d fallen for it all. But mostly disbelief that he hadn’t just told her what was really going on. Was she so unbending that he thought she wouldn’t understand? She’d known he’d loved her and Shannon. That kind of emotion couldn’t be faked, even if he’d lied about everything else. Yeah, she might have been upset at first, but she would have worked through it and could have actually helped him. He had to know that she’d never just abandon him.

Isn’t that what you just did to Mitch
?

Simone’s stomach rolled, sending an icy chill along her skin. Slowly, because her head was suddenly spinning, she knelt in front of the box, leaned back on her heels, and stared at the cardboard.

This was different. Mitch was a Cypher. Part of the same organization that was willing to kill for whatever was in this box.

So was Steve
.

Mitch had lied to her.

So did Steve
.

Sweat broke out across her forehead, and she swiped at it, her stomach shifting all over again. Steve had lied to keep her safe. The less she knew the better… That was what he’d always said. Mitch had purposely kept secrets from her, right from the start. Because he wanted what was in this box.

Words he’d said last night, when he’d come into the kitchen with that photograph in his hand, echoed in Simone’s head.

“
He had you. He had Shannon. He had everything I’ve wanted since I met you, and he let you go without a fight. I’m not gonna make the same mistake
.”

Tears burned her eyes, and she closed them quickly, fighting back the doubt. Her heart felt like it was breaking all over again, only this time, she didn’t know what to do next.

She opened her eyes, blinked through blurry vision, and focused on the box again. Something deep inside told her Mitch would never hurt her, that he loved her, that he had a reason for not being honest, but her mind, that logical part that needed evidence to prove an argument, warned she’d let her emotions lead her once before, and that was why she now found herself in the middle of this nightmare.

Blowing out a slow breath, she reached for the box lid, hoping something inside would tell her what she needed to know.

She lifted the lid and set it on the ground. Inside, there was one small file folder, a metal box, and a key.

She reached for the key and slid it in the lock on the metal box. Her breath caught when she looked inside. A gun and a box of ammunition.

Her hands were sweating when she sat back. Steve had owned a gun, but it wasn’t this one. His was a Beretta, in a lockbox in her house. This was a Smith & Wesson, black, sleek, brand-new, and—as she looked closer—fully loaded.

Swallowing hard, she reached for the folder, pulled it out, and opened it on her lap.

There was a note at the front, scribbled in Steve’s handwriting, but she bypassed that and flipped through the pages behind it, her brow wrinkling when she realized it was medical records.
His
medical records. He’d circled doctor’s chart notes and marked in red next to them, questioning the diagnosis and treatment plan, suggesting other alternative causes for his illness. And everywhere the word
arsenic
? popped up.

Bile slid up Simone’s throat. She paged faster through the records, then stilled when she found the e-mail correspondences at the end. Numerous printouts from a L.D. to a W.H. Some cc’d to a C.M., but not all. Each one, though, was centered on a discussion about Steve, how he’d turned on the Cyphers and what they were going to do about that. She couldn’t find the word arsenic in any of the e-mails, but she did see three words that made her blood run cold:
accident
,
home invasion
, and
poison
.

Her fingers shook as she flipped back through the file and found Steve’s note.

Simone,

If you found this, it means things didn’t end as I’d hoped. William Holdt, the US marshal assigned to my case, is a Cypher, but don’t worry, he’s on our side. The Cyphers have members everywhere, and though he was originally tasked with getting rid of me, he helped me instead. Not everyone within the organization is tainted, darling, only a few bad apples near the top who are hungry for power.

I haven’t been able to figure out how they got to me, and neither has Will, but we know my illness isn’t really cancer. It’s something else, though we haven’t been able to pinpoint what. I saved all this for you, just in case, and I have faith you’ll be able to figure out what I couldn’t. It’s the best defense you have in case they come after you because of me, but I’m hoping you don’t need it. The gun is unregistered. No one will ever connect it to you. Keep it with you at all times.

I loved you, Simone. I know you don’t believe that right now, but it’s true. I only ever wanted you and Shannon to be safe. If I could go back and change one thing, it would be that I would have walked away the day you told me you were pregnant. Not because I didn’t want you or the child we created, but because it would have kept you safe. I’m sorry I was selfish. I’m sorry that I put you through all this. But mostly, I’m sorry that I’m not with you now. You made my life worth living, and everything I did from the day you became my wife, I did because I was trying to protect you. If you only believe one thing, darling, please believe that.

~Steve

Simone blinked back tears, read the letter again, then a third time, still trying to process everything. Her mind skipped back to the conversation with Ryan in Tahoe about Steve’s doctor and how he’d suspected from looking at Steve’s records that something about his illness hadn’t been right. She should have questioned those doctors. If she’d done that…

If she’d done that, she might be dead now too. Her stomach pitched again, and her eyes focused on Steve’s note.
Not all within the organization are tainted
… Closing her eyes, she drew a deep breath and thought of Mitch.

“Simone.”

Simone’s eyes popped open at the sound of the voice directly behind her. Adrenaline surging, she reached for the gun, closed her hand around the grip, scrambled to her feet, and whipped around.

“Whoa.” Mitch stood feet from her, his hair wet and plastered to his head, his jacket slicked with rain. He held up both hands, his eyes wide and very surprised. “Hold on a minute. I’m not gonna hurt you. You know me.”