Revealed (11 page)

“Don’t be sorry,
Riley. You’re still healing. Besides, it’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining,
and we have no immediately pressing matters to attend to.” He pressed a kiss to
her forehead. “Sleep, Riley. I will be right here, holding you the entire time.”

“I couldn’t ask
for anything better than that,” she told him and yawned again. “I truly do love
you with all my soul,” she murmured before drifting off.

Chapter Nine

Four hours
later, she was tucked into the communications hub of the Mountain. Mercury was
in there, as was Hector and one other who wasn’t introduced to her. The woman
was busy working away on a computer as Mercury leaned in. Apparently, the two
of them were on some project or other.

Hector handed
her the phone. “Dial out as you normally would. It’s a secured line, routed all
around the world to guarantee anonymity. Do you want me to give you some
privacy?”

“No.” She
reached out for him and took his hand. “Stay with me, please?” She needed the
comfort of his presence.

“All right, I’ll
stay.” He pulled a chair close to her side and settled in. Taking her hand in
his again, he squeezed gently before pressing a kiss to her fingers.

Riley leaned in
and dialed the number for the attorney’s office. As soon as the switchboard
operator answered, she asked to be put through to Wilson Honeycutt. When she
gave her name she was promptly connected.

When Wilson
picked up, she sported an honest smile of affection. “Hello, Wil. It’s Riley.
And before you start, I want to let you know that I’m well. I left on my own,
and I’m happy. I’ve actually found someone that I love and who loves and takes
care of me. Now, as to why I called. I need to make sure that my mother can
never touch my trust fund. Ever. Can you help me with that? The company too,”
she added, as almost an afterthought.

“Riley! So good
to hear from you. Your mother’s been in here nearly every damn hour of the day
trying to claim some horrid things. I’m sure I don’t need to expand on that.
You know her only too well after all. Uh, yes, my dear. I’ll need you to
actually come into the office, though. I apologize. I realize this is likely
putting you out, but we’ll need you to sign a few things with witnesses and the
notary on site, all in the same room at the same time.”

Riley frowned
and looked at Hector. “How about if we did a video conference instead? I can
sign the paperwork and fax it to your offices, so that you know it’s me. I only
ask this because my life is in danger. Hector and his friends are bodyguards
and are protecting me.” She winced at what felt like a punch in the gut. Lying
literally made her hurt. “It’s safer for me to remain where I can’t be found.
Is that possible?”

“I’ll have to
confirm with the partners, but I think that could be managed. It would be all
in real time. Is there a number where I can reach you?” Wilson asked.

Hector leaned
over the desk, and when he sat back, he handed her a card with a single line on
it. He gave a nod before pressing a kiss to her temple.

Riley gave
Wilson the number. She then smiled and leaned into Hector again. “Wilson, can
you also contact my R&D manager and ask him to call me? I have a project I
want him to work on, and I can’t think of his direct line at this time. If I
know my mother, she’s watching the company lines, anyway. The switchboard operator
is on Mom’s payroll and has been for a while.”

Riley had known
for a long time, but she hadn’t cared. The woman was good at her job and needed
the extra money. It wasn’t like there had been anything she’d needed to hide
when it came to business. Until now.

“Of course. I’ll
get in touch with him after we hang up. I have a meeting with the partners in a
couple of hours, so I’ll discuss the video conference with them then.”

Wilson paused
before continuing, “Riley, I hate to have to ask this, but I must since I have
known you so long. Plus, your mother has been driving me insane for the last
couple of days. Are you positive that you’re safe where you are? I trust in
your word, but I need to know that you’re not under any sort of duress. If you
are, you can just say yes, and I’ll figure out a way to get you out of there.”

Hector shifted
in his seat and rolled his eyes when she looked his way. He was close enough to
her that he could hear both ends of the conversation. He looked mildly amused
by Wil’s protective streak.

Riley just
smiled. “I’m perfectly fine, Wilson. I promise you. I’m happy. I’m well cared
for, and I’m safe. That’s all that matters. Thank you for handling things for
me. I do appreciate that. Just give a call when you have everything arranged,
and I’ll be ready on this side. Thank you, really. You have no idea how much
you mean to me, Wilson.”

Considering that
he was her pseudo-godfather, she was sure that he did, but sometimes people
just needed to hear it. “Now, give your wife a hug from me and take her on that
vacation once we get everything sorted. I insist. Call it my bonus to you. I
mean it this time, bub. You don’t want me to come and track you down.” She
laughed and hung up after she got his acceptance.

Turning, she
looked at Hector and nodded once. “Okay, that’s done. Now what?”

He leaned in to
kiss her cheek. “I think we should get you a snack so you can take your next
pill. We also need to get the lunch dishes cleaned up and tell the doctors
you’ll be sleeping in our suite from now on. You’ll need the energy for that.

“If a call comes
through on that line, one of the two operators will pick up. It’s for a
security firm that—should your lawyers check—exists and has an excellent
reputation. One of our members founded it, so we use it as a cover now and
again. We’re all on the payroll. In a manner of speaking, of course.”

“Sounds like a
plan to me.” Riley was ready for a pain pill, truth be told. She placed her
hand on his. “Now, how about you roll us where we need to go?”

With a nod, he was
on his feet and rolling her out of the room back through the halls. “The halls
are all labeled,” he said. “I’ll get you the map, so you can learn it while
you’re resting and recuperating. It’s actually a pretty simple system, for the
most part. Plus there are emergency phones at all major junctions. A few of the
staff have gotten turned around in the past, so we put them in as soon as it
was a viable and cheap option.”

“That’s a
brilliant idea.” Riley was pretty good at getting where she needed to go most
times, but sometimes she would get turned around. Especially if she ran into
someone that wasn’t exactly who they were supposed to be.

“After we had to
send out the third search party, we had to do something. Which was when we
instituted the coding system. Then we put up the large maps in key spots near
the doors, stairwells, and elevators. And, when we were able, the phones were
put in as well.”

“I would imagine
that you older guys helped carve out some of the space. Or am I wrong?”

“We did a lot of
the work ourselves. We did have servants at the time, who assisted until they
were no longer able. They then retired—wealthy men and women, I should
mention—to enjoy the last years of their lives as they wished. Their children
were brought up to know just who we were and then step into their places when
they came of age and were able. Some had dreams of doing more, so they did.

“Anyone that has
ever worked with or for us has been a volunteer. Just because they weren’t born
of the parents we were doesn’t make them any less. Sometimes it makes them
more,” Hector added quietly. “It took us nearly sixty years to get a livable
space cut out. After that, we continued to expand carefully—always very aware
of just what sits above our heads.”

“You guys were
ahead of your time in a number of ways, weren’t you? The math and science that
went into creating this place is incredible. You amaze me.”

“Shouldn’t
really amaze you, sweetheart. The Romans did it. Troy did it. Several other
cultures were ahead of their time at one point. If you look at history, it’s
all been done before. It’s just that folks in this time frame like to think
they’re all that and then some.” Hector cringed at his wording. “Yes, I
actually just said that, and I’m not proud of myself in the least.”

Riley began to
laugh. “Oh God, seriously? You’re too much. I so can’t believe you said that. I
really can’t. I mean … you’re too much.” But he was hers. All hers.

“I know. I
know,” he muttered in clear disgust. “I really need to stop listening to the
younger people we have around here. They’re starting to infect me with their
oddities and strange terminology. I don’t mind learning the new nuances to the
language as times change, but even that is too far for me.”

Then, leaning
over, he pressed a kiss to her lips. “We’re here,” he said against her mouth
with a smile. Straightening, he turned her chair around and backed them into
the dining hall. “Something smells good in here,” he commented while wheeling
her toward the buffet already laid out.

“Oh God, it does
smell good. Food.” Her stomach growled. “I’m starving again already.”

He stopped at
the beginning of the buffet and took the basket from where he’d hooked it.
“Give me a minute,” he said. With a kiss to her temple, he left her for a
moment but was never out of sight. He passed the basket off to a woman. When he
returned, he handed Riley a plate and pushed her along the line of food to
choose her meal.

When he stopped
before the cheesecake, she took two slices—one with chocolate and one covered
in strawberries. “I have a bit of a weakness for cheesecake. Don’t ask me why,
but there’s just something about the yummy goodness and smooth richness that
makes me happy.”

“Whatever you
want or need,” he promised softly. Once she had utensils, he took her to an
intimate table in the corner. He helped her into a padded chair. “Do you need
anything else while I’m up there?”

“Drinks would be
nice.”

He dug out the
pill bottle and set it in front of her plate. “Behave yourself, Riley.” He
brushed his fingers to her cheek, then left her sitting there. Once he’d walked
off, she noted that he’d put her back to a wall and they were in a spot to see
the entire room.

Riley just
smiled, shook her head, and pulled her plate closer.

Epilogue

Jason nodded to
Hector as he entered the “war room”—as Mercury liked to call it—the next
morning. Gaius was already sitting in a chair, tapping his fingers on the table
in a near-frantic beat. He looked as bent out of shape about Emily not being
there as Hector felt with leaving Riley out of the meeting.

Unfortunately,
she still needed a lot of rest, and since they’d barely managed to twist the
doctor’s arm into letting her stay in the suite, they weren’t going to push the
issue of her roaming around the base more than necessary.

After filling a
mug with the good coffee that Mercury ensured they always had, Hector dropped
into a seat next to Gaius. Jason was lounging in a third chair, staring up at
the ceiling with an air of sheer boredom. Mercury was nowhere to be seen.

“Any word?” he
asked Gaius.

“They’re
supposed to be reporting in this morning. Part of why we’re doing it in here is
that Mercury doesn’t want anyone outside the inner circle to hear what they
might say,” Gaius told him.

Grunting at
that, Hector sipped at his coffee as the screens on the wall across from the
table lit up. No signal yet, but it was a good sign that things might actually
get moving sooner rather than later. He hated leaving Riley alone when she
could barely move on her own.

He shot a look to Gaius and
sighed. He was really starting to understand where the other man had been
coming from over the last weeks.
Damn it
all to hell and back again
,
I might
actually owe the cocky bastard an apology
.
Doesn’t mean I have to give him one
.

The door opened,
and Mercury came in with another guardian. Someone they hadn’t seen in a while.

“Alex,” Hector
greeted the man.

“H, Gaius, Jase.
Good to see you.” He went to the coffee pot.

“Hey, big guy.
Long time no see. Where you been?” Jason asked the question they all wanted to
know the answer to.

“Here and
there,” Alexander remarked with a small smirk.

Mercury cleared
his throat. Alexander moved to a chair and sank into it with a distinctive
sigh. He looked exhausted, Hector noted. Whatever he’d been up to, he hadn’t
been sleeping all that well.

“All right. A
few things first. Jason, I’m sending you out to Seattle. We’ve had some reports
from there that seem a little off. James is going to meet you there for backup.
Try not to kill him, if you would, please?” Mercury asked in a pleading tone.

“No promises,” Jason said with a
grin. “But if he gets going with those damn
ya’ll
’s
of his, all bets are off. Kindly remind him that the English language doesn’t
need to be mired by terminology that only survived for a few decades in the
Wild West, hmm?”

“I’ll pass that
along,” Mercury grumbled. He tossed a folder on the table, and it slid under
Jason’s waiting hand. “All the details we currently have, as of twenty minutes
ago, are in there. We’ll call you with any updates we have, but this may be a
wild goose chase.”

“Given our
current run of luck, doubtful,” Gaius muttered.

“True enough,”
Mercury agreed. He turned and flicked a button at the screens to bring up the
feed. It showed a close-up view of someone’s nostrils.

“Is it working?”
a muffled voice asked.

“Hell if I
know,” a clearer one said. “Damn technology is a pain in my ass.”

“If you’d drag
your ass into the present, you wouldn’t have such issues, you know.”

“Says the moron
that still believes that shootouts at high noon are an effective method of dealing
with scum.”

“They are!”

Hector watched
as Mercury rolled his eyes and rubbed at a temple in amusement. Then their
leader cleared his throat to gain some attention.

“I think it’s
working.” The camera wobbled out away from the nostrils to show a redhead and a
blond. “Oh, hello,” the redhead greeted with a smile.

“James, Eric,”
Mercury addressed both men. “Report, if you would, sometime today.”

“Right,
apologies,” the redhead, aka Eric, said. “We tracked our traitor as far as
Miami and then he disappeared. He’s getting outside help for sure, Mercury.”

James pulled up
a chair on screen and joined the conversation. “He went to a fancy hotel
downtown—the sort where they eye you up and down like they expect you to steal
the gold right off the fancy bits while they’re watching. But he didn’t stay
all that long. He came back with a couple other fellas, got in one of them
fancy long cars and took off. We followed them to an airport, but only the
fellas got out. No sign of our traitor.”

“Best we can
figure is they clued into the fact that they had a tail and let him out along
the way. Likely during one of the many turns they made where we had no way of
seeing the doors to their conveyance.”

“It’s called a
limo, lads,” Mercury said. “Did you get the plates?”

“We were
supposed to pick up plates?” Eric muttered over James’s shoulder.

“He means the
doodads on the back that identify the owner of the car,” James clarified.
“Yeah. We sent them to Helen so she could start the process. She said she’d
give it all to you as soon as she had anything.” Helen was their tech person,
who had an unusual interest in odd T-shirts.

Gaius was
practically vibrating at Hector’s side. Reaching over, he laid light fingers to
his friend’s arm. “Calm,” Hector reminded quietly.

“They lost the
man who betrayed us and nearly killed Emily,” Gaius growled under his breath.

“And they’ll
find him again. Eric is very good at tracking people. You know that, Gaius.
Getting wound up and irritated will only make life more uncomfortable for
everyone. Not everything goes exactly as planned, remember? Eric will pick up
his trail eventually, and we’ll bring him back for questioning.”

“He’d better,”
Gaius grumbled.

“If he doesn’t,
I’m sure Mercury will send James back to Miami as soon as he’s done assisting
Jason. Breathe, old friend,” Hector advised.

Gaius glared at
him as he made a huge production of taking a deep breath and letting it out.

Rolling his eyes, Hector threw a
look to the ceiling.
Gods, it’s like
dealing with small, temperamental, snotty little children some days.

“James, I need
you to fly to Seattle and meet up with Jason. We’ve had a report of an incident
there that requires investigation. There isn’t a lot at the moment, but he’ll
brief you on what we do have when he arrives,” Mercury was saying. “Eric, keep
looking for our rat. I want him found, alive, and brought back to the
Mountain.”

“Define your
parameters of
‘
alive,’
if you would, please,” the big redhead asked with a grin.

“Breathing and
not about to die without medical attention. Broken bones, blood, and bruises
are always permitted. He does need to be ready for questioning on return,
though, so attempt to keep from knocking him unconscious.”

“Copy that,
boss,” Eric said. His gaze shifted, and he gave a solemn nod. From the corner
of his eye, Hector saw Gaius return the move and knew that Eric was making
their fellow guardian a promise. He wouldn’t return without the man responsible
for the attack on Gaius and Emily.

“You have your
assignments,” Mercury said. “Get to them. We’ll talk again in four days’ time,
unless we have information to pass on before then. Anything you have, get it to
Helen promptly.”

Turning to face
the table once the call was disconnected, Mercury looked at them one at a time.
“Jason, you have a flight leaving in two hours. You’d better get packed and
moving.”

“Right,” the
large man said. Getting to his feet, he gave them all a quick bow and left,
shaking Mercury’s hand on the way past.

“Alex, get some
sleep. You look ready to keel over.” Not exactly an exaggeration.

“I think I will.
Gentlemen.” He gave them a bow before leaving as well.

“And you two.”
Mercury pinned them with looks. “Get back to your women and look after them.
You’re on duty here until further notice, unless the shit hits the fan again.
We need to be ready to move if Seattle turns into something bigger than it
appears. Until then, you’re on R&R. Go,” he ordered.

Hector
hesitated, though he was ready to jump up as Gaius just had. “What about the
tapes?”

“From the
sanitarium?” Mercury asked.

“Yeah. Have we
found any proof that the suicides were anything more?”

Gaius settled
back into his chair, as he had a semi-vested interest in the answer. He’d been
there, helping Hector and Riley get back to the Mountain stronghold.

“Not yet.
Helen’s gone through the entire first event and seen nothing out of place.
She’s working her way through the second apparent suicide, but it’s slow going.
She has to check each frame, one at a time. We all know how quickly the
monsters can move, so it’s a necessary evil.”

“Not the answer
I was hoping for,” Hector admitted.

“I know. I’ll
get you anything we find as soon as we find it. I’m heading back up there to
lend a hand. I may not know a lot about computers, but I can sit and watch for
the monsters. Now, get going. You both look like you could use some sleep.”

That was good
enough for Hector, and apparently, Gaius, given how quickly he was up and out
of his chair again. They headed out of the war room and went their separate
ways in the labyrinth of corridors after sharing a grim look.

The thought of
seeing Riley had Hector picking up his pace, his mood lightening. He’d only
been gone an hour, but that was an hour too long.

The End

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