Touch of Betrayal, A (17 page)

Thank you, Adam, for pretending I didn’t have it, and for letting me keep it.

Logic told me Mitch had simply moved from the bed to the patio, but I couldn’t take a chance. Annie’s security system should have warned everyone in the house when Mitch arrived, but since it hadn’t… I skirted the bedroom wall as I moved toward the slider, my focus on the person sitting in the chair. It had to be Mitch. Anyone trying to attack me would be standing, or squatting, not sitting with their legs extended on a hassock, ankles crossed.

I lowered the gun and waited for the clouds to shift. Moonlight peeked through the night and illuminated the guy’s feet. Definitely Mitch. I heaved a sigh that was loud enough to have him turning around.

“Everly? Is that a gun in your hand?” Mitch’s voice held a rasp of anger mixed with surprise.

He stood, and in one swift movement pried the weapon from my fingers.

I didn’t fight him. My war wasn’t with Mitch, he was just one of the battles.

“How did you get inside? The security system here is top of the line, and I—”

“It’s Pierce’s system, so I know the design, and how to avoid the traps he installed. Didn’t he tell you? He’s been designing security systems for the rich and famous for years. Made a killing.”

Poor choice of words. Why was he babbling about Pierce and his many millions now?

“I don’t know much about Tynan Pierce at all,” I said. Except that he was a good man to have guarding my back. Maybe. “Come inside, Mitch. Adam and Pierce are on watch, and I think it’s best to keep your arrival under their radar.”

Like that could happen. By now everyone probably knew he was in my bedroom.

If I could just keep the emptiness that was draining the life from me in check, everything would be okay. I touched Mitch’s hand, expecting loving images to fill my internal screen, but it stayed blank. I’d done too good a job building the shield between him and my fingers, and now that it was time to reverse it, I wasn’t sure how.

“You were going to
shoot
me?” He handed me the .9mm, butt first.

I breathed out a sigh, glad it was too dark to see his eyes. The gun rested heavy in my hand. “No, I wasn’t sure…with everything that’s happening, I was afraid. Damn, I’m not saying this well at all. I thought Xifeng had you.”

He inhaled with a hiss. “How do you know that name?”

Roaring filled my ears. “Isn’t the bigger question how do you know her name?”

“Yeah, well.” He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck then stared at me for a minute. “I’ve been trying to protect you from all this.”

Anger welled from a place deep in my gut. “How dare you?
My
parents were killed.
My
family threatened. All because of
my
gift. And it’s my fight, Mitch. It always has been, and if I’d known about it, been raised with the knowledge, I could have been working… all these years
wasted
.” I tacked on a silent ‘you bastard.’ I just couldn’t say that out loud. Not to Mitch. Yet. The wasted years were more my parents’ fault. Millie and Harlan contributed. And possibly my grandparents. Damn, but family was a lot of work. And pain.

Mitch cupped my elbow, cautiously leading me toward the bed. “Let’s sit and talk this out, hmm?”

I jerked free and dropped into one of the club chairs where I’d tried to nap earlier. “Right. How about we take if from the beginning? When did you accept me as your assignment?”

A string of curses tumbled from his mouth, some of them in odd foreign languages. Did I know this man at all?

He paced in front of me. “When did you find out? Was it Pierce?”

Fury seared through my chest, and I jumped in front of him. “What does it matter when or who? It’s that
you
didn’t tell me. You betrayed my trust, Mitch.”

He reached for my hands then dropped his arms and stepped back. “I couldn’t tell you. If my employers found out, I’d’ve been taken off the case. Maybe worse. They would have replaced me with someone who didn’t love you, Everly. I made what I thought was the best choice.”

It hurt too much to push out any words. Love. He said he loved me. Pain cut into my heart, leaving me breathless.

“Now that you know, we can move past this and think about starting a family.”

Normal. Logical. How could he possibly sound like everything was all right? Like this was an everyday argument that married people have?

“I have no idea who you are, Mitchell Hunt. No idea what’s real in our relationship and what isn’t. Our marriage has been based on lies, not… family.” I spit out the last word, stunned at his oblivion.

“What’s real is that I love you.” He sounded so sure, like it was a foregone conclusion.

I backed away, sobs catching in my throat. “N-no. You’re n-not hearing me. You. B-betrayed Me.”

And, holy, bloody Mamma Mia—how the hell could he be thinking about babies?

SEVENTEEN

My bedroom, the only sanctuary
I had
in Annie’s house, spun wildly and I swayed. Mitch grabbed me, lifting me into the deeply cushioned chair. My brain had exploded on so many levels I was still seeing sparks flash around the moonlit room.

“You okay, Sunshine?”

I laughed, uncontrollable, brittle sounds that bled into the soft Hawaiian night.

Mitch grabbed my shoulders, shaking me. “Everly. Stop it. What we share is real, and worth saving.”

Choking down the dregs of insanity, I slapped his hands away and smiled at him.

It must have looked scary because he backed away. “I’ll get Annie.”

“No need. I’m fine, Mitch. Just fine.” I scooted back in the chair, pulled my knees up and held them tightly to my chest. Maybe they’d block the pain spilling from my shattered heart. “So when we met on the beach, you’d planned it. Arranged to be at my favorite place for the sole purpose of getting to know me—euphemistically of course. “

“No, the destination came through with my orders. I just showed up. Right time, right place.” A shaft of moonlight caught his smile, and I knew it was genuine because his dimple flashed at me.

“What part of that being a huge breach of trust and the ultimate betrayal are you not getting? Never mind. That was a rhetorical question.” The confusion roiling in the back of my mind pushed for freedom, and I hugged my knees tighter, digging my toes into the denim covering the chair. “And Tony? Was he really a friend?”

Mitch stood over me for a minute, and then settled in the chair kitty-corner from me with a this-is-going-to-take-a-while sigh.

No shit, dude. The pressure of sobs that I was holding in had shifted from a dull ache to screeching pain. I grabbed it and held on. Pain was real.

“Tony was really my friend. I did find him, his murder wasn’t staged, and the reason I got to the beach so quickly was because I was at the police station giving my statement when the assignment came through.”

My right eye started to twitch, and I fought for calm. “The local cops were working with… who? What sort of government types do you really work for?”

“You know the answer to that. Mostly military. Guarding you was a one-shot deal, and they only pulled me in because I was trained, lived in the area, and had an established, credible background. Tony’s murder gave me a perfect cover story, a way to keep you involved in my life. The local cop shop wasn’t included, except on a need-to-know basis. My handler approached me with the intel on Loyria Gray about a month before the homicide, so I’d been briefed and was ready to go.” He shrugged. “It was a great opportunity to do something different.”

I was
something different
. The two words repeated over and over in my head. I drew in a shaky breath. “And the abduction, the beating you took during that investigation? Didn’t—don’t you have backup for me? This assignment?” My inner bitch radiated through every word and the pressure in my chest dissolved in flat-out rage.

“Yes. They extracted me within twenty-four hours.” He cocked his head. “I always wondered why you didn’t ask more questions about how I ended up in the hospital. Bad guys don’t usually get medical attention for their victims.”

“Why?” I snapped. “Did my naiveté cheat you out of telling me a bunch of well-planned lies?”

“Actually, it was because I was nervous. Didn’t have a good cover story, and kept waiting for Annie to hit me with—”

“And that’s another thing. How did you hide this from Pierce and Annie for so long? You’re supposedly
friends
with Pierce. And did you know Annie was pretending to be Violet?”

“There’s a dotted-line connection between the people Annie and Pierce worked for and the people who recruited me. Pierce was an acquaintance. And I had no idea about Annie’s cover. We worked in different areas.” He chuckled, a dry rasp. “This was a welcome break from my routine work. A chance to learn how an agency outside the military worked. When they approached me about, ah, you, it was a one-shot deal, and only because I had a built-in cover as a photographer and a proven track record. How many times do I have to explain, Everly? How many ways do I have to say it?”

“You haven’t said anywhere near enough yet.” Pain shot through my jaw. I unclamped my teeth and worked the muscle spasm out with my fingers.

Mitch touched my leg. I flinched, sucking in a breath, and his hand dropped away. “When you stood in the surf with water cascading over you, I started snapping pictures. You were the perfect vision of womanhood. I think I fell in love with you when the camera caught your smile.”

That was a bunch of bison chips, and I needed a glass of Jameson’s. “It was a lie, Mitch.”

He shook his head, hair whipping around. I couldn’t remember the last time he had a haircut. The mundane normalcy of that thought blanketed my brain, forming the perfect foil for the lies spewing from his mouth.

“Not a lie. Maybe I’ve kept a few things from you, but the camera didn’t lie. The angle of the sunrise was perfect, and you radiated beauty—”

I snorted. “A wet t-shirt isn’t beauty, it’s lust.”

“Can’t deny that part. But you are beautiful, Everly, and it turned into more than a physical thing for me. Much more.”

My knees shook. I wedged my chin on top of them, but it didn’t help. “Why did you marry me? Why not just finish your assignment and disappear? That would have been the least dishonest thing to do.”

This man, who I’d believed was my refuge, my home, knelt in front of me. “The more I learned about the people who hired me, the more I knew you had to be protected. I convinced them our marriage would give me an in with your family. Kahuna Aukele has been on top of their most-wanted list since your parents were killed. I love you, Everly, and it was the best way to keep you safe.”

A pity marriage. Humiliation flashed hot under my skin. “That was sweet of you.”

Mitch levered back into a squat. “No. It was honest. You’re up to your very vulnerable neck in a volatile situation that…”

A door clicked open down the hallway, the sound furtive in the gray of pre-dawn.

Mitch tapped my leg. “Who’s in the house?”

Icy sweat trailed along my spine. “Why? Are you planning to kill them?”

The first hint of sunrise lightened the night shadows, and illuminated the planes and angles of Mitch’s face. Haggard. From traveling under cover, or because he had regrets? I’d probably never know. He blew out an impatient breath. “No, I’m not planning to kill anyone. But knowing who’s on the playing field would help.”

Laugh? Punch the arrogance off his face? It was a tough decision, so I kicked out, catching him mid-chest. “I need space.”

The kick wasn’t hard, but he was off balance and it knocked him out of my way. I stood, paced the room a couple of times then faced him. “I don’t have a clue who’s got my back and who doesn’t. Everyone’s here, and we’re going to sit down like civilized people and name the key players in this fiasco, determine exactly who wants me dead, and who wants to control my gifts. And then I’m going to decide whether or not to trust any of you.”

 
My cell beeped, and I scooped it off the night table.

“Who?” Mitch asked, standing.

“Annie, wanting to know if I’m okay.”

He nodded, grabbed his backpack off the floor, and then pointed to the bathroom. “Be right out.”

I cradled my cell and typed: Mitch here. We’ll be out in a minute. Don’t shoot him. Yet. And then I tossed the phone on the bed, and hugged myself. It was going to be another long day.

Mitch stepped out of the bathroom wearing a clean t-shirt, holding a hand towel, hair damp. “Any chance I’m gonna survive this?”

“Probably not. Annie’s going to need some time to get Madigan up and fed, and I want everyone there when we discuss Xifeng and possible strategies. So, first thing, we’ll go over your files and you can explain, in detail, how you spied on your wife.”

I yanked the bedroom door open, and the heavenly scent of freshly brewed coffee surrounded me. Oh, yeah. I motioned Mitch to leave, because no way was I letting him follow me. Never again.

Adam stood in the hallway, arms down, a classic two-handed hold on his gun. “Hunt.”

Mitch put his hands up. “Detective. You can put that away. I’m not here officially.”