by Geri Krotow
“Mitch, admit it. You didn’t come here tonight to woo me. You’re here because you didn’t trust me to do what I needed to do at Rachel’s. I’m impressed that you actually feel a little guilty about it. But not enough to stop you from doing it.”
“Maybe. But all cards on the table? I want to get to know you better. Spend time like this.” He motioned at their takeout picnic, the holiday decorations. “Where we aren’t playing roles.”
“It is a good idea to understand what makes each other tick, to a certain extent. Since we’ll be dealing with each other for the foreseeable future and the situation is so high stakes.”
Mitch stared at the fire. “How long do you think it’s going to take?”
“To get to the bottom of the True Believers, or to find out who’s leaving bloody messages in your classroom and throwing rocks through your windows?”
“All of the above.”
“We’ll figure out who wrote the threats in short order, I think. Maybe another week or so. I need more time with Rachel, and planning for the Silver Bells Ball is going to help with that. But taking down the True Believers?” She put her food down on the coffee table. “I’m not the lead on the case, Bryce is. And he’s been working it for a year so far. We’ve made some great strides and it looked like we might have had them last spring, but then they got smart and laid low for a while. I’m sure you heard about the mess of a wedding at the mayor’s house. If we’re lucky, Wise is going to get cocky and slip up. The fact that I found all of that propaganda at Rachel’s tells me that they’re getting a little fast and loose, if not careless.”
Mitch put his container on the table as she spoke and turned to face her, his expression intent. No one ever listened to her like this. Growing up, her parents had always been too busy making ends meet after arriving in the US with nothing but their clothing and passports. In college she’d put her nose in the books and graduated with honors, ensuring her entrance into the police academy. At SVPD, the officers were all busy with heavy caseloads. Finding out the most intimate details of each other’s lives wasn’t the objective. Even Ron, as much as he’d claimed otherwise, had never really listened to her except where it affected him.
As Mitch remained silent, she grinned.
“Sorry. You didn’t ask for my entire life story.” She leaned on her hands to get up. “How about some dessert?”
He put his hand on her thigh and his warmth seared through her yoga pants. She stilled, knowing where they were headed. And not only hoping for it but craving it with a ferocity that humbled her.
“Now, you don’t expect me to let such a perfect setup go to waste, do you?” His eyes lit with what she knew he saw in hers. Want. Need.
“What I said before...it still holds.” Her whispered words sounded futile, weak. Who was she kidding? She couldn’t walk away from Mitch.
“One thing war and life has taught me is that all we have is right now. This moment.”
“Yes.”
She wanted him so badly she was even willing to find out how much it would hurt to let him go after they gave in to their desire. Because she would let him go, but only after she found out how good it could be. And then her heart would be in shambles again.
Her heart wasn’t helping her now, as it pounded with anticipation, wiping out all logical thinking.
She waited for him to close the gap. She’d made her desire clear. Now it was Mitch’s turn.
Awareness tingled all over her skin as if she were a teenager again. A teenager allowed to explore her deepest, most secret sexual fantasies with the man of her dreams.
Mitch drew out the anticipation as his fingers ran through her hair, cupping the back of her skull while his other hand caressed her cheek, her jawline, her throat. He watched her and she refused to close her eyes, refused to turn away from the intensity in his, refused to beg him to bring his mouth to hers. When his fingers tried to dip into her cleavage, her breath caught.
“What do you want, Nika? Tell me.”
“I want you.”
“How?”
“Oh, God, you know how.” She was breathless, one thread away from completely losing it.
“Tell me.” His insistence forced a red-hot blush onto her face and she knew he saw her vulnerable need.
“I want you inside me, Mitch.”
In what felt like one move Mitch reached under her shirt and cupped her breast as he crushed his lips against hers.
Chapter 9
Mitch wasn’t a man who usually let his need for sex affect his judgment, but with Nika he was entirely focused on her and the want she stirred in him, especially when she had her hand over his erection and was stroking him through his jeans.
Her tongue was as bold as she was. She kissed him with a thoroughness he’d only fantasized about and it threatened to get him off before they’d even started. He was barely beginning to do what he wanted to do to Nika.
“Slow down.” He pulled back from their kiss and grasped her hand before she reached into his jeans. Damn it, she already had his belt unbuckled. He wanted her, but this woman was different. Their shared connection was inexplicable. Her eyes slowly opened and he saw the same urgency that he felt.
“Why?” She reached back up to kiss him and the pull of her was like a drug. A drug that smothered all of his anxieties, his worries about his PTSD coming back.
A drug.
“No.” With what he thought was a superhuman effort, Mitch pulled back and sat up on the couch, putting badly needed distance between them.
Nika took a moment to register what he was doing before she scrambled to her feet. Her hair was wild around her flushed face, her nipples erect and pushing against her top, reminding him of what he was turning down.
He was a freaking fool.
“I’m sorry, Nika. Now I’m the one giving mixed messages. This isn’t right. Not yet.”
“Not yet?” Flames of desire turned to angry sparks in her pale blue eyes and he would have done anything to be back on the floor with her, to take her the way they both wanted.
“Please. Sit next to me for a minute.”
She eyed him as if he’d sprouted horns and fangs. After what felt like an aeon, she sat on the chair opposite the sofa. Smart girl.
“Is this your usual come-on, Mitch? Bring a girl to...to her breaking point and then drop her?” She ran her fingers through her hair, deep lines between her eyebrows. “Hell, you’re right. What on earth was I thinking?”
“Neither of us was thinking.” He took a minute to will his erection away. “We’ve got something potent between us. It’s beyond a physical connection and it deserves more than a one-nighter. But you know as well as I do that this is the kind of distraction that—”
“Gets people killed. I know.” She buried her face in her hands for a moment before she rested her elbows on her knees and looked at him. “I’m the one who needs to apologize. You’re not the one with a case to solve, I am. And I wasn’t doing a good job of protecting you right now, was I?” Her rueful expression tugged at something deep in his chest that he refused to look at. Couldn’t.
“You don’t have to protect me, Nika. I do a good job of that, trust me.”
“I couldn’t even shield you from that stupid rock. You were the one who saved both of us.” He saw the self-doubt on her face. Her core belief, that she could and did protect the community, was shaken in her.
“Nika, you’re more than doing your job. What’s going on between us at the personal level is just that—personal. It has nothing to do with the case and it won’t keep you from bringing down the bad guys. I’ll make sure of it.”
“You’re right.” She let out a long sigh. “We both know what’s best for the case—why this can’t happen.” She stood and started clearing their takeout boxes from the coffee table. “Would you like something else to drink?” Her hands shook and he wanted to grab them, comfort her.
He stood. “Hell, no, Nika. I don’t want ‘something else.’ I want to know tha
t we’re cool, that you’re not going to treat me like a pariah every time you see me from now on. We have a few weeks before the dance, and we’ll be lucky if you solve the case by then.” Shit, he’d said too much. He saw it immediately in how her body stiffened and her eyes narrowed. To her credit, she didn’t call him out on it. Didn’t ask him again what else he did besides teach high school chemistry.
“We’re cool, Mitch.” She stood looking at him, her arms full of their meal’s leftovers, her expression weary. “I’m tired. Do you mind if we call it a night?”
He did mind—he minded a hell of a lot. But he couldn’t tell her why. Hell, he didn’t even know why.
“I’ll let myself out.”
*
Nika reported to the station at 0600 on Monday morning, a full hour before she had to be at Silver Valley High School. For once she was thankful that Bryce Campbell worked long hours. She didn’t bother knocking on the frame of his open door.
“Bryce, I need some answers. About Mitch.”
He looked up from his paper and took a long sip of coffee from a refillable gas station mug. “I’m surprised it took you this long, Nika. Shut the door and sit down.”
Nika did as he asked and stared at him, hard. “Who the hell is he, Bryce? And don’t tell me he’s just a chemistry teacher, or that he’s had Special Forces training in the Marine Corps. Or that he’s a war hero or whatever. I already know all of that.”
“You did an internet search, I take it?” Unspoken in Bryce’s question was the fact that Mitch wasn’t the kind of man who boasted about his military background, or what he’d seen in combat. He didn’t need to—he was confident in his own skin.
“Yes. And I’ve worked next to him for the past two-and-a-half weeks, Bryce. He saved me from the rock, and he’s obviously holding back on what he knows about the case. I feel like he knows more than I do. Tell me, Bryce. I swear I won’t let him know that I know. He’s a Fed, isn’t he? FBI or DEA? No, wait—is he ATF? That makes sense, with the True Believers and their history of stockpiling firearms.”
Bryce held up his palms. “Nika, stop. It’s none of the above. I can’t tell you directly what Mitch is all about.”
“Well, someone had better because it’s my job to keep him safe from whoever is threatening him. How the hell am I supposed to do my job if he’s got some kind of secret role in all of this?”
“Are you through?”
“I haven’t even started.”
Bryce grinned. “I can’t tell you about what Mitch is doing, but I know who can and I’ve already asked permission for you to be let in on the truth.”
“Okay...”
“First, call in to SVHS. Tell them you’ll be late today, that you have a dental appointment. Then go to this address. Don’t tell anyone you’re going and, when you get there, park in the big parking garage next to the building. Take the sky bridge to the offices on the third floor. They’ll buzz you in.” Bryce handed her an embossed business card with only an address on it.
“This is here, in Silver Valley.” She recognized the location of one of the larger groups of office buildings off the main highway through town.
“Yes. But the building you’re going to isn’t what you think. Trust me on this, Nika. Just go.”
“Does Chief Todd know about this?”
Bryce’s eyes narrowed and he stood. Nika followed suit.
“You’ll find out some of the answers to your questions once you get there. Go, Nika. Time’s a wastin’.”
Nika left Bryce’s office with a clenched stomach—even his Johnny Cash reference couldn’t soothe her nerves. She thought she’d feel validation when her suspicions about Mitch were confirmed. Instead she felt inexplicably betrayed by a man she’d known for less than a month. A man she’d kissed, whom she’d allowed to nearly make her come without even having sex.
A man who’d played her for a fool.
*
Nika didn’t know what to make of the posh surroundings she was ushered into. A receptionist in a trim, no-nonsense business suit motioned toward the leather seats in a lounge area. A glass-topped table sported a humongous arrangement of red and white poinsettias with sparkly gold tree branches in an uncut crystal vase. “Wait over there and I’ll come get you as soon as you’re cleared.”
Cleared? Nika looked around, stymied. Clearly whatever this place was, whoever these people were, they were all funded far better than a local police station like SVPD.
She didn’t have long to mentally review her expanding list of questions as the receptionist was at her side within minutes. “Let’s go.”
Nika followed the young woman, whom she placed around twenty-five. A huge wooden door opened and as Nika walked past it she could see by the door’s edge that it had a steel core that was several inches thick.
A familiar figure stood behind a large, polished desk in the most luxurious executive suite Nika had ever been in.
“Claudia!” She stopped in the center of the room.
“I’ll leave you to it, ma’am. Do you need anything else?”
“No, Laurel, that’s all. Thanks for escorting Nika in.” Claudia’s cool gaze turned to Nika. “Have a seat. Would you like something to drink?” She stood as Nika eased herself into a very comfortable conference chair. “I can make you an espresso, cappuccino, latte? I’m having one, so please don’t be shy.”
“A latte would be nice, thanks.” Nika looked around, seeing Claudia in a different light. Claudia, the social media guru, was some kind of government agent?
“I know this is all a bit of a shock to you, Nika. Frankly I expected you to ask about us sooner.”
Claudia’s attention appeared to be on the frothy milk she was pouring into a mug, but Nika knew there was much more going on behind her beautiful demeanor than how to teach SVPD the ins and outs of social media.
“How could I ask about something I didn’t know about? Son of a bitch, Claudia, I don’t even know what ‘us’ is! I asked Bryce if you—I mean, Mitch, was FBI or DEA but he didn’t answer me.”
“That’s because we’re neither.” Claudia handed her the warm latte. “Before I go any further, I need you to sign a couple of nondisclosure forms.” Without any signal that Nika was aware of, Laurel the receptionist was back, a black leather portfolio in one hand, which she placed on Claudia’s desk in front of Nika.
“Laurel will stay here to witness your signatures. Do you have a problem with any of this so far, Nika?”
“You’re asking me to sign contracts about something I know nothing about?” Nika opened the portfolio and read the forms. Short and to the point, they stated that she’d never divulge what she was about to learn in the offices of “TH, Esq,” the official name of the “unofficial” organization. Or risk imprisonment and government fines totaling more than she’d ever make in forty years of working for the SVPD.
She could walk away, stay away from whatever Claudia was about to divulge. Never know what Mitch Everlock was really about.
Nika signed both forms.
“Date them here and here.” Laurel waited for her to finish her part before signing on the witness lines. As soon as they were done, Laurel closed the portfolio and left. The quiet click of Claudia’s office door closing didn’t reflect the solidness of the door that Nika had observed, another hint of the technology employed by TH, Esq.
In the usually quiet town of Silver Valley, in bucolic central Pennsylvania, she was locked in a vault with Claudia.
“What don’t I know, Claudia? What, or who, is ‘TH’?”
Chapter 10
“Trail Hikers—TH—is a relatively new agency that officially is not affiliated with any government entity, foreign or domestic. We have ‘esquire’ on the business card to keep it more difficult to identify.” Claudia sat next to Nika on a matching leather upholstered office chair, her elegant cream suit contrasting smartly against the dark furniture.
“But you’re at SVPD headquarters so much and—Let me guess. Bryce is part
of it, too? And Mitch Everlock? And Chief Todd?” Nika didn’t think this would be a good time to mention she’d seen Claudia sucking face with Colt Todd.
Claudia smiled and her posture remained relaxed. Her eyes, however, were steely. “What we do here is highly classified, Nika. Chief Todd praises your capabilities and it’s clear you’re an intelligent woman. So you’d understand the danger in revealing the smallest aspect of any case and, most especially, who’s working it. Do I have to spell it out for you, Nika?”
“No, ma’am.” Nika got it. And this was Claudia’s territory, Claudia’s circus. She wasn’t about to question her. “It’s just a bit of an adjustment for me. I mean, before I walked in here today I thought of you as SVPD’s social media expert. A retired Marine on a pension bringing in a little more cash. Now I find out you’re the CEO of an elite group of operatives. And I’ve been ‘read in.’ Am I going to become a Trail Hiker?”
“Not unless you truly want to. Since you’re one of SVPD’s top officers it’s a good idea to cut you in on what we do, as the department has found itself in the middle of several high-profile cases. A handful of police officers are on the TH payroll, too. It’s only natural that you’ve wondered about what some of your fellow officers are doing on their off-hours.”
It all made sense now. Snippets of overheard conversations, the chief calling in a select few for private briefings from time to time—much of it had to be Trail Hikers’ related.
“What exactly does Trail Hikers do? Do you help with all of SVPD’s cases?”
“Absolutely not. We’re independent of any law-enforcement agency, but you could say we’re at the federal, even international, level if we’re anything.”
