Every time he thought of it, a bolt of lightning shot through his belly. He wasn’t sure if it was more fear or more excitement, but both were definitely present.
Mitch hovered over Cash’s shoulder, but couldn’t read anything on the paper. “You close to figuring that out yet?”
Cash made a frustrated sound and continued to write.
Mitch’s gaze shifted to a pile of shards on the table where some type of stone had been shattered with a hammer. “What’s that?”
“Something Quaid’s been messing with,” Keira said. “Something having to do with energy something-or-other. You know how Quaid is.”
Yes, he did. Quaid was still a little . . . off . . . from his time in captivity. His mind seemed to drift on tangents. He went deep into himself when he delved into some newly discovered aspect of his powers. The shards of something glass or ceramic on the table was only one in a long line of projects he’d vanish into.
“What’s he working on?” Halina murmured by Mitch’s side, but she was looking at Cash, not the table.
“Halina?” Kat came up to them with Dex beside her. “Can we take Dex in our room to play?”
“Of course.” She glanced at Alyssa. “If it’s okay.”
Alyssa nodded and Kat and Mateo scurried off to the back of the house, both of them calling some warped form of prikhodit that made everyone chuckle. Dex trotted behind them and sent Halina one last glance before he disappeared.
“When Cash was imprisoned at the Castle,” Mitch said, “Schaeffer had him developing a superskin for the military. Think Gore-Tex meets neoprene with ten times the strength of body armor.”
Her gaze turned on Cash, though he didn’t notice. “Did you do it?”
He turned his head to glance at her, then returned his frown to the pad. His jaw shifted sideways. Knee bounced and he didn’t answer.
That was a strange reaction. Mitch was just going to ask if he was okay when Cash tossed his pencil down and rubbed his eyes.
“Yeah,” he said with an irritable edge, “but I ate the final notes to get rid of them so Schaeffer wouldn’t get the formula. I’m trying to re-create them now.”
Cash rested his chin in his hand, but didn’t meet Halina’s eyes. Something was definitely up with him. Out of the group, Cash was one of the nicest, despite his years isolated in prison. Since the team had rescued him and the man had been with them every day, he’d been polite, congenial, considerate, easygoing.
Halina definitely put a burr under Cash’s skin. And Mitch realized he might just have to eat the promise he’d made Halina before coming into the house. He hadn’t imagined anyone in the team holding a grudge after they all knew how manipulative Schaeffer could be.
But Cash’s wife had been murdered by Schaeffer’s men. Cash had lost three years of Mateo’s life when Schaeffer had put him in prison. Out of everyone, Cash had lost the most.
“And now,” Cash said, the edge in his voice growing toward anger, “after getting my brains banged around my skull during the escape, I can’t remember what I did.”
Mitch put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
Cash looked up. When their gazes met, Mitch saw both realization and understanding pass through Cash’s blue eyes.
His voice leveled when he told Halina, “But I’m getting closer.”
“You . . . ?” Halina started, confusion clear on her face. “Ate them? What does that mean?”
“I, you know,” Cash picked up the pencil and pulled the notebook back in front of him. “Ate the paper the notes were on. I didn’t have any other means of disposal.”
Halina’s eyes rounded in shock.
“Mission: Impossible style,” Luke said, grinning at his soon-tobe brother-in-law, drawing a lopsided smile from Cash.
“If we try hard enough,” Kai said from the kitchen, “we can fit every part of this mess into a television series. Mission: Impossible, The Pretender—”
“Let’s not try,” Mitch said.
“Are you in another bad mood?” Kai asked. “Let me make you one of my smoothies—”
“No smoothies,” Teague said from the sofa. “Brady is finally happy. If you turn on that blender, I’m going to stuff your head in it.”
“Good point,” Kai said.
“The formula will be powerful leverage against Schaeffer,” Mitch told Halina.
“How?” she asked.
“We can sell it back to him,” Mitch said. “Tape the exchange and get his confession. Pull in the FBI for a sting if we can arrange it.” Mitch turned his attention back to Brady and lifted the baby’s tiny fingers with his pinkie until they encircled it. “He’d expose himself as participating in Millennium’s business while acting as a senator and sitting on the Armed Forces Committee.
“Though we’re not even a hundred percent sure we’d get backing from the FBI because not all interactions with a politician’s business are illegal while he’s in office. We’d have to prove a few things along with his offer to buy it, and his confession of holding Cash against his will.”
“It’s all such a long shot,” Halina murmured, gaze going distant. “The formula, the papers, collecting this foggy evidence . . .”
“But it’s better than nothing,” Cash said. “And it’s better than life in a cell.”
Halina’s eyes clouded with guilt. They turned the color of smoke against the ocean and Mitch was caught between wishing he could help her and thinking he should be relishing a sense of vengeance. But he couldn’t find a desire for revenge anymore. All he wanted now was to shine light on all the shadows and move forward without any monsters in the closet.
“Kai’s right,” Alyssa said, coming up beside them and sliding her arm through the bend of Halina’s elbow. “Mitch has lost all his manners. This is Keira, Luke, and Cash, Keira’s brother.” Alyssa turned toward Teague, who was sitting on the sofa. “You’ve met Teague and our daughter, Kat, and Cash’s son, Mateo.”
“I didn’t forget my manners,” Mitch said. “I was going to let her enjoy that view,” he gestured toward the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a frosted mountain meadow from the living room, “for a minute before throwing you all at her.”
Kai set a couple drinks on the dining room table for Keira, Luke, and Cash, then dropped into a chair. He stretched out his long legs, crossed them at the ankles, and folded his arms over his chest. “So, tell us how your power works . . . this precognition.”
“That right there,” Mitch pointed at Kai, “is what no manners looks like. Let the woman relax for a few minutes, Ryder.”
Mitch wandered toward the windows, appreciating the view as he ran the back of one finger over Brady’s petal-soft cheek. He loved the feeling of peace he had here. Especially now, holding his nephew. He gave up on the scenery to stare at Brady. His mind drifted to the thought of his and Halina’s possible child. What their baby would look like. If he or she would resemble Brady. Thought of how the cousins would play together the way Mitch and his cousins had when they’d been kids.
He’d had such a great life. Fantastic parents, great brothers, best twin he could have hoped for, loving supportive extended family. More friends than he’d ever imagined.
He wanted to share it all with a child.
He wanted to share it all with Halina.
He’d adored bringing her to his family’s house in San Diego for holidays. She’d endured his brothers’ teasing, his mother’s third degree, his father’s endless chats. And she’d fit in like she’d already been part of the family.
Those had been some of the happiest days of his life.
“It would be helpful to be able to know what’s coming next,” Kai said, breaking into Mitch’s thoughts, his voice moving back toward the kitchen. “Especially when I can feel Abernathy close.”