Elisabeth Naughton - Hold On To Me

A lead weight landed hard, right in the center of her chest. Hand shaking, she reached for a towel from a shelf beneath the sink, flipped on the water, and ran it under the stream. After wiping the dirt from her skin, she splashed cool water on her face and reached for a fresh towel to dry.

A door opened and closed in the outer office. Voices echoed beyond the bathroom walls. Simone froze, and when she heard Shannon’s exuberant voice, bolted for the door.

Mitch was kneeling on one knee, holding Shannon in a tight hug when Simone stepped into the room, his eyes closed, his hair a sexy mess around his face. As he held her daughter, the anger he’d directed Simone’s way seemed to seep away, leaving behind only relief and…joy.

Shannon hugged him hard and whispered, “I can’t believe you’re here. Why are you here? Where’s my mom?”

“Nannon.”

Shannon turned her head at the sound of Simone’s voice and looked her way. She pulled out of Mitch’s arms and sprinted across the room. “Mom.”

Simone dropped to her knees, closed her eyes, and gathered her daughter close. Yesterday, she’d been livid that Shannon had run off. Today all she could do was thank God she was safe.

Shannon eased back, her curly hair caught in the neck of her hoodie as if she’d just thrown it on. “Are you okay? Why is your shirt ripped?”

Simone glanced down at the tear in the shoulder and along the hem. She shook her head, not wanting Shannon to worry. “It’s nothing. I just caught it on something.” She placed both hands on Shannon’s cheeks. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Mom.” When Simone started inspecting her, Shannon rolled her eyes. “I told you I was fine. I was asleep when Mr. Harrison came over and woke me and Melody up.”

Melody.

Simone’s gaze snapped to Ryan, standing near the wet bar, and, Kate, who was picking up a soda can from the counter and tossing it in the trash. “Is Melody okay?”

“Fine.” Ryan tugged off his jacket and threw it on the end of the couch. “We took her home. I have a couple of guys at your place keeping an eye on things to see if anyone shows.”

“What about Julia and Reed?”

“My folks are at the house,” Kate answered.

“Shit,” Mitch muttered. “Mom and Dad are here? I thought they weren’t coming until next week.”

Simone blew out a breath of relief, the first time since those bullets had started flying. For now it seemed like tragedy had been averted, but that wouldn’t last.

“They changed their plans.” Kate glanced her brother’s way, and her eyes widened. “Oh my God, you’re bleeding.” She grabbed a towel from the bar and stepped toward Mitch, pressing the cotton against his upper arm. “What happened to you two?”

Simone’s relief was short-lived. She pushed to her feet, rested her hand on Shannon’s shoulder’s, and looked at Mitch’s arm. “You got shot?”

“Shot?” Shannon asked in a frantic voice, turning beneath her mother’s hands. “What?”

“It’s okay.” Mitch sent Simone a don’t worry her more look, then focused on Shannon, his expressions softening. “It’s nothing.”

Kate looked toward her husband. “Do you have a first aid kit in here?”

“Yeah.” Ryan moved toward cabinets on the far wall, and Kate followed.

Mitch held the towel against his arm, and for the first time, Simone noticed the dried streaks of blood on his forearm and the smears across his T-shirt. “I’m fine, Shannon. It’s just a scratch.”

“Just a scratch, my ass,” Kate muttered as she came back.

Ryan wheeled his desk chair over and pushed on Mitch’s good shoulder. “Sit. Before your sister flips out.”

“It’s nothing,” Mitch said to Kate, pulling back his sleeve so she could get at the wound. “It barely grazed me.”

It being the bullet. Simone gripped Shannon’s shoulders and fought back the bile sliding up her throat.

Kate dabbed at the wound with an alcohol pad. “Mom and Dad were right to be worried about you.”

Mitch clenched his jaw. “Mom and Dad wouldn’t be worried about me if someone didn’t have loose lips.”

“I’m not the one who blabbed,” Kate tossed back. “Thank your friend Kendrick.”

Mitch’s gaze shot to Ryan, standing on his other side. Ryan shrugged. “Sorry, man. Your mom called our house, and Julia must have told them you were staying with Kendrick, then your mom called him wondering why you hadn’t just come home if you were in the Seattle area. I swear he’s the one who spilled, not us.”

It took a moment for the conversation to sink in, but when it did, Simone realized they were talking about her. The reason Mitch’s parents were worried about him was because of their breakup.

The room started to close in. The air felt hot, and her skin tight. Mitch’s gaze snapped to hers and held, but before she could find any words, he looked down at Shannon, who stood in front of her.

“I’m fine, Shannon,” he said again. “It’s nothing.”

“But…but you got shot.”

He motioned with his good arm, and hesitantly, Shannon eased out from under her mother’s grip and stepped toward his chair. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to his side. “Kate, take that off for a minute.”

Kate pulled the alcohol pad back to reveal the skin that had been stripped away.

“See?” Mitch said to Shannon. “Not a big deal. Just a scratch. Not even as bad as when you crashed your bike last month.”

“But…who would shoot at you?”

Mitch looked over Shannon’s head toward Simone again, and his eyes narrowed, but his voice remained just as calm as it always did when he stepped in to diffuse a situation with Shannon. “No one. They weren’t after me. It was just a random drive-by thing.” He looked down at her again, his face softening once more. “You know that stuff happens in the city sometimes, right? We saw it on the news a few weeks ago, remember?”

“Yeah.” Shannon watched Kate clean and bandage the wound, but her one-word answer said she still wasn’t sure.

“Everything’s okay, Shannon. Trust me.”

He pulled her in for a one-armed hug, and Shannon leaned against his chest. Closing her eyes, she whispered, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Me too, sweetheart.”

Mitch might be okay, but Simone wasn’t. Her pulse picked up speed, and her head felt light. Everything that had happened tonight spiraled in to suck the air out of her lungs.

“Mom? Are you okay?”

The room spun. Simone swayed.

Dimly, she heard Kate say, “Ryan?”

“I’ve got her.”

She registered Ryan’s arm around her waist, his hand on her arm, felt her sluggish feet moving but couldn’t seem to focus on any one thing. Something soft pressed against her spine and the backs of her legs. From across the room, she recognized Shannon’s panicked voice but couldn’t find the words to respond.

“That’s it. Just breathe,” Ryan said in a reassuring voice. “You’re okay.”

“Mom?”

“She’s fine,” Ryan said again in that same calm voice. “Just give her some room.”

“I’m done here,” Kate said. “Shannon, why don’t you and I go down the hall and get some coffee going? You’re out of coffee here, aren’t you, Ryan?”

“What? Yeah. Coffee. Right. That’s a good idea.”

“But my mom—”

“She’s fine, Shannon,” Kate said. “Some people get queasy at the sight of blood, that’s all. Let’s just give her some space, okay? We’ll be right back.”

The door opened and closed. Slowly, the room seemed to slow its crazy spinning, and Simone felt air filling her lungs all over again. When she lifted her head and managed to open her eyes, she focused on Ryan’s face, just in front of hers.

A slow smile spread across his lips. His hands were resting on her biceps, and he was kneeling in front of the couch where she was sitting. “There you go. That looks more like the girl I know.”

The girl he knew…

That was the problem. He had no idea who she really was. None of them did. That familiar panic pushed in again, but she fought it back.

She hadn’t had a panic attack in years, and she wasn’t giving in to one again. Not now.

Focus. Plan. Execute.

“I-I’m fine.” She pulled her arms from his grip and ran her hands through her hair. “Mitch…” Her throat closed, and she swallowed hard. “Mitch is the one you should worry about.”

Ryan looked to his left. “Dog-breath is fine. Aren’t you?”

From the edge of the bar where he was standing, Mitch flipped Ryan the bird. “No thanks to you.”

Ryan chuckled, then turned to Simone. His face sobered. “We need to call the police. But first, why don’t you tell me what happened.”

She chanced a look Mitch’s way. His eyes were focused solely on her, his arms hanging loosely at his sides, the bandage and the blood on his T-shirt drawing her attention and reminding her of everything that had happened.

She closed her eyes to block out the memory. “The police aren’t going to be able to do anything. We need to call WITSEC. But even that…” She opened her eyes and stared at Ryan’s shocked expression. “I’m not sure I can trust the US marshal assigned to my case.”

Mitch had to have heard Simone wrong.

“WITSEC? US marshals?” He gave his head a small shake, afraid the blow he’d taken when he’d been fighting that guy in his yard might have done some serious damage. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Simone gripped the couch cushion at her thighs, and opened her eyes. “Shannon and I left the witness protection program two and a half years ago after Steve died. I thought we were safe, but I was obviously wrong.”

Ryan moved to sit on the long arm of the leather sectional. “Witness protection? Holy cow.”

Simone didn’t look Mitch’s way. “I met Steve my last year of college. He was an accountant, working for a big company on the east coast.”

“Wait,” Mitch said from the direction of the wet bar. “I thought your husband was a lawyer.”

Simone flicked a guilty look his way, then refocused on the floor in front of her. “Technically, he was both. His specialty was corporate tax law. He passed the bar, but after he was hired by his firm they encouraged him to also get his CPA license. He spent more time doing their books than practicing law.”

Mitch felt like he’d been sucker punched all over again. She hadn’t just lied to him about her feelings, she’d lied about her entire life.

Stunned, he leaned back against the counter, thankful it was there to hold him upright. Part of him wanted to run and not listen to any more. Another part needed to hear the truth.

“I honestly don’t know much about the case,” Simone went on. “Steve and I had just started dating when it was all happening, and he told me the less I knew, the better off I’d be. All I know is that the managing partner of his firm was some bigwig in the northeast, and somehow Steve had come across evidence proving the firm was laundering money.”

She ran a hand through her hair, sending the already disheveled dark locks to fall against her pale cheeks. “It was a big case, with far-reaching implications that went beyond the firm, though Steve would never tell me where. And when his life was threatened before the trial, prosecutors offered him protection via WITSEC.”

Ryan braced his forearms against his thighs and clasped his hands together in front of him. “But you weren’t involved?”

Simone shook her head. “I didn’t know anything about it until much later. Steve had been acting funny, and we’d only been together a few months, so I didn’t know what to make of it. I went to talk to him one night and found him frantically throwing things in a backpack, getting ready to leave. That’s when he gave me a brief explanation of what was going on. And offered to take me with him.”

Mitch could barely believe what he was hearing. The calm, composed, totally reserved attorney he’d fallen for would never leap without looking. At least she never had with him. He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m surprised you went.”

Simone finally looked his way, and he saw a mix of emotions in her eyes—hurt, regret, anger—he just couldn’t tell which one was meant for him. “I wouldn’t have. Not normally. But I’d just found out I was pregnant with Shannon. That’s why I went to talk to him that night. And I was already freaking out a little. When I found out what was going on, the marshals gave me five minutes to make a decision. Go with him or never see him again.”

Disbelief pulsed through Mitch’s veins. This woman he thought he’d known had given up her life for a man she barely knew, whereas all these months they’d been together, he’d had to fight tooth and nail to get her to do something as impulsive as blow off work for the day and hang out at the beach.