“They could already be in danger, and the longer this goes on, the more worrying it becomes. We need to find them, Robert, and we need to find them fast. It’s already been too long.”
“I suspect Hamilton knows, but we can’t approach him without tipping him off.”
“You should just kill him,” I growl.
“The powers that be won’t approve a hit. Not when Hamilton claims to know of damaging intel that could tear the whole organization down for good. Unfortunately, this goes high. Higher than my pay grade.”
“He’s bluffing,” I lie because we know his claims are true. Hunt’s father has hidden copies of that intel. We don’t know where it is or exactly what’s on it because Ethan Hunt and Travis Lauder have said it’s safer for us not to know. But it’s explosive shit. It wouldn’t just take down the elite. It has the power to take down governments. “He’s buying time to fabricate some shit so he’s given a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
“That may well be the case, but this is out of my hands. Trust me when I say I’m doing everything I can to ensure that man remains behind bars.”
We hang up, and I call my brother to update him, leaving a message when I get his voicemail. Rick just graduated medical school, and he’s started a three-year emergency-medicine residency and internship program at a top hospital in New York. Getting ahold of him these days is tricky, and we rarely see him. He doesn’t have much time off, and it’s usually spent sleeping or catching up with his fiancée, Rebecca.
I try Hunt next, grateful when he picks up immediately. I quickly fill him in, and he calls Xavier into his office to keep him in the loop. Hunt graduated a year earlier than the rest of us, and he’s been running his successful IT consultancy business withhis husband from their swanky new offices in Boston for the past year. They have a house in Rydeville, not too far from our place, and they drive home most every weekend, so we see plenty of them. My wife wouldn’t have it any other way. Xavier Daniels is her best friend, and those two are attached at the hip.
“It’s like Mathers is determined to haunt us for eternity,” Xavier says. “Why can’t the dead stay fucking dead?”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“Hamilton is the bigger concern,” Hunt says.
“I know you’re not talking to your old man, but we need to ensure those files are still safely secured where no one will fucking find them, and you should warn him.”
“I’ll get Jackson to tell Travis, and his father can relay the message,” Hunt says through gritted teeth.
“That works.” I understand his reticence to reach out to his dad. Ethan Hunt is a homophobic jerk, and he deserves to have lost his son for the way he’s treated him and Xavier. At least Hunt’s mom is on his side, and I’m glad he has at least one parent he talks to.
I know what it’s like to not have anyone. Thank fuck for Olivia Manning because she has plugged that gaping hole in my chest. She is that for my brothers too, and I’m so grateful to have her in our lives. Perhaps she feels she owes it to my mom, maybe my dad too because they were lovers and they had planned to take off with all of us kids, but I think it’s just who Abby’s mom is. She nurtures, and she loves surrounding herself with family. Family was taken from her for years, and there’s no denying what she endured at Parkhurst plays a part too.
Whatever the reason, I’m thankful for her. She’s my mom now in all the ways that count. I won’t ever forget my real mom, but I was so young when my father murdered her, and I barely even remember her. Joaquin and Harley don’t remember her at all because they were only four and three when she died. Roganand Spencer won’t remember any of us because they were so little when they were torn from our lives.
Pain presses down on my chest, like always, when I think of how I failed my little brothers.
“What do you need?” Hunt asks, dragging me from my thoughts.
“Do we still have the files we copied from Mathers’s home computer?”
“Affirmative,” Xavier says.
“Send them to me. I want to review them with fresh eyes. We were only looking for the cash trail the last time we went through those files. There could be something pertaining to the adoption we didn’t even know to look for back then.”
Chapter Fourteen
Kaiden
“Hey, Emery,” I say the next night as I hand over flowers, wine, and a box of the coconut cream cupcakes that are Abby’s current favorites. “I thought you didn’t work nights anymore?” I add as she rings up my purchases.
“Hi, Kaiden. I don’t, but one of my colleagues is running late tonight, so I agreed to hang on until she gets here.”
“I hope Stan and Martha appreciate your dedication,” I say as she carefully places the wine and the cupcake box in a brown bag.
“They look after me well. I have no complaints.”
“They’re good people,” I agree, swiping my bank card. Can’t say that of every resident of Rydeville because there are still too many asshole elite fuckers living in this town.
“Are these for Abby?” she asks with a knowing smile.
“Yes. How could you tell?” My lips tip up.
