by Tl Reeve
“Hey, Mac.” She laid her hand on his large thigh in the hopes of giving the tormented man some semblance of comfort and ignored the warning growl coming from Royce.
“Hey, sweetness.” He gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He was also ignoring his possessive asshole of a son. “How are you doing?”
Charisma shrugged. “I’ve had better days.”
“Yeah.” Mackenzie rubbed at the scruff on his face. “Me too.”
“Do you need anything? Help at the house…with the kids?” Stuck within her inner turmoil, Charisma wondered how the children were handling the fact their mother had walked out on them without so much as a goodbye.
“Everyone is pitching in. Keeley and Danielle made a schedule, and they keep track. You can always ask them. I’m pretty sure Riley and Liam would be happy to see you and their brother.” Mackenzie’s gaze flicked to where Royce sat.
“Here is the deal.” Without preamble, Kalkin began laying out the information that he’d told her last night at the diner to everyone in the room. When he was done, Royce had leaned forward, glaring at his uncle.
“Why are you telling us this?” The muscle in Royce’s jaw twitched with tension. Pissed didn’t even begin to aptly describe the fury rolling off her mate.
Charisma cringed.
She didn’t like the scrutiny in Kalkin’s eerie ice-blue eyes. He was up to something, she was sure of it. “There are a lot of rumbles coming in from the East Coast. We know for sure Holly has made some calls. We know she is trying to rebuild. In doing so, they’ll have to make back the money they lost with the recent bust. I need eyes and ears I trust.”
Charisma’s belly twisted, having a clue where this was going. Kalkin was going to send Royce away for yet another mission. I can’t do this.
“I’m sending all of you to Everett, Massachusetts tomorrow to stop it and hopefully crush those PBH bastards once and for all.”
Charisma’s head popped up. “What?”
“Why the fuck are you sending us?” Mackenzie demanded. Evidently, the oldest Raferty had been reading her mind.
“Because, Mac, Holly’s there,” Kalkin answered. “She’s in Boston.”
“Fuck this.” Mackenzie’s entire body tensed, and his lip curled in distaste.
“As are Brooklyn and Katie,” Kalkin added.
Charisma’s stomach rolled. She jumped to her feet and glared at Kalkin. “No fucking way.” She slammed both of her hands onto the big wooden desk in a rage. “If you think for one damn minute, I’m going to subject myself again to watching my mate play footsie with another woman, you’ve got another damn think coming.”
Kalkin cocked a brow at Royce. “Is that what you did, played footsie with Katie?”
“Don’t fucking provoke her.” Royce stood beside her. The taut line of his back had been the only indication he was hanging onto his control. Otherwise, he looked deceptively calm. “I never fucking touched Katie.”
She snorted, still not knowing what to believe.
“Children,” Kalkin admonished. “We’re not here to argue about what did or didn’t happen. I have files here for you to go over tonight. Most of it contains the information I have already given you and some I haven’t. There are preliminary reports from the Wildlife Preserve in there as well. In the morning we will meet again. Everyone.”
Saber whistled. “You’re really going to do this?”
Kalkin nodded. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
* * * *
Royce stepped into the Sheriff’s Department, groggy as hell, with a cup of coffee in his hand, the file in the other. Since he couldn’t sleep because of the ache in his chest and between his legs, he went over all of the information Kalkin had put together for them.
It wouldn’t be easy. Blending in, sure. The rest, not so much. Charisma... Shit, she still wouldn’t talk to him. Even after everything Kalkin laid out for her, she kept herself closed off to him. Though the scent of her pain abated, something new took root and he couldn’t put his finger on what it was—which might make this assignment harder.
He’d always prided himself on knowing his mate. Her subtle scent changes and physical clues made her an open book to him. Now, he wondered if he’d ever get that connection again. Royce plodded his way through the building and to his uncle’s office. Everyone was there already. He’d been the straggler.
Charisma sat beside Penelope, a shell of herself. He created that. He caused her to be completely stressed out and feel unloved. A bit more of his insides shriveled up. How could he have been such a fool? How could he have allowed himself to be sucked into Kalkin’s games?
After closing the door behind him, Royce took a seat next to his father, giving Charisma space. He had a feeling whatever came next, there wouldn’t be time for niceties or whatever. The mission would come first. Always.
Emotions.
Needs.
Wants.
They all were secondary to whatever Kalkin had brewing in his head. He’d spend the rest of his life, if they made it through this, making it up to Charisma.
“Finally, you’re all here.” Kalkin’s slight dig didn’t faze Royce. He opened the file on his lap and gazed down at the preliminary photographs from the Wildlife Preserve. “This is going to be a pretty simple mission. Pretty straightforward.” Nothing with Kalkin was simple or straightforward. “As of this moment, you’re no longer living here. You are no longer Rafertys. You’ll have aliases. Except for Penelope and Saber, who are going to be working for a Dryer subsidiary company.”
Royce stared at his uncle, dumbfounded by the information he’d just given them. No longer a Raferty? No longer part of the pack? Even though he understood it was for the mission, it still felt like a body blow he may never recover from. Royce straightened his shoulders. He supposed it was coming. The Raferty family hadn’t really been his biggest fans.
Before Sage came around, and Caden finally opened up about his experience with Marjorie, about the only one who treated him like family had been Kalkin, and, at that, it wasn’t a familial bond. It was done more out of necessity. Royce had been a Raferty. For three years, his father barely looked at him. Caden hated him, and Jace had been ambivalent.
When Mackenzie disappeared, everything got worse. Kalkin spent years trying to find Mackenzie. He was obsessed. Royce learned to care for himself most days. Got into trouble other days. It wasn’t until the monsoon that almost washed Royce away that everyone woke up and started taking care of him. By then, he didn’t know if he wanted them to. He rejected them at first. Why did it take almost dying for them to realize he was a child and deserved love? Even now, sitting in the office with his uncle, he didn’t have the answer.
Hell, he’d barely said two words to his father since he came home ten years ago. He didn’t know what to say. If Rapier had found his dad, why hadn’t he tried to come find Royce? Why had he stayed away so long? Mackenzie was never pushed to answer those questions. Why hadn’t he pushed?
“Royce?” Kalkin snapped Royce out of his thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“You’re going to be a Criminal Justice professor, specializing in Procedural Law. You’ll be teaching at Boston College under the name, Rexx Rough.” Kalkin turned his attention to Charisma. “You’re Mrs. Norah Rough. You are helping your father-in-law care for his two children, Boone and Harper Rough.”
Charisma nodded.
“Mac, you’re now Merrick Rough. You’re a widower. Your wife died in a tragic accident. You work day labor right now, because the depression has taken your ability to work full-time. Picking up the finishing position for Dyer construction is the first real job you’ve had in six months,” Kalkin added.
“What about Liam and Riley? Will someone be explaining this to them? What about their schooling?” The nervous energy rolling off of Mackenzie didn’t surprise Royce. They hadn’t even had a chance to digest what was happening to their family, let alone take on another name in a different city and state.
Kalkin nodded. “Right now, Jerome and Keeley are at the school talking with the principal and superintendent. All of their grades and files will be transferred to Cambridge Upper School. It’ll be perfect for them, and they’ll be hidden well. Keeley will help them pack up what they want to take. She and Danielle will work to make sure they remember their new names for the length of the assignment.”
Royce flipped to the section of the folder labeled housing. He’d read it over and over again the night before. A house, on a small street, in an upper middle-class neighborhood. Everyone had perfect lawns and kids. There were pets and activities and, well, normalcy. Everything Window Rock wasn’t. Everett, Massachusetts would be the complete opposite from what Royce was accustomed to.
“The house you’re moving into is a newly acquired FBI safe house. You’ll be the first family there,” Kalkin said. “Saber, you and Penelope will be living in the apartments Dryer Construction is helping to build. You’ll be the only tenants in the building, due to their newness.”
“I’m sorry,” Charisma said. “This is all a little too much, don’t you think? Won’t someone figure out what we’re doing?”
“It’s okay. We’re going to be fine,” Penelope said, wrapping her arm around her sister.
“It is,” Kalkin agreed. “However, you have to have a cover story in place for this to work. The school, the college, and of course, Dryer Construction know what the situation is. They are aware of the ongoing investigation and this operation and are willing to assist us by any means possible. Also, there are assets on the ground. They won’t reveal themselves; however, they will feed you information via myself, Jerome, Keeley, or Rapier.”
Too many variables. Too many ways of it going wrong. Royce shook his head. “What’s the point of being in all these strategic places if we don’t have eyes on the target?”
Kalkin grinned and held up a photograph. The man had non-descript Asian features. He didn’t look important nor did he wear designer clothes. Quite frankly he was plain. “This is Sloan Harnut. He works for Senator Winters.”
Charisma gasped. “My father knows about this?”
“He does. He is the one who tipped us off to Holly arriving in Boston,” Kalkin replied. “He is also the handler to one of the college students Royce will be teaching. For now, his name is Ghost.”
Perfect. Royce snorted. “How will I know he’s one of us?”
“At some point, Ghost will introduce himself. When he does, it will only be to give you the evidence you need at that particular moment. Sloan and Ghost will be as close as possible to the target without getting caught. Holly and PBH have thirty-two souls with them at this time. So far, after the initial chatter, there’s been silence. All we can do is wait. She will have to recoup her money soon.”
“We also know she is using the underground tunnels to keep the shifters and psychic kids hidden. Sloan’s people have tracked them to an abandoned part of Franklin Park Zoo. However, we know she can’t live there. The zoo, unlike the preserve, has too many workers to not get suspicious.”
“So, why aren’t we infiltrating the abandoned part of the zoo and taking her down?” Saber asked.
“It would be simple to do,” Kalkin admitted. “But, I am tired of snapping the neck of one PBH snake, only to have three more appear. If we wait, we can take down the whole syndicate. We can be through with them once and for all.”
“The evidence too,” Charisma murmured. “The more evidence you collect, the farther and deeper you might go into the government.”
“Bingo,” Kalkin said. “Your father believes PBH is being funded once again through some pork project in congress. He has been trying to gather every budget he can to have one of his forensic accountants go through it and find the money.”
“Anything so far?” Royce flipped through the remaining pages of the report, convinced he’d missed something important.
“No. All of his requests have been denied.”
Not suspicious at all. Royce frowned. If the government, at some level, wasn’t involved in the ongoing assault by PBH, they wouldn’t have had an issue with Senator Winters going through the files. It didn’t make sense.
“If everything works out appropriately, all you will be doing is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. The job will handle itself. Once we know her next move, we’ll pounce. Like last time, you will infiltrate it. Until then, enjoy your new lives and” —he glared at Royce —“fix your shit. You’ll be there as a family. You’ll become suspicious as fuck if you don’t settle down and act like it. Understand?”
Royce nodded. “Got it.”
“Whatever is needed for this case,” Charisma added.
“Good. Your plane leaves at four p.m. You will arrive at ten p.m. Eastern standard time. When you arrive, vehicles will be provided for you. Check in and get ready to work.”
Chapter Four
Three months later...
Charisma stared at herself in the mirror. Before long, she’d have to tell Royce the truth. Her belly was growing. Though she’d promised to see the doctor in Window Rock, she canceled the appointment and left town with everyone in tow. Since she arrived in Everett, Massachusetts, she’d been to the clinic twice to make sure her pregnancy was going according to plan. She didn’t want ultrasounds, nor did she want to hear the baby’s heartbeat. If she saw or heard it, the seriousness of the situation would come tumbling down around her and her family’s feet.
She’d gone on a mission with Royce without thought or care for the being growing inside her. Most days, she hadn’t been able to come to grips with her situation, let alone the foreign object. I’m sorry, baby. She rubbed her belly once before throwing on the oversized sweater she bought on sale the other day. She found that not only were leggings warm, but they also covered her burgeoning bump. Adding the sweater covered it more so.
Of course, she told Royce she’d been cold when she started dressing accordingly. Window Rock had nothing on Everett. At least in the desert it’d been somewhat warm during the fall months. Boston, nope. The temps plummeted every day. On the coldest nights, she wished she could go home. Get away from this place. Continue to hide.
Sex had been removed from the table. Until she could come to grips with the whole situation they were in, she’d asked Royce to sleep in the extra bedroom. Cheap on her part, but damn it, she was still hurting. Lies, even if they were from omission, didn’t make the damage they’d done any less destructive or hurtful. She still believed he had cheated on her, and until she could reconcile it within her heart he hadn’t, she needed space.
It also helped keep her pregnancy under wraps. The only one who knew about it was Penelope. Her sister came over on one of her worst days for morning sickness and helped get the kids ready for school. Charisma and she covered by saying she had food poisoning. But once Penelope came back to the house, Charisma couldn’t hide it any longer.
Penelope promised to keep her secret, but also reminded her, sooner or later, Royce would figure it out and then, all hell would break loose. She understood, but she needed more time, something she was currently running out of. She stepped out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. They had thirty minutes to get to school and help set up.
Today, Charisma and Penelope volunteered to help set up for the fall festival. Liam and Riley were doing well in school. They were adapting to their surroundings, and Charisma felt it’d been the right thing to do now that they were there. The grief of Window Rock as an entity, and that of their family, had to have been swallowing the kids whole. Knowing their mother walked out without a care, more so.
So, Charisma stepped in. Though she wasn’t technically their mother, she became a room mom. She helped all the other mothers plan out the school year activities and bake sales. She stayed after to help put away supplies. She really did love being in a classroom, and it also made her miss her kids at the orphanage.
“Are you ready?” Riley stood at the door to Charisma’s bedroom. Her brown eyes glittered with
excitement. The shadow of sorrow was almost gone.
“I am,” she answered. “I can’t wait to see what your school is going to look like after dark.”
“Me too.”
Charisma took Riley’s hand after she slipped on her comfortable boots. In a couple of weeks, the school would be going on a weekend trip to Salem. If they were still there by then, Charisma promised to get Mackenzie’s permission to allow Riley to go. “You should be proud of yourself. I know this has been hard.”
Riley’s lips twisted into a grin. “I think changing my name and being someone else has helped.”
Yeah, Charisma too. “It is fun being someone else, isn’t it?” For the last three months, she’d been Mrs. Norah Rough. A homemaker, taking care of her siblings while her father-in-law recovered from the tragic loss of his wife. She was also the wife of a popular Criminal Justice professor.
Liam came down the stairs and joined them by the door. “Ready?” The boy, like his father, still battled his demons.
“We are. Is there anything you need?”
Liam shook his head. “I got it covered. We’re working on the construction stuff for the haunted house walkthrough.”
“Ooo, scary.” Charisma chuckled.
She stepped out of the house onto the front porch. Their little housing area had been welcoming to them. Their neighbors to the left brought over casseroles and desserts when introducing themselves. Their neighbor to the right spent time with Riley in the afternoon, while Liam had become friends with the boy across the street.
When Riley and Liam joined her, after closing the door, she started for the van in their driveway. Penelope had laughed when she first saw it. Charisma had always told her she’d refused to be one of those soccer moms with a huge van she couldn’t drive. Well, didn’t she have egg on her face.
Charisma pressed the button on her fob, unlocking and opening the sliding door. Once everyone was inside, she started her van and pulled out. “Today I will be at the school doing some of the setup in the gym. If you need anything, let the office know.”