WITSEC

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

We were at half a tank of gas as we pulled up to MAD Mechanics, an auto repair and restoration shop that Micah was one of the owners of. On the drive here, Colt had called Micah. It had been around three in the morning when he had called, so it had taken a few tries to get ahold of Micah. When Micah had finally answered, Colt had tried not to tell him much, but Micah had pressed. Colt had ended up saying we needed help, that I was hurt, he needed a way to get handcuffs off, and he would explain everything when we saw Micah. After asking how badly I was hurt, Micah had told Colt to have us meet him at his shop. As soon as Colt had hung up the burner phone, I’d tossed it out the window as we got back on the interstate.

As we pulled up, the first thing that stood out was that the building was a really nice light gray with black and red accents. The lights were on inside and Micah was standing by an open service-bay door. He waved us over, wanting us to pull in. As I drove up to the bay door, I noticed that there was a motorcycle and two classic cars parked in the lot. One of the cars was hot-rod red and the other was black.

Micah closed the bay door after we pulled in and parked. With a quick glance around, I took in the large garage. It seemed like the right half of it was designated for repairing and the left was for restoration.

Colt and I climbed out at the same time. I had put my wedges back on before heading here. They were the worst shoes to run away in, but it wasn’t like I had other options to help protect my feet. The floor on the driver’s side was covered in glass and it probably wasn’t wise to walk around an auto shop barefoot.

Micah appeared as I remembered. He had raven hair that was shaved on the sides and had a few inches of length on the top. He was wearing a heather-gray T-shirt that tightly hugged his muscled, tattooed biceps. From what I could see, tattoos covered every inch of his arms and the tops of his hands and some of his fingers. His bottom lip was pierced with a small, matte black hoop that he was flicking with his tongue as he watched me climb out of Keelan’s Jeep.

I could feel his aquamarine eyes that were identical to Colt’s and Creed’s roam over me, taking in my appearance. I knew I didn’t look great. The glass from the window had cut me up pretty good across my cheek and neck and both had dried streaks of blood on them. My arm looked horrific. The bleeding had stopped, but what looked like a drying crimson curtain covered my arm from where I’d been shot all the way down to my elbow.

Micah held a schooled look as he did his assessment of me before his eyes shifted to Colt, who had rounded the Jeep to meet me. Micah tilted his head to the right. “Let’s go into my office.”

We followed him into what appeared to be the shop’s front lobby, where customers would wait while their cars were being worked on. The walls were painted in light gray and behind the reception desk was a steel-paneled accent wall with the MAD Mechanics logo mounted on it. Micah led us down a hall behind and to the left of the reception desk. We passed restrooms and an employee lounge until we approached an open door. Inside, the light was on. Micah walked in first, then Colt. I was the last to go in.

Once I was inside, I saw that it was a large office with three desks. I also noticed that there were two men sitting behind two of the desks. I could only assume that they were the other two owners of MAD Mechanics. Both were silent as we entered. By their lack of surprise, I had a feeling that they had been expecting us.

Micah turned to face us and leaned against the front of what I assumed was his desk. He folded his arms across his chest. “This is Alaric and Daxton.” He nodded at the other two men in the room. “Dax, Rick, this is my cousin, Colt, and his…friend, Shiloh.”

Micah, Alaric, and Daxton. Their initials spelled out MAD. Micah didn’t point out who was who, but I finally noticed that there were name plaques on each of their desks.

I came to stand next to Colt and took one of his cuffed hands in mine.

Micah watched as I did that and eyed the cuffs. “Want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

Colt opened his mouth to speak, but I squeezed his hand to stop him. He glanced at me questioningly.

I glanced at Dax and Rick, then back at Micah. “I’m sorry to drag you into this.”

“What have you dragged us into?” Alaric asked. His voice was deep and oozed authority.

I faced him, taking in his appearance. He was wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks ball cap over what looked like short brown hair. His eyes were a slightly darker shade of brown than his hair and he was just as heavily tattooed on his arms as Micah. One tattoo in particular caught my eye. It was of a bone frog, and I could see it clearly with how he rested both his elbows on his desk, his fingers laced together in front of his mouth.

“Have you heard of the name Xander Xenos?” I asked.

“The media just gave him a nickname,” Colt started to say.

“The X Killer,” Daxton said. He was the least tattooed of the three and honestly seemed like the most approachable out of them. He had kind forest-green eyes and soft-looking, shoulder-length, golden-blond hair.

Micah and Alaric stared at Dax questioningly.

Daxton looked from one to the other and shrugged. “True crime and serial killers fascinate me.”

Micah’s eyes flicked from me to Colt. “Why are you bringing up a serial killer?”

I swallowed down my nerves and steeled myself for what I was about to tell them. “My name is Shiloh McConnell and I’m the reason why Xander Xenos is a serial killer.”

Silence filled the room.

“Why do I recognize the name McConnell?” Daxton asked, frowning as he turned toward his computer and opened a web browser.

“X murdered Shiloh’s family and nearly killed her, too,” Colt said.

Dax’s brows rose as he read over what looked like a news article.

“You won’t find me mentioned anywhere,” I told him.

He glanced at me. “Why?”

“Because she’s in witness protection,” Colt answered for me.

I cleared my throat. “The article you’re reading talks about the night my family was murdered a little over a year and a half ago, but what it doesn’t say is that I was the sole survivor. Mr. X, which is how I know him, used to be my freshman English teacher. He developed an obsession with me and then stalked me for years until the night he killed my family in front of me. When I didn’t feed into his fantasy he had of us being together, he tried to kill me, too. I got away and ever since that night, I’ve been in witness protection and he’s been searching for me. Because he hasn’t been able to find me, he’s been raping and killing girls around my age who look like me to satisfy his obsession.”

The room went quiet again.

“Let me guess,” Alaric said, recovering from the shock the quickest. “He’s found you.”

“Yes,” I answered.

Micah let out a curse and stared right at Colt. “Do Knox and Keelan know about this?”

“She’s their girlfriend. Of course they know,” Colt said.

Micah’s eyes dropped to our hands. “Theirs?”

“Ours,” Colt corrected.

Micah huffed a laugh. “I knew you and Creed shared, but I didn’t think…” He trailed off, shaking his head as if astonished. “That explains why I couldn’t tell which one of you was dating her at Keelan’s party. All four of you acted like she was the center of your world. It was so shocking, especially seeing Knox act that way.”

Him talking about Keelan’s birthday party reminded me of the episode I’d had right in front of him. “What you saw at Keelan’s birthday with me—when I had that moment?—”

“You have PTSD,” Micah said, and his eyes flicked to Alaric for only a second before they were back on me. “I’m guessing it stems from what happened to you and your family?”

I nodded.

Micah’s gaze moved to Colt. “Speaking of your brothers. Where are they? Do they know you’re here?”

“I have a safe house,” I said. “I sent them ahead of us. Colt had been taken and?—”

“Taken?” Micah and Alaric blurted at the same time.

“By the X Killer?” Daxton asked with wide eyes.

Colt sighed and calmly began telling them everything that had happened.

After Colt and I had explained everything, the uncertainty and tension that had been coming off of Micah and Daxton when Colt and I had first arrived seemed to dissipate. Alaric, however, still seemed standoffish and reluctant to help.

I caught Alaric staring at the scars around my wrists and inner arm. Then he frowned at where I had been shot and said with a curt tone, “You need stitches. Go clean up your arm in the bathroom.”

I felt Colt go tense next to me. As if sensing that he was going to hulk out, Micah put a hand on Colt’s shoulder and insisted that he come with him and Daxton to try to get the cuffs off his wrists.

Biting my tongue, I did as Alaric told me and went into the women’s bathroom down the hall to get cleaned up. I tried not to look at myself in the mirror. I knew I looked haggard, and I didn’t have the luxury to care right now.

When I finished cleaning my arm the best I could, I returned to see that Alaric had moved a spare chair next to his desk. He nodded toward it. “Sit.”

The moment I did, he dropped two pills in my hand and a bottle of water. I could tell it was just over-the-counter pain medicine.

“Thanks,” I said and swallowed them down.

He didn’t respond. Instead, he opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out two bottles. One I recognized right away. “Pick your poison, because this is going to hurt,” he grumbled as he held out a bottle of Jack and a fancy bottle of bourbon.

I didn’t want to drink his nice bourbon and I knew I liked Jack, so I reached for the whiskey. I could feel him watching as I removed the cap on the bottle and took a quick swig. His brows lifted slightly before he busied himself with putting on a pair of plastic gloves like those used in a hospital or by tattoo artists. As I took another swallow of Jack, I eyed the suture supplies and bandaging he had laid out on his desk.

Colt, Micah, and Daxton returned as I brought the bottle of Jack to my lips again. I took a big drink because Alaric was about to start. I wasn’t afraid of the pain. Just the anticipation of it.

Handcuff-free, Colt grabbed a chair that was sitting in front of Daxton’s desk and brought it to sit in front of me. He watched as I took another drink, then a third because Alaric wheeled his chair close.

“Ready?” Alaric asked.

I nodded and Colt took my hand. As soon as I felt the needle pierce my skin and I realized I could endure it, I took one last drink of the Jack before setting it on Alaric’s desk.

Micah whistled as he watched me from where he stood behind Colt. “Not even a wince.”

“Not my first time getting stitches,” I said.

“Not your first time drinking Jack either, it seems,” Alaric said as he tied the first stitch.

The corner of Colt’s mouth lifted. “Don’t ever play a drinking game with her.”

I wanted to smile, but what had once been a happy memory of beating Ethan at a drinking game was now tainted. Just thinking of him reminded me of Isabelle and now wasn’t the time to unbury what I felt when it came to her. Seeing my lack of reaction, Colt ran his thumb over the top of my hand.

“Did that X guy torture you?” Alaric asked.

I tensed up and Colt’s hand tightened around mine.

“You have scars that show you were tied up,” Alaric added, and he sewed another stitch.

Maybe it was the adrenaline mixed with the Jack that caused the truth to barrel its way out of my mouth. “He tied me by my wrists and ankles to my bed with rope and in order to get free, I twisted and pulled on that rope for hours. I tore away my skin and I didn’t even feel it.”

“Did you get free?” Daxton asked.

“I heard him coming down the hall just as I got one wrist free,” I answered. “I had a pen on my nightstand. I grabbed it before he came into my room.” Images of him dancing with my sister’s dead body flashed in my head and I shook my head to make them go away. “I stabbed him through the cheek with it and got myself free.”

All of them went quiet and I was relieved the questioning seemed to be done. I glanced at Alaric and the job he was doing on my arm. He was currently laser-focused on tying his third stitch.

“Did you learn how to suture when you were a Navy SEAL?” I asked him, needing to fill the silence. Plus, he was the one who’d started with the personal questions.

His hands stilled and his eyes turned even more guarded when they flicked to mine. “What makes you think I was a SEAL?”

Micah seemed to go still behind Colt. I glanced at Daxton, who was sitting behind his desk; he also appeared to have tensed. I pointed to the same spot on my outer forearm where I’d seen his bone frog tattoo. “My uncle has a bone frog on his bicep. I know what that tattoo means because he was a SEAL for many years. How long did you serve?”

Alaric focused back on stitching me up. “Four years.”

Micah and Daxton seemed to relax slightly, then both looked a little surprised when Alaric asked, “What about your uncle?”

“Eleven years,” I answered.

“What does your uncle do now?” Alaric asked.

“He’s a U.S. Marshal.”

Alaric frowned. “Why isn’t he with you now? Protecting you from this killer?”

“He trained me to protect myself so he could help capture Mr. X.”

Alaric’s frown deepened.

“Trained you how?” Daxton asked.

“To fight. To shoot.” I met Colt’s eyes. “To disappear.”

“I can’t imagine a little thing like you doing much damage in a fight,” Micah said. “He should have stayed with you.”

“She may be tiny,” Colt told his cousin, “but I’ve seen her ground Keelan.”

Micah’s brows rose.

I had caught Keelan off guard that day he had snuck up on me. There was no way I could truly beat Keelan if we really sparred.

“I noticed when we were in the shop that the window on the driver’s side was shattered,” Daxton said. “I can put a new one in pretty quickly, if you’d like.”

I looked to Colt. “Where we’re headed is going to be cold.”

Taking that as a yes, Daxton stood and walked out of the office.

Silence filled the room again, until Alaric asked another question. “Is that a GPS tracker around your ankle?”

Colt failed to hide the irritation on his face, but kept quiet.

I looked down at my ankle. For Ethan’s party I’d had it around my wrist. I’d been worried how it would look with my heels. Appearances had stopped being important when I’d been driving to Desert Stone Fitness to rescue Colt. I had moved my tracker where it belonged around my ankle. It fit properly there and was less likely to fall off. “Yes. It’s so my uncle can find me if he needs to.” That was, if he was still alive.

Before my thoughts could even decide to spiral, Micah spoke. “Where is the safe house you’re headed to?”

I met his eyes. “I’m sorry, but I won’t tell you that.”

He frowned. “You won’t tell me where you’re taking my family.”

“Yes, they are your family, and your desire to know is understandable, but they’re my family, too,” I said with an even and firm voice. “I’m not saying my claim is better than yours. I am not telling you because the fewer people who know, the safer I can keep them.”

“I wouldn’t say anything to anyone,” Micah pushed.

I didn’t back down. “No.”

Micah looked to his cousin.

Colt gave him a sad smile. “She said no.”

Micah actually seemed surprised that Colt wouldn’t tell him. Not that Colt could; he only knew that it was in Colorado.

“Don’t take it personally, Micah,” Alaric said as he finished tying one last stitch. “Respect the fact that she’s doing everything she can to keep your cousins safe, even if it means upsetting you.”

I was a little surprised he’d spoken up for me.

Micah scowled at the floor and reluctantly nodded. “Fine.”

When Alaric finished, he wrapped my wound in gauze. The four of us went into the garage after that to see how Daxton was doing with replacing the Jeep’s window. He informed us that it wouldn’t be much longer, and we all hung out with him while he finished up.

Before we said our goodbyes, Micah pulled Colt aside. They spoke for a minute, and I saw Micah hand Colt a wad of cash. Colt put it in his pocket and the two of them hugged tightly. “Be safe,” I thought I heard Micah say to him as they pulled apart from each other.

After that, Colt and I thanked Micah and his friends for their help. Then we climbed back into Keelan’s Jeep and drove away.