Page 21 of Mitch

Mitch could have kissed him for making Autumn feel instantly more relaxed, so much that he felt the tension leak out through the hand he held in his own.

“Yes. Nice to meet you, Alex.”

Mitch led her to a seat across from Jack and Alex as Jack removed the pictures from the table. Setting Maggie down at her feet, he took the seat beside her as Alex returned to his chair.

“What do you need?” Jack asked the question, and Mitch’s shoulders relaxed.

He’d known his team would help them out but hearing it was still a good thing.

“I’m in the witness protection program, and I think the people I’m hiding from have found me.”

Jack betrayed not a second of surprise, and Mitch knew then that he already knew she was in the program, most likely from Will.

“How do you know these people found you?” Alex sat back in his chair, his ankle crossed over his knee. He looked chill, but Mitch knew he wasn’t.

“We were in the car when Autumn got a call from her brother-in-law. He’s the one who acted as a middle-man between the people she testified against and her husband, who they murdered.” Mitch saw a flicker of emotion as Jack clenched his jaw, his eyes dropping to Maggie who was stirring.

Autumn quickly bent to lift her daughter from the car seat. She looked around and then buried her head back in her mother’s neck and seemed to go back to sleep. Without thinking, he raised his hand to rub her back gently. A smile from Autumn was all the approval he needed, and his chest swelled with it.

“Perhaps you should start at the beginning, and we can take it from there?” Jack stood and walked to the door, putting his head out. “Lopez, Waggs, Deck, get your asses in here.”

Relief washed through him knowing he’d have support from his brothers. Being an only child, he’d missed having siblings, and if he were honest, it had been the one thing he’d been unable to replace from his gang days until Eidolon. Then he’d seen the difference between his brothers from then and the ones he had now. His friends from long ago had been there as long as it suited them, but as soon as he turned his back on the gangs, he’d lost them too. He knew it had been for the best, but he’d missed that camaraderie until he’d met these men.

Waggs pushed through first, his eyes moving to Autumn then dropping to Maggie, the tensing of his muscles the only sign of surprise. Waggs was their medic and a former Army Green Beret. His story was a heart breaking one, and Mitch only knew it because he’d come home early one night and heard the music playing in his flat.

Worried he’d knocked on the door and discovered a Waggs nobody else knew—at least nobody he knew of. Jack and Will probably knew the details of his tragic past, but he wasn’t sure the rest of the team did, and Mitch would never betray him.

Lopez and Decker weren’t far behind, Lopez with an easy smile and Decker instantly analysing the second he walked in the room. It was who he was, and although it was annoying as fuck half the time, the other half had saved them from some massive fuck ups. The man was like a human lie detector, clever to the point of brilliance. His brain didn’t work like everyone else’s did, rather it allowed him to see things that nobody else could.

“What’s up?”

Waggs took a seat at the end of the conference table as Lopez sat in his usual chair beside the computer. Decker stayed in the corner of the room near the door, always on the peripheral.

“Autumn’s in trouble, and we’re gonna help her out.” Jack’s words were simple, but the meaning behind them was everything.

If Jack was willing to take this on, it meant two things—he’d see it through to the bitter end and the men after Autumn were more dangerous than he’d realised.