Page 59 of The MC's Little Brother

I heard her curse under her breath. “Alright. I’m on my way. Which way did he go?”

“Left out the front door. Tell me we have that appointment soon. He needs a damn therapist.”

“Right before lunch. Let’s find him first, then we’ll get him what he needs. Just stay calm, Mattias.”

Yeah, right. Like I could do that when my little brother was out there alone and upset. All the shit I’d been doing for him wasn’t enough. I needed to do better.

It feltlike forever before we finally found him. It probably wasn’t actually that long, he didn’t go that far, but between Mel getting Thor and joining me and Thor doing his job, it took way too damn long. I didn't want Xander to get hurt.

I felt like I was drowning the entire time. I didn't know what to do to make him feel safe. The cops proved they wouldn’t help him. And the social worker hated me. It felt like the world was against me keeping him, and this just proved they had a point. He didn’t trust me enough to give me a chance to explain.

We found Xander in an overgrown, abandoned lot a few blocks away. It was probably a park at some point, but the playground equipment was all rotted and torn down, and the lot was empty. Xander was sitting by a tree, hugging his knees to his chest, his face buried against them. Hiding.

“Xander.”

He didn’t look up. He hugged his legs tighter, and I heard a choked sound, like he was trying not to cry. I stalled out, torn between going to him and giving him space. He was safe, that was what was important, and I never wanted to push him to interact before he was ready.

Mel had no such reservation. She walked right over to him and sat by his side, putting her arms around his shoulders. He let her draw him out a little, enough to lean against her, but he didn’t look up. Mel shot me a pointed look, then tipped her head to Xander’s other side. With a sigh, I moved to sit beside him and Thor nudged his arms until Xander allowed him into his space for a cuddle.

For a while, we sat in silence, but I knew this was my fault. Keeping my job a secret was supposed to be for everyone’s protection. But it wouldn’t help Xander if I left him in the dark.

“I work for the FBI,” I started, ignoring Mel’s head whipping around as she gaped at me. “I’m an ethical hacker. It’s not physically dangerous since I’m very rarely in the field, but because of where I work, I’m required to put a next of kin on my paperwork. It used to be Wyatt. He was like a brother to me growing up, and I didn't have any other family but him and Mel. When you showed up, I changed it.”

Slowly, he looked up, his cheeks tear-stained and red. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

I made a face. “I’m not technically supposed to. I’m good at what I do, but that means a lot of bad guys are caught because of me. Keeping it to myself is a form of protection not just for me but for the guys I work with. There’s no way for someone to come after me if I don’t exist. I don’t work in the office, I don’t go out into the field unless it’s an emergency. I don’t even work under my real name. My boss and the guys in our team know it, but when I’m working, they call me Adam. Just Adam.”

Technically, when I started hacking, I wasn’t doing it legally. I wasn’t doing anything dangerous, per se. I was trying to get emancipated without going through the system like I should’ve. I was a stupid kid with an affinity for coding. The cops found me hacking a government system, brought me in, and I was approached by someone in the FBI who said he’d train me to use that skill for good if I promised never to do something illegal like that again. I was just a kid, and I never wanted to be arrested. I just wanted out. He started paying for me to go to online courses and sending exercise routines, preparing me to join him after I graduated from college. It pushed me to focus more on school. I spent more nights at Wyatt’s so I could study in peace. And when I turned seventeen, I ran away and stayed at the clubhouse until I was legal and didn’t have to go back home. Jorge was gone bythen, and thanks to the FBI agent who looked out for me, I was able to get a full ride to the local college. I buckled down, graduated with honors, and my job was waiting for me when I was finished.

“What happens if someone figures out who you are?” Xander whispered.

“They’d have to find me first,” I said bluntly. “I’m good at what I do. And you can’t tell anyone, but I can hack just about anything now. I regularly join a team hacking the CIA so they know where their weak spots are in their updates and can fix them so someone dangerous doesn’t figure it out. Hiding myself is easy online. And keeping my job to myself keeps me safe day to day.” I turned to look at him. “Not even Prez knows what I do for a living. I told him I worked in IT. It's close enough to the truth without putting either of us at risk.”

I hated lying to my friend, and I knew he’d be able to keep the secret without issue, but he spent most of our childhood watching out for me. This was one way I could return the favor. Keep my job to myself, keep him and the club safe.

33

Melissa

Mattias’s revelation was so shocking, I couldn’t say a word. Which was seriously not like me. There were probably a dozen things I could say to him, and hundreds of questions I could ask, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. No wonder he was so secretive. While he sounded confident that no one would be able to find him at this point, he probably made a lot of enemies under that code name. If someone eventually figured out it was linked to him, he’d probably need to go underground to stay safe.

My boyfriend was a secret FBI agent. That was kind of cool, honestly. Not that I’d ever tell anyone, I understood why he didn’t want it well known, but I knew. Was it wrong that it made him just that much sexier in my mind?

“Xander,” I began after a moment of quiet. “Why did you run?”

He dropped his gaze to his knees, frowning deeply. “I already lost my abuela. Mattias is all I’ve got. I got scared.”

My heart ached for the little boy who was afraid of losing his only family. I squeezed his shoulders tightly, leaning my cheek against the top of his head. “That’s not true. You’ve got me now. And the crew, once you getto know them better. My phone has been blowing up with requests to have another playdate. Apparently, some of them are jealous that we went to laser tag without them.”

He huffed out a laugh, and I felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders. And when Mattias’s arms came around us both, he let go of the fear and sank into the hug, his breath shuddering as he worked through the emotions.

After a while of just being together, I nudged them both to their feet. “Come on. You two have an appointment with Addison, and I’m going to see if the doctor is available to give you a check up once you’re through. We need to get you back in school and you need to be healthy enough to do that.”

Xander didn’t look the least bit excited about it, so I nudged him with a smile. “It’ll be just like this. Maybe Mattias will share more cool secrets while you’re there. He could be a Russian spy for all we know.”

And because he’s an ass who loves messing with me, he immediately launched into a string of Russian I didn’t have even an inkling to understand. When we both stared at him in shock, he shrugged.

“You’d be surprised how many hackers are from Russia. I know the common dialects of Chinese too. It helps when someone tries hacking into our systems and I have to get rid of the code.”

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