Matisse woke up with a plan. The peace he’d found during the night with Nora disappeared the moment his eyes opened. There was no more putting off the inevitable.

It was time to confront Dr. Murray. These experiments had ruined three lives, taken five, and had endless, unseen ripples.

When his eyes popped open, he found Nora staring at him. “Morning.”

“Creepy,” he teased, but kissed her nose. Bounding out of bed, he was halfway to the door when she called out for him.

Hand on the doorknob, he glanced back and lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“I want to see what you found, too,” she replied, sitting against the headboard and playing with the hem of the blanket. “Mystery Incorporated meeting in ten?”

There was no other appropriate response except to kiss her. He strode toward her, and her eyes widened and cheeks flushed. Chuckling, he kissed. Deep and rough. “Ten minutes,” he agreed.

He hadn’t made it out of Nora’s bedroom before Cai had opened his door. Silently, he followed Matisse into his bedroom, arms crossed, gaze serious. “Two seconds,” Matisse said quickly, jogging to the bathroom to splash water on his face and brush his teeth. Holding the toothbrush in his mouth, he returned to find Cai perched on the edge of his bed, staring at his laptop as if it held the answers to all the questions in the universe. And maybe it did. It certainly held some life or death ones right now.

A sharp rap on the door later, and Nora joined them. “Fire it up.” She pointed decisively at the laptop and sat next to Cai, one leg curling beneath her as she angled her body toward the desk.

After he flung his toothbrush on his bureau, he got to work. He’d saved the files, the ones directly related to Nora and the study, to his computer, but Dr. Murray’s previously published work was accessible in scientific journals, and for those, he had merely copied the links.

“I’m printing his other research,” he said, doing just that. “To give you context for this study, as well as his bio. I can’t have you guys reading over my shoulder, I’ll lose my mind.” He had to raise his voice over the noise of the printer, and within moments, Seok, Apollo, and Ryan had joined them, hair mussed, and eyes sleepy.

“I see Fred and Velma are already hard at work,” Apollo joked and kissed Nora. He pulled her into his lap to settle himself on Matisse’s bed.

Rolling his eyes, he ignored Apollo, and found the file on his desktop that held Dr. Murray’s current study.

“He chooses subjects randomly,” Matisse explained, part of his brain wondering if he was supposed to be Velma, because Cai was obviously golden-boy, Fred. “But he cuts them from the study if they don’t fit the criteria he’s looking for.”

“I thought you scanned these articles,” Ryan said and reached for the first pages ejected from the printer.

“Eidetic memory,” Matisse said.

“What does that mean?” Nora asked. “Is it a photographic memory?”

“Yes,” Matisse answered.

“Except—” Seok interjected, “Matisse can also recall most of his life events, too. Ask him what day of the week July 15th, 2008 was.”

“Tuesday,” he said. “I’m not performing today. Can we move on?”

“Wow,” Nora whispered then added, “That must be really hard.”

Matisse’s fingers, which had been flying across the keys, paused. In all his life, no one had ever sympathized with the difficulties that came with not forgetting, not even these guys who’d become his family.

“Sorry,” Nora said quickly. “I didn’t mean to distract you.”

“No—” He spun in his chair. “No. It is. It sucks not being able to forget.”

Nora squeezed Apollo’s arm, and he let her up to come to Matisse. Sitting sideways in his lap, she leaned her head against his chest, kissed him on his pec then rested her ear against his heart.

“On the flip side,” he whispered, not caring if anyone else heard him, “I’ll never forget the first time I saw you.”

“Tisse…” His name came out on a breath, and he smiled.

“Anyway—” Clearing his throat, he focused on the first file he’d saved. “Nora was the perfect candidate because she was alone, had no family who actively cared about her whereabouts, and had a history of neglect and trauma.”

“Ugh.” The words left her lips with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “I sound like a catch, don’t I?”

“First impressions and assumptions, baby,” Apollo called from the bed. “They had no idea you have a backbone of steel.”

“Exactement,” Matisse agreed, and the other guys made similar sounds of agreement.

“So Dr. Murray looks for people without support systems then does what?” Seok asked.

It was Cai who answered this time. “Isolates them, attacks their beliefs, humiliates them, and makes them believe they are worthless.” When Matisse met his eyes, Cai’s golden gaze was dimmed. “It’s a classic cult brainwashing technique. Tried and true. Once they break you down enough, they begin filling their disciples’ heads with whatever bullshit they’re spouting.” It hurt Matisse’s heart to hear Cai speak so bitterly. Of all of them, he had first-hand knowledge of the damage this could do.

“The hardest thing about our relationship,” Nora observed, “is not having long enough arms to hug you all at the same time.”

“There’s a superhero—” Seok began. Matisse groaned, causing Nora to giggle and the other guys to chuckle.

“Cai’s right.” He brought them back on track.

“So Dr. Murray got Reed to shoot the kids at the school and Tilly to jump off the building?” Apollo clarified.

“No.” The file was now open on Matisse’s screen. In it, one of the doctor’s colleagues, Dr. Jessica Chase, went through Nora’s vital statistics after intentionally terrifying her on a wild drive through the town. “They weren’t there, yet. For Reed and Tilly, and I suspect Tyler, though I haven’t opened all his files, they’d managed to break them down enough to leave them hopeless. Their mental health… well… let’s just say it wasn’t good.”

“They felt hopeless,” Cai mused. “And as for Tyler, I bet he was trying to protect the one support system he felt he had—me.”

Matisse’s screen blinked and caught his attention. In one smooth movement, he lifted Nora out of his lap and spun to face his computer. Maniacally typing, he began uploading the files, but with each keystroke, a folder disappeared, blinking out of existence. “Shit!”

Horrified, he watched as he lost control of his computer. Someone had remotely taken over and was systematically erasing everything he had. The screen went black, though the computer hadn’t powered down. He slapped down the cover, pushed back from his desk, and cradled his head in his hands. “Fuck.”

“It’s all gone?” Cai asked.

He couldn’t answer. How stupid could he have been? Distracted and overwhelmed, he wasn’t sure how much he'd manually backed up. What he had were the last pages from the printer and the slimmest hope his backup program had uploaded to the cloud.

And that the cloud hadn’t been hacked.

“I need one of your computers,” he demanded, standing and shaking his hands at his side. Stomach clenching, he paced the room. He had to check the cloud, see if his other online backup service had the files. The hairs on his arm and back of his neck lifted, and a shiver ran down his back. Someone got past his firewalls like they were nothing. No doubt that person was Dr. Murray or one of his minions.

Apollo slid his computer next to Matisse’s, and the room, his friends, and Nora all disappeared. There was only him and the task at hand. Password entered into the online backup system, he held his breath as his files appeared, one at a time. “Thank God.” There they were. Without looking, he opened his desk, fumbled for a USB and inserted it. Each file relating to Dr. Murray’s study was transferred. When he finally sat back, rubbing the heels of his hands into his eyes. The room faded back into focus.

The guys had surrounded him. In silent support, they stood at his side, and he hadn’t even noticed.

“You got them?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah.” He lowered his hands. “I got them.”

Behind him, Nora grasped his shoulders and pressed down. “Are you okay?”

“Pissed,” he answered, reaching for her hand to squeeze. Everyone was much too close to him. “You’d think I’d have learned by now to watch my back.” He ejected the USB and slid it into his back pocket. “We should probably put this somewhere safe if someone felt threatened enough to delete everything I had and fry my computer.”

“It’s dead?” Nora asked, reaching past him to touch the silver cover.

“Most likely. Black screen of death,” he answered.

Nora sucked in a breath and bit her lip. “How’d he know?”

“Probably had some sort of monitor on the files. It alerted them when I went in. Then they just backtracked. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. Fuck!” It pissed him off he’d been outmaneuvered.

“It doesn’t change what we know.” Cai’s voice was unwavering. “And now that we do, it’s time to act on it. I’m going to the hospital, and I’m going to talk to Tyler.”

“What if he won’t see you?” Nora asked.

“He’ll see me. I’ll make sure of it.” As Matisse watched, Cai kissed her quickly on her forehead. “He needs to know he’s not alone and that I’m not angry. We’re his support system.”

“You’ll bring him back here,” Ryan stated, and the rest of them nodded.

“If he’s still too angry at me, I can find a place to stay for a while. That way he’s comfortable.” Her voice shook as she made the offer.

No way.

Matisse should have known Apollo’s voice would be the loudest. “Abso-fucking-lutely not, baby. Never.”

But it was Cai she watched. It wasn’t jealousy Matisse felt, but awe. Nora had a unique ability to know what it was each of them needed. In this, she put Cai’s opinion above the rest of them.

“Let’s see how he is first,” Cai answered.

“Bullshit, Cai,” Apollo boomed. “No one comes before her.”

“It’s not about coming before me.” She attempted to soothe him. “It’s about what Tyler needs. Maybe a day or two surrounded by people who care about him will be enough to get him back on track.” Standing a little apart from their group, eyes wide, Nora came across as fragile as a doe. A deep breath, and she straightened her shoulders and tipped her chin up. “I’ll be fine. Just because I don’t live here, doesn’t mean I’m not okay.”

“Don’t make any plans to pack your bags, yet,” Seok remarked. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Cai. You visit Tyler and tell us your impressions.”

“If Nora leaves, I leave with her,” Apollo persisted. “Non-negotiable. Tyler won’t give two fucks if I’m here or not.”

“No, but Cai might,” Nora argued.

“Baby—”

“Let’s just see, okay?” Matisse reminded them. The idea of returning home to find Nora gone made him sick to his stomach and started an itch beneath his skin.

Apollo glowered, face pinched, but nodded. He cared as much about Cai as any of them, and if their friend needed to bring Tyler home to recuperate, he’d agree to it.

Cai placed his hand on the door, holding it with a white-knuckled grip. “We agree then? If Tyler can be released, he comes here?”

“Yes.” Nora was the first to answer, and despite the anxiety that clawed at him, Matisse nodded as well. “Yes.”

“If that’s what needs to happen,” Seok said.

“Okay,” Ryan answered simply.

They waited for Apollo, who turned his attention to Nora. “I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “It’s just for a little while, and we’re not even sure I need to go.”

“Fine,” he grumbled, stepping toward their girl and pulling her into his arms. He glared at Cai over her head before laying his cheek on her hair. “He can stay here.”