Chapter 10 Aiden
A dark-red bike had rolled to a stop in front of us, its rumble echoing off the empty street. I groaned the second I recognized it.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked, stomping back toward my bike.
Evie pushed around me, striding right up to the rider with that fiery determination she always had.
Asher pulled off his helmet, short dark hair perfectly in place, a few tattoos peeking from under his sleeves. Tall, composed, and impossibly controlled, he swung off the bike with the ease of a man who carried himself like he ran the world—and maybe he did. His dark eyes glinted with amusement.
Asher—reigning drug lord of Valeport, friend, and the one man Evie always seemed interested in.
“You think you should be questioning what I’m doing here? I should ask what the fuck you two are doing here breaking into my building?”
“Your building?” I asked, confusion and irritation bubbling up as I looked at Evie. “Why the hell did we break into Asher’s building? He would have given you the keys if you wanted to go inside.”
“And better yet, why would you want to go inside here? There’s next to nothing in there,” he added.
Evie’s head swung from me to him, her eyes going wide as she bit at her bottom lip. I could already see her hackles rising—backed into a corner between two men who wouldn’t fall for any of her deferment techniques.
“I needed to go inside to look for . . . evidence,” she said. “And I didn’t know it was your building. Not that I would have called anyway, because you would ask a thousand questions. Kind of like you are now.”
“Well, you break into my building and I personally have to come down here to find out why, yeah, I end up having a few questions.”
“Why did you have to come down? Couldn’t you have sent one of your lackeys to check?” I asked.
Not only was Asher one of the biggest drug lords in Valeport, he was the owner of the Vault.
His power—and ego—seemed endless. He had money, real estate—anything he wanted at his disposal.
As fearsome and influential as he was, he always treated Evie with surprising kindness and was even reasonably helpful to the rest of us.
“Not after I realized it was Evie,” he said, his voice softer now as he met her gaze.
Evie rolled her eyes and moved toward my bike, slinging her bag onto the back.
The small act sent a surge of satisfaction through me.
A possessive streak I couldn’t control. She was mine to protect and mine to get home safely each night.
She was coming home on my bike tonight, no matter how much Asher might want otherwise.
“How did you know it was me?” she asked, half turned to Asher.
“Because you’ve used my buildings as practice targets for your hacking stunts before,” he replied with a grin. “You’ve put a company out of business tonight, Evie. They assured me my buildings were impenetrable, and here you are—broke in within ten minutes.”
“I didn’t put them out of business. They put themselves out of business when they didn’t update their system in the last six months. Honestly, you should be grateful I broke in. It might save your ass later when someone actually wants to steal from you.”
He laughed, and she smiled at him. “I’ve missed you, Evie. Not many people will tell me to be grateful they broke into my building and mean it with every bone in their body. I haven’t seen you guys in weeks and this is how you show up. Now, why don’t you tell me what you are doing here?”
We both looked at Evie, whose eyes narrowed further. “Is it really important? We are done and I won’t come back again. Problem solved.”
I glanced at Asher, who luckily seemed to have the same idea.
Evie huffed, a hint of reluctance on her face. “Fine. I found a few things from my parents. Just random odds and ends type of stuff, and one of the things I found led to this building. I wanted to see if there was anything here from them or that may have been connected to them.”
“And did you find anything?”
“Besides you leaving most of the offices a wreck? No. Do you have any records of what businesses were in this building around ten to fifteen years ago?” she asked.
A wry smile tugged at his lips as he leaned back on his bike. “What? Can’t hack into my computers for that?”
I clenched my jaw as he threw a flirtatious grin her way. I hated the way he flirted even with me here, every word a reminder he could want her as much as I did—unlike me, though, he openly attempted to get her.
“Unfortunately, your team on computer security is much better than your building security, so no.”
Asher laughed and walked his bike a little closer.
“I don’t know what I’ve got on file, but the last owner dumped a mess of records on me.
If you want to look through them, you’re welcome to come by my office at the Vault.
We stuffed everything in a storage closet until someone came along with the patience to organize it. ”
Evie turned to me, her dark blue eyes wide, already pleading. As much as I wanted to snap at her to let Asher take her, I couldn’t. Even without the blackmail between us, she was digging into another dangerous situation so leaving her alone—even with Asher—wasn’t an option.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said, trying to keep my tone even. I didn’t only want her safe, I knew her parents’ deaths haunted her—it had haunted Rook, too—and if she was digging this deep, it must mean a lot to her still.
Asher nodded, pulling his helmet back on. “I’ll meet you down there. Head straight to my office.”
As he sped off, Evie turned back to me.
“You should let everyone know where we’re headed. I think they’re at Hellfire tonight.”
“Can we keep this between us for now?” she asked, her voice tight. “I don’t need Rook asking a thousand questions when I don’t even want him to know what I’m doing.”
I couldn’t resist a sneer. “So, now you’re keeping things from Rook while you’re holding something over my head about him? Interesting. Maybe I should use this against you now.”
“No, because if Rook finds out about my little secrets, it’ll be an annoyance at most. But if he finds out about yours, you’re losing everything—your job, your place to live, and probably your bike, too,” she bit back.
For one brief second she almost looked guilty at her words, but her face smoothed back into a defiant grin in seconds.
What a fucking psycho girl. She reveled in this.
I shook my head, but I couldn’t argue with her because she was right. This wouldn’t do much to Evie besides one or two fights between siblings; mine would destroy me.
I swung onto the bike. Not even hesitating to bring her to the Vault. Because for whatever reason—blackmail included—now I was determined to help her.
I pulled up to the back of the Vault, riding into the small gated parking area where one of Asher’s men waved us inside.
“Make this quick,” I huffed, swinging off the bike and facing her. She glared up at me, one eyebrow jumping up, and I internally groaned.
“You think you get to set the timeframe? This is a blackmail payment, Aiden. You have no room to make demands.”
“I’ll make any fucking demands I want when you are threatening to ruin my life.”
She smiled, grabbing her bag and throwing it over one shoulder. “Fine, make demands until you fall over and pass out. I promise you, Ace, I won’t listen to a single one.”
God, I fucking hated that nickname—hated the disdain in her tone every time she said it.
Hated she truly believed I wasn’t her Ace.
She spun on her heel, heading toward the back entrance, which led right to Asher’s upper floor of offices. Most of all, I hated how comfortable she was here and with Asher. Another guy met us at the door, walking us down a dark hallway until we reached a small storage closet.
“Asher told me you can look through anything in here, but no wandering off. I’ll be at the end of the hall watching, so don’t get any ideas.”
Evie nodded, her eyes already darting around to the different stacks of paper. She immediately headed for the first box, kneeling down and rifling through it, pulling out random files, checking dates, and tossing them aside when deemed useless.
“Why did he keep all this old crap when it means nothing to him?” she asked mindlessly.
I flicked through a stack of papers, not knowing exactly what she was looking for, but attempting to help, anyway.
“Obviously it could hold some value if you are here looking through it. You never know what is going to be meaningful to someone.”
She shrugged, sliding another box toward her knees and digging through it. Another hour went by with us in the same position, her sifting through boxes, mumbling curse words, until a new stack of papers caught her attention. She finally stood, stretching out and looking around.
“I think these are useless. I’m not finding anything in here that seems helpful, and nothing about Veritas or the lanyard.
If we don’t find anything worthwhile soon, I’m going to have to resort to more blackmail to get more help from you,” she said, her words casual, but part of me knew she meant it to some extent.
I looked back at the door as if anyone could hear us.
“I really don’t think that would work out like you hope it would.”
Her soft laugh echoed around me, her eyes lighting up, and I fought to not enjoy it. “Are you insinuating you wouldn’t do what I ask to keep those photos hidden, or that you wouldn’t fall into a trap again?”
“Harder to trap me when I know what to look for.”
She stepped closer, her hands climbing up my stomach and resting on my chest. Heat flooded my skin, sharp and unwelcome, but I didn’t move.
Couldn’t.
Her fingers dragged along the edge of my collar, featherlight, but it felt like a fucking chokehold.
My breath hitched. My chest rising and falling too fast, too sharp.
She was too close. Close enough I could feel the warmth of her skin, the weight of her eyes on my mouth.
My body answered before my brain caught up, leaning in, drawn to her like I didn’t have a choice.
The faint sound of footsteps shattered the moment like glass. I ripped myself back, like I’d finally come up for air after drowning. She laughed softly, knowing exactly what she’d done. Like she could see exactly how close I was to giving in.
My hand twitched, aching to wrap around her throat, to drag her to her knees and watch her fall apart for me. I could destroy her. I could make her beg, make her fucking unravel under my hands.
Even if she didn’t want me, she wouldn’t be immune to being touched.
The thought sounded better and better, and I almost gave in until Asher filled the doorway.
“Find anything?” he asked.
“Not even a shred of information I need,” she huffed as if she hadn’t just been seducing me.
As if she hadn’t proven her theory that she could get more blackmail photos if she truly wanted them.
My lip lifted with a sneer . . . I shouldn’t be so weak for one woman.
“Do you want to give me more of a hint of what you may need and then I can tell you what I know?” he asked, his voice always so calm and kind to Evie.
She glanced at me before looking back at him. “Veritas.”
He arched a brow, obviously surprised she wanted to know about it.
“What do you know already?” he asked.
“Just the name.”
He nodded, walking over to the cabinet we had already gone through.
“I doubt there is anything on Veritas here,” he said, flicking through files.
“They were an accounting company who worked out of that building for years before being slapped with a hundred different cases of tax fraud. They shut down for a few years before the owner reopened under a new name. How he got out of the charges is beyond me, but I assume it was an expensive bribe or payoff to someone. One of the guys who started it runs a new accounting company called Pierce now. Smaller company, but plenty of shady clients still use them. We can assume he is up to the same antics, but with different people.”
She tilted her head, taking in everything as he turned back to us.
“Like I said, there are no files in here about them,” Asher continued. “The feds would have cleared it out way back then. I’m surprised you found any trace of them, honestly. Is that helpful?”
“It actually saves me a ton of time, and a good lead to go on. Thanks Asher.” She walked over, throwing her arms around him before grabbing her backpack.
“Come on, Ace. Let’s go so I can get into all this and figure out how it’s connected.”
My heart stuttered—the damned nickname—but this time there was no venom behind the word.
She turned her back to us, packing up her bag and throwing on her jacket.
“Ace?” Asher asked.
“None of your fucking business,” I snapped. I wasn’t giving anyone else a chance to start calling me that.
“Fair enough. But Evie is enough of my business to double-check someone is with her at all times, correct? These things she’s digging into aren’t safe.”
“Also, none of your business. I have it taken care of.”
Evie walked out, heading back toward the door to the offices we came in through. Asher looked after her, the glint of satisfaction in his eye pissing me off more.
“Don’t even think about it,” I said. “You already know she is off-limits.”
He grinned, his teeth flashing in the dim light. “I know that, but do you?”
“Of course I do.”
“Are you sure? I know this will come as a shock to you,” Asher said, “but some of us don’t pine after the same woman years after she turns them down.”
“I’m not pining after any woman.”
“I get Rook falls for that, but I don’t.”
“And what? You’re pissed because you want her for yourself?”
“Not at all. I have nothing to be worried about. I would say let the best man win, but I don’t think that’s accurate for either of us, so let’s say may the most ruthless man win.”