Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
AIDEN
“So, what’s the plan?” Koda swings his legs as he sits on the hood of my car.
I’ve thought about it all weekend and still have no fuckin’ clue. I’m not sure why Ivan needs me to do this. He could just walk in there and upend the bakery with two of his idiots and find the damn thing himself.
Maybe it’s control? I don’t know. Probably. Ivan loves a game, but he’s also lazy and doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. He loves to know the grip he has on your balls is tight. The thing about Ivan is, he’s quiet. Careful. There are ranks to abide by, and I know Ivan is nowhere near the top.
The constant moving is telling. It’s like he’s running from something, and coming back to New York was a shock for us all. We’ve been all over the United States, but we haven’t been back here since my mother died.
Not that she’s buried here. Ivan made quick work of her cremation, and I have no idea where he scattered the ashes. Not that I care. I don’t. Right? No, I don’t. Hope is evil, and I have way too much of that right now.
Maybe he’s tired of traveling with a child. It’d be easier without Katya. Then again, he knows I’d kill to give her a normal life, and Ivan likes to play with his food.
I don’t know if he loves her. He’s not outright awful to her, and she’s heavily protected in that house. No one with a sliver of a brain in their skull would fuck with one of Ivan’s kids. Still, she’s not being taken care of the way a child needs.
And I fucking miss her.
“Can’t very well go in there and just start looking, can I?” I need a plan. “Just going to go down and look around. I’ll buy something.” Maybe I could break in after hours, although that’s more Koda’s thing.
“Want me to go with you?”
I look at Koda, and sometimes when I look at him, I realize how much he’s grown. I guess both of us have. He’s not the same annoying fuckin’ kid who used to follow on my heels everywhere I went. It was annoying.
He’s still annoying. He’s just bigger now.
Taller than I am by a few inches too.
He shakes out his hair. It’s naturally gray. The guards used to call him names when he was little, and I know he secretly hates it. I don’t know why, though, it looks fine. His eyes slide to me then narrow. “The fuck you looking at?”
“Wondering how so much stupid can fit inside such a skinny body.”
I’ve barely gotten the words out before he shoves me hard. My world tilts as I slide off the hood, landing with a thud in the dirt. “Fuck you. I’m not small.”
I stand, dusting off the ass of my jeans, and wave him off my hood. Better get this shit over with. I open the car door and turn to Koda, who’s kicking the dirt. “How’s Katya?”
He shrugs. “She’s fine. Hates school.” He laughs. I just want to see her. I hate how jealous I am of him. “I told her that Dad wouldn’t let you get her off the bus. It’s okay. She’s fine.”
It’s not fine. Nothing about this is fine. I hate disappointing her.
“She shouldn’t have to keep moving.”
“It’s going to be fine. You’ll get that fucking statue and then both of you will leave me here and never see me again.
Everyone wins.” He mumbles that last part, and I try not to let those words burrow deep.
It’s not that I care about Koda or anything that happens to him.
I don’t. Still, he hates Ivan as much as I do.
Maybe more. The only thing that offers him any protection is blood.
“You can visit, you know.”
He snorts. “Sure thing. I’ll just use the endless amounts of money and freedom I have and do just that.”
“Koda—”
“It’s fine, Aiden. Do what you do best.”
I stand with my door open. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?” He doesn’t answer, he just spins on his heels and walks down the path.
Fuck him, then.
I don’t have time for this.
Just like last week the bakery is dead, even though it’s only about two in the afternoon. It’s a small space with dozens of places to sit throughout, and although there’s a coffee station, it has no coffee, mugs, or creamers. It’s practically bare. I’m not at all surprised to find no one here.
If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was closed.
“I’ll be right there,” I hear from the back.
It’s a neat and clean space. Nothing extraordinary.
Sterile. There are wooden chairs with green tables spread throughout, and there’s a couch in the back with magazines on top of a coffee table.
I’m sure it’s meant to make customers feel at home, but it looks like a doctor’s waiting room.
The walls are a nice shade of green—maybe like a moss color—but the only bursts of color are lilies in pots and hangers throughout the bakery.
It doesn’t feel like a bakery.
I walk up to the glass counter and look at what he has out. Less desserts than the other day but I see something that makes me smile.
Mint chocolate chunk brownies.
I’ll be taking those with me.
“Sorry, I was washing the—” He stops, blinking at me. He’s handsome. His black hair is a bit disheveled. It only gets worse when he runs his fingers through it, smearing flour through the silky strands. Some of which cradles his temple. “Aiden?”
My pulse kicks up hearing my name. Then I remember, no shit, we were here the other day. “Remembered my name?”
Sawyer eases further into the bakery with a shrug. “I don’t get many new faces in here. I definitely remember yours.” I think I see his face brighten a bit before he chews his full bottom lip and looks at the glass case. “Uh, can I help you with something?”
“Mint chocolate brownies?” I nod to the case.
Sawyer tries to hide a smile before putting his arms on the counter. Heat spreads through my chest. How am I getting heartburn? I rub at it quickly then get a fucking grip. What the hell is happening to me?
I don’t like how close he is, resting his arms on the counter and watching me like he has a secret. “What?”
“Um,” he laughs. “Nothing. I’m waiting for you to tell me why you’re here.” He hides a grin and looks away.
“I didn’t tell you?”
“No, Aiden. You’ve been staring. You alright?”
“Um . . .” No, what was I going to say? My throat feels thick. Tension swoops through my stomach. “Can I have a brownie? Two, actually.”
“Of course.” He reaches under the counter, bringing out a box, and puts two brownies in it. Then he grabs a couple of cookies and drops them in as well. “On the house. For your girlfriend.”
Wait, what? “What are you talking about?”
“Sorry. You mentioned a woman last time.” That brightness deepens, spreading down his cheeks. “Um, so that’ll be eleven ninety-five.”
I reach for my wallet and grab a twenty and hand it to him. What is he talking about, girlfriend? “Keep the change.”
“Oh uh, thank you.” He forces a smile.
I watch him smile his way through the thick awkwardness settling over us like a raincloud. Then I remember the cupcakes I’d bought the other day. I smile. “She’s my sister.”
“Huh?”
“The girl I bought the cupcakes for. She’s my six-year-old sister.”
“Oh.” He laughs so sharply it startles me, his eyes looking everywhere but at me now. “I didn’t need to know, I um—” I’m staring at his lips. I need to stop.
I look away and see a sign I didn’t catch when I walked in. “You’re hiring?”
“Oh, yeah.” He looks at the sign. “Just part time. It’s all I can afford right now. We’re closing next Monday and remodeling for a couple of weeks. Well, not remodeling, more like renovating. Trying something new. I want to get more people in here.”
The wheels are spinning before I can hit the brakes. “Can I apply?”
His face falls. “You want to apply?”
I nod. An easy way to get a look around this place.
The extra money won’t hurt either. This is my in.
I’m not Ivan or Koda. I don’t want to break in here.
I don’t want to trash this place. I don’t want to be cruel, even if sometimes circumstance requires it of me.
I don’t want to bother any of these innocent people who cross paths with Ivan and whatever he wants.
It might not even be here.
“It’s not a lot of hours.”
I only need two weeks.
“I don’t need a lot.” With any luck I won’t even need the week. “Is that okay?”
“Oh, yeah.” He wipes his hands on his apron. “I can interview you right now if you have time.”
“As long as I can bring these brownies with me.”
“Of course. Who am I to come between a man and his dessert.” His blush deepens. His face is on fire. “That sounded . . . Never mind.”
It takes me a minute, but then I hear it back and smother a smile.
When he rounds the counter, I’m not prepared for how fit he is.
I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed. The lavender T-shirt he’s wearing tightens around his biceps, and he’s nearly as tall as I am.
Maybe only an inch or two shorter. A little bulkier, like he lifts.
I prefer to run and box, it helps keep my mind right.
A focus point to deal with all my bullshit.
Punching Cam is just a bonus.
I follow him to a table, my eyes doing a slow crawl down his back. I have the urge to run my fingers down his spine.
Who the hell thinks that!? “Right, here is fine.” I clear my throat and sit down. “So . . .” My eyes trace over the curve of his lips. My gaze sweeps down his jaw and neck until my attention lands on his chest and stays there. “Aiden?”
“Huh. Sorry. Um, yes. You were saying?”
Amusement lights his eyes and he nods. “Go ahead and try one.” He points to the box.
I take one out and sink my teeth into the brownie.
Holy shit. The cool sweetness of the mint cuts through the fudgy chocolate brownie.
There are chunks of chocolate throughout.
It would almost be too much without the mint.
I lick the corner of my lips then look up. “So, um . . . good?”
“Oh, yeah. Wow. This is incredible. Best brownie I’ve ever had.”
“Good. I tried a bunch of different recipes.”