Chapter 20
You’re Lying Again
Mira
Inoticed it before I could put it into words.
Not loud. Not glaring enough that I would’ve shouted if someone questioned it. But it permeated everything we did now, every corridor we passed each other, every time we found ourselves in the same room, and Aiden didn’t react as he had before. He was pulling away from me.
Not physically. Hell no. Aiden wouldn’t show any outward signs. He still talked around the halls of Ironhand in the same precise way he always had. He still stayed close enough that I could feel his presence without him even touching me. But something about it was off.
It felt colder, calculating. Like he had taken that final snap that happened between us and stuffed it back where it belonged. And I loathed how fucking nostalgic it made me feel.
I noticed it again when our paths crossed by one of the lower tunnels, a small corridor where our shoulders would brush in passing. There had always been electricity there. Heat. Unspoken words that made the tunnel feel much smaller than it was.
This time?
There was nothing.
His shoulder bumped against me without care or apology.
Like I was merely another rival in his path, his eyes skimmed over me.
They didn’t focus, and he just continued on his path.
Just carried on as if he hadn’t fucked me senseless just days ago.
As if we hadn’t just ended two years of built-up distance in one night of reckless passion.
I faltered just enough to take notice, jaw clenched, before I snapped my stride back to normal like I didn’t give a damn. But I did.
Too fucking much to just brush it aside. Because this wasn’t Aiden just trying to take back control. This was him pushing me away… again.
I hadn’t known it before he even said anything.
There wasn’t any screaming or yelling. Nothing I could argue with or tell him to just fucking listen for one minute. Silence. Finally, without needing any dramatics to hang on to.
Déjà vu.
That same hollow feeling he left me with two years ago. And I was far too smart not to know what was happening. He was distancing himself.
And this time? I refused to ignore it.
Pressure didn’t linger subtly for long. Hell, if anything, it crackled loudly right out of snooping mode when Silas decided he’d heard enough.
I could sense him before he spoke, see the shift in the air around us when he walked into my territory like he was the king.
Like Ironhand bent around him without hesitation.
Which, let’s be honest, it did.
“Lena.” Silas’ voice sliced through sharply enough that it didn’t carry farther than us, deep enough that I couldn’t mask it out.
Slowly, deliberately, I looked over at him. Like I wasn’t already studying him the second he entered the room.
“Yeah?” My reply slid out deadpan, careful to seem uninterested like it was nothing, like this was any other interaction, any other request.
He stared at me and didn’t bother veiling his intensity this time.
“You’ve been working hard,” he said, moving into my space without invading it.
Not crowding me, no, but stepping in close enough where I could feel his eyes burning into me.
Couldn’t lie about that.
“Thea sent me,” I repeated stubbornly, same words, same intonation, as if I hadn’t just told him that already. Part of me knew he wanted a reaction. Knew he was trying to provoke me into saying something I’d regret.
He smirked slightly, nothing threatening or cruel, an acceptance that I wasn’t going to go easy.
“Funny,” he murmured, watching me carefully, gaze drifting down just far enough to tease. “Because it sure as hell seems like you’ve been doing a hell of a lot more than just what you’re told.”
There it was.
Statement — not a question this time. Challenge.
I shrugged casually, allowing a hint of annoyance to edge into my voice. “You wanna get cleaned up or not?” I challenged him back. “Because if you don’t answer me, I can always start turning the switchbacks. Might take longer to find someone new, but it won’t affect me.”
We stayed quiet for a moment; seconds where I could practically hear him listening to my words rather than reacting.
Then he moved again. Slow this time.
“Be careful who you trust,” Silas murmured, turning just enough that his voice fell quietly around us. “There are folks who got eyes on you, Lena. Confident girls like you are a target.”
“I got it under control.” I snapped back without wavering my eyes from his.
Silence.
Then he took another step toward me.
“A’right.” He nodded slightly, and it wasn’t encouragement, but there was weight to it. He’d made his decision.
“I got work for you.”
Mission dropped.
My shoulders lifted infinitesimally; not enough to appear anxious, just enough that I was standing at attention now.
“What kind of work?” I asked patiently.
He maintained eye contact.
“Off property.”
My muscles clenched at my shoulders at the one word.
Ironhand was ruthless, but there were patterns to it. There was a system to the madness. Once I left the facility, I flew blind. Things could happen on the outs that I wouldn’t see coming—variables I couldn’t predict or plan for like I was used to.
If he was sending me out, that was by design.
“Transfer leaves tonight,” Silas continued, eyes never leaving mine. “Straight to our newest housing development. Off-grid.”
Human trafficking. Fit too damn neatly with what I’d uncovered already.
“You riding with it.” He continued before I could even process the information, tone brooking no argument. “Taking care of business.”
Betrayal. A loyalty test. And exactly what I needed to get clean on the inside of what Silas had been watching me investigate from the outside.
My heart stuttered fast and hard in my chest before I squeezed my eyes shut, relaxing my hold once I caught my breath.
“Consider it done.”
I didn’t wait. As soon as Silas walked away with that mission still ringing in my ears, I knew exactly what this meant if I didn’t stop it.
Not the mission. Not the transport. Him.
Because whatever the hell happened to him in the last day or two?
It wasn’t a coincidence. And I sure as hell wasn’t going into an offsite meeting about something this dangerous while he acted like nothing was going on between us.
I located him, as I always did these days, not by searching for him or asking around, but by wandering through Ironhand until the buildings’ flow forced our paths together.
He was on an outer floor this time, sitting in shadow like he always did these days, watching everything and no one in particular.
I didn’t pause when I saw him.
Didn’t hesitate.
I marched straight up to him, not bothering to slow down until I was close enough that he didn’t have the option to slip away behind that cold wall he hid behind whenever I looked at him wrong.
“We need to talk.”
It wasn’t loud, but it was clipped, rough around the edges; enough to alert him but not enough to stir anyone else.
He met my eyes quickly, awareness dawning, but he stayed where he was. Didn’t come towards me. Didn’t step back.
Of course, he didn’t.
I grabbed his arm before he could say anything else, pulling him into an alcove off the main area, secluded enough that we wouldn’t have any witnesses unless they sought us out.
The second we were alone, I turned to him.
“You’re doing that thing again.”
There was no preamble. No beating around the bush. Just stating exactly what I needed him to understand, so that he couldn’t misunderstand.
His jaw clenched, but he said nothing. He didn’t have to.
I breathed out sharply, shoulders falling in aggravation that grew when I was actually faced with him. No longer trying to psych myself up to think I was imagining it.
“What do you not want to tell me?” I demanded, leaning forward to put more pressure on him, giving him the choice to join me or pretend like I hadn’t seen exactly what he was doing around me these last couple of days.
He said nothing. His expression was unreadable, like he could always mask it when he wanted to. But I knew him too well to buy what he was selling. To think that silence said nothing.
This silence said everything.
“This,” I bit out through my teeth, annoyed now that I’d started. “Don’t you do that.” I gestured between us. “Don’t act like I’m imagining things. You’ve been distant.”
He remained quiet.
My jaw clenched.
“What happened?” I said louder again, leaning forward so I was inches away from him. “After everything we just … You can’t act as if that happened, and nothing will change.”
He shifted his gaze, but only for a moment.
There it was.
I grabbed his arms, holding him in place by sheer force of will now.
“You don’t get to do that to me,” I continued, my voice quieter now, though no less accusing. “Panic and lock me out like I’m supposed to know what’s going on in your head.”
Hot damn, did that come out bitchier than I intended it to? But I didn’t apologize … wouldn’t apologize. Because this wasn’t about him shutting down the last couple of days.
This was about him shutting down two years ago. About him deciding for me/us what I could and couldn’t handle. What I deserved to know. What I didn’t.
I wasn’t going to let him do that to me again. Not if I could help it.
My gaze bore into his own, leaving him no opportunity to look away. To sidestep this confrontation or make it something other than what was happening.
“You can’t do that to me again,” I repeated, soft but final despite the battle raging beneath the surface. “Not ever again. Not with me.”
He didn’t respond.
That was the worst part.
Not the silence itself but what it signified. The way he looked at me without giving me anything back, as if he’d already made up his mind and I just hadn’t realized it yet. As if what he was thinking was more important than me standing right in front of him, asking him questions.
Again.
Something clenched in my chest that was painfully familiar because I knew this feeling. Knew what it was about when he did this to me, when he’d rather play some strategic game of chess than just lay everything out on the table.
When he chose shutting me out instead of risking me.
And this time…
Fuck.
Because now I knew what I was giving up when he did that to me.
“This doesn’t solve anything,” I murmured finally, quieter now but not gentle, just suddenly without the bite it had seconds ago. “Doesn’t matter what happened between us, however many times we hooked up… doesn’t give you the right to push me away.”
He clenched his jaw but still said nothing. Didn’t close the distance between us. Didn’t say something, anything.
And that was that.
The brittle thread between us finally broke. Not cleanly. Not entirely. But irrevocably, all the same.
Because reality sank in with or without my consent now, solid and heavy on my chest.
Didn’t matter what we did physically. We were still fucked up on everything else. If anything, that made it better.
I took the first step back this time, so there was space between us where there hadn’t been seconds ago. Didn’t matter that my body still felt too much like it knew he was there, too caught up on reading his every reaction.
Words. He gave me none of those. So, fine. I created the distance anyway because nothing was going to stay close to him and solve the problem.
Nothing was solved.
Not our past. Not trust. And especially not him deciding things without me yet again.
Now with Silas dragging me further into this shit hole and whatever secrets Ghost still wasn’t telling me lurking between us like a fucking time bomb.
Outside pressure. Inside break. And neither was going away any time soon.
I met his eyes one last time before walking away. I forced myself to keep moving onward and forward, and anywhere else that wasn’t sitting around asking for more answers I wasn’t going to get.
But I knew the truth, whether I chose to face it or not. This was no longer complicated. It was damn near explosive.
And whatever we’d begun?
Wouldn’t survive what was about to happen next.