Aidan #2
There was silence, at least between the two of us; the storm continued to rage outside, and Cait’s voice kept on as she mentioned Reno’s name and then mentioned something else I didn’t catch.
Mika’s voice when he spoke was calmer, but there was no mistaking the anger.
“I want to believe you, and I-I want to forgive you, but I…don’t know how to trust you right now. ”
I nodded, understanding. “I get it.”
“Do you?” he asked, angry and genuinely curious.
“Because I know what I saw, what I’ve seen, what I’ve heard, and I…
want to, I really do. But how do I move past the fact that you’ve been sending reports about everything we’ve been doing since you’ve been here?
How do I move past that breach of trust? ”
I opened my mouth to ask him if he was even willing to try before we tried to figure out the how, but was cut off by a low, dangerous growl. “You what?”
I whirled around to face Xander standing in the doorway, eyes blazing. “Oh, shit.”
“Oh, shit is right,” he snapped loudly. “You’ve been reporting on us this whole fucking time, you little sneak? What the fuck have you been sending and who the fuck to?”
“Xander,” Cait snapped from her office. “Lower your voice, I—”
“Cait, I just heard—”
“I don’t give a fuck if he’s been sending international secrets to the Russians, Chinese, and Nicaragua; lower your goddamn voice while I do my job!”
Xander gritted his teeth, but Mika was on his feet. “Xander, look, it’s not—”
“Do not defend your boyfriend right now,” Xander snapped, finally answering whether or not he knew about us. “It’s not a good look for you, Mika.”
“I don’t give a fuck about a good look right now,” Mika said calmly. “But flying off the handle isn’t a good idea.”
“Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do when I found out Harriet over there has been playing Benedict Arnold,” Xander snapped. “Who the fuck have you been talking to? Tell me now and I might consider not beating your ass.”
I was taken off guard by the pop culture and historical references, and almost tricked into laughing at the absurdity while knowing that was a death sentence. “His name was Bryce—”
Mika seized up. “Aidan!”
I jerked, catching sight of a dark shadow getting too large too quickly, and all sense disappeared.
I flung myself forward as a huge branch came crashing through the window.
My stomach slammed into the kitchen counter, knocking the wind from me in a pathetic wheeze of desperation.
A ball of pain formed in my ribs, and I clawed at the counter to pull away as icy rain pounded in through the broken window, soaking me.
Strong hands caught me under my arms and helped drag me over the counter to deposit me roughly on the safe side. Xander stepped back, his scowl heavy as Mika rushed forward to check me out.
“I’m okay,” I wheezed. “I’m going to feel that in the morning, but I’m fine.”
“Shut up,” he ground out as he yanked up my shirt and glanced at Xander. “Just a bruise. Hold still while I check you for glass.”
I did, and I looked at Xander. “Thank you.”
“Fuck off,” he growled.
“I know,” I said. “But thank you anyway.”
“The name.”
“Bryce Anderson.”
“Ah, hell,” Mika muttered, and I didn’t think it had to do with the piece of glass he found tangled in the cuff of my jeans.
Xander’s eyes widened. “That pompous, interfering, measly, useless, pasty-faced, mealy-mouthed son of a crack whore?”
In high school, I had gone through a phase of trying to string together the most coherent and deeply biting insults I could come up with without being personal.
The point was to be outlandish and insulting in a way that was impressive and made people laugh.
Teenage me would have been impressed by the string of insults Xander strung together, but… it wasn’t the time to reminisce.
“I take it you’re familiar,” I said with a wince.
Xander’s furious animal noise was all the answer I needed, and when he turned to me, I braced. Except that was the moment our walkies sprung to life. “Xander!”
He shot me a poisonous look before snatching his radio from his belt. “Speak.”
“Jake and me have got to get to the river,” Reno said in a clipped, fearful voice I’d never heard from him before. “We’ve got serious flooding already and if what’s happening is happening, we and the town are going to have serious issues.”
“You are not going alone,” Xander ground out. “Everyone else, report.”
“Carter and Mav are putting out a fire,” Cait told him. “They’re not responding anytime soon.”
“When the fuck did that happen?” Xander asked, the ‘and why wasn’t I told?’ obvious in his voice.
“Ten minutes ago, they’re dealing with it, and so am I,” she said, and the ‘I know how to do my goddamn job, remember that,’ was just as obvious in hers.
“Trevor, Colin,” he barked into the walkie.
“We’ve got flooding on our side too. I don’t know how long it’ll take us to get there,” came Trevor’s voice.
Colin’s voice cut in, and I would swear I heard angry swearing in the background. “Trevor isn’t going anywhere; he took a knock to the head and…enough, Trevor. He’s having a hard time walking straight. He’s coming back to the main house if I have to beat his ass and take him back myself.”
Xander looked at the two of us, and I knew his problem wasn’t anyone else; it was me.
“I can go,” I said quietly.
“Fuck you,” Xander said, but there wasn’t nearly enough force in it for me to believe.
“Don’t trust me with your secrets or your business, but I’m not fucking around with your lives,” I said. “I can go.”
Xander stared, and although seconds mattered, he turned to the walkie. “Trevor, get your ass back here with Colin. Then Colin and I are going to join them if need be. I’m sending Mika and Aidan with you, Reno.”
“Heard,” Reno said. “We have to go now, I’m heading out that way. Mika’s been to the river; he knows where it is.”
Mika nodded in confirmation. “Good, get moving.” And then Xander looked at Mika. “Is it the one I’m thinking of?”
“Yes,” Mika said quietly.
“Fuck,” he glared at me. “If anything happens to them because you can’t fucking be trusted, there is no rock you can hide under, no hole you can dig deep enough to get away from me. Understood?”
“Utterly,” I said, and followed Mika out as we put our gear on, half of which I didn’t know how to use. “Why is the river a big deal?”
“It serves a lot of the other rivers, including the one that runs through the town. It has a tendency to flood, and if something is spectacularly wrong, then it could cause massive flooding that would…well, I’m sure you can guess,” he said as he finished suiting up.
“Mika,” I began before we walked outside. “It wouldn’t be the same river those beavers were building a dam on, is it?”
He paused, looking uneasy. “It could be.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“I don’t know, but Reno mentioned being worried about it, and he said something to Xander. Let’s go.”
Unsettled, I followed him out into the storm and immediately stumbled at the first gust of wind that threatened to take me off my feet.
As if expecting it, Aidan caught me before I was left sprawling in the mud and water.
His feet splayed in two different directions, but thankfully he was able to use my stabilized body to stay upright. We exchanged a look of relief.
It took a lot longer to make it down the path through the woods toward the science building, but I noticed it was easier when we were concealed by the trees.
Of course, being in the woods meant we were vulnerable to lightning strikes going through the ground, and we could only hope the insulated boots would be a preventative measure.
It also meant we would be in danger of trees falling because although we were walking along a path, eventually we’d have to walk through the woods where our vision would be heavily obscured.
I heard Mika say something, but the wind drowned him out and I had to yell to be heard. “What?”
“I said oh, fuck,” he explained as he gestured forward and I saw what he meant. The ground around the science building was flooded. I had never measured the building’s height in relation to me, but I would bet the water would come up to my shins.
“Come on,” he said and led me into the woods instead of anywhere near the science building.
The storm was fierce, and the creaking and groaning of the trees were bad enough, but it was the occasional crack that left me jumpy.
It wasn’t like I could look up to keep an eye out for falling branches without getting blinded by the wind and rain.
All I could do was follow as we trudged through the woods.
In a way, the storm was a blessing because it kept my focus on keeping my footing and not letting Mika get too far ahead.
Rather than the impending doom that was waiting for me if I got through the storm in one piece.
The cat had already been out of the bag with Mika knowing, I would have been on a timer to spill the truth to everyone else.
Which was how my life worked, the doomsday clock was a minute before midnight when Xander overheard our argument.
It would hit the dreaded hour as soon as everything calmed down, and I had to look these men in the eyes and inform them that their jobs and even parts of their personal lives hadn’t been safe.
My foot slipped as we mounted a hill, and he grabbed me, yanking me upright and looking me in the eye to yell, “Focus on what you’re doing. We’ll deal with our bullshit later, got it?”
“Got it,” I yelled back, feeling my heart skip a beat at the use of ‘our bullshit.’ As in shared, even if I lost my job, my place here, my friends, maybe I could still keep him. “What is that noise?”
“The river,” he called back grimly, and I felt the flicker of happiness curl up and die in my chest at the roar that was outranking the sound of the wind and rain.