Chapter 11 #2
We've been sharing bombshell after bombshell of information all afternoon. While the Guild has been fighting off Gifted Enterprise, who deals with experimentation, brainwashing, and control of world governments from the shadows, Portia’s group has been tackling trafficking rings of gifted using the very jewelry Charles has been producing from Dane’s gift.
I think we’ve spent half of it gaping at one another, and we’re finally through the darkest truths that we can turn to more lighthearted moments.
I’m both shocked and amused that Portia is also in a relationship with multiple men like me.
“If you weren't the one telling me, I wouldn’t believe it!” I laugh, finishing off my drink and setting it down on the table between us a bit harder than I intended.
“Well, believe it! And we’re here to help you now. All of us!”
“Thanks, Porsh.” I clench my hands. “When I thought I’d lost Aiden… I can’t do that again. I can’t lose any of us. If I could confront Charles alone right now to keep everyone else safe, I would.”
Portia grabs one of my hands. “But none of us want that! I know your guys wouldn’t, and I don’t, and Elias wouldn’t, either. Or your half-brother, or anyone else in this Guild! We’re all here, and we’ll fight him together. You’re not alone.”
Smiling, I nod.
Portia’s stomach growls loudly, interrupting our moment as we devolve into laughter.
“Let’s find something to eat. This is a shake and snack bar, after all,” I muse with a grin, pushing unsteadily to my feet.
“It’s Elias!” Portia shouts. She points at the window where Elias is standing outside on the phone, his back turned. She runs over to the glass separating them and flashes him with a cackle, wiggling her ass and making faces at him.
I burst out laughing. Something dark suddenly covers my face, and my heart stops. The warm fabric is tugged down, and my head pops through an opening.
Jackson stands between me and the windows, his sapphire gaze wild and dark.
Immediately, I think something’s happened with GE. “What is it?” I demand, flailing beneath his hoodie to get my arms through the sleeves, when it hits me. He stuffed me in his hoodie. He’s blocking me from the windows. “Kellan said no one can see in here.”
“It’s tinted to block the sun,” he replies. “And the sun’s going down.”
Oh.
Oh.
“Portia—!”
Elias stares at Portia for a beat, and I realize I’m too late.
“He can see you!” I whisper-shout, leaning around Jackson.
Portia freezes, then looks at me. “I thought you said...”
Elias steps up to the glass, pointing his finger at Portia in a silent threat. He says something that we can’t hear, and then a flurry of those strangers who’d arrived with them start herding people away, creating a bubble on this side of the Tower.
Elias’s gray-blue eyes slide my way, then return to Portia. He mouths, “Don’t move,” and stalks toward the entrance.
I grab her shirt and shove it into her hand. “Put it on.”
She hurriedly yanks her top on. “Whoopsie! Where’s the back door?”
“There isn’t one in here. But he can’t get in without access—”
The door opens. Elias enters with Aiden close behind.
Aiden quirks a brow at me. “What’s this I hear about flashing pedestrians outside the Tower?”
Jackson ushers me toward Aiden and the door as Elias beelines for Portia.
“If you were looking for an excuse to get my attention, you have it,” he continues, his voice smooth as velvet. He grasps my elbow when I’m in reach. “But someone who’s supposedly no longer on this Earth shouldn’t be spotted through our windows, let alone so much of you.”
I pull away from him, knocking into Jackson when I sway off-balance. Jack pins my hips against him so I’m facing Aiden. “I thought it was one-way glass,” I mumble, knowing it sounds as dumb as it feels to admit.
Aiden’s thumb drags across my lower lip, his imposing presence dwarfing me between them. “Do I need to lock you away in the Loft?”
Jackson slips his hands under the hoodie.
His icy fingertips press into my hips, making me gasp.
It feels amazing against my hot skin, and I squirm beneath his touch.
“She’s been drinking,” he snitches. My traitorous body clenches at the sound of his husky voice as if he’d whispered a sensual secret in my ear instead of outing me to Aiden.
“Traitor,” I mutter, then stop breathing entirely when he shifts his cool fingers lower. The movement’s hidden by his large hoodie, but the simmering heat in Aiden’s gaze tells me he noticed anyway.
“If you’ll excuse us,” Elias interjects.
A couple of others have joined us, and Portia is now dangling over the shoulder of someone else before they disappear through the door.
“We’ll be taking our leave for today and will you see tomorrow, as discussed.
” His gaze lands on me. “Raegan. Your apartment is always open if you want it.” He looks between Aiden and Jack, then offers me a polite smile. “Have a good evening.”
Aiden gives him a curt nod before he exits, leaving the three of us alone. “Well, then,” he starts in a seductive croon. “Let’s take her to the Loft and find a fitting punishment.”