Chapter Ten #2
The doors close. My back hits the wall. I breathe, but I want to scream. Is it bad luck that they got on my elevator or good luck that they didn’t recognise me? Am I cursed or blessed? Truth is, it’s probably neither. I’m just delaying the inevitable.
The parking lot rises to meet me finally. A nineteen-floor ride felt like it took a year off my life and not mere minutes. The elevator doors slide wide. I sag as Aiden’s grinning face meets me on the other side. Just as he promised, he’s waiting right at the door for me.
His grin fades fast. “What the fuck happened?”
“Nothing. I’m okay.”
“Not buying it, Tiger. You just looked at me like I saved the day.”
“You have. Franz’s men are here. I just had a nice elevator ride with a couple of his goons.”
“Fuck! I should have come up to get you.”
His hands grasp my arms as he runs an assessing gaze over me. When he spins me to check my back, I relent. “I’m fine. They seem to have limited information about me. They were looking for a blonde.”
“I guess we’re lucky they haven’t discovered the existence of hair dye, huh?”
“Tell me about it. Uh…Aiden…do we have a car meeting us at the side exit?”
“How did you know about that?”
“Because someone just tipped them off via text.”
“Fuck!” Aiden pulls out his phone. “Cas! Get Ashlyn to the car as fast as you can. They’ve taken the bait. Lead them around town but watch out for yourselves. I wouldn’t put it past them to arrange a roadblock. Avoid the Vale.”
“Ashlyn?”
“Our decoy. She’s one of us and was the closest in height and hair colouring to be your decoy. She’s how we cleared the Vale long enough to get you out of Charlie’s the other night.”
“You’ve put another woman in danger? For me?”
“She’s fully trained, fully armed, and has an entire team of brutal assholes wrapped around her. She’ll be fine.”
Only I wasn’t so sure about that. Not after hearing those guys in the elevator. Still, I have to trust that Aiden and his team are good at what they do, or all of this is for nothing.
“And your team is all part of this UACT thing?”
Aiden sighs hard. “How much do you know?”
“I’m asking, I suppose. I’ve overheard the term a couple of times and guessed it’s the agency you work for, but other than that…” I let the empty sentence hang in the air. Aiden nods to a familiar black SUV and spills his secrets as we walk.
“UACT, or United Anti-Corruption Taskforce, is an agency that tackles corruption from the head of a governing body to the underbelly. We deal with crooked judges, law enforcement, corporations, politicians, landlords…” He smiles sheepishly.
“But we do it in one vast sweep. Taking on one or two of the worst offenders just gives the rats time to hide, regroup and build it all again with new players. Our job is to gather the evidence and get everyone in one big sting. Well, perfect-world scenarios and all that.” He opens the passenger door for me and protects my head as I climb in.
In moments he’s beside me, nudging at my seatbelt and explaining in more detail.
“Harrison has proven to be a fucking problem from day one. The people controlling the city were warned about us and closed ranks before we’d even established a base of operations.
They’re dirty—Franz and Diverprop paying for loyalty—but there are bigger fish involved too.
Collecting evidence has been difficult with all the leaks, and now they know about the list.”
I know exactly what he is talking about when he stares at me as if I’m the walking embodiment of it, I say it aloud. “The envelope.”
“Yes. It contains a list. A particularly important list that exists only in two places. One is locked away in an undisclosed location, and the other is in that envelope.”
“Why did Tom have it?”
“That’s exactly what we want to know and what Tom refuses to tell us.”
“And Ben?”
“As tight-lipped as his double act,” Aiden admits.
What were they hiding? Or who were they protecting? It’s a question I’ll have to ask Ben when I next see him. “So, what happens now? Do we just wait until Franz’s men are all gone…or?”
“No, we’re going to fetch Sylvie.” Aiden powers on the engine, and the car rumbles beneath us.
“You know where she is?” Damn, they work fast.
“We have an idea.”
His non-answer irritates me more than it should, considering it’s not really my business, but it doesn’t stop me digging. “Is it need-to-know only or are you just being cagey with the info to drive me mad?”
Aiden chuckles. “We tracked her to a hotel in the city district,” he divulges, pulling out of the garage. I scan the street for anyone watching us, cars pulling out behind and following or people just acting odd. There’s nothing. Nothing I can see at any rate.
“With a tracker app like mine?”
“No, Sylvie is on 24-hour guard.”
“Yet she slipped out of the hospital with no one noticing,” I say, revealing how ‘highly,’ I rate his bodyguards.
“True, but she’s never alone.”
“You had her followed?”
“Something like that.”
“I can see why you and Dax became friends. You’re both freaking tight-lipped. Fine. Keep your secrets. Let’s get Sylvie.”
Aiden chuckles, but his mirth is short-lived. His hand taps my thigh. I glance up to see him watching me between bursts of watching the road. He takes a second before asking, “Are you okay?”
His question takes me by surprise. “What?”
The lights turn red. We stop. Aiden turns to face me; his eyes fixate on mine as he elaborates. “Ben said he fucked up but that you’d tell me what happened when you were ready. He warned me to make sure you were okay.” There’s accusation and hurt in his unasked question.
Of all people, I would’ve thought Ben would keep this morning to himself. “Ben could do with lessons on keeping his mouth shut.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“I’m fine. I’m holding it together,” I bite at him.
Aiden watches me for a second, then releases my leg and turns back to the windscreen just as the lights flick from amber to green.
“The minute you feel like all of this is too heavy for your shoulders, you just need to tell me or Dax.”
Great. Now I feel like a piece of shit. Instead of apologising for leaving him out of the loop though, my reaction is defensive. I blurt out my predominant fear. “And what? You’ll lock me in a room? Hide me away?”
“No, Tiger, we’ll help you carry the burden. You’ve been alone all your life, carrying the weight of your parents, the kids, work, school, surviving. You’re not alone now. You can share whatever you need, and we’ll carry it too.”
Really? Was it really that easy? Just ask? Share it all and half the load? “I don’t…”
“It’s okay. I get it. You’ve been self-reliant for so long, trusting anybody is hard. Just think about it, and when you’re ready to talk, I’ll be happy to listen. I’m especially looking forward to finding out how and why Mouse has your teeth imprints on his hands.”
Well, shit! “That wasn’t…it’s not…”
Aiden chuckles, but it sounds darker than I’m used to hearing from him. “It’s okay. I can make people disappear. All you have to do is say the word.”
“I have two,” I tell him, watching his eyebrows climb his forehead. “Barry Franz.”
“We’re working on it. I promise.”
“I know. Let’s go get Sylvie.”