by Kaylee, Katy
“Elizabeth, I…”
“Don’t Elizabeth me.” I huffed, “It’s Beth. I’ve told you that. Don’t make me tell you again.”
“Why does it matter?” He growled at me. It really was becoming a problem, that. But it didn’t scare me. I could see how he could intimidate others, with his impressive height and muscular frame and that icy look he got in his eyes sometimes when things weren’t going his way. Like now. But I would never be afraid of him.
Maybe that’s how I could stomp up in front of him and plant a finger against his chest even though he topped me by a good foot and a half and eighty pounds.
“Listen to me, Aiden. It just does. It matters to me. That should be enough.” I held my breath, waiting for his explosion but in never came. Instead, he just let out a long slow breath like he was deflating and after a long moment, nodded.
“You’re right. I’m sorry…Beth.” He said slowly, “I called a…friend of mine. He is looking into the men in the photos. He’s going to call me when he has something, but if you’d rather wait here by yourself…”
He trailed off, giving me another one of those arch looks and I nearly ground my teeth at his blatant attempt me at bribing me into coming with him. Even more so because it worked, damn it.
“Oh, all right.” I huffed. I wasn’t giving in, I told myself as I threw the few things I had in a backpack and slung it over my shoulder, I was doing this for Leah. Just like everything I’d done over the past twenty four days. And I would continue to do anything I had to, if it meant helping my sister.
“Alright. I’m ready.” I said, following Aiden out of the motel room, watching the way he moved like a panther in a jungle, only his natural habitat was the city. And I could only guess what his prey was. I’m ready. I just hoped I was right.
Chapter 7
Beth
My eyes widened almost comically as Aiden pulled the sleep, sporty two door car he was driving off of the busy city main street and on a quiet, private drive.
It was more like his own personal road, if I was being honest and for a few, disorienting minutes it felt like we had left the city entirely as he drove further down the otherwise empty lane.
Massive trees rose up on either side, blocking the view of the city’s bright neon lights and steel and glass sky scrapers.
We could have been driving through the Italian countryside or a quiet small town somewhere in rural America instead of being just on the edge of one of the most exclusive parts of the city.
My eyes widened even more as we got to the end of the drive and we pulled around a massive circular piece of grass, all planted with flowers and trees. I caught my first sight of the palatial brick mansion that sat on the outskirts of the city and nearly gasped.
“Jesus, this is where you live?” I stuttered at the words, taking in the opulent building. It seemed so out of place there, some old world villa plunked down in the middle of a bustling city.
I glanced at Aiden from the corner of my eyes. I had imagined him in some ultra-modern square box of a house. All sleek glass windows and white walls. With spartan decorations, maybe a painting or a sculpture. I hadn’t expected this, but as it fit him perfectly.
He wasn’t modern at all. Nothing about him belonged in this century. He would have been perfectly at ease in the middle ages, commanding armies of knights and riding into battle with armor and a pennant flying over his head as he fought for honor, for his people, for his family.
I could picture it so easily that it was a little disorienting as he drove around the back of the house and into a sleek shell of a garage that was underground.
All I could do was shake my head. I had always known that he had money. He was the heir to some fortune or something, he hadn’t spoken much about it to her when they had been in school together, and I had been so caught up in him that I had been happy to ignore his non-answers and evasions.
He always said that family came first with him, that he had a business waiting for him. It was why he’d had to leave school, and me, so abruptly.
I glanced around the car we were driving in. It probably cost more than all the grants we’d been able to scrounge over the past five years combined was worth. It should have given me my first clue that he was more than just wealthy.
But even still, nothing prepared me for the excess that surrounded me as Aiden parked the car in the below ground garage and stepped out of the car. Before I even had my seatbelt off he was rushing around to my side of the car and opened my door.
“Hm. How chivalrous of you.” I muttered, looking up at his outstretched hand. I had no choice but to take it or I would have to push him out of the way to make room to stand up around his broad frame.
With a sigh, I slid my palm into his and as soon as our hands touched a wave of electricity shot down my arm.
I fought the urge to pull away, or maybe it was to push myself closer to him, I wasn’t sure. Either way, it was damned uncomfortable as he drew me to my feet beside him and I was reminded just how much shorter than him I was.
It made me feel small and delicate, when I wasn’t either of those things and I hated the nervous butterflies that suddenly flew around wildly inside me. I hated the desire that shot through me, just as soft and fluttery, making me breathless.
Desperate for distraction I looked around the garage and wasn’t at all surprised to see a row of more sleek and shiny sports cars just like the one we’d driven to Aiden’s house.
“This way.” Aiden said softly, and his voice rasped across my skin in a way that had me shuddering again with need.
He didn’t let go of my hand as he pulled me to the other end of the garage. He pushed a button and a second later there was a high pitched ring and the doors slid open before he pulled me inside him.
I cast him an incredulous stare.
“Your house has an elevator.”
Aiden just shrugged off my comment, oblivious to the absurd wealth surrounding him. He had been like that even ten years before, not blinking at paying for meals or weekend trips out of town.
I guess when you grow up in that lifestyle, it was easy to take it for granted but as the elevator stopped on the first floor, it was impossible not for me to stare at the fine artwork and expensive décor. Mentally, I tallied up the cost of just what was in his living room and had to grit my teeth at the envy that filled my lungs. It would be enough to fund the lab for at least a full year, maybe even more.
“Come on, Tesoro. I’ll give you the grand tour in a minute.” He murmured, his tone low and husky and did nothing to settle the butterflies. He still hadn’t let go of my hand. That didn’t help at all either.
I had no choice but to follow him as he led me down a short hall to a steel door that looked out of place next to the soft blue paint on the walls and pale marble and grey floors.
Aiden looked up into the eyehole camera embedded in the middle of the door and a moment later it opened.
I watched in sudden trepidation as it revealed a decent sized room full of monitors and screens. Two men sat in front of them, observing, but both came to their feet as Aiden walked inside the room.
“Kramer, Pellio,” He said, nodding at each man, “This is Elizabeth Bell. I mean,” He paused, looking at me and clearing his throat, “Beth. This is Beth. Beth, this is John Kramer,” Aiden pointed to the taller man with dark shaggy hair, “And this is Matteo Pellio, my cousin.” He clapped the younger blond haired man on the shoulder.
“Nice to meet you.” I said slowly, after I realized that Aiden wasn’t going to elaborate anymore on who they were, or what exactly they were doing in that room with all the screens locked away behind a metal door.
I noticed the way the other men automatically deferred to Aiden and was once more struck by the thought of him as some lord or king, ordering his knights to battle.
I didn’t say any of that out loud, though, until Aiden turned and left the room after muttering something to the two men and led me down another hallway.
He talked about the art, about the furniture as he showed me different rooms but all the while my thoughts churned, working at the puzzle in front of me. The puzzle that was Aiden Diorno.
This was insane, all of it. the money, the wealth, his men, which was the only way I could think of them now. More than employees, not quite friends. His cousin, he’d introduced the blonde one as. So, family?
But that didn’t really make sense either.
I cast a secretive sideways glance in his direction, trying to figure it out but I didn’t have all the pieces yet. It didn’t matter. I would. I was good at solving puzzles. It’s what had attracted me to study the cosmos in the first place. There were entire universes out there that we knew nothing about. Millions of them. Billions.
All puzzles, just waiting to be solved. But somehow none of them were as intriguing as this man.
I was so focused on figuring him out, that it took an extra moment for his words to sink in.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
Aiden looked at me, one dark eyebrow raised in amusement.
“I said, here is your room. It’s adjacent to the master suite, so–.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s adjacent to the master suite,” Aiden repeated, slower this time as if I was having trouble keeping up. It was infuriating, “Adjacent means ‘next to’.”
“I know what adjacent means, Aiden.” I huffed the words, trying to tug my hand out of his but he refused to let it go, “What do you mean, my room?”
“This is where you’ll be staying,” He shrugged, gesturing to the lavish white and gilded bedroom. He might as well have been saying the sky is blue, or clowns are scary. “Which implies ownership. Hence the ‘your’ part of that statement. As in belonging to you.”
I stared up at him for a long moment, feeling out of sync with the words that were coming out of his mouth. Finally, I snorted.
“You actually think you can just pick me up and put me in some room like a doll and expect me to stay there.” It wasn’t a question. I could read the certainty in his icy blue eyes. No one ever said no to Aiden Diorno. Well, she wasn’t no one.
“News flash, Aiden,” I pointed to myself, “Articulating limbs. Opposable thumbs. Can think for herself. Not a doll!”
“I know that.” He said, scowling at me in that way he had that probably scared the bejeesus out of everyone else. But like I already knew, I wasn’t everyone else. And I wasn’t scared of Aiden.
“You can’t go back to that dump,” He growled at me, taking a step closer to me until we were standing toe to toe. It was too close. It made it hard to remember why I was angry. Hard to do anything but remember how good his lips tasted.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” I muttered back, hating the breathlessness in my voice. It just pissed me off even more. I was mad at him, and I still wanted him. How messed up was that, “And stop growling at me!”
* * *
Aiden
“I am not growling at you!” I growled the words. Elizabeth rolled her eyes at me and I had to bite back another growl of frustration. Why did she have to be so god damned…Elizabeth!
“Look, I appreciate the offer, as high handed as it might be, but I am not staying here with you.” She said, patting him on the shoulder as if she was trying to let me down easy.
I clenched my jaw, stopping the words that were on the tip of my tongue, the ones that wanted to demand that she listen to him, that she didn’t have a choice, that it would be so much better for them both if she just gave in to my will. I knew none of that would have any effect on her, except to maybe have her running for the door even faster.
That was one thing about her that was still the same. Like always, she challenged me. The only person ever to challenge me. A part of me was thrilled by the fire in her dark gray eyes, anticipation filled me at the strength that filled her.
It would be all the more sweet when she finally surrendered to me, but it wouldn’t be easy. But she sure as hell would be worth it.
“Listen to me, Elizabeth. There’s no reason for you to stay at the motel by yourself when I have a perfectly good house right here.”
She snorted at me again, “House. Right. That’s what you call this mansion? I could fit my entire lab in here. Twice!”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It doesn’t,” She shook her head at me as if I was missing something obvious but I had no clue what it was. I was at a total loss when it came to her, on unsteady ground. And I hated it.
“Just, what will it take to get you to agree with me?”
“Nothing!”
“Why are you being so stubborn?”
“Why are you being so condescending and egotistical?” She threw right back at me, her eyes suddenly blazing with anger as she tossed her pale, nearly white blonde hair over her shoulder in a gesture of temper. “Not everyone has to do what you say, Aiden. You don’t always know what’s right, and you know what, I really don’t appreciate being ordered around by you so you can just knock it off right now.”
Elizabeth slashed a hand through the air and all I could do was stare at her. God, she was gorgeous when she was mad. Infuriating for sure, and sexy as hell.
“Fine!” I threw my own hands up in the air in defeat. She gave me a dubious look.
“Fine?”
“It means okay, all right, a sign of agreement.”
“I know what it means,” She was growling now, and still looking at me like she didn’t believe me. She really was smart. “I don’t know why you’re saying it.”
“Look, I get it. I know I can be…demanding sometimes.”
Understatement of the millennia, she snorted under her breath and I took the higher road, pretending that I hadn’t heard her.
“Just promise me you’ll stay for a few hours at least.” He hurried to finish his words when Elizabeth opened her mouth to protest once more, “At least until I find out more about the photographs. I have the best person for the job looking into it.”
She closed her mouth with an audible click, just looking at me for so long I had to fight the urge to shift from foot to foot under that gray, penetrating gaze.
“Let me help you, Elizabeth.” I finally said, soft and pleading, and I could see her resolve start to weaken. “Let me help your sister.”
With that last, she crumpled, finally nodded. “Just for a few hours.”
“That’s all I’m asking.” I said, working to keep my face straight and to keep the victory I felt out of my eyes. I wanted her there. To figure out more about what her sister was digging into, yes, but also because I knew just how much danger she was in. And she didn’t have a fucking clue. I had to keep her safe, and the only way I could do that was if I could keep her close to me.
“Aiden, I have to ask you something,” She said slowly, her gaze still locked on to mine and that bad feeling in my gut grew even worse. I swallowed, nodding.
“What is it?”
“What exactly do you do, Aiden? How are you connected to all this?” She tilted her head to one side in that way she had of doing whenever she was trying to figure something out, trying to solve a puzzle. But I wasn’t ready for her to find the answers out, not yet. “Why are you helping me?”
“I…I would always help you, Elizabeth.” The words rushed out, answering the easiest question first. The only answer I could actually give her. “All you have to do is ask and I’ll do anything in my power to help you find your sister.”
“What about the other stuff?” She asked, that gaze haunting me, demanding answers I couldn’t give her. “This house. The money. Those men. Who are you, Aiden?”
I opened my mouth, not sure what I was going to say but let out a sigh of relief when my phone rang, interrupting.
I pulled the ce
ll out and answered it as soon as I saw the name on the caller ID.
“Luca. What have you found?”
“I think I got something, Aiden. You need to come over here.” Luca had an apartment above a shop on the other side of the city. I glanced at Elizabeth. It was obvious that she’d picked up what the conversation was about.
“Listen, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I said before hanging up the phone, taking advantage of Beth’s distraction to get out of giving her answer. At least, not yet. I needed more time.
“Look, I need to go. I might have something about your sister and the men in those photos.”
“I’m going with you.”
“You can’t.” I said, glancing up at her, “Stay here. I won’t be long. And just…try not to get into any trouble while I’m gone, okay? Here, give me your phone.”
She frowned at me but for once, a wonder, didn’t question me as she handed me her cell.
“I programmed my number in. Call me if you need anything.”
She shot me a look of consternation, shaking her head in confusion when I paused to brush a kiss across her lips and rushed to the door.
“But…but you didn’t answer my question!”
Her words followed me down the hall as I ran towards the garage and the car that would be waiting for me. Matteo would see to that. No, I hadn’t answered her question. Because I didn’t know how to. Hell, I didn’t even know where to start.
I hoped by the time I got back from Luca’s, I would have something to tell her. Because I knew Elizabeth. She would never give up. Not ever. She was stubborn as hell. It was one of the things I’d loved most about her.
Chapter 8
Beth
Aiden ran out of the room so fast that I didn’t have time to tell him, in no uncertain terms, that I was going with him. Or to ask him what in the hell he meant by that kiss.