by Kaylee, Katy
I shrugged, uncomfortable at the niggling guilt that suddenly made itself known inside me.
“I called you. I told you where to meet us,” I said, looking up at him. “It’s Leah, Aiden. Will said he was finally able to clear up more of the voice mail message. It could be a clue, the clue we’ve been waiting for that will finally lead us to Redman.”
“That’s what I’m worried about, bella.”
“It’s been a month, Aiden. And you said yourself that there hasn’t been any sign of him.”
“That worries me too. Ian Redman isn’t the type of man to leave unfinished business.”
“If you haven’t been able to find him, then no one can,” I didn’t tell him that I’d been doing my own digging, safely behind the screen of a computer. I knew that it would only start the argument all over again. “He’s probably long gone.”
“But he could still be here, Beth. The man threatened you! He threatened to kill you.”
“I know.” I said, fighting to hold back the shudder at the reminder but the fear of that moment, of seeing the blood red letters on the back of the photograph wouldn’t ever leave me, I was sure, “But I can’t just stop living my life because I might get hurt. I won’t, Aiden.”
Aiden opened his mouth to argue again but this was a topic we’d been over time and time again and the last thing I wanted was to have another fight about it in the middle of the lab parking lot, “Let’s just go in and see what Will found out first okay? Before we rush to any judgement.”
Aiden rolled his eyes at me, some of the tension breaking, “Coming from the queen of thoughtful judgements over here.” But then his gaze softened, and he pulled me in even closer until I could feel the beat of his heart against my cheek, “I know how hard this must be for you. Are you ready?”
I drew in a deep breath. There was no going back. Not now. “I have to know the truth, Aiden. No matter the cost. I have to know.”
“I understand, tesoro. Let’s go find out what Will discovered.”
I pulled out my key, unlocking the door and leading Aiden in to the lab.
“Over here, we have to go through security.”
“Security?” Aiden asked dubiously but after a moment he followed me down a long, white hallway to an office at the end.
“I’ll get you your own security card. That way you can come visit me at the lab and I won’t have to check you in.” I told him, pulling out my own security card and running it through the chip reader. It beeped and the door unlocked.
“Hi, Doctor Bell.” A warm voice greeted me and I looked over at Robert, the security and maintenance man who worked at the lab.
“Hi, Robert. How are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m doing just fine. It’s good to see you. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“A few weeks,” I answered guiltily. “Robert, this is Aiden. He needs to be checked in and put on the security clearance.”
“Does he get a key too?”
“Yes, please.” I said, then grinned to myself as the older man ordered Aiden over to take his picture, railroading over Aiden’s arguments that it wasn’t necessary in the calm but implacable way he had.
I glanced down at the sharp buzz coming from my back pocket as my cell phone started to ring.
“You boys finish up here. I have a phone call.” I said, my grin widening at Aiden’s look of horror before I stepped just outside the small office, answering the call without looking at the caller ID.
“Hello?” I said absently, still fighting laughter at Aiden’s look of helplessness before I had stepped out.
“Beth! It’s about time! I’ve been trying to reach you all day!” The furious voice reached me from the other end of the line and my laughter instantly died.
“Tony?” I said in shock.
“It’s Antony.” Aiden’s cousin growled back, still full of rage and I hastened to calm him.
“Yes, of course. Sorry, Antony.”
“It’s fine, Beth. But you really should answer my calls. Can’t you understand how worried I was about you?”
The whine in the other man’s voice made my skin crawl and a sick feeling settled in my stomach but temper hardened my voice.
“Look, Antony, I appreciate you checking up on me, but I’m busy. I’m working at the lab right now–.”
“You’re at the lab?” He asked suddenly, interrupting, “Does Aiden know?”
My temper flared at the insinuation in his tone.
“Aiden knows, because Aiden is here with me. And I don’t need another babysitter, okay? I don’t need you to check up on me. I’m a big girl. Fully capable of taking care of myself. And I really think you need to stop calling me.”
There was a moment of stunned silence from the other end of the line but I didn’t give Aiden’s cousin a chance to respond before hanging up on him. The instant I did, I felt guilty. I knew that he was just trying to look out for me. All of the Diorno’s had a massively inflated protective streak. It wasn’t his fault. It was just my own frustration at feeling like I was living under a microscope these last few weeks.
I glanced down at my phone, contemplating calling him back and apologizing but before I could, Aiden’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Hey, everything all right?
“Yeah. It wasn’t anything important,” I said, trying to shrug the whole thing off. It was the truth though. I could worry about Aiden’s cousin’s hurt feelings later. The only thing that was important right now was my sister, and finding out what happened to Leah.
I needed to know the truth. No matter how much it hurt. I had to know.
I turned and headed back do the hallway, rushing towards the part of the lab that I knew Will would be working in but I barely made it around the corner before another voice stopped me.
“Beth? I thought that was you.”
“Noah!” I said, the word muffled as my boss gave me a big bear hug, lifting me off of my feet before setting me back down again.
I caught a glimpse of Aiden’s frown, and it nearly made me smile again despite the lump of lead in the pit of my stomach.
“Aiden, this is my boss, technically. Noah Kramer.” I said, biting back another grin as they eyed each other up uneasily, “Noah, this is Aiden Diorno.”
“Ah, so this is the man who has stolen away my star researcher.”
“Hah. You know you just miss having me here so you don’t have to write up the grant proposals.” I snorted, shaking my head. He just shrugged shamelessly.
“True.” Noah sighed dramatically, “So, what is it that he’s got that is keeping you away from the lab. Is it money? I could double whatever he’s paying you.”
“I highly doubt that.” Aiden muttered under his breath and I had to agree. Aiden could buy out the lab ten times over and it wouldn’t even lighten his bank account.
“Behave, both of you.” I chastised them, giving both of them looks but it was hard to keep the grin off my face. It was like seeing two peacocks ruffle their feathers at each other.
“Me? Behave?” Noah said in mock offense, “I’m always a perfect angel, you know that Beth. I’ve just been worried about you, you haven’t been into the lab much…”
“I’ve been keeping up with my work from home. It’s just…” I trailed off, shrugging off the rest of what I was going to say but Noah said it anyway.
“Your sister. I understand, Beth. Like I told you two months ago, take as much time as you need.”
I nodded and for once, Noah had a serious expression on his face.
“You know, you really can take time off. Real time. A vacation would do you a world of good.”
But I was already shaking my head, “I need to keep working. I know you understand.”
“I do.” Noah said, clicking his tongue sympathetically, “Ahh, the plight of the academic. We live too much in our minds, that’s the problem. And then when the real world strikes, we don’t know what to do.”
“No, it’s not that.”
&n
bsp; “Of course it is, dear. And there’s nothing wrong with it. Everyone processes grief in a different way.” His tone softened and he patted me on the shoulder, “I was there with you after your parents died, remember? It was awful – you threw yourself into work and didn’t come up for air for nearly twelve months.” Noah shook his head, both of us remembering the dark times. But I’d had Leah then, too. She was the only family I’d had left. And now she was gone too.
“This is different, Noah.”
“Of course it is,” he muttered again, patting me absently on the shoulder once more. “Are you here for more work then?”
“No, actually. Will called. He has something for me.” I gave him another impulsive hug, “Thanks, Noah.”
“For what?”
“For being you.”
“I couldn’t be anything else.” He grinned, a lightning flash of humor. “Now, I have my own work to get back to. Young Will is in the tech lab.”
I nodded, turning to head toward the lab as Noah made his way back to his office and Aiden followed after me. Neither of us spoke, both of us lost in our own thoughts and I couldn’t even begin to guess what was going on in his head.
Aiden’s voice broke the quiet so suddenly in made me jump, even though his words were softly spoken.
“You sure you’re ready to hear this, bella?” He asked, looking at me with this striking blue eyes of his. I wanted to lose myself in them. To run away and never have to face the harsh truths of reality anymore. But I knew that was just a fairytale.
“I’m sure, Aiden. Let’s go.”
* * *
Aiden
I followed after Beth, letting her take the lead. Mostly because I could sense that it was important to her, for her to feel in control. But also because, as much as I hated to admit it even to myself, as we walked through the pristine lab, I felt out of my element.
As we walked down the long, white hallways, I looked around. And even though I felt out of place, it was all too easy to imagine Beth here. Her head bent low over some book or research paper, her brilliant mind decoding the mysteries of the universe.
It made me feel small and inconsequential, a new feeling for me and I tried to shrug off the uncomfortable emotion. But once more, it left me in awe of her, of this brilliant courageous woman.
I reached over and took hold of her hand, slowing her forward march and she looked over at me in surprise.
“I’m sorry, Beth.” I whispered, the words falling out of my mouth before I even realized they were there to begin with. “I’m so sorry.”
Beth tilted her head, her gray eyes going wide with confusion.
“For what, Aiden?” She slowed as she looked up at me and it took me a moment to get my thoughts straight. She had a habit of messing with my mind, tripping up my thoughts like no one else.
“That I wasn’t here.”
She just gazed at me, her eyes questioning as she waited expectantly and all I could do was go on.
“When your parents died. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you, Beth.”
She shook her head, her expression changing again like quickfire, morphing into a perplexed frown.
“You didn’t know, Aiden. You couldn’t have known.”
“Yes, I could have. I could have called. I could have done something.” Frustration and guilt tore at me from the inside out and Beth must have seen it because her expression softened, changing once more as she reached out one hand, the hand I wasn’t holding, and placed it against my chest.
“And what would you have done, if you’d known? Drop everything and come rushing back to what? Save me? Prince charming and the damsel in distress and all that?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I could have done something, though,” I said, repeating the same refrain but she looked at me, her gray eyes growing as dark as pewter.
“We can’t change the past, Aiden.” She let out a harsh laugh. “I’ve learned that the hard way. We can only change the future. That’s what really matters now.”
I fell silent, thinking about her words. The future was exactly what I was afraid of. Because I knew, every clue that led use closer to finding the truth about her sister, let Beth ever closer to the day when she wouldn’t need me or my help any more. Closer to the day she would pack up her things and leave me.
The thought struck pure terror through me, and the beast inside wanted to howl in outrage at the merest hint of losing Elizabeth.
We walked on in silence for a while, both of us lost in our thoughts as I tried to strangle the dread that had settled inside me at her words.
She was right about one thing. The future was what mattered now, and the future could still be changed. For the better. If only I knew how.
Finally, we reached a section of the lab that housed two long tables strewn with computer monitors and wires. I had to grit my teeth again as Will, Beth’s lab assistant, bounced out of his chair and gave her a rib-cracking hug.
They started to chat over some research equation and I stood by, waiting impatiently. I tried to keep my thoughts on staying patient was it was hard, listening to them chat like schoolgirls.
I watched them, and I was surprised to find myself jealous of the easy relationship that Beth had with Will, with her boss, Noah. It was obvious they were friends, that they cared about each other.
It caught him off guard. He’d never been jealous of anyone in his life, but now his instincts howled at him to take her away, to protect her and keep her safe. I shook it off, knowing it wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference. Knowing Beth, she’d be able to get herself into trouble even if we were the last people on earth.
“Okay, okay,” I broke in, finally reaching the end of my patience, “enough gossiping. What did you find out?”
“We aren’t gossiping,” Will said, rolling his eyes over at me, “We are talking about quantum polarities.”
I just stared at him, the same icy eyed stared that always struck the fear of god into my men, and it worked just the same on Beth’s lab assistant. Will swallowed hard, obviously intimidated. Beth shot me a chastising look and I gave her my best innocent shrug.
“What?”
“Stop bullying him.” Beth said under her breath, still giving me the look.
“I’m not bullying anyone.”
“Yes, you are. Knock it off or I’ll make you wait outside with Matteo.”
I growled out loud at the suggestion of being separated from her and Will gave me another wide-eyed look, taking a step away from me. He really was a smart kid.
“H…here, Beth,” He said after a minute, sitting back down in front of one of the computer monitors and typing rapidly onto the keyboard. “It’s not much. The last half of the recording is still pretty garbled, but I was able to isolate and magnify the background noise and heard something.”
“Well, what is it?” Beth asked, a touch of impatience now in her own voice as she turned back to Will who just shrugged, and pushed another key on the keyboard. A moment later, the recording started.
It starts off the same. Leah’s voice, and then it changes, grows panicked and she screams before it crackles apart into white noise.
I watched Beth the whole time that it played, hating to see the pain that flared in her big, gray eyes. But when it reached the end, she shook her head.
“I didn’t hear anything different.”
“Here is the isolated background noise track. You have to listen close.”
Beth leaned down close to the speaker as Will replayed it, and this time, Leah’s voice was barely discernable. It was muffled, distant sounding but now with the background noise amplified, I could hear it. The bottles clinking together, the low rumble of voices, and rough, grungy music.
“It sounds like…a bar or a club or something.”
My stomach sank at her words.
“But, there isn’t a bar at the docks.” She went on, shaking her head, and I could practically see the cogs turning inside her mind, “That whole stretch is aba
ndoned.”
“Not…quite.” I said after a moment and both of them turned to look at me. I wished I could take back the words, but it was too late. The only thing I could do now was plow on.
“There is a bar on the docks. The only bar. But it’s not exactly…legal. It’s rough, really rough. One of the gangs runs it, mostly for bootleggers and thieves to sell black market goods.” I shrugged as their eyes widened almost comically. “We use it sometimes, when we need information.”
“Information,” Beth said, and I nearly groaned at the speculative light that lit in her eyes. “That’s good. Because that’s exactly what we need.”
“No. Hell no, Beth. We are not going to that place.”
She smiled, and that feeling of dread in my stomach grew even worse.
Chapter 26
Aiden
“Hold on, Aiden! Slow down!”
Beth called after me, but I didn’t slow down. I didn’t want to give her another chance to try and convince me to go to that damned bar. It sure as hell was no place for Beth. I didn’t even like going in there. I wasn’t about to bring her into one of the roughest, most dangerous places in the entire city.
She just didn’t understand. At Black House, she was much more likely to get her throat cut than any of the information she was hoping for. Just the thought of her in that place sent another wave of terror spiraling through my system.
I hurried out of the lab and let out a soft sigh of relief as I spotted Matteo. He was waiting outside for us, leaning against the car, a lit cigarette in his hand.
Matteo jumped to his feet when he saw me but I waved him away.
“Beth is riding with me. You can go on back to the house.”
“You sure boss?” Matteo asked dubiously, “I could come with. Extra set of eyes and all.”
I gave him a droll look but he seemed unfazed, “I think I can manage.”
“Your call, Aiden.” Matteo said with a shrug before giving Beth a hug. “You take care of yourself now.”
“Yes, Matteo.” Beth said with a look of her own.