Innocence & Betrayal (Hidden Truths)

by Brittney Sahin

  After a few minutes ticked by, Ava forced herself to speak. It didn’t seem like he was going to, after all. “How come you don’t seem phased by all of this? Guns. Men in masks . . . it seems normal to you.” She hoped the change in conversation would help diffuse the sexual tension that still hung in the air, threatening like a storm.

  “Man of mystery, remember?” He grabbed the glass back from her and took several sips.

  Damn you and your empty answers. “What do we do now, then?” She blew out a breath and ran her hand through her hair, frustration piercing her body.

  She saw Aiden visibly relax at her question. “We wait for Kat to wake up. And we wait for Michael to let us know if he generated any leads on your other coworker, Eddie. Or on Henry.”

  “And if Michael comes up empty?”

  “He won’t.”

  “How can you be so sure?” she challenged.

  “Because he saved my life in the Marines, and he saved my life a few months ago.”

  ***

  “What?” Ava’s eyes widened.

  “And now it’s time to go to bed.” Aiden stood up and turned around to face her, his attention shifting to her legs. Stop thinking about her like that. It’s wrong. He tore his eyes from her tan and toned body and focused on her face—but that, too, was a bad idea, because she was wetting her lips. “Come on,” he added in a throaty voice.

  “So, you were a—”

  “I’m going to sleep with you,” he interrupted, silencing the conversation about his background.

  Her shoulders jerked upright. He had just rejected her advances, and now he wanted to share her bed?

  “Relax, love. I’ll sleep on top of the covers, fully dressed. Bulletproof glass or not, I don’t think it’s safe to leave you in the room alone.” He could almost see the disappointment in her eyes. How was he going to control himself around this woman? She was damn near irresistible. “Let’s get some sleep and figure this whole thing out in the mornin’.” He reached his arm out, palm up, motioning her to follow. He didn’t expect for her to take his hand as she rose from the couch, lacing her fingers with his.

  His eyes flashed shut for a brief moment before they walked to the master bedroom. He flicked on the lights as they entered, and closed the door behind them. He released her hand as he approached the leather recliner in the room, and slid it up against the door. “Can’t be too cautious.”

  She nodded as her gaze shifted to the nightstand. To his gun.

  “I hate guns,” she admitted.

  “You must be a liberal,” he joked before removing his shirt.

  “I—I thought you were going to stay dressed,” she choked out, her eyes concentrating on the swell of muscular flesh.

  He shrugged. “Michael doesn’t own pajamas, so he had nothing to give me in that department. You can’t expect me to sleep in a dress shirt, though.”

  “Well, can’t you at least put on a T-shirt?” She pinched her brows together as she pulled down the plush comforter.

  “That was my plan, love.” He walked over to the duffel bag that he’d packed at Michael’s place and pulled out a pair of Nike shorts and a plain white T-shirt.

  “Mind changing in the bathroom?” she asked as he began unbuttoning his dress slacks.

  He jerked his head upright and smiled at her. “Why? Afraid you might like what you see?” He winked at her and rubbed a hand over his hard jaw as he approached the bathroom.

  Once in the bathroom, his thoughts drifted back to the moment when Ava had boldly straddled him. He finished changing and started for the door, but cursed beneath his breath. He pressed his hands against the marble counter and lowered his head, trying to will away the hard on that had resurfaced.

  After a few painful minutes, he entered the bedroom. She had turned off the lights and was already snug in bed.

  “Aiden?”

  He moved toward the bed but remained a few steps away. “Aye?”

  “Do you believe Henry’s okay?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can you lie to me?”

  He released a ragged breath. “I am.”

  ***

  Aiden rubbed a hand over his face. He’d slept like shit the night before. Sitting in the chair in front of the door, he looked over at Ava asleep in the bed. He didn’t want to wake her; she looked at peace, with her hands tucked beneath her face in prayer position. Her face was so angelic. So beautiful. Her heart-shaped face, arched brows, a straight nose with a little upturn, full lips designed for kissing . . . and she thought she was plain without make-up? But it was more than just her looks that turned him on. It was her.

  Aiden tousled his hair, frustrated with himself for the feelings that lurked beneath the surface. He shouldn’t want Ava in any way, even sexually. It just wasn’t right, under the circumstances.

  And to think she’d been working with an uncle he’d never even met for the last six months. Does Henry know where my mum is? My biological donor, I mean. He squeezed his eyes shut at his slip. Even though it was just a thought, he had the urge to clamp his teeth down on his tongue and bite the word mum away.

  The word mother was sacred. It was supposed to mean something.

  But she was just some Godawful woman who had abandoned her son.

  He rose to his feet, and lifted the chair out of the way and touched the doorknob. He stood still—remembering.

  My gun.

  He moved back over to the bed and grabbed the gun from the nightstand. He checked his cell phone and saw three texts from Michael. He must’ve had news.

  He needed to make one call before phoning Michael, however. He made his way through the living room, down a hall, and searched for a place he could talk in private, without Ava overhearing.

  Before he had a chance to shut the door to the office, however, he heard Ava calling his name. Bloody hell.

  The call would just have to wait.

  “Coming.”

  He dialed up Michael on his way back to the living room. “Michael, hey. Got your message. Did you find out anything about Eddie or Henry?”

  He paused in the hallway when he spotted Ava, who was staring out the wall of glass windows. She turned in his direction, and she mouthed Michael’s name to him in question. He nodded at her and entered the room. His gaze switched to the hardwood floors and away from her gorgeous blue eyes. “I’m putting you on speakerphone so that Ava can hear.”

  “Kat’s still asleep, and the doctors have yet to isolate what the hell she was drugged with.” There was a pause on the line. “Eddie never made his flight.”

  “What?” Ava’s shoulders slumped forward as she closed the gap between her and Aiden. Aiden held the phone out in front of him as Ava stood just a foot away, eyeing the phone.

  “I don’t know where he is, but I had someone check his apartment in Maryland. The place was trashed. I also sent someone to Henry, Kat’s, and even your place, Ava.”

  “And?” She reached for the phone, gripping it in front of her, her eyes wild.

  “Same thing. Someone was looking for something, and I’m assuming they didn’t find what they wanted. I don’t want to talk too much on this line. I’ll buzz you later today when I know more. I have a secure line in my office.”

  Ava handed Aiden’s phone back to him after Michael ended the call. “Do you think Eddie’s been taken?”

  He shoved the phone in his pocket and motioned for her to have a seat on the couch. “I think it’s possible.” He waited for Ava to sit before speaking again. “Ava, I need to know more about your project if I’m going to be able to help you.”

  Her attention shifted to the ground as she began to bite on her thumbnail. “I can’t, Aiden. I signed papers.”

  He reached for her face, cupping her cheek with his hand. “Ava, I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “But I wasn’t looking for that kind of help, Aiden.” She shook h
er head, knowing that she hadn’t said it right. “I came to you because I thought you might have some clue about Henry that would help me find him, that’s all. Although it doesn’t even make sense, now that I think about it. If you knew where Henry was, well that would mean . . .” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and rubbed her palms against her legs. Aiden released her face and rose to his feet. “I guess I needed to exhaust all leads, to not only try and figure out what happened to him but to also prove his innocence.”

  “Innocence in what?”

  She covered her face with her hands and was silent for a minute. “Aiden,” she murmured, “for some reason fate brought us together. I mean, I should never have come looking for you. And I’m sorry that I’ve now gotten you involved in this whole thing, but this isn’t just about Henry. It’s also about saving our country.”

  His brows snapped together as his eyes narrowed at her in concern. “What are you saying?”

  “What we were working on in that lab was dangerous. I shouldn’t be saying this to you because I am violating presidential orders, but we were tasked with the assignment to create a chemical weapon.” She stood up and ran a hand through her hair before joining him near the windows. She kept her eyes trained out the window and on the hotel across the street. “Six months ago, Henry was given research and a partial chemical equation that was recovered by Homeland. Supposedly, it was for a planned terrorist attack.”

  “Why in the hell would the government ask you to create a weapon?”

  “Henry told me that we were being ordered to try and complete the chemical equation based on the research. Then we were supposed to create an antidote, in case there were other terrorist cells still in existence, still working on the weapon.” She faced Aiden, and he watched as her face tightened with guilt. “But the whole thing didn’t make sense to me. I questioned it in the beginning, but Henry sidestepped my worries.”

  “Sit down, Ava,” Aiden said when he noticed her skin blanching. He reached for her hand and directed her back to the couch. He sat next to her, keeping her hand entwined with his. He noticed a small tremble in her lips as her eyes lowered to the floor.

  “I don’t know how much you know about chemistry. Or about the government.” She released a ragged breath. “But what we were working on is a violation of a world treaty the U.S. signed awhile back. The government vowed never to create any chemical weapons. And at first, I understood the agency’s rationale for the assignment—because what if they needed a remedy? But this is not an exact science. There’s no way to be sure that what we were attempting to create in the lab would replicate the original plan. One small difference would make any antidote worthless.”

  Shit, was all that came into Aiden’s mind. He tightened his grip, and she looked up at him.

  “The orders came from the secret intelligence group who interrogated me, and their orders came from the U.S. President.”

  “Ava, why would that secret agency think Henry might be a traitor?” He could tell she wasn’t sure whether she should speak. Her lips were practically glued shut, and she avoided eye contact with him. “Ava? I know I’m just a bar owner in your mind, but I need to know everything if I can truly help.”

  She nodded and finally looked up at him, her blue eyes full of pain and worry. “Last month, it was Henry’s birthday, and he’d been drinking, and he and I got to talking . . . and he admitted to me that he didn’t like what we were doing. He didn’t like breaking treaties and worried that the weapon might fall into the wrong hands. It was the first time he’d ever confessed this to me, and it was the last time. Well, until Sunday night.” She ran her free hand down her neck, angling her head back, before resting it on her chest. “On Sunday night, Henry and I finished the chemical equation.”

  He sat back a little but didn’t let go of her hand.

  “When we completed the formula, we both freaked out—realizing our mistake. Henry mentioned that he would destroy the evidence and that he would hide the fact that we had finished the assignment.”

  “And did he?”

  “He told me to leave. He didn’t want me to be a part of anything that could jeopardize my career. He said he was going to loop the video feeds or something to hide the last hour of our time in the lab.”

  “And then what?”

  “We would spend another week or so pretending to work on the assignment before Henry let the boss—a boss I’d never met—know that the equation was impossible to complete.”

  “And what if there was a need for an antidote?”

  “Henry had that covered. He was going to work on the antidote in secret, just in case.”

  “And I take it that you didn’t tell the, uh, secret agency about any of this?” He released her hand and stood up, his body rigid. He shoved a hand into his pocket and walked toward the windows that lined the room, effectively making it a glass wall.

  “No, but on Monday, they did ask if the assignment was complete. And I lied. But,” she began while standing, “I think we were right. We shouldn’t have been working on it to begin with. There’s a reason why there are treaties about this.”

  “So, that was the last time you saw Henry?”

  She nodded and joined him by the windows.

  “It’s possible that Henry decided to take off if he feared that someone high up would discover the truth.”

  “Then why was the lab empty? Why are there lunatics hunting me down?”

  He glanced over his shoulder at her. He longed to pull her close to him, to shelter her from the storm he could feel brewing. “I don’t know, Ava, but I promise to get to the bottom of this.”

  “You still want to help me after knowing the truth? This isn’t too much to handle?”

  “Not for me.” He faced her and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear before the back of his hand ran down her cheek

  “Thank you,” she whispered. Her head tilted, and she pushed up on her toes.

  Her lips hovered just in front of his mouth, and he knew what she wanted. What am I doing? Back away. His voice of reason disappeared as Ava’s lips touched his.

  Chapter Nine

  He broke the kiss and took a small step away. Her back was now to the window, and he pressed his left palm to the glass above her shoulder. He tilted his head and stared down at her as if contemplating an appropriate response. His chest moved up and down, his breathing heavy, as his blue eyes turned a shade darker.

  She looked at the floor, fearing rejection again, but shivers coursed through her body when he cupped her chin, angling her face in his direction.

  His mouth captured hers, almost violently at first—with an insatiable need . . . but he softened the kiss as he reached for her hip. He pulled her fast against him, and her breasts swelled beneath her shirt, pressing against his chest. His mouth was now on her neck, kissing as she moaned, head back, eyes shut, forgetting . . .

  Right now, it was just her and Aiden.

  Aiden’s mouth on her. His hands on her.

  She gripped his back, pulling herself as close to him as possible—rubbing her body against his as some primal need took hold of her.

  She groaned as his hands moved beneath her shirt and palmed her full breasts. “You’re so feckin’ sexy,” he whispered in her ear before his teeth grazed her earlobe. The warmth of his breath on her ear caused her body to tremble.

  He lifted her into his arms and carried her down the hall and back to the bed they’d shared the night before. His breathing was ragged as he shouldered open the door.

  She held onto his neck, feeling light in his embrace. When he set her on the bed, she focused on his hands as he tugged off his shorts. He removed his T-shirt from over his head, revealing his well-defined abs and chiseled chest. Standing in only his boxers, he lay down alongside her and turned her toward him.

  She traced the outline of his erection with her fingers before slipping them under his boxer briefs. His flesh was hot on her hands, and he became harder and thicker, which she didn�
��t believe was even possible, as she stroked him. He grumbled something incoherent as he pulled her against him, resuming their kiss.

  Breathless and frantic with need, she released her grip, and pulled away for a moment, just long enough to peel off her shorts. The blue of his eyes deepened with lust as she sat up and pulled her top off, exposing her heavy breasts. Her pink, perky nipples were begging for his mouth, and he delivered.

  He drew her closer to him to gain better access, and massaged her breasts with his mouth, one at a time, as his hands slipped to her smooth center.

  “Aiden . . .” She’d imagined this moment ever since the first time she’d laid eyes on the sexy Irishman in the bar—was it just a few days ago? And now, in spite of everything, he was fulfilling her fantasies.

  And exceeding expectations. His touch was enough to send her over the edge. She clawed at the sheets behind her, gripping them as she rode the wave of ecstasy that had become almost a stranger to her in the last few years.

  He silenced her whimpers when he claimed her mouth with his tongue. “God, you’re so sexy.”

  “Please,” she cried into his mouth, wanting him to fill her. To fill the void—the pain—inside.

  And then he was off of her, and his absence was too much to handle. No!

  She was relieved when she realized he was only going for his wallet, in the pocket of his black slacks from the night before, which were hanging on a nearby chair.

  He tore open a condom pack, slipped off his boxer briefs, and sheathed himself so quickly that she could hardly see his hard and long length. He climbed onto the bed, and she could feel the thick, tight muscles in his thighs as he nudged her legs apart. He braced himself just above her, her breasts jutting out, her nipples grazing his chest.

  “Are you sure?” he whispered into her ear.

  “Oh God, yes,” was all she could say before he grasped her hip and plunged inside of her. His fingers laced with hers, over her head. He moved slowly at first, and Ava was relieved. She was tight. Very tight. She hadn’t had sex in, what? Two years? Two very long years.