Mario climbed out of the car and closed the door behind him and I smiled at Aiden in the passenger seat who was flashing that lopsided grin at me. “For a genius, Lambert’s pretty damn stupid sometimes.”
I laughed and watched him disappear inside the store. “He’s either gay or has very little experience with women. Which is it?”
“Not the first one,” Aiden answered. “Actually, not the second either. He dated the same woman for years up until about six months ago. He’s just one of those people that lives in his own world most of the time. Never even occurred to him that you’re a woman and your body doesn’t operate the same way ours do.”
I snickered and shook my head at the gas station. “Is it wrong that I know I should let him out of this but I’m totally not going to?”
Yes, Mason scolded.
“Hell, no,” Aiden laughed. “He deserves it. Thinks the only person he’s not smarter than is Dietrich. Serves him right.”
Aiden’s phone rang in the seat beside him and he picked it up and frowned at it. “That’s… uncanny.”
“If you tell me that’s Dietrich, I’m taking it as a sign from the universe to go inside and apologize to Mario. And maybe even call him Lambert from now on.”
“Um… it’s Dietrich.”
I wanted to go inside and make good on my promises to the universe, but I was also terribly curious as to why he was calling now. And really, it’s the universe’s fault for making us humans so damn curious in the first place.
“Are you with Bella?” Dietrich asked as soon as Aiden answered.
“Yes,” Aiden said slowly.
“Told you,” Eric taunted him in the background.
“Hey,” I snapped. “Told him what?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Dietrich sighed. “And Eric… shut up.”
“Think you forgot a couple of words there,” Eric said.
“Does Langley know they’re paying you two for this?” I asked.
“Probably,” Eric responded.
“Which begs the question: why haven’t I gotten a raise?” Dietrich retorted.
“Did you really call me for this?” Aiden asked.
“Butt dialed,” I said smartly.
“He wouldn’t have asked if I were with you then,” Aiden pointed out.
“Quick cover for the embarrassing butt dial,” I countered.
“Or maybe they had a bet to see if you’d killed me in my sleep yet,” Aiden argued.
“In your sleep?” I teased. “Are you or are they implying we’re sleeping together?”
“Good God, they’re as bad as we are,” Eric interrupted.
“This is why nobody likes us,” Dietrich agreed.
“Speak for yourself,” Eric said. “I’m… far more tolerable.”
“Aiden,” I said, “stop Johnson and Mario from getting in the car.”
As Aiden opened the door, I heard Eric asking, “Who the hell is Mario?”
Aiden told his partners he was on a business call then slammed the door closed. He gave me a puzzled look as he waited for me to explain why I was keeping them standing outside.
I smiled at him and asked the men on the other end of the phone, “Johnson just told us we weren’t stopping again for three hundred miles and I bet Mario I could have him off the road in fifty. Aiden thinks he’s an idiot for taking the bet. What do you think?”
“I still want to know who the hell Mario is!” Eric exclaimed.
“He’s an idiot,” Dietrich said. “Can you let both idiots back in the car now?”
“Dude,” Eric sighed. “Who the fuck is Mario?”
“Lambert,” Dietrich told him.
“Oh, yeah, he’s an idiot,” Eric agreed.
Aiden snorted and opened the door, motioning for Mario and Johnson to join us.
“I guess this means I’m not getting my new laptop,” I complained.
You shouldn’t, Mason reprimanded. That guy’s the closest thing to a friend you have. You shouldn’t take advantage of him.
“I’ll get you a laptop just for explaining to Lambert how you were going to get Johnson to pull over while I’m there so I can see his face,” Eric offered.
“Deal,” I said before realizing Eric had said while I’m there.
“Wait…” but it was too late. Aiden had caught on faster than me.
“You’re coming here?” Aiden asked.
“Not for long, obviously,” Eric responded. “Just a few days.”
“Why?” I squeaked. How had we screwed up so badly already that Dietrich was sending his best friend to babysit us? How had I screwed everything up so badly already?
It can’t be anything you’ve done, Bella. What could they expect from you?
But they asked if I were here, Mason! Dietrich asked if I were here and Eric said, “Told you.”
Johnson and Mario reached the car and climbed in, staring at the phone like God himself was about to order us to sacrifice our sons or something.
“You should be back in Atlanta by tonight,” Eric said. “And I’m on the way to the airport right now. I’ll meet you at the hotel.”
“Why?” I squeaked again.
Aiden looked as uncomfortable as I felt about the idea of someone so… important… crashing our little party. If Dietrich was sending Eric to Atlanta, it had to be serious and we had to be in serious trouble.
“I’ll be there tonight,” Eric said. “And Aiden, if you buy a six-pack of Bud Light, I’m making you drink the whole thing.”
The phone went silent and we all stared at it, waiting for Dietrich and Eric to call us back and tell us this whole thing was just a joke and we weren’t really going to have a late night visitor from Houston who just happened to be one of the most badass field agents in the CIA.
When the phone didn’t ring to deliver us the news we hoped for, I looked up at Aiden and asked, “Why is Eric trying to kill you with cheap beer?”
Johnson turned the key in the ignition and told me, “Nothing wrong with Bud Light.”
“There’s everything wrong with it,” Aiden responded. “And Eric hates it. He and Dietrich once made themselves sick racing each other to finish off a six-pack.”
“What kind of German can’t handle three beers?” I joked.
Mario snorted and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Wasn’t the quantity. They drank them too quickly.”
“Again… does the CIA know what kind of guys they’re hiring?” I asked. “Because I’m pretty sure ‘frat boys’ isn’t the image you’re all going for.”
Aiden lifted a shoulder at me. “You’d be surprised.”
Even though Eric had already offered to buy my laptop, I just couldn’t help it. Part of me just wanted to prove I could do it. I watched the mile markers carefully after Johnson got back on the interstate, and as soon as we passed the forty-five mile mark, I leaned forward in my seat and tapped him on the shoulder. “I need you to pull over at the next stop.”
Johnson shook his head. “Nope. Told you to take care of your business at the gas station. You should have listened.”
Mario put his phone down and grinned at me like he’d already won even though he didn’t know the bet had been called off.
Aiden just watched me, looking both amused and impressed that I still intended to prove I could do it.
“Well, some things can’t be planned, Johnson,” I snapped. “And unless you want me bleeding all over your backseat, get off the damn interstate now!”
Johnson looked over his shoulder at me then faced the road again and sighed. “There’s an Exxon up ahead in two miles,” he agreed reluctantly.
I smiled triumphantly at Mario who just gaped at me.
We didn’t bother telling him he didn’t really have to buy me a two thousand dollar laptop until we pulled into the hotel parking lot in Atlanta. Mario put his phone away and shook his head.
“I’m a man of my word. You’ll get your laptop and you’ll be able to control Skynet on that thing.”
&nbs
p; “I… have no idea what that means,” I admitted.
Aiden groaned, “I think it’s a reference to Terminator.”
“I think I don’t care,” Johnson interrupted. “Eric is going to be here in a few hours, and I’m still kind of shitting my pants over here as to why he’s coming in the first place.”
“You should have gotten down at the gas station with me then,” I told him.
Johnson just blinked at me.
Only Aiden got my joke. Or only Aiden thought it was funny.
Aiden is going to laugh at anything you say, Mason mumbled.
You’re not allowed to talk about Aiden anymore.
How are you going to stop me? Mason asked.
Damn it.
I grabbed Aiden’s arm before he could get out of the car and asked him, “Is it too late to call a priest and attempt an exorcism?”
“Afraid so. After twenty-four hours of possession, that’s like Pope level intervention.”
I nodded in complete smartass agreement. “Ok. Any chance you have the Pope on speed dial?”
“Why is speed dial even in your vocabulary?” Mario asked. “You’ve been here like, what, eight years? Have you ever even seen a phone that needed speed dial?”
He has a point, Mason agreed, which just annoyed me. Where did you pick that up?
“For God’s sake, get out of the car,” I muttered.
We all waited anxiously in Aiden’s room for Eric’s arrival. The normal bantering between him and Johnson was absent and only the television broke the heavy, silent tension in the room. It felt like we were waiting on the executioner to come for us.
It was almost midnight when he knocked on the door. We looked at each other as if to ask, “You gonna get that?”
I rolled my eyes and stood up. “You’d better hope that’s Eric and not some half-assed alien here to murder me,” I hissed to the room full of CIA agents.
Pansies.
“Does that make you a half-assed alien?” Aiden called after me.
I lifted my hand to flip him off but didn’t bother turning around. I peeked through the peephole even though I didn’t know what Eric looked like. For all I knew, he was some half-assed alien here to murder me. Admittedly, a pretty damn hot one, but I doubt that would’ve mattered much to me as I was being murdered.
I pulled the door open and pretended to scowl at him.
Eric dropped his bag and threw his hands up. “I just got here. How can I be in trouble already?”
“Where the hell is the government finding some of you guys? Ralph Lauren?”
Eric blinked at me then looked over my shoulder. “Are you sure she’s sane?”
“Nope,” Aiden answered.
I lifted my hand and flipped him off again.
Eric just shrugged and picked up his bag. “She gets bonus points for being entertaining.” He waited until I closed the door before grinning at me and saying, “And for the record, I recruited Dietrich and Aiden.”
“Dude,” Johnson said, “this is why people think you’re gay.”
“Well, she clearly wasn’t talking about you,” Eric retorted.
“But you’ve got a thing for recruiting hot young men,” I teased. “Don’t worry. I’m not judging. I’m not even from this planet, and homosexuality isn’t a big deal on mine. It’s like the only thing that isn’t a big deal apparently.”
Only seconds before, I’d been terrified of this man showing up at our hotel and only seconds after letting him in, I felt so comfortable around him, so completely disarmed, like we’d known each other forever and were just planning on a few days to play tourist and catch up on each other’s lives.
Eric nodded smartly. “Your planet sucks alien balls, which we’ve already established don’t exist and I shouldn’t say, but it’s still fun to say, so I’m keeping the expression.”
“Does Mark secretly celebrate every time you leave town?” Johnson asked.
“How the hell should I know if he’s doing it in secret?” Eric snapped.
“I thought you didn’t always work with Mark anymore,” I said. “So why would he celebrate even if he didn’t like you, which I doubt is the case?”
Eric put his arm around me and told the room, “I like her. Let’s keep her.”
“How many alien pets are we going to collect?” Mario asked.
“I will kick your ass,” Aiden warned.
Eric let his arm fall and pulled the only empty chair away from the table so he could sit down. “Dietrich doesn’t leave the country much anymore, so I still go on international assignments with Mark. I hand the CIA a diamond mine and they turn him into a paper pusher.”
“He turned himself into a paper pusher,” Aiden countered.
“Did you really come to Atlanta to discuss whether or not I’m crazy and whether or not the CIA has made a terrible mistake by allowing Dietrich to stay home and just order people around?” I asked.
“No, I don’t think you’re crazy, and yes, they made a mistake,” Eric answered. “And I’m here because we’re still slowly decoding information on those checkerboards…”
“Those what?” I interrupted.
Aiden gave me a sympathetic look. “Sometimes I forget new people need an Eric-dictionary when first meeting him.”
So Eric flipped him off.
“Their storage devices have these patterns on them that resemble a checkerboard so I started calling them checkerboards because no one else gave them a name,” Eric explained.
“Not true,” Mario protested. “Several of us in IT proposed alternative names.”
Eric waved him off. “Nobody wants to call it a piece of extraterrestrial mass storage equipment.”
“Instrument,” Mario corrected. “EMSI for short.”
I gaped at Mario for a second before turning back to Eric. “So what’s on these checkerboards?”
“All sorts of shit,” Eric said. “Including information on every single person who’s crossed over. Our guys just found Mason’s and your file.”
“Oh, my God,” I breathed. I felt dizzy and sick. My fingers groped for the edge of the mattress so I could sit down but all I caught was air. I didn’t even see Aiden get up so he could help me and prevent me from falling.
Eric took a deep breath and reached for my hand, holding it between his. “Bella, I’m here for you. Mason was smart, just like Lottie, and tried to hide his resurrection. We haven’t found a file on her yet, but Jackson Garrett began to suspect something was off about Mason soon after he woke up. He reported him, but they decided not to kill him right away.”
Oh, Bella… what could possibly be worse than what they’ve done to us already?
I shook my head slowly because I honestly couldn’t imagine. Only part of my brain registered the sensation of being pulled into someone’s embrace and comforting words being murmured in my ear.
Even Mason didn’t have anything to say about Aiden and his proximity to me at that moment.
Our attention was fixated on one man who had come with news that threatened to upend our lives again.
“Why not?” I whispered.
Eric glanced at Aiden sitting next to me then his eyes settled on me and he took another deep breath. “Because you didn’t cross alone. They intended to use you both for a specific purpose, but when Mason turned out to be… unreliable… they had to change plans. It was an experiment. They wanted to see if it could be done because it could open a new potential source of revenue, but…”
“Eric,” Aiden snapped, “get to the fucking point!”
Eric’s eyes never left me. “Did you know you had a baby sister who was born shortly before you left?”
My eyes widened as my stomach dropped and my heart leapt into my throat. “Yes,” I whispered.
“They took her, Bella,” Eric said softly. “They wanted to see if an infant from your planet could revive an infant’s body here and grow up entirely human with only human memories.”
“No,” I moaned.
Ai
den’s arm tightened around my shoulders as he pulled me closer to him.
“She survived, Bella. And all this time, she’s been in the same city you and Mason chose to move to. Maybe that’s why they sent her here. We don’t know. But I came here to help you get your sister back from Schultz.”
Chapter 14
Aiden closed the patio door and handed me a cold glass bottle. I didn’t even look at it before putting it to my lips. Some part of me thought, “This definitely isn’t Bud Light,” but I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. I had expected Eric to deliver upsetting news, but this? How could anything have prepared me for discovering the men who ran this company had conspired to kidnap an infant just to see if it would survive the journey across the universe and if a baby could reanimate a body?
In their minds, I supposed they’d had it all worked out. A young couple crossing over, a new sister born to her poor parents who would inevitably face the same decisions at some point: servitude or hope to find some male willing to marry her. A ready-made family if everyone survived.
But if they’d suspected Liam had somehow been resurrected, why had they done nothing until Mason left me? Why had they feigned innocence for so long?
And worse now, what if my sister didn’t want to be rescued?
She would be eight years old now. Dietrich and Eric had immediately searched for Schultz’s dependents and found he did claim one – a girl that age by the name of Lily who had just finished the second grade at a private school outside of Atlanta. This girl had no memories of being born on another planet; she certainly couldn’t have any memories of being born on this one and dying or being handed a second chance at life.
Schultz couldn’t survive this insurrection, and we were going to take away the only family my sister had ever known.
Oh, Bella… Mason sighed.
I could feel his pain. At that moment, I wanted to somehow pull him from my mind and comfort him.
I set my beer bottle down and Aiden immediately slipped his hand around mine. “Bella, you don’t have to take care of her, you know. We can make sure she’s placed with a good family.”
The Chosen: A Resurrected Series Novel Page 15