Never Ever (Never His Duet Book 2)

by Lia Ellison

  A knock sounded on the door.

  “Come in,” Aiden said.

  One of his men came rushing inside, and Aiden was instantly worried something else had happened or that there was another message from the Ritos with even crazier demands.

  “Sir, there’s not much we could find out about that contract you asked us to investigate, but we have some news,” the guy said. “It looks like she’s been brought here from another country. We don’t have her name yet or any info about her current whereabouts, but we do have her photo.”

  “Let me see,” Aiden said, and the guy handed him a printed-out photograph.

  Veronica approached, a small gasp escaping her lips.

  “She looks a lot like me,” she said, and she was right. The woman in the photo had very similar dark brown hair, but there were dark circles under her light blue eyes.

  Aiden stared at the photo long and hard. “Are the Ritos involved in human trafficking too?”

  “Yes, sir, we believe they are.”

  Aiden handed him back the photo. “Find out whatever you can about her and ask around to see if we can find out who has her right now.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Veronica rubbed her arms. “Do you think the Ritos helped your brother get that woman?”

  “Maybe.” He scratched his chin, wondering if maybe this whole thing was his brother’s plan somehow, but he wasn’t sure how to put all the pieces together. Something nagged at the back of his mind. “I’ve been searching for a traitor, but what if the traitor is my brother?”

  Veronica arched her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

  “What if Carter found out about you and me even before he told me he was coming back? Before the Ritos’ first attack? It would be stupid to steal from them and then fake signing the deal. My brother might’ve thought he was untouchable, but not even he would risk it. He was in their city, in their territory. He told me he had escaped them, and that they’d gotten the info about my house from his phone that he’d lost, but what if he lied? What if the Ritos are playing along with that lie?”

  “Maybe you’re onto something,” she said.

  “Yeah, what if the Ritos and my brother made a deal, but not the one we originally planned? If my brother knew about us, he could’ve told them something, and he could’ve sent them after me. Maybe their intention was to take you from me all along. Maybe they were supposed to bring you to him in exchange for something. I didn’t think he could wait, but if he thought he could do something that would really hurt me, something even worse than death, then maybe he was waiting for it. And once his plan fell through, he finally confronted me because he couldn’t take it any longer.”

  “Wait, so did Carter stole the diamonds or not? The Ritos have to know your brother’s dead, so there’s no reason for them to try to take me now.”

  “It always felt off that they’d come all the way to another city to find me when it would’ve made more sense for them to hunt down my brother first. Maybe the diamonds were never stolen. Maybe that was the payment Carter had promised them, except you were gone and they failed to bring you to my brother. But that still doesn’t explain their demands now or my brother’s behavior after their attack.”

  “Okay, but how does that woman fit into it all? Or was she part of a separate deal?”

  “I don’t know.” He was getting tired of saying that, but it was hard hunting down ghosts. All he knew was that he wasn’t going to give the Ritos what they wanted, but his throat constricted at the thought of what that would mean for Jo.

  She’s always known what she was getting into.

  Doesn’t mean she deserves to die.

  Then find a way. Find a way to save her.

  He tipped his head back, staring at the ceiling for a few moments. “The phones,” he suddenly said, and Veronica gave him a questioning look. “My brother bought himself new phones when he and I were supposedly looking for the Ritos to retaliate, but he must’ve had different ones when he was alone. I told my men to search through everything, but I forgot about those. They have to be somewhere, unless he tossed them away. But if he was using them to contact the Ritos in secret, then maybe there’s something on them and he kept them.”

  It was all still a wild theory, and he had no idea if they’d really been looking for the Ritos to retaliate, or if his brother had been sending him and his men on a wild goose chase for some reason until he came up with another plan or got his hands on Veronica.

  “Then let’s find those phones,” she said.

  He just hoped they were somewhere among the stuff his men had brought and locked up in a special room after his brother’s funeral.

  Chapter 20

  “HOW MUCH TIME DO WE have left?” I asked as I tapped the screen of the phone that I was holding as quickly as possible.

  “About half an hour,” Aiden said. “We need to hurry.”

  It had turned out there were two boxes of phones. They weren’t all Carter’s, and they should’ve been thrown away, but someone had forgotten to do it. Or maybe Carter had ordered his men to hand over their phones and hadn’t wanted to get rid of them for some reason.

  So now the room was full of Aiden’s men who were all trying to find the right phone. And the worst part was, we didn’t even know if there was a phone with anything useful on it, but it was our best shot.

  The rest of Aiden’s men were still trying to figure out how to find the Ritos and how to attack them and save Jo. But I’d taken a quick look at the map of that area, and Aiden was right—it would be almost impossible to get there without being seen, especially if Aiden brought a bunch of his men with him.

  And there were too many alleys, and even a police station nearby—not too close, but if Aiden’s men wanted to trap the Ritos and corner them, they’d have to pass right next to it, so it would be hard to plan an attack that would work and wouldn’t leave our enemy with an escape route.

  “Boss!” one of the men yelled. “I think I’ve got something. It’s an encrypted archive. I can’t open it.”

  “Get it to the tech team. Now!” Aiden said and tossed the phone he’d been holding. We’d already found a few useless files, so I hoped this time it would be different.

  The one I was checking didn’t have anything useful on it, but at least there wasn’t a dick pic in the photo gallery like on the phone I’d searched before this one.

  Unfortunately, some things can’t be unseen.

  “Tell everyone to get ready,” Aiden said to one of his men.

  “What’s the plan, sir?” the guy asked.

  “We don’t have one yet, but we will.” There was confidence in Aiden’s voice, even though I was sure he didn’t feel it, but his men hadn’t noticed at all.

  “Veronica, come with me,” Aiden said, and I threw away the phone and followed him into the hallway.

  The tech team was just outside, working hard on their laptops. They’d moved into the hallway so we wouldn’t have to waste any time getting to them.

  “Just a few more minutes. It’s our encryption, so it’s easy to crack,” a guy with spiky blond hair said as he typed away on his keyboard.

  Aiden gave him a nod, and I paced up and down as I waited for the guy to finish.

  “Done! It’s an audio file.” He pressed a button, waited a moment, and then detached the phone that had been connected to the laptop.

  Aiden took the phone, and then we were racing down the hallway to get to our room. The info on the phone might be nothing, but if it was important, we didn’t want too many people to overhear it.

  Not that the tech guy couldn’t play it for someone else, but it would be suspicious if someone asked for it. And if the tech guy was a traitor, well, then I supposed he wouldn’t have given us the file anyway.

  Aiden pressed the play button as soon as I closed the door behind us. There was a lot of static at the beginning. Something rustled, as if someone was taking a seat.

  “You want us to attack your brother?” an unfa
miliar male voice said.

  “Yes, that’s right.” The sound of Carter’s voice made me flinch.

  I so didn’t want to hear his voice ever again, not even like this.

  “And why would you want that? Aren’t you and your brother pretty tight?”

  “Oh, he won’t get hurt. I’ll alert him of the attack just in time. I don’t care how many of his men you kill, but there’s someone you need to bring to me. Her name is Veronica Tyler. She’s a sex slave, and my brother’s infatuated with her. I want to help him snap out of it before it’s too late.”

  “Interesting. And what’s in it for us? Why would we help you?”

  “Ah, I have something very special for you. Remember those diamonds you planned to steal, but someone came in before you and snatched them?”

  “Yes,” the man said hesitantly. “Do you have them?”

  “I do. In fact, I have one here as proof. There’s some extra cash and something you’ll find very useful too if you do this for me.”

  “How did you get the diamonds?”

  “That’s my secret. Do we have a deal or not?”

  “And all you want in exchange is that slave?”

  “Yes, bring her to me, and bring her alive. I’ll text you the location once you have her. A man who goes by the name Markus will be waiting for you there, and you’ll hand her over to him. He’ll make sure that she gets where she needs to. Oh, and don’t think you can get the diamonds without her or if she’s dead. You need her and the code Markus will give you to open the door so you can collect your reward. That way we can both be sure we’ll get what we want.”

  My eyes went wide as I met Aiden’s gaze. What the fuck had Carter been planning to do with me?

  “Okay,” the voice continued. “Sounds fair. But it makes me wonder why she’s so special. Why do you need her alive if she’s just distracting your brother?”

  “Ah, I intend to punish her for that.” Carter laughed. “And I think some time with Markus will do her good. He’s perfect for breaking wild girls. As for my brother, I bought something for him. She’s the type of girl he needs so he can forget about this one.”

  “All right then. We have a deal.”

  The recording ended.

  “What the fuck?” I said. “Is this thing for real?”

  Carter had known about Aiden and me, and he’d intended to hand me over to some... slave trainer?

  What in the actual fuck?

  It was hard for me to process this. Was it a trick?

  “I’m afraid it is real.” Aiden squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “That son of a bitch.”

  “But why would your brother record this?”

  “He needed it, probably as leverage. I bet they didn’t have this deal in writing.”

  “I can’t believe this shit.” I waved my hands. “Wait, so the Ritos want me so they could unlock some safe? Is that it?”

  “Yeah, it looks like it. Since you weren’t there when the Ritos attacked, the deal fell through, or they might’ve been working on a new one, but after my brother’s death, they must’ve figured that I don’t know the location and they do, so everything’s still there. But they need you to open it. It’s probably how the safe is set up. There might be a fingerprint or a retina scanner. Do you remember if Carter ever got the chance to take your prints or even some of your blood?”

  “I’ve no idea. I was in and out of consciousness, and I guess he could’ve done it at some point. But wait, if they need me, that doesn’t mean they need me alive, right? Since Carter’s dead, they don’t have to fulfill their end of the bargain anymore.”

  He nodded. “They just want what he promised to them, and it looks like they can’t just steal it. There must be a bomb or something that’s triggered if they don’t have all they need for the safe to open, or they would’ve already found another way. Hell, maybe that’s why it took them so long to make their move.”

  “Oh, that’s lovely. Was that why they asked me to wear a dress? So they could shoot me more easily?”

  “Probably, but you’re not going anywhere, so it doesn’t matter. Carter must’ve told them about Jo and that I care about her too, or that she might be at my house and a threat to them if they attacked, so they thought they had a chance at this.”

  “But why didn’t they just snatch me from that party? It would’ve been easier.”

  “Not with all the guards around you. They risked losing you or getting you killed. Jo wasn’t protected like you were.”

  Well, that was true, and I was really, really glad they hadn’t taken me already and that they hadn’t found a way to get into this house.

  And that poor girl who had been kidnapped or tricked into slavery had just been Carter’s attempt to get back at Aiden, or maybe he’d really believed Aiden would just be happy with any girl.

  It was surreal to think that this was all happening because of me. Well, because of Carter who’d turned me into another thing—this time into a key to a safe.

  Was I ever going to be free of him?

  And what were we going to do now?

  Chapter 21

  “TIME?” AIDEN ASKED.

  “Less than twenty minutes,” I said.

  “Okay.” He clasped his hands in front of him. “My men are already in position nearby, but not close enough for the Ritos to start panicking. My only option is to attack them head-on. They’ll see us coming, but maybe we’ll get at least some of them. And Jo...” He sighed. “Maybe we get lucky.”

  “We need about ten minutes to get there from here, right? Do you think they already know where we are? Do you think they might be waiting for us to come out?”

  “No, I don’t think so. My men would’ve spotted them. They’re probably hoping I’m going to come for Jo or will risk bringing you. Who knows what my brother told them about me. I’m guessing it’s nothing good if they expect me to bring fake diamonds and you to that meeting spot. They know I don’t have the real ones, and yet, it looks like they’re hoping someone will show up anyway. It’s like they’re expecting me to try to trick them.”

  “What if I can buy you some more time to get there?” It was stupid and incredibly risky to actually meet with the Ritos, but they needed me, so maybe there was a way for us to use that.

  “How?” Aiden raised an eyebrow at me.

  “I could go there and pretend that I brought the diamonds. I know it’s crazy, but they aren’t going to start shooting immediately, right? All you and your men would have to do is to sneak up on them. Since the Ritos will be occupied with me, they might not see you coming, or they won’t be quick enough to escape.”

  His eyes bulged. “No! Absolutely not! I’m not putting your life at risk for this. No way!”

  “But it’s our best chance to get Jo back. I don’t even have to go anywhere near them, just make them think that I am. Do you think you could use drones to attack them if I’m supposed to meet them out in the open?”

  “My men have already thought of that, but our exploring drone was taken down, so I’m sure they’d spot something like that, and I’d never let you risk your life. I’ll send a woman who looks like you. They won’t even know until it’s too late.”

  “And what if they figure it out and kill Jo? What if they ask her to step out of the car? If they need me, I’m pretty sure they know exactly what I look like. Hell, Carter must’ve told them everything about me already.” I placed my hand on my hip, giving him a hard look. “I can do this. You just need to find a way to get there too.”

  The truth was, I was scared like hell of trying to pull off something like this, but I wasn’t about to let someone else risk their life for me. And if I could save Jo, then I had to try.

  The Ritos weren’t going to blow me up or try to kill me before they were sure they could get whatever they needed from me to open that safe.

  “No.” Aiden closed the distance between us, placing his hands on each side of my face. “I won’t allow it. You’re staying here. If Jo were here no
w, she would tell you not to put yourself in danger for her.”

  “But it’s not just about Jo. The Ritos will keep coming at us, and this is a chance for us to take out at least some of them. I’m sure you’re aware of that.”

  He leaned his forehead against mine. “No, I can’t do it. We can’t. Even if we try it your way, they’re going to spot our cars. We can’t hide, and there’s not enough time to go on foot. We’d be too late. Anything else wouldn’t work. I’m not sending you there with a bomb or anything that might hurt you too. I wish more than anything that there was a way to help Jo, but I would never risk losing you. I can’t live without you, Veronica.”

  “They’re probably not going to kill me if they don’t see me as a threat, and I bet they won’t.” I covered his hands with mine. “They need me.”

  “They might not need you alive. And even if they do, what if something goes wrong? What then? What if they take you with them and force you to open that thing for them? They’ll kill you after that, and I won’t even know where you are.”

  I glanced at the time on the alarm clock. We had to hurry if we wanted to do something. Closing my eyes, I tried to clear my mind.

  Think, Veronica, think.

  There has to be something.

  “I can wear a tracker,” I said. “I can put it somewhere they won’t easily find it. If they think you don’t know about their deal with your brother, they won’t be worried too much about it.”

  He vehemently shook his head.

  “I can stall them. They said I can have two guards with me. They can protect me. We’ll go slowly or pretend we don’t trust them. It’ll give you enough time to get there.”

  “When they see or hear our cars, it’s all over.”

  “But what if they don’t?” My heart thudded loudly in my chest.