“Aidan?”
“Yeah, who is he?”
“I’m not sure. What did he say?”
“I didn’t talk to him. He was calling you. That’s the name that showed up on your phone, anyway. Aidan with a heart.”
“Aidan with a heart?”
“Yes. Is there an echo in here? Who is he?”
Aidan’s name—not just his number—came up on my phone? With a heart? I was flummoxed. I’d never put Aidan’s number in my phone. And certainly not with some stupid heart.
“I—I.”
“You don’t know who that is?” Jason asked.
“The only Aidan I know is a friend of Lynn’s,” I said.
“Why’s he calling you ten times in the last hour?”
“Um, because, she’s in Florida. I was supposed to—uh, to let him into her house. He’s staying there while she’s gone, but he doesn’t have a key.”
“Why is his number in your phone?”
“Maybe because Lynn shared her contacts with me? Phones are weird like that.”
Jason nodded, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. I tried to organize my features into some semblance of calm expression as my heart pounded with guilt and the fear of being found out. Though God knows why I felt so bad. I didn’t buy for one minute Jason’s story that the Russian woman was a business associate—which meant he’d cheated first. Now that we were back in our apartment together, I was prepared to forgive and forget. Was he?
“Will you be home for dinner?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll call you.”
He walked out, without any further goodbye, and my heart sank. This reconciliation was twelve hours old and already on shaky ground.
As soon as I heard the front door slam, I grabbed my handbag from the counter and pulled out my phone. When I saw the call log, my legs buckled, and I had to sit down. It was insane. There were fourteen missed calls and three voicemails since last night. And Jason was right. The calls registered as coming from “Aidan♥,” as if I’d entered his number with a cutesy heart beside it into my contacts. But I hadn’t. We’d never once talked on the phone; I didn’t even know his number. Frantically, I pulled up my contacts. There it was, under “A”—Aidan♥, with a cell number listed that I didn’t recognize. How the hell—? Well, of course. He’d gone into my phone and entered himself into my contacts during that wild night we spent together. I’d been drunk, passed out, hungover. It was my own fault. I had a distinct memory of Aidan watching me intently as I typed in my passcode. I remembered thinking that was odd and wondering if I should shield the phone from his view. But I didn’t, because I was afraid of seeming paranoid or condescending. I didn’t want him ragging on me for being a snob, so I let him watch. I basically gave him the code. How foolish was that? Then I left my phone lying in plain view on the bedside table. All Aidan would’ve had to do was wait for the right moment to type in my code and put his number in my contacts. I’d left myself completely vulnerable to a man I barely knew.
As the implications dawned on me, I started to sweat. My entire life was on that phone. Pictures of my family. My calendar, with every doctor’s appointment and lunch date and exercise class I had scheduled for months to come. The addresses and phone numbers of my loved ones—my daughter, my sister, my husband. My emails and texts, waiting to be plundered for personal details. All sorts of financial information. On and on. Aidan had uninterrupted time with my phone while I slept. He could know a lot.
Shit. He could know everything about me.
There was no telling how much damage he could do with that information, if he chose to.
24
Tommy was taking Aidan out on his boat, supposedly fishing, but Aidan knew better. They never spent time together for its own sake. There was always some ulterior motive on Tommy’s part, usually a lecture, or something he wanted Aidan to do that would supposedly be good for him in the long run. Tommy’s big-brothering got old sometimes. But the weather was fine for the first time in a week, and Aidan loved the ocean. Tommy always stocked a cooler full of beer and his wife Kelly’s excellent meat loaf sandwiches. What the hell, if Aidan said no to the boat, he’d get lectured anyway. Might as well say yes and enjoy a day on the water.
Tommy was coming off an overnight shift and asked Aidan to meet him at the marina in Port Jeff at nine thirty that morning. It was a bit of a haul to the North Shore. Tommy only docked there because he got the slip on the cheap from a friend in town. The boat was an old bay, small and wheezing, fragrant with gasoline, that he got for a song after it was seized from a drug dealer. Aidan wondered why his brother didn’t take better advantage of his position. Tommy, Kelly, and their three kids lived in a cramped raised ranch on the same street where Tommy and Aidan grew up, which meant Ma dropping in to supper constantly. Tommy drove his work cruiser, and Kelly drove an eight-year-old Toyota. Vacation was splurging on the Holiday Inn for the kids’ travel soccer games. If it was him, he might consider cashing in. But that was Tommy, always the stickler. Aidan had to admire it, really.
Tommy was waiting for him on the boat, gassed up and ready to cast off. As Aidan hopped on board, Tommy touched his own forehead in the spot where Aidan had the bruise from getting slugged by Caroline’s husband last night.
“What happened to your head?” he asked.
“I, uh, had a few too many the other night at work. Walked into a door. Professional hazard.”
“I hope you don’t drive under the influence.”
“Never.”
“I heard you missed work last night.”
Aidan was annoyed with the direction of the conversation. But he was hardly surprised.
“Already with the interrogation? I just stepped foot on the boat.”
“Okay, you’re right. Get that line?”
The sun glittered on the water. The wind was in Aidan’s hair as he cast off the dock lines and joined his brother at the helm. If the only lecture was one small mention of his truancy last night, then he’d gotten off easy, and they could enjoy the day. Tommy steered the boat expertly out of the crowded marina, picking up speed as they hit the open water. They cruised for a while, not talking, squinting through their sunglasses at the waves. Eventually they reached a sheltered cove that was known for its striped bass. Tommy cut the engine, and they dropped anchor.
The wind died down. They sat there for half an hour without a single bite, enjoying the sunshine, a couple of morning beers, shooting the shit about football and the like, before Tommy finally got to the real point.
“This woman you’ve been hanging out with,” Tommy said, his eyes on the horizon. “The chick from the bar.”
“I knew it,” Aidan said, shaking his head.
“Knew what?”
“That you had some ulterior motive for taking me out here. It’s never that you want to hang with me.”
“I do want to hang out with you, and there is no motive. We’re together, so I’m asking about your life.”
“About Caroline?”
“Yeah. What’s up with that?”
“What do you mean, what’s up?”
“Are you seeing her? Is this something ongoing?”
“Why is that your business?”
Tommy shot him a look, which was easy enough to decipher. Tommy thought that anything Aidan touched was his business. And Aidan had touched Caroline.
“Because I care. I worry about you. How much do you know about this woman?” Tommy said.
“I know enough. I know what I need to.”
“Did you know she stiffed every contractor on the island? Unpaid bills from here to Kalamazoo.”
“I don’t believe it. That’s not even possible. Those guys don’t run balances. They take their pound of flesh along the way.”
“I’m telling you what I heard. Plus, I heard some concerning things about her husband.”
Aidan looked at his brother sharply. “Concerning, in what way?”
“That he might be mixed up with so
me bad characters. Involved in some crooked business dealings. That sort of thing. And if he is, and you’re getting with his wife, the guy could go medieval on you.”
“Have you seen him?”
“No. I haven’t. Have you?”
“He’s some uptight Wall Street type in a fancy suit. I’m not afraid of him.”
“Maybe you should be.”
“If there’s something I should be worried about, then tell me. You say you have information that this guy is involved in something criminal. So, tell me the details.”
Tommy met his gaze. “I don’t know any details, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. I know you, Aidan. And I don’t need you going vigilante out of some foolish sense of chivalry. Forget this woman. She’s bad news.”
“Come on, Tommy, please,” Aidan begged, worried now. “I need to know what Stark is mixed up in. If there’s something shady with the guy, I have to protect her.”
“Protect her from her own husband? What are you even talking about? This is a married woman.”
“She’s getting a divorce.”
Now, based on what he’d seen at the restaurant last night, Aidan had his doubts whether Caroline was really getting divorced. Watching her greet her husband with that kiss shook him. If the divorce was off, that was a serious setback for their relationship. But it was only a setback. There were steps Aidan could take to change it. He could be her savior, her defender, like he’d promised, like she’d asked. From what he’d overheard at the restaurant last night, Stark was dealing in big money with this Russian woman. And now here was Tommy suggesting that Stark was mixed up in shady business. It added up to something that could pose a threat to Caroline, or even to her daughter. He had no intention of letting her get hurt, or of letting her slip through his fingers, either. They were destined to be together, and this was his route to winning her, forever.
“Whether she’s getting divorced or not,” Tommy said, “you don’t have a frigging clue what you’re walking into. You’re gonna end up screwing up your life again, and I won’t have it.”
“Do you know how you sound, trying to scare me off her? What are you, jealous? You can’t let me have a relationship.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Can you?” Tommy said.
“Yes, I can, but you refuse to see that. You can’t stop thinking of me as a screwup. Finally, after all these years, I meet a woman that I feel something for, that I can build a relationship with. Why can’t you let me live my life?”
“Maybe because the last time you fell for someone, I had to get you out from under a murder rap.”
Murder? It wasn’t murder. Tommy knew that.
“Manslaughter, Tom. I was convicted of manslaughter. It’s not the same. You’re a cop. You know that.”
“Yeah, well whatever they call it, someone died, and you went to jail. I don’t ever want to go through that again.”
“You think I do?”
Aidan’s mind flew back to the past, to the event that had ruined his life. The day he found out the love of his life and his best friend had been together behind his back. There had been a fight. A fight between two guys over a girl. Happens so often it’s almost a cliché. Aidan didn’t even throw the first punch. Matthew did. Then Aidan fought back, and Matthew wound up on the ground, unmoving, having hit his head on a rock. Aidan would never forget the panic when he realized that Matthew wasn’t breathing, that there was blood on the back of his head. It was a terrible tragedy that Matthew died that day. A tragedy for Matthew and his family. A tragedy for Aidan, too. He’d loved his friend. He hadn’t meant for him to die. It happened in the blink of an eye. Every day since, Aidan wished he could take it back. Hell, he wished it had been him who took the punch and hit his head, him who died.
Aidan crushed his beer can and threw it hard against the water, where it bobbed in the waves. The wind had picked up, and clouds were rolling in. The water looked cold and threatening, even in the shelter of the cove. Aidan’s mood swung with the wind. It seemed impossible to stay caged up on this boat with his brother, listening to the litany of his sins for the thousandth time.
He tore off his shirt, kicked off his sneakers, and stepped up onto the gunwale.
“What are you doing?” Tommy said.
“Getting out of here. I’m done with this bullshit,” he said, and dived overboard.
25
I sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front of me, working up the courage to listen to Aidan’s voicemails. My hands were shaking, and I’d double-locked the doors. In the past twenty-four hours, this man I did not know well, with whom I’d shared a single night of passion, and who had a probation officer and a gun, had: been borderline violent at the beach, refused to leave my car, bashed his head bloody on my dashboard, followed me to the restaurant and posed as a waiter in front of my family, entered his number into my phone and done God knows what else while he had possession of it, called my phone a total of seventeen times, leaving three voicemails. The voicemails were likely to be threats. I dreaded hearing them. But I had to listen. If I didn’t know what I was facing, how could I protect myself?
The ticking of the clock on the wall was loud in the silence of the kitchen. I picked up my phone, feeling very alone. I’d love to talk to Lynn, who was coming back from Florida today, and get her advice. But Lynn told her husband Joe everything. And Jason and Joe were golfing buddies. Jason was already suspicious because of the repeat phone calls. If he thought about it for two seconds, he might connect Aidan♥ to the intrusive waiter at the restaurant last night. I couldn’t risk sharing this burden with my sister. I was too worried that telling her would lead to blowing my secret to my husband. I’d have to handle this alone.
The first voicemail had been left late last night. I squared my shoulders and pressed play.
“Hey, uh, Caroline,” Aidan said.
The sound of his voice had an oddly calming effect at first. I remembered his smile at the bar, his laid-back ways. This guy was chill, right? He wouldn’t hurt me.
“Sorry for getting into it with your husband last night,” he said. “I promised to protect you, and help you get your money back. So, I followed him, and the bastard got wise to it and slugged me. That’s why my head was cut up last night. Did he say anything to you? Give me a call. Also, uh, when can I see you?”
Aidan’s head was cut because he bashed it against my dashboard, not because Jason punched him. That couldn’t’ve happened. Jason would have said something. Wouldn’t he? What did Aidan mean, that he’d followed Jason? Followed him to the restaurant? I assumed Aidan had gotten to the restaurant by following me. This guy was out of touch with reality. I remembered crying to him in the shower about Jason taking my money. God help me if Aidan had taken it upon himself to go after my husband out of some misguided sense of chivalry. If that was true, I had to call off the dogs before Aidan did something crazy.
But there were two more voicemails still to listen to. I queued up the next one.
“Hey, we have things to discuss. I need to hear from you, Caroline. Don’t freeze me out, or I’m gonna get upset.”
And the third: “Why aren’t you returning my calls? I don’t like the way you’re treating me. I go out on a limb for you, and this is what I get. It’s not okay. I’ll be out on the water this morning with my brother. Then I’m coming to find you.”
I’m coming to find you. Oh, my God. I’d been warned. I should have listened to my mother’s nagging voice. I should have paid attention to the accumulated horror stories of forty-three years of life as a woman. Never trust a stranger. Never let a man you don’t know into your house, your car, your pants. I’d ignored them all, and picked Aidan up instead, for a night of wild sex. Now an obviously mentally unstable felon with a gun in his drawer was coming for me. It was no better than I deserved.
My only option was to appease him somehow.
I pulled up Aidan♥ in my con
tacts and pressed call. He answered before the first ring was even completed.
“Finally.”
“Did I catch you at a bad time? You sound out of breath,” I said.
“I went for a swim.”
“Oh.” I looked out the kitchen window at the gray sky. It was like fifty degrees outside. Didn’t really seem like the weather for that, but then he was an odd guy.
“I’m returning your call,” I said. “Your many calls.”
There was an awkward pause.
“What do you expect when you don’t call me back?” he said.
“How about, wait? Also, how did your number get in my phone?”
“I thought you’d want it.”
At least he admitted to messing with my phone, though he hardly sounded remorseful. I wanted to ask him what else he’d done with the phone while I was sleeping. But I was afraid of the answer.
“You shouldn’t mess with another person’s phone,” I said.
“Jeez. Sorry. Why didn’t you call?”
“My husband was here.”
“With you?”
“Yes, with me. What do you think?”
“You said you were getting a divorce.”
“I said I wasn’t sure.”
“That’s not what I heard, Caroline.”
I sighed. “Look. I need to ask you to back off and give me space to figure things out. Can you do that for me, Aidan?”
“Are you saying you might be getting a divorce?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Where are you now?”
“Why?” I asked, my heart skittering with alarm. I did not want him coming to this apartment.
“I want to see you. When can I see you?”
“Not today. I have a lot of things to do.”
“What about our agreement?”
Agreement? What the hell was he talking about? We’d never agreed to anything. The only thing I could think of was that conversation in the shower about Jason taking the money. He’d made noises about getting it back for me, which, naturally, I didn’t take seriously. He wasn’t a lawyer, after all. Hardly. If he had some crazy notion about that, I needed to disabuse him of it, fast.
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