Everything was all right. It had to be all right. I was just overreacting, and… but what if it wasn’t? What the hell was Houston General doing calling Riley? Had her father been in an accident? Was he sick? Or was it just a wrong number?
“How many times did that number call?” Grant asked, hovering over Asher’s shoulder as his fingers flew over the keyboard.
“There have been several calls over the last few hours. All have gone unanswered,” Asher said.
“Monitor that line. Let me know if the call gets picked up, or if a voicemail is left,” Grant said to Asher, and then he looked over his shoulder at me. “We’ll figure out what’s going on, Ace.”
Grant’s cell phone rang, breaking the tense silence.
He muttered something under his breath before answering it, something that sounded a lot like, damn it, and then he disconnected the call, briefly closing his eyes.
My blood froze. “Everything okay?”
“Oliver, Jared’s security guard, thinks someone has breached the property of the safe house they’re staying at.”
My head flinched back. “Safe house? Why is Jared at a safe house?”
“It was precautionary after the band manager’s niece was attacked. They needed a spot to lay low for a few days, but Oliver seems to think someone’s been poking around the property.” His face pulled into a frown as he shot off a text and stared at his phone, waiting for a reply.
When the reply came, he cursed low under his breath. “I need to head to the command room. I’ll catch up with you in a little bit.”
I sat in shock as he made his way to the door, and then disappeared, leaving my head spinning with a million questions.
Chapter 3
It wasn't even two days later when Nadia’s prediction came true. The two snipers had been spotted outside the cabin. Shots had been fired. Two bodies needed to be recovered. Recovering the bodies was my mission. And I would have stuck with it without question had I not heard Aiden’s name mentioned in a hushed conversation between Nadia and Grant.
Gravel crunched under my feet as I walked up to the front door of the safe house, trying not to think the worst. Oliver, Jared’s bodyguard, was with him. I’d spoken to him over video coms and he’d assured me that Jared was all right, but I wouldn’t feel better until I saw him myself. Plus, there wasn’t anyone or anything that would stop me from finding out if Aiden was inside the safe house with Jared. Not Grant. Not Oliver. Not the fear of being shut out of the program. Nothing.
I jabbed my finger into the doorbell and waited… and waited. When no one came to the door, I pushed it again, and then all hell broke loose somewhere behind the sturdy wood.
Hearing it, I grabbed the door handle, twisted it, and then pushed it open just in time to see Oliver holding Aiden up in the air.
“What the fuck are you idiots doing in here?” I asked as I took in the scene.
Aiden picked up his hand and waved. “Hey, Ace. Do you think you can get this monkey to let me go? I swear to fuckin’ God, he’s like part Orangutan or something.”
Before I could say anything, Oliver dropped him, and then Aiden landed on the floor like the damn cat he was and bounced onto his feet, lunging towards me. His hand pounded my back when he hugged me and said, “I wondered when you’d be called in. Damn, it’s good to see you!”
For as happy as I was to see Aiden, I couldn’t take my eyes off Jared. The look on his face was crippling. And from the way his jaw twitched, I could tell he was seconds away from an epic explosion.
“You’re a fucker, and you’re a fucker.” His finger stabbed the air at me, and then Aiden. “You’re both fuckers,” he said, storming towards us, using the momentum of his body weight as he shoved us for good measure.
I gave him a head start of a few minutes, and then followed him up the stairs, catching the end of his conversation. His phone sailed through the air, hit the wall, and then bounced across the carpet.
Jared was in a real snit, throwing a temper tantrum and everything.
“Feel better now?” I asked, hoping he’d realize how juvenile he was acting.
He didn’t look up as he replied. “Fuck off, Ace.”
His anger bothered me, but I wasn’t going to egg him on anymore. Instead, I settled for the truth before turning to leave him in his misery. “I missed you too, bro.”
Jared would come around when he was ready, and not a moment before then.
When I made it back downstairs, I sought Aiden out, finding him at the back of the house by the rocky shore of the lake. He was standing with Oliver, the two talking low enough not to be overheard. I didn’t care if I was interrupting as I cut into their conversation and singled Aiden out. “Care to tell me how you’re here?”
“He’s here same as you. Grant recruited the both of you within days apart,” Oliver answered.
Aiden smirked. “At least now we’re together. Plus, we’ll be able to talk to Jared without having to lie to him.”
And somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better, I thought as my phone vibrated. I dug it out of my pocket, seeing Aiden do the same. It felt weird having it back after all the time I’d gone without it. The alarming amount of messages alone was staggering. The worst one of them all was the one about Riley’s dad. It was why I was given my phone back in the first place after Grant and Asher figured out why the hospital was trying so hard to get a hold of Riley. Having my phone back didn’t make a bit of difference though. I was told calling Riley was off limits until I made it back from my mission in the Poconos. That any calls going out weren’t safe because my phone hadn’t been chipped to scramble the signal, and that the only reason they were giving it back to me was so that I knew what was going on, to in some way be kept in the loop. Even if I couldn’t do anything about it.
My stomach bottomed out as I read the group message from Paige telling everyone Riley had decided not to do a funeral for her dad.
I felt like the world’s biggest asshole. Riley’s father had died and I hadn’t done everything I could do in order to be there for her.
I brought the phone up, finger poised over her phone number, when Oliver snatched my phone from my hands.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Aceton?”
A sliver of anger wormed down my spine. “Look, Oliver, you might work for Grant and watch over Jared, but you don’t have clearance to order me around or question what I’m doing. Give me back my phone,” I demanded through clenched teeth.
His eyebrows pressed into a hard line. “Like hell I will. You know you can’t make any calls without Grant’s approval.”
“Oh, come on, Oliver. His girlfriend’s father just passed away. Why the hell can’t he call and check on her?” Aiden asked, reaching out to snatch my phone back from Oliver.
Oliver pulled his hand back and stuffed my phone in his pocket, his hard gaze darting back and forth between us. “You know the rules. No one is supposed to know you work for Cole Enterprise. You two idiots already broke that rule, and now I have to face the consequences of your screw up with Nadia and Grant.”
“That’s total bullshit and you know it,” Aiden said, screwing his face up.
I pushed Aiden back a step and moved closer to Oliver, keeping my tone dangerously even. “I won’t ask again. Give me back my phone.”
“No, because the minute you get it back, you’ll run off and call her,” Oliver said, turning away as if the conversation was over before heading back into the house.
Rage coursed through me. Aiden and I followed behind, right on his heels.
“I want to talk to Grant,” I said, dogging every single step he took to get away from us until we were behind closed doors. He wasn’t going to get rid of me that easy. Not with my only lifeline to Riley in his pocket.
A cocky smile pulled at his lips. “Be my guest,” he answered, bringing out his own cell phone to dial Grant.
Aiden and I didn’t get a word in for the first few minutes of the conversation. Grant was
in such a shit mood that he told Oliver over the speaker that under no circumstances was I allowed to have my phone back, and that if we were caught making any phone calls, to bring us straight to him. I’d have my time to talk to Riley when he said so, and that was final. Until then, I was to follow his instructions.
My head pounded as I searched for the strength within me to keep my brewing temper in check.
“I’m pulling you from the Poconos, Jake. Be ready to leave in the next hour,” Grant said.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Where am I going?”
“Oliver will give you your instructions when it’s time for you to leave. Oliver, be sure to give him one of the sat phones and a field kit.”
“Will do,” Oliver answered before ending the call.
I left the room in a blind rage with no outlet.
I’d known things weren’t going to be easy while living the life of a shadow, but come on… to not be able to have contact with Riley when she needed me most was a dick move. Not to mention pulling me from one mission for another without telling me what the hell I would be doing.
My fists clenched and unclenched as I paced a line into the ground, warring with myself over whether I should push harder to speak with her, or just drop it.
Aiden found me a few minutes later. He walked up beside me, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. “I’m sorry, Ace. Everything about this is fucked up. I know how much you want to talk to her.”
I sighed, a heavy, soul-deep sort of sigh, and then looked over at him. “I’m letting her down, Aiden. She needs me, and I can’t be there. Why can’t I talk to her? I wouldn’t tell her anything. I just need her to know that I’m… I’m… hell, I can’t even say I’m there for her, because I’m not.”
“She has Paige,” Aiden said, wincing like I’d blow up at him.
“And my mom, but it’s not enough for me,” I added, heart clenching up.
He ran his hand up the back of his neck. “It has to be. For now, anyway. We should focus on the one person in which we can be there for right now—Jared. He’s in danger, Ace. This isn’t going to stop with what happened here. I overheard Grant and Nadia a couple of days ago. They think Jared being out on tour has put him in even more danger than ever.”
“Yeah, but what kind of danger are we talking about? Kidnapping? Assassination? How deep does this go? How far down the rabbit hole are we looking at?” I asked, firing off questions I knew Aiden had no answer to. My head was swimming with madness.
He shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out. Have you tried talking to him again? You’re one of the few people who could always make him see reason.”
I had to make the most of the time I had left to talk to Jared since I had no idea when I’d see him again. The last thing I wanted was to leave on bad terms, so I swallowed my anger down and walked over to where he was skipping rocks across the water with his band mate, Licks.
The closer I got to them, the more I could hear their conversations. Licks was telling Jared how upset Aiden and I were about what was going on. How he knew that, I had no idea, but I could guess. And it sent fire through me. Nothing peeved me worse than when someone listened in on something they had no business in.
Licks confirmed my guess when he told Jared he’d been eavesdropping on our conversation. “Oliver said something that has me more than a little worried though…” Licks said as he tossed another rock across the water.
“And you should be,” I said, glaring down at them. “You’re putting yourself at a point of no return by sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
Jared shot to his feet, getting in my face. “Don’t you dare threaten him. If what you guys were talking about was so important, then it shouldn’t have been said where others could hear you!”
I pointed at Licks. “We were behind closed doors downstairs, just for that very purpose, so how the hell did you hear us?”
“You know that trick with the glass? The one where you put it to the door and listen? Yeah, it totally worked.” Licks beamed as he shuffled back a few steps. “It sounds like you two have a lot to talk about, so I’m just gonna…” He spun around and bolted for the house.
“He’s as bad as you are,” I grumbled, crossing my arms as I watched Licks run up the stairs. “He was partly right though. Aiden never lied to you, Jared. Technically, I didn’t either.”
“Explain ‘technically,’ Ace, because from where I’m standing, a lie is a lie.”
I uncrossed my arms, shoving my hands in my pockets as I turned to look out over the water. My foot scuffed against the pebbles, letting the silence between us grow cold before I spoke. “Remember that day I came to your house and talked with your dad? Back before we graduated?”
“What about it?” he asked.
“I didn’t lie about what we discussed. I just didn’t tell you everything. I couldn’t tell you everything.”
“Couldn’t tell me? Or didn’t want to tell me?”
“Not everything is all about you, Jared!” I kicked at the ground, sending rocks skittering.
“I never said it was!”
“You have no idea about the choices I had to make, am still making. Me, Jared! I made them.” I jabbed my finger into my chest. “Do you think I like this? Do you think I’m happy with the fact that I can’t go home… I can’t be there for Riley?”
“You said it yourself… you made those choices.” Jared winced at the sound of his own voice.
I shook my head, trying my damndest not to reach out and shake the shit out of him. “And I’d make them all over again, knowing what I know now. Even if you’re being an asshole.”
I couldn’t stand there anymore and try to use flimsy excuses for my only defense. Not with the truth so close to the tip of my tongue. Jared had no idea about the sort of turmoil brewing inside of me. I’d brought up the meeting with his dad to sidetrack him, make him think I’d asked for this from his dad somehow. That I’d set my own course, when really all I’d done was gone to Grant to ask him to help me figure out how to make sure my mom would be taken care of after I graduated and went off to the military, because once I left, she wouldn’t have anyone else around.
“Wait a minute! What do you mean—I’m being an asshole? Your choices have nothing to do with me, so stop trying to brush your problems off at my feet!”
My fist shot out, catching Jared in the jaw before I had time to think about it. My knuckles throbbed in time with my heartbeat as my anger reached its boiling point. Yes, it was shitty how Jared found out, but he had no idea what I was dealing with. I wasn’t going to sit there and be his punching bag because he was hurt, damn it. I was hurt too.
“You want the truth?” I yelled at him.
“No. I want you to keep lying to me so you can sleep at night,” Jared said, turning his back on me.
An angry burst of laughter bubbled out of me as I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face me. My fist wrapped up in his shirt, I shook the shit out of him.
“Let go, Ace. You made your choices and they didn’t include the rest of us, so don’t expect me to give a shit one way or the other for your reasons why.”
I let go of him with a shove and took a step back. “You make it sound like I’ve tried everything to wrong you, when the truth is that I gave up everything to keep you safe.”
“Whatever, Ace.”
I waited until he made it halfway up the stairs before I spoke, before I had to tell him goodbye. “I’m leaving, Jared. I haven’t been given any details except that I’ll be gone for a while.”
He stopped and turned to look back over his shoulder at me. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I need to know you don’t hate me. And I need to know that you’ll keep your promise of looking out for Riley before I go.”
“You’re a real dick for lying to me, Ace. But I don’t hate you.”
“And Riley?” I searched his face, waiting for his answer.
“I’ll always be there fo
r Riley,” he answered, lifting his hand, touching his first finger and thumb together.
I nodded, unable to speak as all the words I wanted to say lodged in my throat, making a strangled noise. My lips pulled tight into a grimaced smile that only reached one side of my mouth, and then I turned my back on him and walked away.
Oliver waved me over to where he stood at the side of the house. It was time for me to go.
When we made it to the driveway, he said, “Plans have changed. You’re not going far. Chatter’s picked up, and Grant has reason to believe there will be a kidnapping attempt on Jared. They just don’t know when. We’re going to stay here unless Grant decides to move us to a new safe house. He wants you to stick close for a little bit to make sure no one else is sent.”
“Will they try to take him from here?” I asked, snapping back into soldier mode. I didn’t have time for personal feelings to get in the way of keeping Jared safe.
“I doubt it. Not with knowing the guy they sent in was taken out, but it’s possible they might be stupid enough to try again,” he said, handing me a set of keys and directions to a motel twenty minutes down the road.
“How am I supposed to keep in contact with you? You took my phone,” I said, getting in the car and starting it.
My phone was handed over. “Grant said to give you a sat phone, but I’m trusting you with this. And if that isn’t enough incentive, think about this… If you contact her, you could potentially be putting her in danger. It’s bad enough that we’re scrambling Jared’s phone calls. Don’t make this any harder.”
I nodded. “I won’t call her, but when this is over…”
“You’ll get to make your call, lover boy. Keep an eye on your mirrors. Anything odd pops up on your radar, call me.”
“Will do,” I answered.
Oliver waved as I drove off. I watched him disappear back around the side of the house in the rearview mirror.
Relevance (The Six Series, book 2.5) Page 3