Tending Their SECRET (16 page)

Five hours later, and I’m still in custody.
My parents have both been by, and so has a lawyer Reina sent to me.
She told me that they’re working on getting the footage from my
apartment to the right people. Until then, I just need to hang
tight, and keep telling the truth. Had they caught me doing
anything else I’m guilty of over the past few months, I’d have to
lie. This one time, the truth should be enough to set me free.

Ellie

It was an exhausting night at work without
Aiden there. I’m looking forward to a long, hot bath, and then
hopefully a short wait until he’s released from questioning. The
police can’t keep him when he’s got an airtight alibi. Even if they
don’t believe that he was with me, Ainsley got camera footage to
some of our allies on the force, showing that we were together and
not anywhere near where that guy died.

I’m just about to get undressed when my
bracelet starts flashing, letting me know that someone’s in the
house with me, and it’s not Aiden. I grab a gun from my drawer,
knowing I’ll have back-up within minutes. Even if I didn’t just
activate my distress call, Ainsley got the same alarm I did when
the house was breached.

I’m not going to wait for him to come get
me, because I know who it is. We should’ve known he’d come for me
after he finished with the guy at the bar, but none of us did. I’m
not a regular victim who Aiden saved—I was just groped, and he beat
the crap out of the guy in public. Aiden didn’t hunt him. In fact,
it looked to most people like he was just doing a part of his job
by protecting me at work.

The guy after him is getting more erratic
and sloppy since we’ve managed to stop him most of the time. And
because Aiden has stopped going out. Killing a drunk guy, and going
after me, aren’t things he’d be doing if he was thinking clearly.
This could work for me, or against me, because there’s no longer a
clear pattern. He’s a total wild card now.

As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I sense
him to my left before his fist comes at me. I barely dodge it and
spin to face him. He lunges for me again, and I flip him over my
shoulder. He bounces back up, and now I know a little more about
what’s going on, and it’s not good. He’s hyped up on some drug. I
don’t know what, but it’s something that’s not slowing his
reflexes, and is leaving him feeling no pain.

He’s bouncing on his feet, and his eyes are
darting everywhere but at me. Jesus, I hope my friends get here
soon. I can probably hold him off for a little bit, but taking him
down alone is going to be a problem. All of a sudden, he charges
and tackles me to the ground before I can try and stop him. The
force knocks the wind out of me long enough for him to get in a
couple of good punches and wrap his hands around my neck. I don’t
even know where my gun went.

“You’re the best one yet, bitch. Aiden’s
girl. How does it feel to know you’re going to die because you’re
fucking the wrong guy? A guy who doesn’t really care about you
anyway. He cares about no one but himself. I can’t wait to see his
face when he knows that you died because of him. The great Aiden
Ford is going to fall, and fall hard.”

I don’t even try to answer him as I bend my
knees, and then slam my feet into his sides. I’m thanking God that
I hadn’t taken my stilettos off as he screams in pain. Once his
hands have loosened from my neck, I push him off of me and lunge
for my gun where I see it on the floor. My hand closes over it as
he throws himself on top of me.

“Maybe I should have some fun with you
first.”

Oh hell no. If nothing else could’ve spurred
me into action, his words just did. I will never let a man
victimize me again; especially not this sorry excuse for a coward.
I slam backwards, butting my head into his jaw. He moves enough for
me to get out from under him and tighten my hand on the gun. I know
I’m bruised from being knocked to the floor more than once, and I’m
probably looking a little crazed, but I make myself think of that
as a good thing.

I see the indecision in his eyes as he tries
to decide if he can rush me again while my weapon is pointed at
him. “I wouldn’t try it. Get on your knees.”

“I can’t let you live after you’ve seen me.
I’ve worked too hard to set this all up.”

“It’s over. I
will
kill you. Do you
really want to die because you’re jealous of Aiden? Or upset
because the two of you drifted apart?”

“You think I shouldn’t be upset? We were
best friends, and then he left me for guys who were famous.”

“What? He chose a different
branch. And he doesn’t care that Nate and Matt are famous. He
already told you that. I can’t believe you pretended to be gay and
started killing people just to get some kind of twisted revenge. I
mean, come on—fucking the VP when you’re not even into guys? Unless
you’re on
Scandal
,
who does shit like that?”

He doesn’t answer, trying to catch me off
guard as he once again comes for me. I start unloading bullets in
him as he keeps coming. He lands a hard punch as he finally falls,
taking me to the floor with him.

The door slams open, and Matt rushes over to
pull me off of Andres as his blood soaks into my clothes. “Jesus,
El. We got here as fast as we could.”

“I know.”

“You unloaded a full clip?” Reina asks.

“Yeah. He was on something; kept coming for
me.”

“Fuck,” Nate says.

That pretty much sums it up. The police
arrive then, and although it was clearly self-defense, they have to
take me to the station. I don’t even bother to change, since I know
they’ll want my clothes. Reina promises to bring me a bag with my
things. I’m in a daze as I get into the car, the blue and red
lights flashing over everything.

I’ve killed before, but
it’s never felt like this. Like it was
right
, all right, and not even a
little bit wrong. Even when I’ve killed men who hurt children, I
felt a little bad about not being able to take them in alive. But
this? Killing Andres couldn’t be avoided, and it wasn’t wrong. Not
if it saved Aiden, which I know it did. I truly feel at peace for
the first time in months, and I don’t know whether to be scared of
the feeling, or happy about it.

* * *

Aiden

I knew I’d get released tonight, since they
really didn’t have enough to hold me. I know they were hoping for
me to confess, but that wasn’t going to happen. I’ve killed plenty
of people, but not the guy they wanted to pin on me. I didn’t touch
him outside of the bar. I had no desire to—I was too busy finally
touching Ellie.

What I didn’t expect was the sight I’m
seeing as I make my way to the front of the station. Ellie is being
led in. She’s wearing one of her work outfits, but it’s covered in
blood. She’s bruised and her lip is split, but I know it’s not her
own blood that’s all over her.

“El?”

“Hi Aiden.”

“What’s going on?”

“Andres came for me.”

“Andres?”

“That’s enough talking. Move along, Miss,”
the officer closest to her says.

I want to run after her, and find out what
happened, but I can’t. Why would Andres go after her? If I can’t be
with her right now, I need to go to my dad. Whatever’s going on
will hit him hard.

I don’t want to leave Ellie
alone here, though. What if the Society doesn’t know? I mean, they
should since her tracker should be on if she was in distress, but
still. When Reina rushes through the door a minute later, I feel a
little bit better. I’d feel a
lot
better if she wasn’t looking so harried. Reina
doesn’t do harried.

“Rei?”

“Aiden, hi. You got released? Good. I need
to take care of Ellie, but we’ll all talk as soon as she’s done,
okay?”

“I need to see my dad.”

“Wait for us. We’ll go with you. This
shouldn’t take long. It’s a clear case of self-defense.”

“Ellie said it was Andres. My dad’s going to
need me.”

“Yes, but he’ll wait for us. Please just
wait.”

“But—“

“Listen to her, man. She knows what she’s
doing,” Matt says, coming up behind me.

“My dad.”

“Will wait. Trust her.
Trust
me.
”

“Of course. I do trust you. Both of you.
Take care of Ellie, Rei. I’ll wait here.”

“Thank you.”

It’s less than an hour later when Ellie and
Reina finally emerge from the back of the station. Matt and I
consumed a crazy amount of bad coffee and vending machine junk food
during the time we were waiting. I had lots of questions for him,
but he refused to answer. He told me we had to wait for everyone.
So, I waited, but now it’s time for me to get the answers I
need.

“Hawk, you’re still here?” Ellie says,
running to me as I stand. She’s in a new t-shirt and jeans. I’m
guessing Reina had them in that big purse of hers.

“Of course. I had to make sure you’d be
released.”

“That was never in question,” Reina
says.

“Still. What kind of boyfriend would I be if
I left? I need to get to my dad, though. You said it was Andres and
that is going to gut him.”

“I knew you’d want to go to him, so Reina
called. He’s expecting us.”

“You called him?” I ask, and Reina nods. “I
should’ve called him,” I say, running my hands through my hair. “I
just wanted to see him in person and hug him.”

Ellie grabs my hands, and holds them. “We’ll
go now. He won’t be upset that you didn’t call. He’s your dad. He
knows you.”

“Yeah? Yeah. You’re right. Let’s go.”

Ellie rides with me in my car. We don’t talk
during the drive, she just holds my hand, and leans her head on my
shoulder. It’s almost like she needs comfort from me, too. I guess
she does. The amount of blood she had on her makes me think Andy is
definitely dead. She should know that my dad won’t hold it against
her if she killed him. She had to protect herself.

“He won’t blame you, you know?”

“Huh?” she says, raising her head.”

“My dad. I know you’re worried, but he won’t
blame you for protecting yourself.”

“I know. Thanks for saying it, though.”

I drive through the gates of my dad’s
official house, and we’re promptly ushered inside. I stop short at
the threshold to his large study, because I wasn’t expecting to see
Nate, Jade, Faith, Jake, and Isa here. My mom, yeah, but not them.
Or Theo, who I realize is standing behind my dad’s desk as well.
Dave starts to walk in behind us, but my dad tells him to wait
outside, and Ellie closes the door behind us. My friends are all
looking everywhere but at me as my dad comes up and gives me a
hug.

“What’s going on?”

“Have a seat, Aiden. There are some things I
need to tell you about what happened today. And what happened
almost three months ago.”

“Three months ago? You mean with Ellie?”

He nods. “And with you.”

“Tell me,” I say, rooted to the spot I’m
in.

“Let’s sit, Hawk,” Ellie tells me, and for
the first time ever I see fear in her eyes when she looks at me.
That more than anything has me sitting on the empty loveseat, and
pulling her down next to me. I don’t know what’s about to happen,
but I have a feeling that it’s going to change everything for me.
And not in a good way.

Ellie

I can barely breathe as Aiden and I sit down
on the loveseat. I know what’s coming, and I’m pretty sure that I
also know what it means for me—and for us. I want to grab him, and
run from this room, from the secrets we’ve all kept from him. We
did it to protect him, but he won’t understand that. He’s going to
feel betrayed—especially by me. I’ll take it, though. I’ll let him
throw all of his anger and hate at me. Because I know he’s going to
need Matt and Nate when he learns about everything. They’re his
true support system, and I can’t let him push them away.

“Aiden, when you came to me and asked me to
go to the Society and hire Ellie, I knew there had to be more to
the story of your lost days in the cabin. You’ve always been able
to hold your liquor pretty well, and it was inconceivable to me
that you would’ve passed out for days. Especially when you knew
Ellie was counting on you.”

“But I did,” he says, squeezing my hand. “I
passed out and let her down.”

“No, you didn’t. Before I contacted Reina, I
had Theo pull the surveillance tapes from your cabin and go over
them. I knew you were too freaked out about Ellie to have checked
them yourself, and before he went to work for your mom, you know he
was a trusted member of my security team.”

“Was there something on those tapes? Did
something happen? What happened?”

“I think it’s best if you see them
yourself.”

I’ve seen the tapes, so I know what to
expect. Aiden—well, he has no idea about what he’s going to see, or
how bad it is. I wrap my other hand around his, and lean on his
shoulder. He kisses the top of my head, and I have to hold back my
tears at what’s to come. And then the large TV in the study comes
to life.

The date stamp shows the day before the
homophobic protesters were killed. Andres enters the cabin, using
the security code he got from Tim. All of the sensors recognize him
since he’d been there with Aiden years ago, and no alarms go
off.

The cameras follow him as he walks to the
bar set in the great room wall. He takes out several syringes and
injects something into every bottle of alcohol, before placing them
back in the exact order he took them from. His eyes are wild, and
he seriously looks crazy as he laughs on his way out.

“He drugged me? That son of a bitch drugged
me?”

“There’s more, Aiden. Please keep watching,”
his dad says, barely controlling his anger.