Tending Their SECRET (21 page)

“Ouch. That’s harsh. If you’re planning on
one day marrying into the family, you’ll need to learn to be more
polite.”

“She doesn’t need to learn shit, so back the
fuck off,” Aiden says, getting out of his chair.

The other people at the table’s eyes have
gone wide, and I know I have to diffuse the situation. “One dance.
Come on, Dave. I’ll be right back, Hawk.”

“You’re sure, Ellie?” Tim asks, looking none
too pleased with his employee.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

I lead Dave to the dance floor, shrugging
off his hand when he tries to place it on my back. “Don’t.”

“I’ll have to touch you while we’re
dancing.”

“Waist and hand. That’s it. You’ve already
mentioned how uncivilized I am. I guarantee you don’t want to see
exactly how right you are.”

“If you don’t want everyone in this room to
die, you’re going to be more than civil to me,” he tells me,
pulling me into his arms on the dance floor.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You messed up my plans when you killed
Andy, and now I’m going to mess up all of your plans with
Aiden.”

I try to pull away, but he holds me tight.
“I have bombs all over this room. If you don’t want me to detonate
them, you’re going to do everything I tell you to do.”

He’s serious. I can see it in his eyes.
Motherfucker. I knew he hated Aiden as much as Andres, but I never
suspected them of working together. I need to activate my distress
signal, which will also activate the comm unit in my ear, allowing
my friends to hear everything. I just don’t know how to get my hand
out of his without making a scene.

“Kiss me now, Ellie. Make it look
convincing.”

“I’ll need my hands then, to grab onto you.
I’m not a very passive person.”

He lets go of my hands, and places his on my
waist as he waits. I quickly press my fingers into sequence on my
forearm before crossing my arms and grabbing his tuxedo jacket. I
wish I could catch Aiden’s eye, but Dave has purposely turned me
the other way. I have no choice as I lean forward and kiss him. I
don’t open my lips, but it still has to look like I’m into him. I
know it, and so does he as he smiles against my lips.

* * *

Aiden

I see Ellie kiss Dave, and I’m out of my
seat so fast that my chair tips over. I start to move towards the
dance floor to ask her what the fuck she’s doing, when Jade grabs
my arm.

“She activated her distress signal before
she kissed him.”

“Shit.”

Jade hands me her phone, which is set to the
app that will let me listen in on what the Society woman can hear
through their implants—anything that Ellie says and hears herself.
We watch as Ellie pulls away from Dave, and then we listen.

“Okay, I kissed you. Now,
give me the trigger for the bombs.”

“We’re not done, Ellie.
Not at all. Aiden needs to be ruined, and you need to die for
killing Andres. Actually killing you will also achieve that first
objective, won’t it? And I’m the trigger, so I don’t have anything
to give to you. Not that I would’ve anyway. Now, why don’t we
embarrass your lover a little more before we leave the party? He
already looks like he wants to kill me.”

“He is going to kill you.
Have no doubt about that.”

“I can’t wait for him to
try. Let’s get back to the making out. I want some tongue this
time. And maybe grab my ass.”

I watch as she does what he asks. My hands
are clenched into fists at my side, and a murderous rage that
surpasses anything else I’ve ever felt has overtaken me. He will
die today, and it’s going to be by my hand. No one else’s—mine.

“We’re on it, Ellie. The
detonator is strapped to his thigh. It’s set to go off if his heart
rate spikes too high,” Ainsley says through the comm.

“Which it could, if he
gets really into things with you. Hold off as long as you can,”
Scott adds.

“Dead is too easy for him,” I tell Jade.

She nods. “It is. I need to start helping to
covertly evacuate the building. Try and look indifferent once she
starts kissing him again. It’ll buy us some time.”

“No. If I look indifferent, he’ll prolong
things.”

“We need him to do that.”

“Ellie won’t be able to handle it.”

“She’s stronger than you think, Aiden. Trust
her to handle this while it’s happening, and then help her when
it’s over.”

“Okay.”

But it’s not okay. I trust
Ellie, and I know she’ll do her job. I also know that it won’t be
me that she’ll need help from once this is over. Nate is her rock,
and the one she’ll always go to when things get to be too much.
Once he calms her down, she’ll come for me, but not until then.
Deep down, I
am
happy that they have each other, but on the surface, and in my
heart, it hurts like a bitch.

I push that aside and force myself to play
the part I need to. There are thousands of people in this hotel and
casino. I need to do what I can to give the Society time to
evacuate as many of them as possible.

“What’s going on, Aiden?” my dad says,
coming up behind me.

I’m shocked that he’s still here, and I tell
him that. “Why are you here? They should’ve gotten you out.”

“I’m not going anywhere without an
explanation. Especially with Ellie out there kissing Dave while you
just stand by and watch.”

“Dave was apparently working with Andres,
and he’s got bombs all over this hotel. The trigger is strapped to
him, and he’s making Ellie kiss him—and touch him—in order to
embarrass me before he kills her. Or attempts to kill her. I’ll
take him down first. Just waiting for the trigger on him to be
disabled by Ainsley and Scott Griffin.”

“Jesus Christ. I have got to be the worst
judge of character in the history of the world.”

“I hate to say it, but yeah, you are. I love
you, Dad, but damn.”

“Done, Ellie. The trigger
is taken care of.

I’m across the floor before the last word is
out of Ainsley’s mouth. Ellie pushes Dave away, and I grab him by
the lapels, pushing him towards the doors. He punches me a couple
of times, but I barely feel it. My adrenaline is skyrocketing, and
my bloodlust is the strongest it’s ever been. I’m going to take my
time and make him hurt.

“Aiden,” Matt says, running up to me before
we’re out the door. “Take care of him in here. Ainsley can’t
contain the whole hotel yet.”

Shit. I can’t take my time in front of
everyone. I’ve never let anyone see me unleash my rage the way I
want to on him. Dave doesn’t deserve a clean kill, though. I’ll
make him hurt while I end his life.

I throw him onto the nearest table, not
letting go as he crashes onto the plates that are still there. I
climb over him, not caring if the table decides to collapse. As I
hold him down with a knee to the chest, and a gun to his throat, I
grab a candle and drop it onto his hair. It catches fire almost
immediately and he starts to scream. I stick a cloth napkin far
down his mouth to muffle him, and smile when it also starts to
choke him.

I only have minutes before the entire table
goes up in flames, but I’m not done yet. I grab one of his hands
while he’s clawing at his throat, and slam a fork into it with
enough force to lodge it in the table. Before I jump off the table,
I throw my entire weight onto a butter knife, this one straight
through his groin. Then I stand back and watch him burn.

“Damn,” I hear Faith say from behind me.

I turn to look at my friends. They’re all
standing there, staring at me like they don’t know who I am. I
guess they really don’t. Matt and Nate know about what I do, but
they’ve never watched me at work. Ellie and Faith followed me in
D.C., but I only hurt those people. I didn’t torture them to death.
I know Reina tortures people, and every woman in the Society has
ended a life at some point, but there was no disguising the joy I
just took in hurting Dave. And honestly, after what he did to
Ellie, I’d do it all again. No questions asked—and no regrets.

I look to Ellie, but her face is buried in
Nate’s chest. Of course. I knew she’d turn to him for comfort, and
I should’ve also known that she’d be disgusted by what she just
saw. I’m an animal, and now she’s seen exactly how crazed I can be.
I don’t blame her for being disgusted, even as my heart is
breaking. I turn and run, ignoring the yells I hear for me to come
back. I don’t know where I’m running to, but this time I know I
won’t be back.

Ellie

Aiden is good at disappearing. We all knew
that, but none of us knew just how good he was. Ainsley’s been
searching for him for two weeks now. Not just for me—everyone is
worried about him. I still can’t believe he avenged me so
amazingly, and then left me again.

He hasn’t even contacted Tim, who’s been
dealing with the fallout from everything with Heather back at his
side. They’re not getting married again—she’s happily dating a
divorced doctor, and Tim’s still recovering from what Andres did to
him—but she’s publicly standing with him. It’s a good thing he
never wanted to be President. There’s no way that would happen
after I had to kill his lover when he attacked me, and his most
trusted employee died in a “freak accident.”

We haven’t been able to piece together much
more than we already knew. Andres was angry at Aiden for
“abandoning” him and making new friends, and so he started a
relationship with Tim in order to get back at him. It turns out he
was more than bi-curious, and had already been with Dave, who has
been jealous of Aiden for years. Dave was the brains of the
operation, going so far as to give Andy drugs to make him even more
out of control than he already was. It’s honestly like some plot
from a TV show, and if I hadn’t lived it, I probably wouldn’t
believe it was true. Unfortunately for all of us, it was, and now
Aiden has run off again. Only this time, I know that he won’t be
back.

My phone rings, and I see it’s my dad
calling. I make myself sound cheerful as I answer. I’m not telling
anyone that I lost Aiden once again, especially not my family.
Because he may not be planning to come back, but I’m going after
him. Even if it’s just to hear him tell me goodbye. I need that
closure.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Hi, Ellie Bear.”

He sounds off and I call him on it. “What’s
wrong? Is someone hurt?”

“I’m guessing you are.”

What? How does he know? “Why do you think
that?”

“You told me all about your ‘Society’ and
what you do. I knew something was wrong when he came to me, but I
still gave him a job. Rodrigo called me, and he’s concerned, so now
I think I made a mistake.”

“Aiden?” I ask, jumping out of my chair and
grabbing my purse. “You gave Aiden a job?”

“Yes. He said he killed someone who hurt
you. I thought it was okay to help him.”

“It was, Daddy. Thank you so much for
helping him.”

I’m practically running down the hall, and
friends are noticing, coming out of their offices as well. I point
to the phone, and smile. Jade is the first to get it. “Aiden?”

“My dad helped him. I have to go,” I tell
her. “Keep talking, Daddy.”

“Ellie, he’s in bad shape. Rod says he’s
doing a great job while he’s working—and he’s fending off the
advances of the women who approach him—but, he’s drinking hard once
he gets off.”

“I’m on my way. Don’t tell Rod, and
definitely don’t tell Aiden, but I’m going to go and get him.”

“He’s a good man, Ellie. I could tell that
when I met him, and if he protected you—well, I owe him more than a
job.”

“He’s the
best
man. He just won’t
accept it.”

“If anyone can make him, I think it’s you.
Go get your man, and then get him to give you the ring I’m pretty
sure he already has.”

“Daddy!”

“What? I want grandchildren, and at the rate
your brothers are going, I’ll never get any from them.”

“Hanging up now. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Love you, Ellie Bear.”

“Love you too.”

Nate catches me as I exit the elevator into
the parking lot. “Ellie, Jade said he’s with your dad?”

“No, but he’s at one of his bars. He asked
him for a job. He’s in Santa Barbara.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

I shake my head. “You’ve helped me so much,
Nate, but I think that may be part of the problem. I relied on you
more than I relied on Aiden, and that hurt him.”

He runs his hands over his
face. “I know. I saw it, but I chose to ignore it. Helping you
helped
me
. Knowing
someone else went through something similar to what I went through,
and that I could help you…it made me feel like I could be a
hero.”

“You are a hero, Nate. Not just for helping
me, or for serving our country, but for living your life every day.
For helping us, and loving Jade the way you do. I’m still going to
need your help, but I have to let Aiden know that I need him even
more. Because I do. You’re a good friend, but he’s my forever.”

“Thank you for that, El. Go get him, and
tell him I’m sorry.”

“I will.”

I hug him tight and then head to the
airport. Reina and Matt have had one of the smaller jets on standby
for me. Now I just need to convince Aiden to come home with me, and
let me love him, because if he doesn’t, I may not be coming back,
either.

* * *

Aiden

“Come on Aiden, when are you going to
finally give in and go home with me?” the well-endowed blonde in
front of me asks. She’s been asking every day for the ten days that
I’ve been working here. Sadly for her, my answer’s not going to
change, no matter how many times she asks.