Vengeance (8 page)

Aiden stared at me, trying to work out if what had just happened to me was all part of the antidote Harry had given me or if Nathan had slipped me something else. He wondered if he should be shouting for help rather than sitting there, watching me, waiting for me to say something.

“I’m okay,”
I managed to say.

A wave of relief washed over him. He tried to cover it up by pretending he was concerned by the spilled coffee.

I shook my head. “Sorry about that.”

He leaned forward and put the almost empty mug back onto the tray. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get Bernie to come here and clean up.”

“Ahh, no you won’t,” I said, jumping up. “I don’t need or expect anyone to clean up after me.” He knew that I wasn’t just talking about the coffee. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”

“It’s okay. If you want to clean it up, you can, but Bernie would probably have your arse if you don’t clean it properly. I’m just saying.”

Bernie really took pride in the appearance of the house and thought only he knew how to clean something properly. We mere geniuses didn’t know the first thing about what cleaners to use on what stain. “Bernie can clean up if he really doesn’t mind.”

“Mind? He lives for it.” Aiden laughed. “This will be the highlight of his day.” He then added silently,
“You know he won’t mind. And I think there are other things we should be doing now that you have your abilities back.”

I forced a laugh. I knew Nathan wasn’t anywhere in the house, but I had no idea if he had set up cameras to watch me. Cameras were one thing I couldn’t detect with my mind. “I guess I should move Chelsea up to the bedroom then,” I said, looking down at her. That girl could sleep through anything.

“Probably a good idea.” He picked up the tray. “I’ll meet you up there.”

He disappeared, leaving me alone and wondering how I was going to land Chelsea on the bed without waking her up or dropping her on the floor.

“Oh well, here goes nothing,” I said as I sat beside her and put my hand on her shoulder. I figured if I landed on the bed, then she would be sure to land there with me. I transported out and succeeded in getting her onto the bed without waking her up.

I climbed off the bed and pulled the blanket up to her chin. She stirred momentarily before slipping into another dream.

I went into the closet and changed out of my coffee-soaked clothes. Just as I was pulling up my trackies, Aiden appeared before me.

A smile spread across his face when he saw me in my bra. I quickly grabbed a shirt off a hanger and shoved my arms into the sleeves.

Aiden whizzed over, stopping me before I could get the shirt over my head. “Don’t,” he said, lowering my hands.

The meaning behind his words was anything but I-want-to-see-you-without-a-shirt. He just didn’t want me to feel as though I needed to cover up in front of him. He wanted me to feel comfortable with him again. Hell, he wanted us to go back to the way things were—even the love part. But the problem was, he didn’t love me, and I couldn’t see it happening anytime soon. For all I knew, I had made him permanently unable to love me again.

Aiden cupped the side of my face, rubbing his thumb softly against my cheek as his eyes dropped to my lips. He wanted so badly to kiss me, but he was afraid I would pull away. He didn’t understand the way he was feeling, and quite frankly, neither did I. The raw attraction he had for me when we first met was back, but he also had the history of us ingrained in his memory.

I debated what to do. I didn’t want to reject him, but I wasn’t ready to have sex with him again. Though it wouldn’t be our first time, I guessed my subconscious was trying to protect me from the chance that he would decide he didn’t want to be with me any longer.

Aiden moved his hand to my back, silently asking permission to get closer. I gave a slight nod and dropped my shirt on the floor as he slowly pulled me against him. He ran his hand up my back, stopping briefly at my bra but deciding not to push things too soon. He lowered his lips halfway to mine and waited for me to make the connection.

I stood on tiptoes and pressed my lips against his. I wanted nothing more than to remove every single item of clothing that stood between us, but the kiss would have to be enough. I loved him so much, and I only hoped that he would someday feel the same way about me.

“Hello,” Kai called, opening the bathroom door. He took one look and backed into the bedroom. “Whoops!”

“Damn,” Aiden muttered. He bent down, picked up my shirt, and handed it to me.

“Is it safe to open my eyes?” Kai called.

I quickly put on my shirt. I could picture Kai standing out there with one hand covering his eyes and the other holding a wrap with all his leftover breakfast goop as the filling.

“Yes, Kai. We’re not doing anything!” Aiden then murmured, “Anymore.” He pulled me back in for a quick kiss then turned me in his arms and ushered me through the bathroom and into the bedroom.

When Kai spotted us, a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Sure you weren’t.” He winked.

I decided to call him on it. “Okay, fine. You did catch us with our clothes off and about to get all hot and steamy.”

“Really?”
Aiden asked.

Kai broke out in one of his bellowing laughs. “I knew it.”

“No. Not really,”
I said to Aiden. “And no, Kai. We were just getting changed after I spilt coffee on us.” When Kai looked down at my clean clothing, I pulled Aiden in front of me. “See?”

Kai grinned. “Yeah, okay, so that’s what you were doing in there.” He gave me a dramatic wink.

“Anyway,” I said, “what did you come up here for? I’m sure it wasn’t just so we could have this conversation.” But then again Nathan could have
made
Kai come up just to make sure Aiden and I were really okay together.

“Okay, okay.” Kai transported across the room so he was sitting on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table. “I just thought you might want an update on the Chrissy situation. And since you’re stuck with Sleeping Beauty over there”—he cocked his head toward Chelsea—”I thought I’d come up here instead.”

“What’s happened?” I asked, rushing over to the couch.

“Nothing, except I’m a genius.” He chuckled.

I sat on the armrest. “I guess I owe you another one.”

“Yep, you can add it to the list. What are we at now?”

“Too many to count.”

He laughed.

Aiden sat on the armrest beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist. “So what do the police think happened?”

“They’re clueless. Every fingerprint they picked up somehow disappeared from their systems and—”

“What about the physical evidence?” Aiden asked.

Kai smiled. “What physical evidence?”

“You stole evidence?” I asked.

Then I realised he was only kidding when his thoughts turned to how he actually did get the evidence. But again, I couldn’t call him on it without him knowing I could hear his thoughts.

“Sure did,” he said proudly.

Aiden laughed as he pictured Kai sneaking around like a ninja. “I knew you were all in for disobeying every law there is when it comes to cyberspace, but I never saw you as they type who would go in all covert and stuff.”

“Yep, you should’ve seen me. I was like a ninja ghost, unseen as I walked amongst them.”

“Really?” I asked, pretending to believe him.

“Jesus Christ, you two would believe anything I told you, won’t you?”

“You’re an idiot.” Aiden smacked Kai on the back of his head, just as Anna had done so many times before. “So how
did
you get it?”

“I made them destroy their own evidence and then delete all footage of it on the systems.”

“Not bad,” Aiden said. “But not as good as me imagining you dressed up like a ninja.”

Kai stood and started doing some fake karate moves.

“Is there anything else we should know?” I asked, trying to get the two boys back on track.

Kai’s everlasting smile disappeared. “I thought you might want to know that Chrissy’s funeral will be held in two days’ time.”

“Oh,” I said. Even though I knew what Kai was going to say before he said it, hearing the words out loud threw me back to the room splattered in Chrissy’s blood. “It’s going to be a closed casket,” I mumbled, thinking about just how deep Nathan had cut her. He had practically severed her head.

“Are you going to go?” Kai asked.

I thought about the sweet girl I had grown up with, the very same one who had turned into a bitch after Aiden came into our lives. “I don’t know,” I said, looking down at my hands clasped in my lap, my fingers turning white from the oxygen I had cut off to them.

Aiden put his arm around my shoulders. “You don’t have to decide straight away. Maybe you should wait ’til Chelsea wakes up, and you can decide together.”

I nodded but didn’t say anything.

“So are you two just going to hang around in here all day?” Kai asked.

“At least until she wakes up,” Aiden answered.

“Right.” Kai swung his legs off the coffee table. “I’m off.” He disappeared before we could say goodbye.

I edged over the armrest and slipped down onto the sofa.

“I’m just going to get changed out of this,” Aiden said, gesturing at his coffee-soaked shorts and tee.

I pulled my feet up onto the seat and hugged my knees against my chest as I once again thought about all the lives that had been destroyed because people knew me. I knew it was all Nathan’s doing, but that didn’t stop me from feeling responsible for their deaths, pain, and suffering. I had to go to Chrissy’s funeral, even if we had been frenemies in the end. We were once best friends—Chelsea, Chrissy and me—and I needed to show some respect for that. I just hoped Chelsea felt the same way.

“What are you thinking about?” Aiden said, coming back into the room.

“Just the whole Chrissy thing.”

He sat down beside me, put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side.

I rested my head on his chest. “I know we didn’t get along for almost two years, but I still never wanted her to die.”

“I know.” He kissed the top of my head then rested his cheek against it. “Have you decided if you’re going to her funeral or not?”

“I think I should.”

Aiden agreed with me but didn’t say it aloud.

Chapter 9

Two hours later, Chelsea was still asleep. Lucas had gone home to get some sleep, too. His body clock had been thrown right out with all the trips to the hospital in Australia.

I had been dozing as I slouched against Aiden’s chest. He was watching some UK television show that he’d apparently loved as a kid, but it didn’t draw me in the least bit. “You should get some sleep,” Aiden said.

“So should you.”

Neither of us made any effort to move. Our minds were way too active to fully shut down in order for us to sleep. Being stuck in England like prisoners did nothing to help us relax.

I wanted to get out of there.
“Do you think Nathan would have a problem if we took off somewhere to sleep?”

Aiden didn’t respond straight away, but he knew he didn’t need to. I could already hear his inner monologue as he tried to decide what Nathan’s reaction would be. For one, we had already been going somewhere else to sleep since Nathan had paid us that little visit while we were asleep and he didn’t seem to mind. But maybe he would have a problem with it after how long I had disappeared last time by myself.

I scooted off the lounge, practically falling over Aiden’s legs.
“He’s downstairs.”

“Who’s downstairs?”

“Nathan!”

“What are you going to do?”
Aiden asked as he pushed himself up off the lounge. He was worried I was going to rush in and do something stupid.

I needed to do something about the way we were standing there, me pumped with energy and Aiden stricken with worry. I was sick of having to pretend for the cameras—if there were cameras at all. That was going to be one of the first things I was going to find out from Nathan when I saw him. But until I knew for sure, I had to play it safe.

I picked up the end of Aiden’s shirt and pulled him toward me. He instinctively wrapped his arms around me and drew me into his embrace. I leaned my head against his chest momentarily before lifting my face to kiss his neck. If there were any cameras, I needed him to think we had just been playing around.

“Kiss me.”

He didn’t fully understand why, but he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to get back to where we were before Kai interrupted. He pressed his lips against mine, but the kiss I returned was empty, just a cover.

“I need you to stay here and watch Chels while I go downstairs and see what I can pick up from his thoughts. I’m also going to tell them that we’re going somewhere to get some sleep and we’ll be back in a few hours.”

Aiden’s lips broke away from mine, and he trailed kisses along my jaw line until he reached my ear.
“I don’t like this.”

“I know.”

“Be careful.”

“Always.”
I phased out of Aiden’s arms and reappeared in the casual meals room. Dave and Nathan were sitting at the table, eating a chocolate cake that smelled as though it had just come out of the oven.

“Want some cake?” Dave asked.

“Yeah, thanks.” I ignored the shiver that ran down my spine whenever I was around Nathan and pulled out a chair two over from Dave. “God, this smells so good,” I said as I cut a slice. Really, I felt like puking, but I needed to keep up the act.

“Tastes even better than it smells.” Dave shoved another piece into his mouth.

Nathan watched me. He suspected there was something different about me, but he couldn’t be sure. He was waiting for me to slip up, to reveal what had happened that day at lunch because apparently he didn’t buy my story. He had watched countless reruns of footage of me, trying to compare how I was before I had disappeared at lunch and how I was since I returned. He hadn’t noticed anything different in the way Aiden and I were with each other, which was a big plus, but also proved Aiden and I were right. He had been spying on us. From the various images that went through his thoughts, I could tell that cameras were everywhere.