Partners (Fire & Lies - One) (6 page)

My eyes scan
the quiet house, lit only by the moonlight as it nestles within its
suburban setting. Aiden’s house is raised off the ground about a
metre by bricks that create a crawl space that gives access to
tradesmen and provides under house storage. The rest of the house
is made out of white weatherboard and a set of concrete steps lead
up to a balcony with wrought iron railings. It’s a simple house for
a man as wealthy as Aiden, but it was once his parents, and I
suppose it has too many memories attached to it for him to let it
go or upgrade it to more modern accommodations.

Most people
would have a wooden bench or a loveseat on a balcony like his. But
not Aiden. His balcony is bare. He doesn’t even have a pot plant or
a wind chime or a pair of old boots sitting by his door. The only
hint that someone even lives there is the fact that a sensor light
flicks on the moment I approach.

Wondering if
his mother ever furnished the balcony, I lean against the railing
with my back to the road and wait, hearing the click of the sensor
light as it switches off and returns me to darkness.

My heart thuds
nervously in my chest as I listen for his car, unsure as to how
he’ll react to me being here. I suspect that he’ll tell me to
leave, but he could surprise me. All I know is that I definitely
didn’t want to sneak up on him. I’ve seen how fast he moves due to
his military training, and I wouldn’t want to surprise him in the
dark.

I wait for
longer than I anticipated, growing restless as I try to guess where
he is and what he might be doing. Just as I’m about to give up and
go home, the soft purr of his engine alerts me to his arrival,
followed by the flash of his headlights as he turns into his
driveway and the electric door to his garage whirs to life and
opens.

I can’t see
his face in the dark and wonder if he saw me as I wait for him to
exit his car and head to where I’m waiting. The butterflies
multiply within my stomach as I hear his door close and the sound
of the garage shutting, followed by his footsteps and the click of
the sensor light.

The moment the
lights flick on, he’s looking straight at me and he doesn’t look
happy.

“Not one to
take a hint are you?” he grumbles as he heads up the path and
climbs the steps.

I push off the
railing and stand to meet him by his front door. “It’s
important.”

“So you keep
saying.” He sounds tired, his voice much softer than it had been
earlier and he inserts his key, pushing the front door open.

As he walks
past me, I smell the faint scent of another woman’s perfume and my
mouth speaks before my brain connects. “Have you been with
someone?”

Stepping
inside his home, he pauses and blocks the door. “That is absolutely
none of your business,” he states.

“Does this
girl know that you were in your office, dry humping me before you
got to her? Does she know I’m the one that got your cock so hard
and ready?” I’m attacking him, and it’s stupid and unwarranted.
Essentially, I have no right to be behaving this way. But I can’t
seem to stop myself from feeling a jealous rage at the thought of
him with another woman. It aches in my chest and sours my stomach,
wetting the butterflies so it feels like they’re flapping, stuck to
the base of my gut.

His eyes
narrow for a moment and within a blink of the eye his arms shoot
out and he grabs me, hauling me through the door and slamming me
against the wall. The movement surprises me and I shriek, following
my instinct to fight him. He flattens his body against mine,
pinning me so I can’t move and he grabs my wrists pressing them
together over my head.

Stuck, I
wriggle beneath him, feeling way out of my depth. I talk tough, but
in this moment, I feel anything but. “Let me go, Aiden,” I demand
through clenched teeth, fear beginning to sink its claws and grip
at my heart. This isn’t the Aiden I knew. This Aiden is scaring
me.

“Why? Isn’t
this what you came here for?” He readjusts his grip so he can hold
both of my wrists in one hand then trails his other one down my
arm. “It’s why you’re here acting like a jealous girlfriend,
right?” His hand pauses at my throat and wraps around it
uncomfortably as he leans into me, brushing his rough stubble
across the skin of my cheeks. I stifle a cry. I shouldn’t have come
here. “Do you want me to fuck you, Chloe?” he whispers, his voice
dripping with aggression as he pushes his groin against me and I
can feel his erection dig painfully against my stomach. I wince,
bile rising in my throat as I fight to stay calm. “No? Then what?”
His breath is hot and his fingers tighten around my throat as his
mouth moves toward my ear and he growls, “What the fuck do you want
from me?”

Tears burn in
my eyes and I shut them tightly, feeling as though I’ve pushed him
too far. I should have told Leah to go fuck himself. I should have
stayed home and thought of another way to get Aiden to listen. I
could have brought him bags of money. I could have brought him
information. I could have used Leah to hire him all along…

This isn’t
right. Things are different now. So much has happened in the last
three years. So much has changed in each of our lives. We’re
different people. Capable of different things. When you back a
person into a corner, you can’t always be sure how they’ll
react…

“Answer me!”
he demands, tipping me over the edge of control and into a pit of
fear.

I twist my
head away from him, my emotions hitting me full force as I let out
a strained sob. I didn’t want to cry. I wanted to stay in control
but he’s scaring me. At the sound of my cry, his grip lessens. It’s
as if he suddenly realises what he’s doing and slowly releases
me.

“Shit,” he
hisses, taking a step back to give me some space to move. I don’t
waste my time. The moment my hands are free, I swing my body,
bringing my arm around to slap him loudly across the face.

“Fuck you,
Aiden! Fuck you!” I scream, my body shaking with fear, desire and
anger from his intimidation tactic.

His cheek
becomes immediately inflamed, and I watch the red bloom across his
skin, as I glare up at him, angry that we’re even in this
situation. Things used to be so different between us...

With his head
turned from the force of the slap, he grits his teeth, his chest
heaving as I watch him try and regain his control. Slowly, he turns
back to me, his hand reaching up to touch his cheek as he clears
his throat. “I guess I deserved that,” he admits, his voice calm as
he steps away from me and inclines his head toward the kitchen. “I
was out of line. Why don’t you just tell me what’s so bloody
important that you feel the need to keep throwing yourself in my
path lately.”

Taken aback by
his sudden calm demeanour, it takes me a moment to react and follow
him.

“I’m surprised
you weren’t at my door, dressed as a crone and offering me poisoned
apples,” he comments, throwing his keys onto his benchtop before
shaking off his leather jacket and draping it over the back of a
chair. “You don’t have a disguise or a fake name for me this
time?”

“No. Just the
truth,” I say, moving to the other side of the bench, keeping it
between us for safety.

“The truth?”
he asks, a slight smile curling his mouth as he opens his fridge
and pulls out a bottle of beer. He doesn’t offer me one and I’m not
surprised. “I’m not sure you’re aware of what that is.”

“I’m sorry for
tricking you. I should have just been upfront.”

“Story of our
life,” he deadpans, taking a long drink and watches me as he drains
half the bottle. “And now you show up at my house, questioning me
on my whereabouts…” He places the bottle on the bench and shakes
his head as if he’s shaking away his thoughts. “Listen Chloe, it’s
been a long, draining day and night, and I still have work in the
morning. I’m too fucking tired for this right now. So please, get
to the fucking point so you can leave me the hell alone.”

I nod and
launch into a speech I’ve rehearsed in my mind since I realised I
needed to involve Aiden. “It’s about my father, Aiden. He’s
dying–”

“I know that,”
he interrupts.

“What? You
do?”

“I do. You’ve
obviously been keeping tabs on me. I’ve been doing the same with
you. Although, I didn’t know you were still in the country. That
part surprised me.”

“I never
left.”

He looks at me
in disbelief, a pause that sits like a question in the air between
us. I don’t elaborate and eventually, he moves on.

“So, your
father–I know that he’s in a coma after a suicide attempt and as a
result, cannot be tried any further”.

I shake my
head. “He didn’t try to kill himself, Aiden. Someone did that to
him to shut him up.”

“Why? Was he
finally going to reveal what he did with all that money?”

“He doesn’t
know where the money is. It was all a setup, Aiden. My dad was just
a patsy.”

“A patsy? The
evidence against him is overwhelming, Chloe. I’m sorry, I can’t
believe that.”

“I can prove
it.”

“You can prove
it? Great. If you have evidence to clear him then do it. Why are
you here fucking with my head instead of giving it to his lawyers
so they can get him released?”

“The evidence
is where you come in. I know where it is. But I need your
help–well–your guidance, to get to it.”

He places his
half drank beer on the bench in front of him. “My guidance? Just
what kind of guidance do you need?”

“Security
specifications, details on disabling it, and how to open a box that
takes two keys – neither of which I have.”

His eyebrows
rise as he folds his arms across his broad chest and my eyes stray
to take in his muscular physique for just a second.

“That all
sounds very illegal,” he states.

“That’s why I
just want your guidance. I’ll do the rest and there’ll be very
little risk to you.”

“Being an
accomplice is still a huge risk, Chloe. Do you understand what I’d
be risking, just by advising you on something like that?”

“I do. But
isn’t this the kind of thing you do–recoveries and such?”

A burst of air
escapes his nose as he assesses me with his eyes. “Someone’s been
doing her homework.”

“I know you’ll
do anything for the right compensation.”

“There may not
be compensation great enough to get me working with a Donovan
again.”

“My name
really is Saunders now. I changed it to my mother’s maiden name
after…well… you know.”

He grabs his
beer again and tips it back, downing the last of it before placing
it down and shaking his head.

“For a woman,
you’ve got a fuckload of balls. What makes you think I’d be willing
to take a job from the woman who forced me down this road in the
first place?”

“Can we not
make this about us?”

“But it is
about us. You wouldn’t have come to me if there’d been no
‘us’.”

“I told you
before–you’re the only one I can trust to help with this.”

“Fucking hell,
Chloe,” he says, looking away as he shakes his head again.

“At the end of
the day, Aiden, this is about family. It’s about doing whatever it
takes to repair wrongs.”

“It’s about
your
family, Chloe. Not mine.”

“There was a
time when you saw him as like a father to you. And like it or not,
he’s the reason you have everything you do. He gave you the chance
in the corporate world. He’s the one who made you a wealthy man.
He’s the reason you have that car and could afford to open that
club, and your own security company. It was
my
actions that
got you thrown out of the company. I knew what would happen, and I
went after you anyway. Don’t turn away the job of a lifetime over
the hatred of the choice I made.”

Clenching his
jaw, he glances down, focusing on the bottle as he spins it by the
neck, watching the base slowly leave a wet ring on the countertop
as he thinks.

Letting out a
breath, he returns his eyes to mine. “Exactly how much are we
talking about?”

“Enough to buy
you an island of your own if you wanted it.”

I watch as his
jaw resumes its tick, and his eyes move between mine, signalling
that he’s giving what I’ve said some serious thought. Then he takes
a breath. “I’ll think about it, ok? Don’t get your hopes up too
high. I won’t be doing any of this if I so much as suspect that
you’re lying to me. I want to know exactly what proof you’re after
and how you came to know about it. But I don’t want to hear any of
that now. I’m fucking tired and I’ve had enough of you for one day.
So unless you really did come here to fuck me then for the third
time in this twenty-four hour period, I’m going say ‘go home,
Chloe’. But this time–no tricks to get my attention–I’ll call you
and we’ll talk.”

I nod, trying
my best to contain my elation at the sheer prospect of his help.
“Do you need my number?”

“Sugar, I have
your number,” he says, with a smile, his voice a soft rumble as his
eyes meet mine. For a moment, I feel that familiar jolt between us.
Especially when he calls me ‘sugar’. The word pulls at my memory,
warming my heart as I recall the way his old pet name once made me
feel.
Wanted.
I don’t know if he used it accidentally, or if
he slipped it in on purpose to affect me. But either way, I like
hearing it. It reminds me of hope. Something long forgotten by my
heart. Something I lost the moment I was made to keep my promise
and leave the only man I’ve ever loved. I feel it tug at my chest
and curl through my mind as pictures of a life with Aiden–a life
with happiness–fill my mind. But I blink them away as a girlish
fancy. Aiden and I don’t have a future. Not then. Not now. We never
did…

“Of course you
do,” I whisper, a small smile playing on my lips as I turn to
leave. “I’ll see you around, Aiden.”