Page 70 of Raze
“Why are you hiding?” Aiden calls out.
Shit. He obviously saw me, so I step around the tree. “I didn’t realize it was you,” I answer with confidence I don’t feel. GE is still looking for me, even if the cops aren’t, so it should be a satisfactory response. He doesn’t look convinced.
“Well, it’s me. Come here.”
I sigh and step closer to the door. He eyes my backpack, and I subconsciously shift it further over my shoulder and behind me.
“Where are you going?” he croons in his velvety tone that spells trouble.
I shrug nonchalantly. “To work.” I lift the arm of the backpack. “This is for my disguise.” He stares at me, and I smile back at him. See? Nothing to see here. Move along.
“Get in.” I hesitate, and he leans over to shove the passenger door open for me. “I got a call from Cibrina about something at the Guild, and I’m going in. I’ll probably chat with the two GE people while I’m there if they’re up.” He watches my face before adding, “Iassume you want to be there for that.”
I grip my backpack harder. If I go with him, he’s going to bring me back to Old Red when we’re done, and I’ll have to try this all over again tomorrow. And get through another whole day without Kellan breaking my door down. Which I’m pretty sure is his next move.
If I don’t go with him, it’ll definitely set off a flag to Aiden that something’s up, and he’ll drag me back to Old Red, anyway.
So, really, there’s no choice. At least pretending I’m making this call means I might glean some information from Reid or Tinsley. I’ll have to work on my escape plan while Aiden’s working on whatever else he’s doing at the Guild to see how I can slip away as soon as we return.
Aiden raises his eyebrows at me, and I nod mutely. I walk around the car and buckle in.
There’s almost no time between him hitting the gas on the car and diving right into questioning me. “Have you seen Jackson lately?”
Yes. “No,” I lie. I don’t know why I do. Jackson didn’t ask me to hide that I’d seen him, but something in my gut tells me there’s something going on between them. I need to get more information before I decide what I’m going to do with what I know.
Not that it’s much at all. Jackson didn’t tell me anything. Something about a hospital, I guess, but I don’t know what that would have to do with Aiden.
Aiden keeps his eyes on the road ahead of us, but his jaw ticks with frustration.
“Why? Is something wrong?”
He purses his lips in thought, then gives me a careful side-eye. “He’s been going on a killing rampage of GE employees. Groups of them at a time. And half of them aren’t being cleaned up and are left for people to find. They’re being plastered all over the news.”
Oh. Well, then.
I bite my lower lip and stare at my hands in my lap. When he said he ‘dismantled’ a hospital, was that what he meant? Killing them and having it on the news? And for what? Why bring attention to it? We don’t want the cops or FBI involved in the fight with GE. Most of the government is in GE’s pocket, and who knows who else has been compromised.
“So…he’s not working under your orders?” I check just in case. Maybe he took it a step too far by not cleaning up after himself like usual.
“No. Guarding Old Red was the last thing I asked him to do.”
“Oh.”
I glance up again to see him watching me out of the corner of his eye. “He’s also been dropping children off at the Guild. No warning or heads-up. They just walk down one of the tunnels from different access points in the city and knock at the door.”
I fold my arms over my chest. His eyes drop to the bandage on my arm from Vera, but it’s already scabbed over and healing. It was a shallow cut. Bloody, but shallow.
“Isn’t that a good thing? He’s rescuing them.”
Aiden exhales, and I feel like an ignorant child who doesn’t understand the world yet. There’s truth in that, though, because I don’t have the faintest idea ofhisworld. He gave me a taste of what else wason his plate, and before he could explain any more of it to me, I ran from it. How much more do I want to see proof of how deeply Aiden cares for others? It only reinforces the reminder that I’m the problem, not him, when it comes to us.
There is no us. There never was.
Just that one time. In the island library.
“The Guild is like a business. Everyone in it has a job or contributes in some way. No one is under the working age. What are we going to do with a bunch of children? We don’t have the place or the resources to give them everything they need.”
“You’ve saved kids before. Isabel, for one…”
