Page 118 of Resolve
“That’s enough, Yahaira,” Aiden demands, his tone serious. “We’ll take it from here.”
She nods and smiles. “Of course. Good luck tonight.” Yahaira waves, then leaves the three of us alone. The rest have already gone down the ladder into the tunnel.
Aiden closes the distance between us, and Dane moves to the side without letting go of my hand. “Most of this mission is going to be in the dark. Are you up to it, or would you like to stay in here?”
“You mean you’re not just going to push me down there if I take too long?” I try to tease, but there’s an unexpected edge to my voice at the recalled memory when he’d done exactly that.
Dane’s head whips around to stare at Aiden in surprise.
Right. No one else knew what he’d done to try getting me to spill my secrets.
Aiden’s eyes close, cutting me off from the spark of pain I catch there. “No.” He opens them, his expression controlled once again.
I know it’s unfair to jab him about it now. He’s already apologized—already shared his regrets with me over what he’d done in the past. And now that he knows the effect the dark has on me, it’s hitting him that much harder when he remembers what he’d done.
“I want to do this,” I tell him honestly. Not that I’m fully prepared, or I won’t have any problems. But I’ll push myself to get through it because I won’t let that fear hold me back. I won’t give Gordon that control over me still.
He nods. “Dane and I will stay with you. If you need to leave, you and I will do that while the others finish the mission.”
The out he’s giving me releases the knot of tension in my chest.
Dane lifts his glowing hand between us. “I’ll light our way.”
Aiden takes the ladder first. He pauses a few rungs down and holds his hand out to me. I take it, turning and moving down until his body surrounds mine. “Tell me whatever you need, Raegan,” he purrs in my ear. I nod, my body still stiff as we descend into the dark. “That’s not enough. I need to hear your voice. Talk to me.”
“I’m okay,” I manage, focusing on my breathing and one step after another. There are a couple lights in the distance now that I can see the bottom, which I assume are Kell and Alice. The group is waiting for us; for me. I’m slowing everyone down. “I need to get off this ladder,” I mumble to motivate myself to hurry the fuck up.
But Aiden hears it. He loops his arm around my front and scoops my legs out before we drop. Thankfully, it isn’t more than four or five feet before we land, but it’s still enough time for my stomach to leap into my throat as I choke on a gasp.
“What’s wrong?” Dane whisper-shouts from above us. He rushes down the ladder and jumps to skip the last few steps.
Realizing Aiden’s still holding me when Dane reaches us, I pat his chest. “Put me down. I’m fine. I was giving myself a pep talk, not asking for a trust fall exercise.”
He sets me on my feet. “Let’s catch up to the others, then.”
The jump was a great distraction from the dark, but now that we’re walking in it, my nerves are fried again. I keep waiting for his voice, waiting for the moment my mind taunts me.
Dane’s hand and the flashlight on Aiden’s phone light the way while they both stay on either side of me like guards.
There’s a long stretch of quiet. Of shuffling feet and hushed whispers. Of breathing and scuffed shoes on stone. Enough quiet that I can feel the claws sinking into my mind, ready to bring me back to the water pod.
“You could have said something to me,” Aiden begins, almost accusatory. I nearly trip with how quickly I halt. He takes my arm and keeps me moving. “Don’t stop.”
“Excuse me?”
“The dark. When I’d told you to take the ladder, you never said anything about it bringing up bad memories. Or you could have given me a half-truth that you were afraid of it.”
“Do you think that gives you some sort of excuse for forcing me down there? For making me believe I was falling into a pit and might break something at the bottom?”
“All I’m saying is you could have given me something. That was all I asked for back then. Something real. That could have been it.”
“And then what? You would have gotten off my back if I just told you I was scared of the dark? That would have been it?”
“Maybe. We’ll never know.”
Is he serious right now?!
I fist my hands, anger flooding through me at theballsof this man to put the blame on me for what he did. I’m preparing a slew of insults to slam him with when he tugs my arm to prevent me from knocking into someone.
