Page 71 of Seasons of Love
"Aiden, what's going on? You're worrying the hell out of me."
I'd known something was wrong with Aiden even before Wren and Tom had turned up at my doorstep with blazing guns and threats of the make-it-right-or-lose-your-balls kind.
So I'd spent a whole night tossing and turning, trying to analyze every conversation we'd had, every time we'd been together, and as a last resort, I'd called Mike.
After all we'd been with him almost a week, so maybe he'd seen something in Aiden, or maybe they'd talked. Mike had not just suggested but pointed right out that we were in love with each other but neither had actually said those words.
And that was what I thought was wrong.
But the state Aiden was in meant there had to be more to him rushing to San Diego.
I ran over to the living room to grab some clothes from my suitcase and rushed back to the bedroom.
Aiden was sitting on the edge of his bed with his head down. I sat next to him.
"What happened, Aiden?"
"Richard…Richard called me when we were at the hospital in Atlanta. He wanted to see me, but I told him I wasn't home. He told me to come home because it was important. I refused, so he sent me something."
I ran my hand between his shoulder blades, but it didn't seem to release any of his tension.
"What did he send you?"
"A video. A video of me…and him. Slade, I had no idea he'd done it. It's so embarrassing. He blindfolded me and told me to say certain things. Then he…we had sex. He filmed everything. And he's threatening to release the video on the internet unless we get back together."
So many feelings came over me, with the dominant one being anger at Richard the Fucking Tiny Dick for doing this to Aiden. For abusing his trust. For using it against him. For daring to threaten him.
Aiden had been carrying this anxiety on his own for ten days. No wonder he was at a breaking point.
"When is he expecting you?" I asked.
"I don't know. I was meant to have stopped for the night yesterday, so I guess…tonight? I wanted a few hours to get myself together before I got in touch with him."
"Do you think he'll release the video before he sees you?"
Aiden looked at me. His eyes full of fear, as if he hadn't considered that option, but then he said, "No, I don't think so. He wants money, so if he releases the video that's it, the video is out there."
"So he wants to keep the threat over your head, so you’ll do anything he wants. Would he ever follow through on his threat?"
"Yes. If I push him far enough, he'll do it out of spite to ruin my reputation. This would ruin my parents’ reputation too. We don't have the best relationship, but this could blacklist them from a lot of stuff they're involved with in New York. They mostly do charity work now, so this could have a bigger effect on the people they help."
I got up and walked around the room, trying to put my feelings aside so I could think straight. There was no way of telling how many copies of the video Dick had, and if there was more than one.
One thing was certain, I wasn't giving up Aiden for anything, so the moment Dick found out about us, he could well go off the rails and release the videos anyway.
"Okay, it's a wild shot, but I think there is someone who could help us," I said.
I grabbed my phone and sent Tom a message asking for his friend Connor's phone number. Connor's husband, James, had once been the bodyguard to the Prince of Lydovia, who happened to be married to Tom's best friend, Charlie. But my understanding was that before that he'd been some kind of computer whiz in the special forces.
I put the phone down while we waited for Tom's reply and then went over to Aiden, kneeling in front of him.
"Are you okay?"
He shrugged. "How did you get here? How did you know where I live?"
I chuckled. "You know airplanes travel faster than cars, right?"
"I thought you preferred riding."
