Saving Beth

by Kaylee, Katy

  I let out another sigh. The rumors about what had happened at Cooper’s might help me out now, but I was pretty sure they would come back to bite me eventually. Like all things, it was just a matter of time.

  I was still standing there, staring down the alleyway when a shadow suddenly appeared next to mine. I glanced over at my uncle as he joined me, distaste twisting his lined features. The expression made him look older than he really was.

  For the first time, it occured to me just how haggard my uncle looked, how much the man had aged in the last ten years. His eyes, dark like most of the family’s, wore a permanently worried look and his hair was still thick but had gone silver over a decade ago, long before his time.

  He was a few years younger than my father would have been if he’d survived but it was impossible for me to imagine the strong, robust man I remembered as gray and aged as Phillipe.

  “Was that really necessary?” Phillip asked with another grimace and I tried to shrug off the guilt.

  Tomorrow will be one month exactly since Cooper had his hands on Beth, a month since Redman slaughtered all those men and threatened her.” The words rolled out of my mouth in a low, angry growl but my uncle didn’t react to the tone at all.

  “I know, Aiden, I know. But…” Phillipe cut himself off sharply, casting me a sideways look and I couldn’t stand the distrust in his eyes.

  “What do you want me to do? Just sit around, twiddling my god damned thumbs while that psychopath is still out there? Watching her? Stalking her?”

  Phillipe sighed, hard and heavy and it spoke more than words, but still his words hit just as hard a moment later.

  “You should be with her, Aiden.” My uncle said softly. “She’s…special. You should be protecting her.”

  What the fuck do you think I’m doing?” I exploded and then ran a hand through my hair that guilt doubling down like a lead weight in the pit of my stomach, “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t your fault, I just…I can’t find him and if I don’t know where the son of a bitch is, how can I stop him?”

  But my uncle didn’t have an answer for me. And neither did I. It was the question I had been wrestling with for the last month. It was like the bastard had just disappeared, just like the last time. And just like last time Redman left blood and death and slaughter in his wake, turning my life upside down before vanishing like smoke in the wind.

  “Where is Tony, anway?” I asked Phillipe, hoping the change of subject would be enough to distract me from the guilt eating me up inside. “Wasn’t he supposed to be with you?” I looked over at my uncle as I asked about his son but Philippe just shrugged and looked away.

  “My son...has a mind of his own,” My uncle said on a sign before giving me a sideways look, “and you know he hates it when you call him Tony.”

  “It’s just a name.” I teased but my uncle’s expression didn’t relax and it was my turn to shrug, “I know he does. That’s why we call him that.” I shook my head, noticing the extra lines turning white around Phillippe’s mouth at the mention of his son, “You look worried about him. Everything okay?”

  “I just...It’s fine, Aiden. Just forget about it. It’s fine.”

  I shot him a sympathetic look. “He’s young. He’ll learn. He’ll grow up. He asked for more responsibility. He wants to help out more. He asked me for a job. That’s good, right?”

  Philippe looked surprised, but no less worried as he questioned me, “He did? What did he ask for?”

  “He was really worried about Beth, after…everything. And with Redman on the loose. He said he wanted to help keep an eye on her.”

  I was trying to reassure him but if anything my uncle’s complexion grew even paler.

  “And what did you say?” Philippe asked, his voice sharp, “What did you tell him?”

  I gave him a wry grin, “I told him the truth. That if I put one more bodyguard on Beth she would kill me. Luca is worse than a mother hen and Matteo won’t leave her side after what happened.”

  My frown deepened. My trust in Matteo had been shaken after the Cooper incident. He had been supposed to protect Beth, instead he’d let her walk straight in to one of my enemies hide outs.

  Philippe fell silent as the distant sound of sirens filled the air for a moment before fading away once more.

  “It’s not Matteo’s fault. You know that. Just like you know it’s not Luca’s for giving her the address. Or yours, Aiden.”

  I let his words sink in but when I turned to him I knew the anger was still in his eyes by the way Phillipe flinched away from my gaze.

  “No,” I said, hard and low, “It’s Ian Redman’s fault. He was the one who killed Beth’s sister. He was the one that caused all of this.”

  I had been investigating, as quietly as I could, over the past four weeks and I was fairly certain that despite Beth’s hopes, that Leah her sister hadn’t survived. He hadn’t been able to tell Beth his thoughts yet. I couldn’t. Not until I was absolutely, one hundred percent certain.

  “He started all of this, but I’m going to end it.”

  “Don’t do anything foolish, Aiden,” Philippe pleaded, “The family needs you. Beth needs you.”

  “Me? Foolish? You know me better than that uncle.”

  “Exactly, I do know you,” My uncle snorted, “And you would definitely do something foolish, if you thought it would help protect someone you loved.”

  “I don’t…”

  “Don’t deny it. I’m old, but I’m not blind and I, unlike someone else I could name, am not a fool.” He clapped me on the shoulder, shaking his silver haired head. “If you love her, tell her. Life is too short to play games, Aiden. Go home. Be with the woman you love. Believe me, there’s nothing for you here.”

  He gestured around the empty alley, but I knew he was talking about a lot more than just the concrete and brick.

  I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t tell my uncle that I had no intention of leaving Ian Redman, or the investigation, alone. He couldn’t, because Philippe was right. I loved Beth. And I couldn’t rest until the threat to her happiness and safety was gone for good.

  So, instead I just nodded, and we turned to leave, walking back down the alley in silence.

  * * *

  Beth

  My body cut through the cool water, my muscles bunching and flexing, working together in harmony to propel me forward. My arms pushed against the weight of the water, feeling every movement as I swam laps around Aiden’s indoor pool.

  I objected to most of the extravagances in his mansion of a house as needless, useless friperies, but I had started swimming nearly every day, using the cool water to drown my worries, to forget my fears and doubts. The memories that still haunted me.

  But today, as I tried to leave my negative thoughts behind me, no matter how hard I tried to relax the cool water that normally soothed me just left me feeling tired and overwhelmed.

  I knew what it was. I knew why my mind refused to shut off and leave me in peace. It had been a month since that awful night at Cooper’s, two months since I had first asked Aiden to help me in my investigation, and we were still no closer to finding out what had happened to my sister.

  I kept questioning Aiden, not content with the vague answers he gave me. He didn’t put me off. But he didn’t give me anything decisive either. And it was getting more and more annoying.

  But that wasn’t the only thing that was worrying me. As much as I tried to deny it, put it off, or straight up ignore it, my mind kept circling back to the same hypothesis. I was still in love with Aiden Diorno.

  Just the thought alone had a bubble of panic shooting through me and I burst to the surface of the clear blue pool with a gasp.

  “You know, if you stay in there any longer, you’re going to turn into a prune.”

  Matteo’s voice reached me from where he was lounging on a chair by the side of the pool. He hadn’t let my out of his sight since the night at Cooper’s. Even though he’d been unconscious at the time, and had literally h
ad his hands tied, I knew he still felt guilty at not being able keep me safe, about not being able to protect me.

  And no matter how many times I had told him that it wasn’t his fault, he still wouldn’t leave my side. And if I was being honest, as much as he annoyed me sometimes, I had started to take comfort in his steady, albeit sarcastic, presence.

  We had fallen into something of a routine over the past few weeks. Both of us had gone back to work. Aiden had gone back to...whatever it was he did on a day to day basis. And I had gone back to the only world that had ever made sense to me, my research.

  The first couple of days had been a fiasco, with Aiden calling in to check on me every ten minutes and Matteo, who had refused to let me go on my own, following me around the lab like a shadow.

  After the third expensive piece of lab equipment Matteo had broken, I had decided to bring my work back home with me, working out of Aiden’s more than big enough house.

  For the moment, I reminded myself fiercely as I wiped water droplets from my eyes. It was only temporary. Only until the threat of Redman had passed, or I finally found out the truth about what had happened to my sister.

  I still wasn’t sure how I was going to goodbye to him all over again, but I didn’t want to think about that now.

  “I’m serious, Beth. That much chlorine can’t be good for anyone.”

  I swam over to the side of the pool, leaning against the cool, slippery tile so I could give him a long look.

  “It’s perfectly safe, Matteo. You don’t have to guard me from the pool water.”

  “No, I have to guard you from yourself,” He muttered under his breath but it was more than loud enough for me to hear. I rolled my eyes up at him, sending a splash of water in his direction.

  “I don’t need a babysitter, Matteo.”

  “Well, then stop acting like a child. Then maybe I would believe you.” Matteo said drolly, wiping beads of water from his suit, “This is Italian.”

  “Of course it is.”

  He shot me a look at my dry remark.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Everything about this family is Italian.” I told him with a snort and he just shook his head at me again.

  “That’s because we are. Italian, I mean. In case you didn’t notice, with the name and all. Diorno, in case you forgot.”

  “I didn’t forget. My memory isn’t that bad!”

  He gave me another look, this time wide with disbelief, “Are you kidding me? I’ve never seen anyone lose so many pens in my life!”

  “Sometimes, when I’m working I get…distracted.” I said defensively, tempted to send another wave of water at him again.

  “Distracted, huh? Yesterday, you almost walked into a wall, Beth. If I hadn’t been there…”

  “I would have tripped, maybe stubbed a toe. So what?” I knew I became absorbed in my work. My professor had used to call her obsessed. In my line of work, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

  I dove beneath the water one more time, drowning out the rest of his comments as I swam towards the ladder on the other side of the pool. I pulled myself out the water, giving up on finding any sort of peace today.

  Wrapping a towel around myself I walked carefully around to the side of the pool where Matteo was waiting with another towel and a stack of clothes.

  “By the way, professor, you missed a call while your shriveling like a raisin in the pool.”

  “Oh, who was it?”

  “Tony.”

  “Tony?” I asked, glancing over at him at the change in his voice.

  “Antony. Aiden’s cousin.”

  “Oh,” I bit my lip, relieved that I had missed it. I knew that he meant well. Aiden’s cousin had been worried about me after finding out about Cooper’s, and what had happened that night, at least Aiden’s version of events. But he’d been calling me nearly every day to check up on me. He was almost as overbearing as Aiden, but something about it made me feel claustrophobic and I’d started to avoid him, and his phone calls.

  “I guess I should call him back,” I said with no real enthusiasm, but Matteo just shrugged.

  “Nah. Let him sweat for a few days. It would do him good to have to wait every now and then.”

  I glanced over at Matteo, shooting him a questioning look at the sudden change in his tone. He just shrugged again.

  “Hey, it’s no secret that Phillipe spoiled the kid rotten after aunt Char passed away. He’s a grown up now, but he still acts like that same spoiled kid whenever he doesn’t get his way. I’ve seen him throw some major temper tantrums. Be good to have someone tell him no for a change. Even Aiden dotes on him.”

  “They’re family,” I told him, “You know how Aiden feels about family.”

  Matteo crossed a hand over his heart as if he was about to make a pledge, his expression growing stoic in mock sobriety.

  “Duty, responsibility, and above all, family. The Diorno fucking family motto.” Matteo shook his head just as my phone buzzed again from the small poolside table.

  I reached for it, dreading that it was Aiden’s cousin trying to call me once more but my mood lightened when I saw it was number from the lab. I answered it with a grin.

  “Hey, did you finally figure out what that anomaly was? I bet it has you stumped.” I said, smiling as I waited for Will’s predictably morose response but instead there was a moment of silence.

  “Uh, Beth?”

  “Will? What’s up? You’re calling about the anomaly in quadrant four, right? The star cluster.”

  “No, this isn’t about the star cluster,” Will sighed and the smile slowly faded from my face.

  “What is it about.”

  “It’s about the voice mail message. From your sister.”

  The air stuck in my lungs until I could barely speak and it took me several moments to force out the words.

  “What…What did you find, Will?” It hurt to say the words out loud and my heart was pounding so hard in my lungs that it was hard for me to hear Will’s answer.

  “I was able to uncover something else in the voice mail. It might be nothing…”

  “But it might be everything.” I muttered, suddenly feeling terrified all the way to my toe nails at what else Will might have been able to decipher on the recording. “I’ll be right there.”

  I had barely hung up the call with Will before I was dialing Aiden’s number, my heartbeat still frantic, my lungs working like a bellows in my chest as I tried to drag in enough oxygen but it was getting harder and harder.

  “Beth? I was just about to call and check in–.”

  “Will called. He found something else on Leah’s voice mail message.”

  There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line and when Aiden spoke again his voice was somber.

  “I’ll be back home as soon as I can. Then, we can go over to the lab together. Wait for me, Beth.”

  “No need. Matteo will take me. Just meet me there, if you want.” I could hear the growl in Aiden’s voice as I hung up, but I can’t wait. Not for this. Not even for Aiden.

  “Come on, Matteo. We’re going to the lab.” I said, grabbing my clothes and heading away from the pool. Matteo gave me a hapless look but he had no choice but to follow after me.

  “Oh Jesus. Aiden’s really going to kill me this time, isn’t he?”

  Chapter 25

  Beth

  I paced back and forth in the parking lot outside the lab but I didn’t see the large, gleaming steel building or the highway with cars flying past. I didn’t see the trees or the feel the spring breeze that was finally starting to let go of its wintry chill and turn its cheek towards summer warmth.

  All of my thoughts were trained on the past, all on my sister, on Ian Redman, on the convoluted journey that had gotten me here. All the way back to the place I first started. With Aiden.

  It was as if thinking of him conjured the man himself because as soon his name fluttered through my mind I looked up to see him sta
lking across the parking lot towards me. And I could see that he was pissed.

  His dark, striking brows were furrowed in a frown that had a line forming on his otherwise smooth forehead, and his hair was tossed and tumbled as if he’d spent the last twenty minutes spearing his fingers nervously through it.

  But his eyes, that’s what really caught my attention and held it. His eyes burned like icy blue flames and it sent a thrill through me. Not of fear, I would never be afraid of him, no matter how many times he told me I should. No, it was anticipation.

  Over the last few months, as my entire life had fallen to pieces, Aiden had been the only constant. A magnetic pole that would always find something inside me and pull me towards him. He was steady, he was solid. And he was the only person in the world that made me feel safe and sane.

  And now he was charging towards me like a bull in the ring.

  Before Aiden could take more than a few steps though, Matteo stepped in front of me, his hands up as if to ward off the other man.

  “Hey, Aiden. Listen man, she’s fine–.”

  Aiden cut of Matteo’s words with a sharp slash of one hand, his icy blue gaze never leaving mine.

  “I don’t want to talk to you right now, Matteo.”

  Matteo put his hands up again, this time in a shrug and turned to walk away, giving me a sympathetic look.

  “I guess I’ll just…go wait in the car then.”

  “Good idea.” Aiden growled, still not looking at the other man.

  I waited for Matteo to disappear inside the parked car before speaking, “Aiden, I…”

  “Do you have any idea how crazy you make me?” He said, his voice low and heavy as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled so close that I could see the fear lurking beneath the anger in his eyes. Fear for me. Fear for my safety.

  “Aiden, please…”

  “No, just listen to me.” He drew in a deep breath, “we made a promise to each other. That we were going to be partners, remember? That we were going to trust each other.”