Aiden was dubious.
“We overtook a bunch of armed men hellbent on kidnapping us?”
“In a nutshell, yes,” Ryder replied. “But they have never stopped looking for us, even after Drake had us hidden away in places where even he didn’t know. The only man who knew where we were, Drake’s right-hand man, was killed by Oculus six years after we were moved to foster homes, and Drake has been searching for us ever since.”
“Fuck,” Aiden snapped. “So, if they’re still looking, Drake has led them directly to us.”
“Aiden, they were going to find us one way or another,” Xander sighed. “They want us. We are too valuable to let go. They found Ryder before Drake did – it was by the skin of their teeth that Drake ended up getting him out before Oculus took him. And they were pretty close to getting Xavier too before Drake showed up. Their reach is pretty fuckin’ far, and they seem to have informants everywhere.”
“So what do you propose?” Aiden bit out.
“If we could stop them when we were no more than toddlers, imagine what we can do now,” Ryder explained. “I, for one, would like to enjoy my life without worrying about my loved ones. Wouldn’t you?”
“To be honest,” Aiden snapped. “Xander has caused me more stress and problems than Oculus ever has. I didn’t even know they existed, but Xander’s been there my whole life to fuck things up for me.”
“Aiden, think about what you and your daughter can do to help us – “
“You leave my daughter out of this!” he hissed. “She has nothing to do with it!”
“She has everything to do with this. Every generation seems to grow stronger.”
“You have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about!” Aiden growled.
“You don’t understand, Aiden. You are the final piece of the puzzle. Audrey is not safe now. She – “Drake said.
“You can’t be here,” Aiden snarled. “I don’t know you people. You can’t just waltz into my life after all these years and tell me some wild shit and expect me to jump at your command. Especially when you wave a gun in my face!”
“Your concerns are not mine,” Aiden continued. “My concern is my family.”
A heavy pause followed.
“We are your family,” Xander said, sighing and Aiden scoffed.
“They are not my family,” he insisted. “Sarah and Audrey are my family. Get the hell out of my house. I have no interest in this insane plan of theirs.”
“Aiden – “
“Your ten minutes are up.”
“Aiden, you’ve spaced out. Talk to me,” Sage said, tugging on his arm and bringing him back to the present. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s happening.”
Dammit. He could see now that he wasn’t get away without her. That he didn’t even want to, if he was being honest with himself. And he definitely needed to get Audrey and Sarah and get away from the danger that seemed to be looming.
“How long will you need to get a bag together?” he asked. “We leave in the morning.”
Chapter Eleven
Audrey fell asleep almost as soon as Aiden’s BMW sped onto the I-95 but Sage waited until she was certain the young girl was out before addressing him in a hushed tone.
“Where are we going?” she asked, and he glanced at her through his peripheral vision.
“First, Catonsville to get my sister.”
Sage’s back stiffened.
“Sarah?” she murmured. “Isn’t she in Spring Grove?”
“Yes.”
His tone told her that he didn’t much feel like discussing it, but Sage knew she had a right to know what was going on.
“Aiden, maybe that is the best place for her,” she said, cautious not to annoy him. She could see he was already on edge.
“Normally I would agree with you, but things have changed, and she needs to be with us until I can sort this mess out.”
Even in the dark, she could see his expression harden as he thought of the danger Sarah might be in.
“Aiden, who were those men? I heard them say they were your family.”
He snorted.
“So they claim.”
They drove for a few more minutes in silence and Sage wished she knew how to extract the information she wanted without having him shut down completely.
I just have to wait until he’s ready.
She hoped it wouldn’t take too much more time.
Despite the rashness of her decision to go with him, she felt no apprehension, even though she was behaving in the most opposite way normal for her. It was like she had saved all of her spontaneity for when she met him. God, it’s like he brings out something in me – like when we’re together, I feel like I’ve always been in his arms. How can this be real? Who starts to fall in love this quickly? This was crazy. Maybe she should just go home and think about this rationally – like a professional therapist would, she scoffed at herself. It was like the world had turned upside down. Two weeks ago, she had never even heard of this man and his family, now she was fleeing with him and his daughter.
Jennica’s words were still ringing in her ears as they drove through the night.
“What the hell do you mean, have Rebecca cancel your appointments indefinitely? Are you okay?” the psychiatrist demanded. “Where are you? I’m coming over!”
“No!” she said quickly. “No way! I – uh, I just have a family matter to attend to and I need the time.”
A dead silence followed and Sage pulled the phone away from her ear to see if she had dropped the call. She hadn’t.
“Jenn?”
“Does this have something to do with Aiden Van Hoyt or his daughter?”
Goosebumps exploded over Sage’s arms.
“What would make you ask that?” she asked, gasping in shock.
“Oh shit, Sage, what did you do?”
“Nothing,” she replied quickly. “Nothing. I told you, I just need some time. Don’t make a big deal out of nothing.”
“Honey, listen,” Jennica said, her tone razor sharp. “I saw Aiden Van Hoyt when he came in for his appointment. I almost canceled the rest of my day, so I could masturbate in my office with the image of his face between my legs. I get it. He’s beautiful. And I saw the little girl too. She’s cute. But cute enough to fuck up your career over? I would say no. Whatever it is you think you’re doing, stop it.”
“So you’ll tell Rebecca for me?”
Jennica exhaled so deeply, Sage thought she felt the blonde’s breath through the cell phone.
“Girl, you’re in over your head. I have a nose for this shit.”
“Thanks, Jenn. I’ll…I’ll be in touch.”
She disconnected the call, unsure if that was true or not.
Will I see Jennica again?
Sage turned her head to look at Audrey still asleep in the backseat.
They pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the psychiatric hospital and parked.
“I’ll be right back,” he told her, and she gaped at him dubiously.
“You’re just going to walk in there and check her out now? It’s six o’clock in the morning, Aiden!”
“So what?” he replied. “She’s here voluntarily. They can’t keep her here.”
“Aiden, that’s not necessarily true – ”
But he was already out of the car, heading toward the entranceway of the building and Sage shook her head.
He’s going to be back here in ten minutes, disappointed. Is it wrong that I hope they don’t release her?
She was instantly ashamed by the idea and her face blushed scarlet.
She tried to tell herself that she feared for her safety; after all, no one knew for certain who had killed Charles and Lisa Van Hoyt.
If Xander is free, does that mean that Sarah did it?
“Dr. Pierce?”
Sage whipped her head around to peer at Audrey.
“Hi sweetheart,” she murmured. “Go back to sleep. Everything is fine.”
“Are we running from Uncle Xander?” she whispered sleepily and Sage’s neck tensed.
“What do you know about that, Audrey?”
She shrugged.
“Those other men are like me and daddy. They talk without speaking too.”
Her lids were growing heavy but Sage didn’t want her to fall back asleep, not until she finished her thought.
“What do you mean they talk without speaking, Audrey? How can you hear them?”
She smiled sleepily.
“I told you, Dr. Pierce. Daddy and I have special powers. I think those men do too. I think they are daddy’s brothers.”
“Your dad has more than one brother?” she asked, turning her entire body to face Audrey head on. “How many brothers does he have?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, yawning and allowing her eyes to close fully.
“Honey, wait!” Sage cried out desperately. “What special powers do you and your daddy have? Can you show me?”
Groggily, she opened her eyes again and grinned.
“Okay,” she murmured. “I already told daddy that you know anyway.”
Sage watched, half-skeptically, half-terrified of what she was going to learn.
Suddenly, Audrey disappeared, and Aiden sat in her place, eyelids still drooping.
“Hello, Sage,” he said, and she gasped, drawing back in shock.
Audrey laughed in her own voice and fell back into her eight-year-old body, stretching out on the backseat like a cat.
“Can I go back to sleep?” she asked plaintively and Sage nodded, swallowing the lump of fear in her throat.
“Your daddy can do that too, Audrey?” she whispered.
“No,” she replied. “He can do something else, but he’s never shown me. He says he doesn’t use his powers anymore.”
Her words flowed into a garble and she was asleep, ending their conversation.
Did I just see that? Am I losing it?
Abruptly, the driver’s side door opened, and Aiden jumped in, his face twisted in anger.
“I have to come back tomorrow at noon,” he growled. “They won’t release her unless I speak with her doctor. Bureaucratic red tape.”
Sage could only stare at him, wondering if his face could become someone else’s, if he was even human.
“We have to find a hotel room,” he sighed. “I don’t want to go back to the house. I don’t know if the others will be back.”
“A hotel is good,” Sage choked, the thought of being among half a dozen men with supernatural powers dizzying to her.
Aiden pulled out of his space, glancing at his slumbering daughter.
“Did she wake up?” he asked.
Sage shook her head slowly.
“No,” she lied. She didn’t want him to know that she knew anything, not yet.
Not until she could figure out what to do with the information she had learned.
Chapter Twelve
Aiden could not sleep, and he spent the night online, searching for an escape plan.
If what Ryder said is true, it doesn’t matter where we go. Oculus is everywhere. I should have been looking over my shoulder this entire time, training myself like Xander and Ryder. Instead, I’ve been living a dull existence, oblivious to the fact that everything could blow up in my face on a dime. How could I have thought that my abilities wouldn’t come back to haunt me? What the fuck did Drake Conway do to us?
He was angry at everyone; Drake, Oculus, Xander, even the brothers he had just met. They had brought danger to his doorstep without any regard for Audrey.
His eyes flittered toward Sage who lay on the bed in one of the bedrooms of the suite they had at the hotel. Audrey slept soundly in the other room, the door closed so that his online investigation into Oculus didn’t disturb her.
I bet she’s regretting this little road trip now, isn’t she? Tomorrow, after I get Sarah, I’m taking her back to Bethesda where she belongs. She has a practice, a home, a life. I can’t involve her in this insanity anymore than I already have.
The knowledge that he had to let her go filled him with sadness, made his chest squeeze tightly. But he willed himself to push all emotions out of his mind. He had to do what was best for her, not himself.
He slid the chair away from the desk where he was seated and slipped onto the bed beside her, wrapping his arm around her waist.
Instantly, her body relaxed into him and he inhaled the softness at base of her neck, wanting to revel in their last moments of closeness.
Whatever happens with Oculus or my new-found family, I will likely never recapture whatever it is I have started with Sage, he knew.
“Can’t sleep?” she murmured, and he shook his head. “Me neither.”
She snuggled her curvaceous frame back as if trying to become one with him and he tightened his arm around her, his jaw locking. He considered telling her his plans to send her home, but he didn’t want an argument.
I am just going to spend one night holding her, the only night we’re getting because the damn fates are cruel, and always have been.
He knew that his moment of self-pity couldn’t last, but he couldn’t let go of the overwhelming sensation of longing for the life he felt he could have built with Sage.
“I know this has all been a whirlwind,” Sage whispered to him without turning her head. “But if there’s anything you want to tell me, I’m all ears.”
For a fleeting moment, the desire to spill the entire sordid story, including his family’s powers, almost overwhelmed him.
“Tomorrow,” he murmured. “Right now, I just want to be with you.”
He felt her sigh, although whether from disappointment or relief, he couldn’t be sure.
Tomorrow I will send her home where she’ll be safe. She doesn’t need to be a part of this.
He hoped that in time, Sage would learn to forgive him. But for right now, he needed to hold her, be with her one last time. And he was going to make these memories last a lifetime, for both of them…
________________________
“Just wait here,” Aiden instructed as he leapt from the BMW. “I won’t be long and then…”
He trailed off, not wanting to lie to Sage or Audrey who stared at him with huge, trusting eyes.
“I’ll be right back.”
He closed the door and hurried toward the main building for the second time in fourteen hours, hoping that the words he had spoken were true. When he had woken that morning, Sage was already up and dressed, ready to fight it out with him, as if she knew he had made up his mind to bring her back to her home first thing. He had lost that battle. Again. One thing he’d give her, she had the stubbornness of a fuckin’ mule.
As he walked back into the mental institute, he knew that if there was resistance, he’d have to find a lawyer to get Sarah out. He yanked open the glass door and headed toward reception.
To his surprise, the same nurse was on duty that had been there yesterday.
Her eyes widened when she saw him.
“Mr. Van Hoyt!” she gasped, her voice showing her surprise. “I wasn’t sure if you would return.”
“I said I would,” he commented dryly. “But I’m afraid I’m in a rush. I need to check my sister out immediately.”
She visibly swallowed.
“I understand. Let me page Dr. Anderly.”
Aiden’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Dr. Cruthers is Sarah’s doctor,” he corrected but she was already on the phone, turning her body away as if to shield him from hearing the conversation.
Aiden was far too distracted to listen. Time was ticking and while he wasn’t sure precisely what he was up against, he could feel the darkness closing in around him like a shroud.
“Dr. Anderly will be with you in one moment,” the nurse told him, trying to smile but there was unmistakable fear in her face.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed, a spark of alarm running through him as he held her gaze.
“Where is Dr. Cruthers?” he as
ked, his firm jaw locking slightly. Her terse smile faltered.
“Dr. Anderly will be with you in one moment,” she repeated as if she was a parrot trained to say only specific phrases.
“I want to see my sister’s doctor,” Aiden insisted, but she darted her gaze away as if the answer he sought lay on the oddly pristine desk before her.
Sensing danger, Aiden whirled in the direction of the elevators.
I have to get to Sarah, he thought, his heartrate increasing as his long legs strode away from the nurse’s urgent calls to stop.
With each step he took, his stress level mounted as if he knew whatever waited for him in Sarah’s room would only create more problems.
“Mr. Van Hoyt!”
He glanced behind him to see her hurrying toward him and Aiden decided to forsake the elevator, turning instead for the stairwell to his left.
“Mr. Van Hoyt, wait!”
His athletic form flew up toward the third floor and as he threw open the door, he paused, trying to orient himself.
That way, his brain called out to him. Her room is at the end of that hallway.
Almost running, he willed himself not to attract attention as he moved, but he did not have the luxury of time, not anymore.
Throwing open the door to her room, he froze in his tracks.
“Hello, Aiden.”
Sarah cowered on her bed, legs drawn beneath her nightgown as she stared at him with terrified blue eyes.
“Aiden, run!” she screamed as the man at her side stepped toward him, but Aiden stood firm.
“I am not going anywhere without you, Sarah,” he told her firmly, closing the space between them. “Who are you?” he demanded, pinning a stare on the other man.
The old man smiled dimly, stepping forward to offer his hand.
“I am Dr. Anderly,” he replied. “I am Sarah’s primary doctor.”
“No,” Aiden replied slowly, ignoring his outstretched palm. “Dr. Cruthers is her doctor. I don’t know you are and I don’t want any trouble. I am just taking her out of here.”
His mossy eyes traveled to his sister’s face which filled with hope.
HARD LIMIT Page 10
