Aiden leaned across the car. He should turn this part of the gig over to the twins or maybe one of the other guys. And yet, it wasn’t about to happen. He was keeping Madison all to himself.
Madison held her ground though he could see the way her hand trembled and her throat flexed as she swallowed. He invaded her space until he could smell the tropical scent that clung to her skin.
“Try me,” he said. And he hoped she did.
* * *
Madison strolled down the aisle between the storage units, forcing herself to concentrate on the numbers—and not the man keeping stride with her, holding the umbrella over her. Her hands hadn’t stopped shaking since their chat in the car. What had gotten into her? Her mouth had always been an issue, but around Aiden it got away from her. She still didn’t quite know what agreement they’d come to.
He brushed his hand along the small of her back and she sucked in a breath.
“Twelve-twelve?” He pointed at the metal rolling door ahead of them.
“That’s it.” She marched forward and knelt to unlock the door.
“Here, give me that. You’ll get wet.” Aiden shoved the umbrella at her and took the key before she could voice a protest.
She stared at his broad shoulders while he worked the lock. It was one thing to be attracted to him—she couldn’t help that. It was another thing to lean on him, to accept his help and even feel some gratitude that he was there. She didn’t know if she liked coming to rely on him.
Aiden got the lock off the door and rolled it up, holding it for her to step inside. He clicked on the flashlight he’d brought from the car and shone the beam around the long, narrow locker. There was furniture piled up on top of blocks, wrapped in plastic. A bunch of crates were neatly lined up on shelves.
“Where do we start?” he asked.
She gestured toward the messy stack of boxes and a few plastic bags piled together. “This is my stuff. Everything else is a friend’s.”
Madison took a deep breath and lifted the first box from the pile.
“How is it you’ve had something of Dustin’s for three years and he just now realized it?” Aiden asked.
“Well, uh, about six months ago, all my things were in one storage unit, but Dustin argued it was his. I had about two hours to get everything out of it before it became his property, so my girlfriends all came over and we divided everything up between their cars and they stashed stuff where they could. Closets, sheds, attics, garages, and a few of them already had stuff in storage units. I’d ridden with one of the girls to grab some burgers for everyone. While I was gone, Dustin’s goons showed up and had everyone kicked out of the unit and trashed everything else. I was pissed, so I went to the house we used to live at. He was moving out at the time, and we had a fight. He told me off and stormed out, so I grabbed some of his boxes to trash them.”
“But you kept them instead?”
She sighed. “Yeah, they got mixed up in everything else and by the time I realized what I had, I couldn’t exactly hand it over. I reboxed everything so I wouldn’t know what was in each box and randomly gave them to my friends to hide for me. It’s stupid, but I kind of feel guilty about it. I guess all he’s proven is that I still have a conscience.”
“That’s not a bad thing.” He stared into the top box without seeing its contents. “You don’t want to lose it. Trust me.”
Madison watched him, the distant, hard expression, the way his lips compressed into a thin line. What had he lost?
“Who are they?” Aiden lifted a picture frame out of the box. Three teenage girls with ponytails and bows in their hair smiled back.
She opened her mouth and closed it. The picture had sat on her dresser for years before she’d boxed it up. She’d probably passed it a thousand times without much thought, and yet, the eyes of the girl on the right speared her.
“That’s my sister and her two best friends.” She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Well, they were her friends then. I haven’t seen her in . . . shit. Ten years.”
“Ten years? Why?” Aiden flipped through the rest of the box and set it aside, stowing the picture away with the rest.
“My mother didn’t exactly approve of her eighteen-year-old daughter marrying a man thirteen years older. She kicked me out the night I told her Dustin and I were getting married. God, that’s the last time I saw her. When I came by a few days later to get my stuff it was just my little sisters. They cried and Amanda gave me her teddy bear, she was barely ten and still slept with it. Emily, the one in the picture, she barely spoke to me.” Madison tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling, willing the unshed tears to dry up.
The memories opened up, fresh and full of punch. The look in her mother’s eye when she’d proudly displayed her engagement ring had made Madison’s joy wither, but she’d been so determined to be happy. “Mom was so angry. Dad left not long after Amanda was born, and Mom did everything to raise us. Looking back, I think she thought she’d failed me because it was pretty obvious I was only after Dustin’s money and what I thought was a better life. Mom raised me better than that. Now, I’ve lost that life and them.”
She moved a few things around in the box without really seeing them.
Great, just unload on the guy, why don’t you? Want to handle the rest of my problems too?
Madison took a deep breath and packed her mistakes back into a closet in the back of her mind. She’d deal with it eventually. When she’d made something of herself. Got a degree. Then she’d find her family and make things right—if they’d have anything to do with her.
“It’s hard being cut off from family,” Aiden said quietly, sifting through another box.
She went very still, afraid to breathe for fear he’d stop.
“I haven’t spoken to mine in years. They blame me for—things. About the only person who acknowledges me is my grandmother, but she doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks.” He smiled, and she had to wonder what the old woman was like. Did she have his eyes? Would he smile for her?
“Why don’t they talk to you?” She set her box aside and pulled her knees up to her chest.
Aiden stepped back, hands on his hips, and surveyed the small pile of boxes they’d gone through. They were all her things, personal mementos, keepsakes of a life she’d left behind. The silence stretched on for a few moments.
He wasn’t going to tell her.
She couldn’t blame him. They didn’t know each other. Not really.
Madison stood and plopped her box back on the stack. She straightened the boxes, resisting the urge to grab the picture of Amanda. It wasn’t like she had any place to put it.
“My sister was murdered and my family blames me for it.”
She turned toward him, his words on repeat while she processed their meaning. Murdered? As in kicked the bucket? Dead?
“You didn’t kill her.” Madison didn’t believe for an instant he was involved. She had no doubt Aiden was capable of doling out death, but not to his sister.
“No, but I’m the one who asked her husband for help with something I shouldn’t have.” His expression was shuttered. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know he wouldn’t share more.
“That . . . that sucks.”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “It’s probably better this way.”
Aiden wore responsibility like she wore crash pads. It protected him, insulating him from the things he was missing out on. All for what? This thing with Michael Evers?
“Because of what you do?”
Aiden glanced at her, his gaze narrowing.
She straightened her spine and stared right back at him. “I might not be a suspicious person, but I’m not blind. You’re doing something dangerous. You can’t date. Your family’s better off away from you. What’s going on?”
He sighed heavily and for a moment she glimpsed his pain.
“It’s better if you don’t know,” he said.
“Probably. But I’m involved.”
&nb
sp; “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t be.”
Her heart hurt for him.
“That’s why you do this, isn’t it? You’re helping people. I’m not the first, am I?”
His silence was all the answer she needed. She couldn’t guess at the life Aiden lived, but it seemed pretty lonely.
Chapter Ten
Aiden eased the car to a stop at the curb in front of a large, two-story bungalow. The red shutters were freshly painted and the grass just cut. It was the picture of everything he didn’t have.
Madison hadn’t talked much since leaving the storage unit, which he was grateful for. Why had he told her about Andrea? It was a stupid moment of peering into life’s rearview mirror. All because he’d watched Madison relive the entire experience of losing her family. She had an expressive face, and in that moment, he hadn’t been able to shut off his own memories from hosing him down.
“I can go in if you want to wait out here.” Madison popped her seat belt.
“Of course I’m coming with you.”
“You can trust me, you know? I will give the stuff to you when I find it.”
He stared at her. Did he trust her? Despite her lack of self-preservation skills, he did. She wasn’t like Dustin. There wasn’t anything dishonest about her.
“Okay, come in if you want. Just a warning, Sindercella’s grandmother is kind of a trip.” She slid out of the car and stepped onto the sidewalk.
He got out of the car and walked around to meet her. “Sindercella?”
“I don’t know her real name.” Madison shrugged.
“Is that common?”
“For derby girls? Yeah. Once you pick your name your real one hardly matters.”
He shook his head as she rang the doorbell. His pocket began to vibrate, the one with his burner phone reserved especially for Dustin.
Shit.
“I need to take this. Back in a minute, okay?”
He backtracked to the car, answering the phone and watching as Madison stepped into the bungalow.
“What?” he said.
“Do you have it?” Dustin asked.
“Not yet.”
Dustin blew out a breath, the sound rattling through the phone.
“What am I paying you for?” Dustin spat.
Inwardly, Aiden groaned. Dustin was going to play it this way? Someone had to be leaning on him hard, probably Evers. What was on that drive?
“You’re paying me to do what I do best. Getting the job done quietly and with no mess. If you’d like to send your goon squad over to do it instead, be my guest. I’m wasting time with this bitch making nice. You could have told me she has a police escort everywhere.” Aiden glanced over his shoulder, half expecting to see Madison trying to listen in, but she wasn’t there. He felt a tiny pang of guilt for how he was talking about her, but in the long run his tactics might save her life.
“They let you close to her?”
“Yeah, but I don’t like this. You screwed with me.”
“You’re resourceful. I need this drive soon. You don’t understand, no one knows I don’t have it.” Dustin pitched his voice low.
Was that so? It made sense why Dustin was pulling in someone who had no connection to his organization.
“Think you’re going to get it?” Dustin asked.
“Hell yes I’ll get it. That’s what you’re paying me for, remember?”
“Fine. Yes. But I need it. Sooner than what we talked about.”
Aiden grimaced. “How soon?”
“Sunday soon.”
“I’ll get the job done.”
“Good. Good. Later.”
Aiden shoved the burner back into his pocket and glanced at the house once more. Today had not gone according to plan from the beginning, but instead of being irritated at skipping out on a whole day at the shop, he didn’t mind having spent it with Madison.
She made him laugh and her easy chatter about her life gave some semblance of normalcy to what they were doing. Despite what they were doing, being with her made him feel—normal. Like a guy with his girl. It wouldn’t last. He wasn’t about to kid himself, but it just drove home how far from normal his life had become. The stuff with Dustin, that was his new normal.
It was for the best his family was out of his life, but Madison’s? That was something that could be fixed.
He punched in Emery’s number and hit dial.
“What’s up?” Emery drawled.
“Hey, I want you to find out where Madison’s mother and sisters are now. Surface-level stuff, address, occupation, any red flags or notable events.”
There was a moment of silence before Emery responded. “Do we think they’re involved?”
Aiden could already hear Emery tapping away at his computer.
“No, this isn’t related. It’s for Madison. When this is all over she’s going to need someone in her life.” Someone who wasn’t him.
“I’m on it. Anything else?”
“Nah, I did just have a little run-in with two Eleventh drivers, but I have a feeling that’s the way things are going to be for a while.”
“I’ll let Julian know.”
“No, leave him out of this. Tell Tori and Roni, maybe, but not Julian.”
“Whatever you say. Mamma Haughton’s information is incoming. Hey, we finally got Ross’s financials today and there’s some stuff we need to talk about.”
“Like?”
“Like the fact that the guy is broke. Unless he’s got some hidden accounts somewhere, Dustin Ross has almost no money.”
“How’s he making deals?”
“Could be he’s keeping all the cash on hand, but that’s dangerous.” Cash could be stolen, which was why banks and offshore accounts were necessity.
“Find out how he’s paying for stuff.”
Aiden hung up and glanced at the text about Madison’s mother. He tried to never think too much about Emery’s role in what they did. It was more than tech support. He had to anticipate their needs, listen for chatter, and be proactive. Which meant Emery spent a lot of time digging around in their lives and what was going on in Miami. What that man knew could destroy them all if he wanted to. But he was circumspect. He’d found Madison’s family in a matter of seconds, and the only people who’d know he did it would be Emery and Aiden.
It was growing late in the afternoon, and a glance at the weather report showed storms heading their way.
He wasn’t positive Dustin hadn’t set someone else after Madison, too. There was always the danger that she’d go back to her slip and be ambushed.
There was no denying he wanted to keep Madison close. He wanted to protect her, to keep her safe. Which was exactly why he needed to cut down how much time they spent together. He was man enough to admit she had some crazy attraction for him, and he wasn’t sure he’d stop the next time with just kissing her.
Aiden made up his mind. He’d deposit her back onto her bike, follow her to the slip after changing cars once more, and send one of the twins out to be her security detail. Probably Tori so he’d have Emery’s eyes on the girls as well. He wasn’t sure what was going on with their tech or Tori, but Emery seemed to pay close attention to the mechanic. Once Madison was settled, he could pay Dustin a visit and get a little more information. If he was lucky, he could still get in a full night’s rest.
He strode up the walk and knocked on the door.
An elderly Asian woman whisked it open. She wore a bright purple velour tracksuit and her glasses were studded with rhinestones.
“Come in, come in. Are you single?”
He stepped over the threshold and paused, glancing from the grandma to Madison, sitting on a sofa with several boxes stacked around her.
“Sobo! You’ll scare men off asking them that. Don’t! Do you ever want me to get married?” A young woman stomped out of the kitchen at the back of the house, waving a spatula at the elderly woman. He assumed this was Sindercella. She had the indeterminable ageless grace of Asian women, but he’d stil
l peg her for midtwenties. The pigtails and thigh-high rainbow socks didn’t help.
“You won’t get married if you don’t ask,” her grandmother retorted.
“You’re killing me, Sobo.” Sindercella rolled her eyes and threw her arms up in the air, but she couldn’t smother her grin fast enough.
“Come sit down.” The grandma gave his ass a firm squeeze. “Helena, this one is ripe. You should keep him.”
Aiden tensed, but put one foot in front of the other. Madison’s eyes bulged and she slapped her hand over her mouth. He quickly took a seat next to her before Sobo got both her hands on him.
“Not one word,” he growled at Madison, and grabbed the topmost box.
* * *
Madison studied Aiden’s profile in the waning light as he navigated the car back to the main drag. Despite Sobo’s eccentric personality, he’d warmed to her over the course of digging through boxes and a light dinner.
“Okay, so what’s their deal?” he asked after a few moments of silence. He seemed more relaxed than she’d ever seen him.
“Sindercella and Sobo?”
“Yeah. What’s sobo mean?”
“‘Grandma’ in Japanese. Sindercella came out to her family last year. She’s bisexual. They kicked her out. Sobo, who insists everyone call her Sobo by the way, said it was stupid, that they moved to America for a new way of life, so Sindercella’s lived with her since. I get the idea Sobo doesn’t see the rest of the family much as a sign of disapproval, and there’s a lot of tension over it. But they’re happy together. I think Sobo likes looking after Sindercella because she’s so independent. They’re pretty similar. I think Sobo always wanted to go to college and now that Sindercella’s putting herself through classes, she’s happy as a clam. I stayed with them off and on a couple of times. It’s a trip.”
“Grandmothers.” He shook his head and she knew he had to be thinking about his own grandmother. What was she like? Did she have Aiden’s eyes?
“Do you see yours often?” she asked, knowing it might not be a topic he’d allow.
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