Promised Box Set

by James Kipling

  They both sat quietly, thinking about but refusing to speak aloud any reference to the night they’d spent together in that very office.

  Zoe was the first to tactfully clear her throat and speak again. “Do you know whether the police came looking for the security footage from the parking garage?”

  “Um… I don’t know. They should have,” he admitted, wondering why he hadn’t thought of that before. “I think I parked there that day. I… I don’t remember. Sometimes I park at a meter on the street when the garage is full. Or if I go to grab lunch, sometimes the garage is full when I get back.”

  “I don’t remember you leaving to feed the meter,” she said without thinking, flushing and looking away from him.

  He couldn’t help smiling a little at her embarrassment. “No, I didn’t go to feed the meter. At least, not after what? Six o’clock? But I might have earlier. Like I said… I don’t really remember.”

  “Do you… do you still have trouble with your memory?” she asked quietly.

  “Because of the accident, you mean? Not much,” he shrugged. “I still get headaches sometimes but not too much recently. Keeping to a strict routine helps.”

  Silence descended and Aiden debated internally over excusing himself but ultimately stayed seated. He didn’t want to leave and she didn’t want him to either. She just wasn’t sure how to proceed from where they’d gotten themselves conversationally.

  “I… um… I hope that the investigation into your accident turns up new leads for the Peters case as well,” she finally mumbled. “When I spoke to Agent Boon it sounded like they were pretty stuck.”

  “I doubt they’ll ever find him again,” Aiden said dejectedly. “He’s too careful. He was able to live here and steal from the company for how long without getting caught? And how many aliases did he have before that? Do they even know?” He shook his head. “My guess is he had plenty stashed away and he’s enjoying retirement on a private beach somewhere or in a peaceful cabin on a lake.”

  They instinctively looked at each other at the mention of a lake. “I wish I disagreed with you there but they haven’t exactly managed to convince me of their competence. I think we’d have a better shot of finding him ourselves.” She said the last as a joke, remembering the seriousness with which Mason had suggested that same idea.

  Aiden didn’t seem to find it funny either. “You did manage to find him for them before, didn’t you? With your investigation into the accounts,” he said with a small smile.

  “To be fair, I wasn’t looking for him specifically,” she pointed out. “I was looking for evidence that you’d done it. I only thought Allan Peters might be an alias or accomplice of yours. If he’s on an alias the FBI don’t have – and I have no doubt that he’s using a completely new one given how close they came to catching him – I don’t think we’ll just stumble across him again.”

  “Maybe not unintentionally like last time. But if you actually were to try to find him… I think you would find a way to manage it.” His sincerity struck a chord within her and a different kind of warmth began to spread through her chest; it wasn’t the heat of desire that he frequently inspired. She could love him if she let herself. She had only caught the briefest glimpse of it before his accident when they’d been lying naked in each other’s arms on the sofa. He’d kissed her on the temple before shifting to get up and take the floor so she’d have more room, so she’d sleep better. Watching him snag a cushion to use as a pillow and try to turn his suit jacket into a blanket, she’d smiled and felt it before drifting into a restful sleep.

  Feeling it again now, the warmth his faith in her inspired, she pushed it away. She wouldn’t let herself feel that anymore. Not when there was so little chance of him becoming hers again. If she hadn’t left when she did, the way that she did… It was too late and she wouldn’t put herself through that pain. Not if there was a way to avoid it. But she did owe it to him to try to make things right, to make up for what she’d done to him.

  “If… If I were to… look into this – to try to find him – I wouldn’t be able to do it without help,” she said hesitantly.

  “Mason’ll help you,” Aiden said quickly and with a hint of disappointment. He liked Mason well enough but there were still moments when jealousy sidled up to him unexpectedly. Even if Mason and Zoe weren’t romantically linked, their bond, that closeness, was something he wanted. He had thought briefly that they’d had something like it but it had vanished too quickly for him to be sure. We couldn’t have had it, he decided. If we did, she never would have… He couldn’t complete the thought.

  “One of us needs to keep his eyes on the company to make sure it keeps chugging along,” she said, unconvinced. “He’s been dealing with this merger pretty closely and it’s making me nervous. He won’t really say too much about it. Hasn’t even told me who the other company is. Gets flustered when I try to bring it up and changes the subject.” She shook her head. “Maybe I should let him carry it through on his own and while he’s busy with that, I can look into finding Uncle David.”

  “Your assistant Amy?” He couldn’t bring himself to look at her again, leaning back in his chair and looking around the room for inspiration, only let his eyes glance over her as his gaze wandered.

  “She doesn’t know the case enough,” Zoe said. She was looking intently at Aiden now and she knew he could feel it boring into him. She willed him to look at her and understand. “It would take too long to bring her up to speed and she doesn’t have the… personal connection to it that would help keep her motivated. She’s a wonderful assistant but even from what little I’ve told her, she knows how important this is.”

  Aiden finally met her pleading eyes and swallowed. “It sounds like you have someone in mind.”

  “Will you help me with this?” she asked quietly. The confidence with which she’d dismissed the others was gone. She was truly unsure of what his response would be. “I’m not asking for myself,” she said, looking away. “And it’s not for the company but… for… your parents? Our parents? For Jack and your grandmother?” For yourself.

  “If there’s something I can do,” he said slowly and quietly after a moment. “Let me know… I’ll… I’ll do whatever it takes to help find the bastard.”

  Zoe smiled tentatively and nodded subtly. Aiden smiled back. It was a step in the right direction.

  Chapter 36

  “Have you heard anything helpful from Diane?” Amelia asked Zoe as she told her friend about the project she proposed and Aiden’s response.

  “She gave me some names,” Zoe admitted. “Former contacts of his. But they could be dead, in prison, or using new names themselves by this point. Still… It’s a place to start, I suppose.”

  “And have you told her anything about Aiden?” Amelia’s eyebrows rose suggestively.

  Zoe frowned. “No. And I don’t plan to either. She doesn’t need to know who is helping me or why. I’m only doing this because… because it’s the right thing to do. I don’t know that I can do much to help him find the person who tried to kill him – given that there is little evidence not already in the police’s hands, I doubt there’s likely to be a change there. But I might be able to help find the man who killed his parents, and mine. It helps that we already know who he is, of course. I’m rambling,” she finally left off with a nervous laugh. “Quick. You say something. How are you liking Dunmore Corp and your boss?” She smirked as she raised her wine glass to her lips.

  Amelia laughed as well. They were taking a break from going through her father’s things. Leaning back against the headboard, sipping her wine, Zoe looked out over the boxes they’d managed to fill with her father’s clothes marked for donation. A smaller box held the things she had decided to keep: Steve’s watches, his cuff links, a tie she’d given him for Father’s Day one year, a lighter her mother had given him as a joke for the cigars he never actually smoked. The room was beginning to look sparse. She’d left the pictures on the
walls but the drawers of the dresser were empty on the floor; the door of the closet was open but the hangers held nothing. Even the bed had been stripped of its sheets and decorative pillows. She was still debating whether or not to take the room over as her own.

  Zoe looked up at Amelia’s reflection in the mirror over her mother’s vanity. Amelia’s posture was just a little stiff as she perched on the bed rather than relaxing back against the pillows. Zoe reached over and relieved Amelia of her glass of wine.

  “Hey,” Amelia murmured weakly.

  Zoe set both glasses on the bedside table before reaching over and giving Amelia a little push so that she finally leaned back against the cushioned headboard.

  “I’m being serious now,” Zoe warned with a smile in her voice. “How are you liking it here? Do you regret coming to California?”

  Amelia closed her eyes for a moment. “I am endlessly grateful to you and I do not know where to begin thanking you. I am very glad I came and—”

  “What do you think of Mason?” Zoe interrupted.

  “What?” Amelia flushed.

  “What do you think of Mason?” Zoe repeated. “I’m a little worried about him. He’s been a great help to me – keeping the company running while I was away on my – anyway. But he did it as much to avoid facing his father as he did to help me. He probably didn’t tell you but his father had this crazy idea to set him up with the daughter of someone he wanted to do business with – how ridiculous, right? What century is this? Do people really think that’s a way to conduct business?”

  Amelia didn’t know what to say so she just shook her head and let her gaping mouth convey her speechlessness.

  “Well, Mason told his father where he could go. Or at least, that’s what Mason told me. Personally, I think that Mason is still trying to figure out if there is a more diplomatic way out of it all,” Zoe rolled her eyes in exasperation.

  “And you are worried Mason will ultimately cave to his father’s wishes?”

  Zoe snorted. The wine was beginning to make her giddy. How many glasses had she had? “No. He won’t cave. But he might try avoiding his father until the end of days to put off such a confrontation. No, what worries me is that Mason isn’t letting himself… relax. He’s too focused on avoiding one thing he doesn’t want that he isn’t letting himself look for something – or someone – he does.”

  Amelia blushed again and this time began fiddling with the fraying edge of a pillowcase. “So what does that have to do with me?”

  “You’ve been spending a bit of time with him,” she noted as she watched the color rise higher in her friend’s cheeks. “I know it’s because I asked him to keep an eye out for you while you were… adjusting to working at Dunmore Corp and life here in Cupertino – and I didn’t ask him because I’m trying to set you up or anything. I did that because he is someone I trust and because he was the last person brought into the company from the outside like that. I figured if anyone remembered what it was like coming in and knowing no one, it was Mason. But because you’re around him so much, I was wondering if you had noticed him behaving…” she struggled to find the word while she watched Amelia using her reflection. “Well, if he has shown any sort of… inclination… for anyone in the company. I know he’s my best friend but I’m not sure he’d want to say anything to me if he did because of my… position.”

  “Or because of what you were going through with Aiden,” Amelia said coolly meeting Zoe’s gaze in the mirror. The flush had faded from her cheeks and what Zoe had taken for self-consciousness had hardened. Amelia reached across her friend to reclaim her wine glass. She settled back against the pillows and finished the rest of the drink in three large gulps. “If you want to know whether I am interested in Mason, ask it right out. But if you expect me to answer, then you had better be prepared to answer my questions about Aiden. You still like him.”

  Zoe sighed and took her own glass back finishing it off before answering. “I do. I know it won’t matter because I blew my chance with him, but yeah. I still like him. A lot.”

  “I do find Mason… attractive,” Amelia admitted. “But I am not looking to start something with anyone right now. I need to be on my own for a while to put John behind me once and for all.”

  “Mason’s the kind of guy who’d wait, you know,” Zoe informed her.

  “And from what I have seen of Aiden, he is the kind of guy who would forgive.”

  ****

  Aiden stood leaning against the railing at the top of the stairs staring at the parking garage across the way. He could see Zoe’s car, prominent in its reserved space. She had said to meet him near the front doors but he found himself drawn to the flashy car, just as he had been the day they’d met – or rather, reconnected.

  He crossed the street and went to the car’s rear end to examine the area she’d had repaired. He couldn’t see where he’d tapped it with his own until he reached out and ran his fingers along the finish. There was a slight unevenness to the paint job where the tiniest scratch had been filled in and buffed to a high shine. She hadn’t kept it in her driveway while she was away – he’d driven by the house once or twice because he couldn’t help himself – so the finish hadn’t been damaged.

  The lights flashed and there was a loud beeping that caused Aiden to jump back. He turned to see Zoe holding the keys in her hand having pressed the ‘unlock’ button. “I thought I told you to wait by the entrance?”

  “I was just inspecting the repair job I paid for,” he said with a nod to the car. Her face tensed with shame as she remembered her ridiculous behavior the day of that minor accident and how she’d treated him in the weeks immediately following it. “Your guy did a good job. And he was pretty cheap.”

  “Remind me to give you his card some time,” she quipped as she pulled open the driver’s side door to climb in.

  He moved to the passenger side and took his place next to her. “I don’t think anyone can undo the damage done to my car,” he replied. Zoe went pale until he laughed. “Wow, you are… Are you okay? I thought you were excited to be talking to this guy today? How did you get his name, anyway?”

  They were on their way to see whether one of Peters’ former associates had anything to say about where he might have fled. Most of the list Diane had given to Zoe had been dead ends when Aiden started searching for them but this one had relocated in the years following David and Diane’s own move west.

  “I still remember when I saw him in the supermarket,” Diane had told Zoe. “I dropped the jar of pickles I held and it shattered. He looked up at me and smiled then raised a finger to his lips and went ‘shhhh.’ It was humiliating, standing there covered in pickle juice while the employees politely asked if I was all right while they tried to conceal the frustration in their eyes. All I could do was shake. I mentioned it to David but he said if Reggie was there, it was news to him.”

  Zoe glanced over at Aiden who held tight to the armrest as she backed out of the parking space. “I told you. I the list in an old book Uncle David loaned to my dad ages ago. He never got around to reading it.”

  “And you don’t trust Agent Boon with it,” Aiden reiterated the reasoning she’d given him when she called to ask him to join her on this little field trip.

  “Let’s see how he does with finding out who sabotaged your car first.”

  “Fair enough, but for the record,” he turned towards her so she could feel him looking at her even as she kept her own eyes trained on the road in front of her. “I don’t believe that’s where you got the list of names.”

  “Oh you don’t?” she asked, intrigued. “And what makes you think I’m lying?”

  “Peters wouldn’t be that careless. He would never make a physical list of his criminal associates, let alone leave it lying around in some random book that he might happen to loan out to a friend. But don’t worry.” His tone had become more serious and he turned to look out the window at the scenery speeding by. His grip on the armre
st tightened. “I won’t push you to tell me who gave you that list.”

  “You think I got it from Lucas, don’t you?” She could just make out a reflexive tensing of his upper body from the corner of her eye. “It wasn’t from Lucas. I haven’t seen him since I got back.”

  Aiden refused to turn and look at her, afraid she’d catch the relief on his face. He hadn’t been sure who had given her the list of names but Lucas had been the first and most persistent possibility and the thought of why he would have given it to her and not the police gave Aiden a queasy feeling in his stomach. He had no right to question her choice if Zoe did decide to go back to Lucas after all that had happened; his personal feelings on the matter were hardly objective though.

  “The list came from Lucas’s mother,” Zoe finally admitted. “David’ first wife, Diane, gave them to me.”

  “I thought the police haven’t been able to find her?”

  “She and my dad kept in touch after the divorce. He didn’t say anything to anyone because she asked him not to. She didn’t want David to find her.” Zoe chuckled darkly. “I can’t imagine why.”

  “So why hasn’t she come forward?” Aiden’s tone put Zoe on her guard.

  “If you’d spent the better part of ten years hiding from a man like Allan Peters only to find he’d disappeared just as police were going to arrest him for a slew of crimes including the murder of one of your oldest friends, would you come forward? She’s scared.” Zoe tried to control her tone of voice but as usual, there was something about being around Aiden that made her more confrontational, that made her want to dig in her heels. In truth, he was only voicing logical questions – and they were all questions she’d already asked. “She’s hardly the first person to run from something that scared her and I don’t think she should be ridiculed for it.”

  A heavy silence descended as Zoe realized just what she had said and waited to see whether Aiden would respond. She’d opened the door to a conversation she wasn’t ready for – however unintentionally she’d done it – and she knew he had the right to call her out for her behavior. It might be better to finally have it in the open between them, for her to hear him call her all the names she’d called herself, for him to tell her once and for all that it was her fault.