“North or south?”
“Your choice,” he says.
This is freaking me out now. Why doesn’t he care? He should care. He kind of has to care.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“I think we both know you would deserve it if I did,” he says smoothly. “But my brothers enjoy chasing you about, and I know Leo is going to want his revenge sooner rather than later.”
I breathe a small sigh of relief, though I know really he can do a lot worse to me than kill me if he wants to—and I think he wants to.
I’ve been learning about these guys since Teddy died. Doing my own research. Talking to people. People I promised myself I’d never have anything to do with again. But they know the Levin family.
According to them, Leo is a psychopath, but Aiden is worse.
Aiden has a psychology that the people I come from can’t even properly guess at. Ruthless is the word that is used over and over again.
He doesn’t seem to enjoy sadism, but he engages in behaviors that would make a sadist cream themselves with glee.
I am about to discover that, and more.
I drive, choosing to go north. I don’t know why. I don’t think it matters. Aiden is offering me little in conversation, and nothing in comfort.
“What would you have done next?”
“Gone home?” I squeak the words. They’re lies, but they’re safe lies. He can’t possibly know what my plan was. If he knew whatI’m tangled up in, who I have really been, I wouldn’t be driving this car. He would have shot me and left me up in the mountains.
“You would have left my brother to die and just gone home?”
“He’s hard to kill,” I say.
“Sure,” Aiden replies smoothly. “Unlike Teddy. He was easier to kill, wasn’t he?”
“I didn’t kill him!” My voice breaks with near hysteria. “You have to believe me. It wasn’t me. I could never have hurt Teddy. I fucking loved him!”
Tears start to run down my face. I have been trying to hold my life together by a thread for what feels like years. This is the closest anybody has ever been to tugging on it. Aiden could unravel me completely if he wanted to—and I think he does.
“Pull over,” he says, indicating a roadside motel.
I do as I am told. The sound of the gravel under the tires feels particularly ominous. This is how people die. Maybe I deserve to die. I feel a strange sense of calm settling over me. It’s odd, but some part of me knows I’ve been bested.
The whole time Leo had me in his trunk, I was working on a way to turn the tables. But there are no tables to turn here. Aiden is so calm, so focused. His attention is entirely on me, and he refuses to be clouded with lust.
“Don’t run. When we get out of this car, follow me to the door in front of us.”
“How does that work? This is a random motel. There could be anyone in there.”
“Do as you’re told, please.”
I take a breath and do as I am told. I get out of the car, and so does he. He doesn’t have the gun on me obviously right now, but he’s clearly capable of chasing me down.
He takes a key out of his pocket and opens the door with it. I can’t believe that worked. The room inside is empty. I can’t believe there’s nobody here.
“How did you do that?” I gasp. “Are you a fucking magician? Are you Christ Angel?”
Aiden smiles at me with that magnetic calm. “It’s not a magic trick,” he says. “It’s straightforward. You’d be disappointed if I explained it.”
“Please tell me how you did it. You’re going to kill me anyway. It won’t matter.”
