He arches a brow slightly, then nods.
“The parking lot is empty, and the vacancies sign is on. This unit is almost certainly empty. As for the lock, these places all use the same three suppliers because they’re cost-efficient and offer discounts. I know this, because we own all three suppliers. That also means that I have the master key to most locks. I keep a copy on me.”
“Oh,” I say. “Huh.”
He smiles slightly. “I tried to warn you that it would be disappointing,” he says.
It is a little disappointing, even though it all checks out. The sense of supernatural ease fades a little, though if you pushed me I’d still say it was possible that Aiden is some kind of creature. There is something ethereal about him.
He pulls out the chair that sits at the desk that nobody ever writes letters at anymore.
“Sit down,” he says, dismissing me to the seat like a principal telling a schoolgirl he doesn’t have time to deal with in the moment to go take a seat. “I will be back.”
He turns around and leaves the room.
I bolt for the back, where hopefully there’s a window that will lead from the bathroom to the rear of the hotel, where I can make my escape. There is a window, but it’s barred. To stop break-ins, no doubt.
Cursing, I go back to the chair. I don’t know what Aiden is doing outside; squaring up with the manager, maybe? Buying the whole fucking motel? I’m surprised he doesn’t already own it.
A moment later, Aiden walks back in. He seems pleased to see me still sitting in the chair. He sits down on the end of the bed across from me, leaning forward with interested menace.
“I have been looking into you since I became aware of your existence. Obviously, Leo has done the same,” he says. “Though I doubt he took the same approach.”
“Okay?”
“You’ve not had an easy life, Ella Chick,” he says. “You have known some very bad people in your time.”
“That’s true,” I admit.
“And though you’ve tried to extricate yourself from the past, the past hasn’t been willing to give you up very easily, has it?”
“No,” I agree.
He sits back and up a little, his hands clasped in front of him. “You and I probably know more about the way the world works than any of my brothers. Certainly more than poor Teddy understood.”
I bite my lower lip and give a little shrug. I don’t want to talk about Teddy. The thought of him makes my eyes well with tears. Teddy never deserved anything that happened to him.
“You’re crying,” he says.
“I’m not crying.”
He looks at me for a long moment, and I know that he is trying to work out if my emotion is genuine, or if I am trying to manipulate him, but he’ll never be able to tell, and neither will I. At this point, it feels like any expression of emotion is somehow manipulation, except in front of men who do not care. And no men care, not like Teddy did.
“God, just kill me already,” I mutter. “I knew it was going to happen eventually. It may as well happen today.”
“You loved him.”
“Yes,” I say through gritted teeth. I want so badly to control my emotions, but I am not certain how I am going to do so. I am afraid in a way I have not been for a long time.
Leo wanted to use me sexually. His desire was to turn me into his personal fuck toy. As distasteful as that could be, it also came with a side of protection. I don’t think Aiden has any interest in protecting me. I think he wants to know who killed his brother.
I’ll be dead if I tell him.
“I think you know more than any of us do about Teddy, and the events of the last days of his life,” Aiden says smoothly. “I’d like for you to share them with me now.”
He’s not threatening to hurt me, but I think we both know he will if I don’t do what he wants.
I hesitate. He reaches out and taps me lightly on the knee. “I know, for instance, that Teddy had begun working for law enforcement. I know he was killed for working undercover.”
