Darren’s heart rammed against his chest. Electricity crackled along his skin and air barely made it to his lungs. It sucked, truly. That things had to end this way. That the one person who’d reminded him what it was to feel alive, to want to do more than simply pass time until the end came in one form or another, was the one man in the universe he had no right to want.
Aiden Kesley was his Grim Reaper, here to send him to the afterlife.
He didn’t want to die.Shit, he didn’t want it anymore. Any of this. He wanted to fight. He wanted to face those demons from his past and annihilate them. The spark of fire that Aiden had ignited just by showing up here had transformed into an inferno tonight. A blazing supernova that was burning him alive and fueling his need to keep going. To stay alive.
Aiden didn’t know the truth. That was why he was here. The past held him hostage, just like it held Darren. It trapped him and chained him to that unescapable darkness. He wanted Darren dead for that reason, because he believed he could free himself and move on by avenging his fiancée’s death.
Darren’s breaths were coming quick and shallow, his heart and lungs straining to keep him from passing out. His vision blurred at the edges and his throat felt like a desert.Aiden didn’t know the truth. He was here because he didn’t buy the crap the authorities had fed the public. Because he knew there was more to Claudia’s death. He was desperate, he was barely keeping it together, Darren could see it so clearly now in those crushingly beautiful eyes, in the way Aiden’s body was always on alert, in the control he exerted just so he could function.
Darren inhaled, shuddering as his lungs finally got enough oxygen. His eyes darted from Aiden’s face to the great darkness beyond the glass dome, then to the ramp and the flicker of green where the exit sign was. He was what stood between Aiden and the lies. He was the only person in the world who could give Aiden those truthful answers.
And he was going to do it. He was going to take this gamble and risk more than he’d ever risked in his life. Hewas going to give Aiden Kesley the truth that those who ruled the world had denied him.
He was going to trust that one man’s obsession with revenge and answers would be enough to change the course of his fate.
Chapter 20
The world closed inon Aiden, suffocating him.How did Darren know about the beam? Had he been observing without Aiden realizing it? Watching Aiden rather than just ogling him?
Darren Howewasa smart man, but Aiden had been extremely careful setting up tonight, so it was disconcerting that his intentions lay in the open like this, even if, ultimately, it was of no consequence.
And more importantly, if Aiden hadn’t noticed this, then what else had he missed?
Finding it pointless to lie about the way tonight was going to end, he said, “Accidents happen all the time, Howe. And some are just more unfortunate than others.”Some just end in the deaths of murderers who should’ve already been dead.
Darren chuckled, his laugh a little wrong and unhinged. To Aiden’s surprise, it sounded only half-forced.Half-fake, where the other half was genuine, as if Darren Howe had lost his mind and really found Aiden’s words funny.
“So,Aiden, what do you want to know before you off me?” he prompted, his indigo eyes boring into Aiden with that bone-shaking intensity which always made it a little harder to breathe.
A surge of desire that had no place here shot through Aiden. Darren saying his name—hisfirstname that he only let Rick call him now that Claudia was dead—in that strained and somehow sexy voice… It stirred all kinds of wrong signals within him, made him swallow hard and feel so exposed he had to tear his gaze away from the man in order to retain some dignity. He crossed his legs and hid his growing erection as best as he could, but he was overcome by liquid hot need regardless.
He hated it, hated himself for it, for craving the touch of the man who’d taken everything from him. His body was out of sync with his mind, a victim to whatever trick Darren Howe was using. Aiden knew that much. And yet, he couldn’t do anything about it, no matter how hard he tried. He was stuck in this state whenever Darren was near him.
Why? What was it that attracted him so much to the one person in the whole world he couldn’t be attracted to?
Guilt slithered inside Aiden like a snake, venomous and hard to stop once it had hold of him. Today he was putting an end to this, to everything. He was avenging Claudia and getting the answers he was owed. Those were the only things he needed to focus on.
With effort, Aiden collected himself, though his breathing remained elevated and his skin tingled from goosebumps. Grounding himself to the hate and the guilt,he isolated his other emotions as best as he could and donned the comfortable mask of indifference he was used to so he could get through this next part.
“The investigation brought to the surface your ties with the Huangsin Conglomerate, and specifically, its head—Liu Zhihao. Evidence in his personal correspondence, including messages to a burner phone, was discovered during a later raid of one of your hideouts. He’s the man who originally sent you after Claudia DuLaurent, but later, he canceled the hit on her.”
“I believe that’s what the investigation reported, yes,” Darren agreed, his expression shifting to something closed off.Detached.
“Before Liu Zhihao could be questioned about his motives for both ordering and canceling the assassination, he was found dead in his mansion on Earth,” Aiden carried on, his own words not exactly registering in his brain. It was like he was reading off a script that didn’t really mean anything to him. Maybe in a way that was true—his mind had erected a mental defense so that he could see his mission through. “The police uncovered a partial phone call recording from February 6th between Liu and you in which he calls off the kill. It was found on the computer of one of Liu’s mistresses, giving the authorities your name. Once they had an ID, they involved the secret services. Your arrest came about two weeks later, and you confessed to both murders. Then a private trial and…fiftyyears prison time,” Aiden gritted out, each sound that came out of his mouth flaring that rage he’d been living with for so long.
Darren let out a disturbed chuckle. “I agree. Fifty years is laughable considering what I sup—”
Aiden shot up from his chair and slapped Darren. The crackle as his hand made contact with Darren’s facewas deafeningly loud in the vast space around them, echoing off walls and glass while the force of the impact made his entire arm throb.
“Whydid you do it?Whygo after her if the client canceled the hit? She wasno oneto you.”
Darren licked the blood dripping from his cracked lip. “Because I’m a psychopath, didn’t you read the report?”
Aiden hit Darren again, wincing at the sting across his palm. “That report is bullshit! You are a monster, Darren Howe, but youaren’ta psychopath. I want to know therealreason and why the police is lying!”
Darren groaned as he straightened up and tried to blow the locks of hair that stuck to his face. He failed, but it didn’t seem to bother him. “I see. It all makes sense now,” he said but didn’t elaborate and just stared out the thick glass at the stars in the distance. His shoulders tensed like they had earlier, then sagged. His face betrayed a hint of fleeting fear as he seemed to debate something on the inside. “Fine.”
When he didn’t say anything else, Aiden yanked him by the collar of his jumpsuit and forced him to shift his attention away from the glass. “Fine what?”
