Chapter 12

The rest of the weekend was a slow trickle of card games, bets and general disinterest which had more to do with Darren's recent visit to the warden's office than the shitty profit he'd turned. Because he was intrigued, if a little suspicious still. Excited. And also a secretary, starting today. Anticipation swirled in his stomach just at the thought of spending time alone with Aiden Kesley, of finding out what made the man tick… of getting to know him despite the protests of his own brain.

Usually, Darren didn't care about those things, none of them necessary when all he and whoever had caught his eye wanted was a quick fuck. He liked it that way, casual and easy, and he had plenty of opportunities to keep it that way as long as he didn't get involved with Aiden. Yet he couldn't stop himself from doing just that, even if he knew he could get burned.

Why? Because Aiden was playing hard to get? Because he was someone Darren shouldn't pursue? Deep down, he knew it was neither, that it had something to do with what he'd recognized in those hypnotizing eyes. He wondered briefly about it, but he didn't know enough about Aiden to make anything other than a wild guess, so he gave up on that for now and continued getting ready for the day.

After splashing some water on his face, Darren brushed his teeth. He didn't need to shave—he'd had his stubble treated, so it didn't grow beyond how he liked to have it—so he moved straight onto his workout. Nyle had been very understanding of the guards situation when Darren had explained after they'd sold out on Saturday, not playing the blame game or trying to screw Darren over. He'd nodded, sighed, shoved a lollipop in his mouth and then they'd moved on with planning their next run. They couldn't do smuggling too often though, so it wasn't likely to happen before the end of the month, but that also gave them plenty of time to figure out what other goods would sell so they could diversify their portfolio.

By the time Darren finished his workout and changed into his spare jumpsuit, Matt was just waking up.

"Damn. Ya up already?" his friend said over a yawn, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah. Just about to head over to the warden's office."

Matt grinned, a sleep-infused tear rolling down his cheek. "Gotta give it to ya, man. Haven't lost yer edge. Can't believe ya bullshitty trick actually worked."

Darren snorted, sharing the sentiment. "Me, too. I was surprised he let me see him."

"Not that one, ya dumbass. The one ya pulled to make him agree to take ya on as his assistant."

"It was his suggestion, I told you." He still wasn't sure why things had turned out the way they had, but he was glad for it. He also intended to find out.

Matt waved him off, hollowing and pushing out his cheek. "And I told ya he had the hots for ya."

To that, Darren smirked. "Maybe."

Matt fumbled out of his bunk and smacked him on the back. "Get out!"

Darren grabbed his notebook and left his cellmate's smug mug behind. He greeted the morning shift who had the gates opening before he'd even explained his business with the warden, telling him they'd already been notified.

Smile ghosting over his lips, Darren strode down the corridor to the warden's office. The door was wide open, and Aiden was hunched over his desk, typing something on his keyboard with slanted eyebrows and a great deal of focus. Darren waited by the door, but after close to a minute of no acknowledgement of his presence, he decided to knock.

Hazel eyes peeked from beneath thick-framed glasses as Aiden tilted his head slightly to the right. "I was starting to wonder when you'd decide to announce yourself, Mr. Howe."

"Ah." Darren's lips quirked up on one side, a pleasant hum spreading through him. "You knew I was here."

Aiden's expression turned bemused, his gaze going for an obvious swipe of Darren from head to toe. "You are not exactly an easy man to miss." Okay then. Clearly,he'd left an impression. "Well?" Aiden bobbed his head at a pile of documents on the desk. "Are you going to guard the door all day or help me get this place in some semblance of order?"

A thrill of satisfaction raced down Darren's back. Needing no further invitation, he walked over and picked up the stack of paper. It comprised food and supply orders and invoices, some dating back more than five years.

"What do you want me to do with these?" he asked, looking up from the documents.

Aiden pointed to one of the cabinets. "Organize them by year and type, then deposit them into the appropriate folder in the first and second drawers."

"Shouldn't you check them before I put them away?"

"Why? Is this simple task beyond the scope of your abilities, Mr. Howe?"

Darren shook his head and grinned. "Of course not. But what if I mess them up on purpose?"

There was no trust between them; they were practically strangers. And Darren was a criminal.

Aiden seemed to consider that as he adjusted his glasses. "Is your appointment as my secretary not incentive enough for you to do a proper job? Or would you prefer to spend your mornings in the comfort of your cell as you have been doing so far?"

Bossy. But he also had a point.

"I will make sure everything is filed correctly," Darren said, foregoing a snarky remark so he wouldn't risk aggravating Aiden, who currently seemed to be in a mood. The slight dark circles under his eyes hinted at the reason for it, though also made Darren wonder what had plagued the warden's sleep.

Who was he? Was there more to his obvious interest? Or was Darren just getting paranoid and looking for things that weren't there?

"When you are done with this stack, go through the papers in the third drawer."

Having said that, Aiden returned his attention to the screen while Darren made himself comfortable on the sofa. Thanks to the absurdly outrageous way in which the invoices had been written up, it took him until lunch to sift through just the documents from the desk. No two followed the same format, as if whoever had been in charge of procuring them had gone to great lengths to ensure they were as hard to decipher as an encrypted message. Darren pondered the reasons for that, deducing that it most likely had to do with stealing and redirecting funds to private accounts.

"Did you know about these?" he regarded Aiden, waving the stack of invoices before going over to the cabinet to file them away.

"I had my suspicions, yes." Aiden leveled a look at Darren through his glasses, rubbing the left side of his forehead. A headache? "You've just confirmed them."

"Can you do anything about it?"

"Like what, make whoever stole the money return it?" Aiden huffed dismissively. "Don't be foolish."

Darren grumbled as he closed the drawer, folding his arms. "Then why make me sit for hours sorting them if we aren't even gonna use them?"

"There is no ‘we', Mr. Howe. And, perhaps, I just wanted to enjoy the sight of you struggling to make sense of them?"

Oh, the sly fox.

Darren crossed the room in three big strides and smacked his hands on the desk—but not too aggressively—flashing Aiden one of his killer grins. "You're a sadist."

One fake blond eyebrow shot up in challenge. "You humor me with your assumption about my preferences, Mr. Howe."

"Do I?" Darren let his tone drop to a low hiss, sultry and suggestive, as heat pooled south.

Glancing at his screen as a notification pinged from the speakers, Aiden deadpanned, "You do."

"I don't think so."

"No?" Eyes back on Darren, Aiden leaned forward slightly and laced his hands together. "Then what do you think?"

Darren licked his lips, feeling his expression turn impish. "May I speak freely?"

"You may, though I was of the impression you already were."

Darren's dick jerked in his pants. That mouth. "I think you are an arrogant smartass that likes to get off by feeling superior."

Aiden's expression gave nothing away. Didn't change, didn't falter. It simply remained the same, a mask devoid of any emotion. A disguise, there to hide his true intentions, whatever they were.

"How insightful. Is that the conclusion you reached based on your background in GN Intelligence?" he shot back, gaze narrowing.

Darren wanted to shove him into the wall and shut him up with his dick. To watch that mouth stretch around his girth and drip saliva. "I didn't need to rely on any Intelligence background to derive that much."

"I'm impressed, Mr. Howe." Aiden broke away from the glare, another notification dragging his attention back to the screen. "But also, you are free to go, seeing as lunch is almost over. There are peaches today. You wouldn't want to miss them."

Darren pulled back and let go of the desk, shaking his head at the stern look Aiden threw him. Had he gone too far? Calling the acting warden an arrogant smartass in his face was probably not the smartest thing to do. But he'd gotten lost in the moment, trying to irk up the stone-faced man, to get past that immaculate fa?ade Aiden seemed adept at maintaining when all that Darren wanted was to tear it down and see a hint of the realness under it. To figure him out and whether there was more to his advances. Because he'd not imagined it, the haunted rawness that called out to him through the warden's hazel eyes. Aiden Kesley was hiding something, and it was up to Darren to figure it out. Whatever it was, it existed, if currently suppressed, he was sure of that just like he was sure he'd overstepped.

Was Aiden going to cut him loose because of his big mouth though? He certainly had every right to since inmates just didn't talk to wardens this way.

Darren was two steps out the door, saying goodbye to his half-a-day long secretary career when Aiden cleared his throat.

"Tomorrow, come after classes are over," he said, arms folded over his chest and eyes narrowed in that evaluating manner from earlier. Like he was looking for something.

"Got it, warden," Darren acknowledged with an apologetic smile that turned into an ear-wide grin the moment he stepped into the hallway.

The way Darren would grimace at each new invoice made the corners of Aiden's lips arch up despite him fighting it. His blood stirred, heat flooding him. He hadn't expected his silly method of petty torture to work so well, but he had to give it to man—Darren did not lack intelligence. Irritatingly so and to the point where Aiden had to really stifle down the need to haul himself over the desk and strangle the man just because intelligence was a trait he found genuinely attractive.

Along with Nyle, Darren was always at the top of the class too, working hard and making it so that Aiden looked forward to holding debate-type discussions just so he could have those two in opposite corners. Observing Darren, the way he built his arguments, the way he approached every problem, the way he prioritized and compartmentalized to arrive at the best possible solution was all part of Aiden's mission, a way to figure out Darren Howe and find a weakness he could exploit. That was all there was to it, or at least Aiden told himself so, choosing not to dig deeper into his own motives.

Or into the way his stomach knotted whenever he caught Darren's tongue peeking out and running over his pierced lip.

Aiden was fixated on that little ornament. He wondered how it would feel against his own tongue, his teeth pulling on it, his lips pressing into it. Such thoughts and no business swirling around in his head, but he couldn't always stop them. They just happened, his will and better judgment powerless to keep them at bay.

Despite the occasional protesting sound escaping him, Darren finished the pile by lunch time and left. He didn't complain even once, nor did he attempt to make small talk until after he'd completed his task. And then, with a little help from Aiden's sharp remarks—a means to test the waters and get a better feel for whom he was up against—he'd gone wild and called Aiden an arrogant smartass.

Aiden scowled at the screen as he hit send on yet another report. Maybe he was, he didn't deny that. Only his goal mattered while everything else was simply white noise, variables and roles to use and abuse so he could reach that elusive truth. It had taken him a while to find this sanctuary of numbness within himself, and he liked it there. It allowed him to focus only on the important things, to survive and ignore those feelings that made him want to scream and cry and break things.

Aiden leaned back into his chair and stared at the white ceiling where a square of recessed lights shone dimly. Coming across as full of himself was not something he worried about. Even more so since his unintended self-importance clearly worked in his favor and he had Darren Howe right where he wanted the man. Opening up, more and more with every interaction. Giving Aiden power over him beyond the one he already had as a warden.

A rush of heat raised Aiden's hackles when Darren's flirty smirk flashed in his mind. He'd allowed Darren to get close, so close, so he had been able to pick up on the soapy scent of prison shampoo.

Anger and disgust stirred in his gut. Why had he allowed it? Why had he gotten carried away for those few seconds and let Darren speak to him like this? It furthered his goal, but he knew, even if he refused to acknowledge it, that there was another reason behind his response to Darren's attractive smile.

Aiden took out the amber stone from his pocket, gritting his teeth. Pain struck his chest, squeezing his lungs and making it a little harder to breathe. He couldn't allow this thing between him and Darren, whatever it was. He had to shut down his reactions and stay focused. He wanted this to be over… He wanted the answers he was owed and Darren Howe dead.

A bolt of anxiety rushed through Aiden, but he used his budding anger to squish it. The guards were already accounted for—courtesy of the salary increase and the effort he put into building a relationship with them—and the field repairs were progressing at the projected rate. Perhaps another week and they would finish, giving Aiden plenty of time to take care of the few outstanding things before all the key pieces of his plan were in place for the accident.

And when that was all taken care of, Claudia could finally have justice.