Chapter 21

Aiden's head pulsated. A throbbing ache that spread from his temples to his forehead and further up in a series of unpleasant ripples.

Kidnap Darren? Why would Claudia DuLaurent, the heir to one of the biggest corporations in the world, go after a shipping mercenary?

She wouldn't. Which meant that Darren had to be lying.Because if he wasn't, then everything Aiden knew about Claudia's murder would crumble. Turn as false as the Aiden who left Europa every morning to go to Horizons.

Slamming his fists into the table, Aiden yelled, "Claudia tried to kidnap you?! Cut the crap, Howe!"

"You wanted answers."

"Answers, not lies." Because that was what this was. A carefully constructed web of untruths, designed to target Aiden's psyche. To make him doubt not only the way she'd died, but also her.

"I'm not lying."

"Bullshit!"

Did Darren really think he would fall for something like this?

Aiden cursed at himself for humoring Darren Howe, for allowing this murderer to spin him around his little finger like a fool. But Darren's arguments had been compelling, logically sound if Aiden were to believe them.

Why would Darren go to these lengths just to fuck with him though? Lies or otherwise, Darren would be dead in less than an hour, and he knew that. Knew Aiden couldn't let him walk away.

Aiden's eyelids felt heavy and his headache threatened to split his head. He'd gotten nowhere and at this point he'd off Darren and only have more questions. More doubts, more things to wonder about that would keep him up at night unless he took those nasty sleeping meds.

After a long pause, he said, "Why should I believe you when the only thing you deserve is a knife in the throat?"

"Because if you were going to kill me, you'd have done so the moment I refused to answer the one question that's been eating at you for two years."

The why. The motive. Aiden had let Darren steer him away from it with a made-up story of conspiracy. Fuck, he really wasn't at his best. He was exhausted and this was just too much. But he had to see it through, finish what he'd started. He was almost there.

"I'm still—"

"No, you won't kill me. Because you are desperate for the truth and a part of you, that attention-to-detail part of you which didn't drop this case even if you should have, knows that what I'm saying is not a lie. That it's the only explanation that makes some sense, even if you don't want to believe it."

Aiden bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. He was going crazy, because as much as he wanted to be done with the man and crush him with the steel beam, Darren was right. The investigation, the evidence, the reports, they'd all happened so conveniently. Aiden had been blinded by grief at first, then everything had moved forward so quickly—the phone call had emerged, the culprit had been identified. And the little details, the ones that didn't quite fit into the picture had been overshadowed by the lack of motive. Then the court proceedings and the refusal of the police to let Aiden see for himself what sort of a man killed for no other reason than sick fun had driven him almost crazy.

Aiden paced back and forth, vibrating with nerves. He wanted to strangle Darren, to make him suffer. He also wanted to scream. To storm the police station and make them tell him the truth once and for all. To confront Cleveland again, to get his hands on the proceedings from the trial. To ask Marcus if Claudia had really died on February 4th, and if yes, why he and the authorities had lied about it.

But he couldn't do any of this. He'd tried, he really had, to get to the bottom of this, but all he'd gotten in return was everyone blindsiding him. He'd been lied to. Been told to go home and move on. He was powerless against whatever this was, and that was why he'd come here to seek the answers from a murderer.

"I find your intelligence to be one of your most attractive traits," Darren said without being prompted, interrupting his train of thought.

Aiden scowled, ignoring the flutter in his chest. "Then you know I can't take your words at face value even if your explanation about the cover-up and autopsy is… plausible." But the rest? Aiden didn't have proof any of it was true, no matter how well it all worked together. And the part where Claudia had been the one to go after Darren… That was crazy. She was a businesswoman, not a kidnapper. If she was capable of something like that, Aiden would've known it since they didn't keep secrets from each other.

"I didn't expect you to."

Aiden stomped down the need to hit Darren again and held onto the table's edge with his hands, narrowing his eyes. "Why did you kill Claudia?"

Some of the fake confidence left Darren's demeanor. His shoulders grew taut and his eyes went distant, lost in some memory or thought. The change was only momentary, but Aiden didn't miss it—for a heartbeat, Darren looked like a man who had nothing and everything to lose. Who was ready to throw himself over the edge of a cliff and let the unknown decide his fate. In the next second though, that enthralling spark was forced back to his gaze, even if his features defaulted to the uncanny detachment Aiden had been observing all night.

Over a sigh charged with something deep and hidden, Darren said, "NJ-O4A-RST. It's a passcode."

"What?"

"Take a shuttle to Mars. Once you are there, go to the Moonshine Ravine in Atlan and ask for Bea. Say that Sir Barnaby Albus II sent you to find the white raven. Do not share the coordinates she gives you with anyone and only use the vehicle she provides for you. If you want the whole truth, Kesley, NJ-O4A-RST is where you'll find it."

Aiden squeezed the table, his pulse quickening. "For fuck's sake, Howe! Stop it with the games! Just tell me what I want to know!"

Darren shrugged, pressing his lips into a line. "I doubt you would believe me even if I told you the truth. So, if you want to find out what happened, you will have to do as I say."

"Or I can just kill you and get this over with," Aiden snarled, his head pulsating.

"You could, but then you will never find out the truth." A pause. And an inhale which offered a glimpse of the real Darren hiding behind the masterful fa?ade. The one who lived in that captivating darkness Aiden had glimpsed earlier. "Because everyone will keep lying to you, just like they have done so far. You know it even if you don't want to admit it. So, leave it or take it."

Aiden averted his gaze, biting on the inside of his cheek. Darren wasn't wrong; without actual evidence, his words had no weight. They were just another lie. And yet… they didn't really feel that way. Aiden's gut told him they were the prelude, the tip of the iceberg, the warm-up of what truly lay buried at the bottom of the ocean if he dared to uncover it.

Where was Darren sending him? What would he find there? He didn't know, but it scared him. The fear enveloped his heart and his mind, waiting to overwhelm him, but even so, it was infinitely better than not knowing what had truly happened to Claudia. Who she really was and why she had had to die.

So, as much as Aiden wanted to get this over with, he only had one choice.

"Thought so," Darren said and Aiden could hear the genuine smile in his voice. Could almost taste the relief in it. "Go to Mars and see for yourself. You can always kill me when you are back."

Aiden growled, his throat itching from the sound. Fuck Darren Howe and his treasure-hunting quest that Aiden had no choice but to entertain. "If those coordinates are where the truth is," he spat out, not bothering to mask the venom in his voice, "and I know how to obtain them, there's nothing stopping me from killing you now."

Darren reclined back in his chair, the cuffs clinking against its backrest. "There isn't. You hold all the cards, Aiden Kesley," he said and dropped his fa?ade.

His face fell. He looked so tired, so resigned, like he wished Aiden would go through with his plan and just end his suffering here. At the same time, his indigo eyes blazed, betraying something that took Aiden's breath away. A will to live shrouded in the darkness of a soul which wasn't afraid to die.

Aiden's stomach flipped and twisted. He really had all the power, and it felt good. Yet he found it lacking. A shadow that paled in comparison to the sensation of pure pleasure that lit up his body at the sight in front of him. Because this Darren was genuine, unmistakably real in his vulnerability, in the rawness of the emotions his face and body betrayed. He was lost, he was ready to die, he was desperate to live. And he was scared yet hopeful, clinging to himself in that same way Aiden had done so many times.

Aiden trembled, fighting to stop the onslaught of desire to have Darren, to break him, to ruin him and then to put him back together and do it all over again. It hijacked each and every particle of who he was. It robbed him of thought, leaving behind just the ability to feel, to be here with Darren Howe, to simply exist alongside this man.

They stared at each other as if they were both enthralled, and it took Aiden a while to get himself under control so he wouldn't act out on these sudden urges. He tilted his head up—the beam was there, ready and waiting for him to cut it loose. To fall and break Darren under its weight. To exact the revenge Claudia deserved regardless of why she'd died. It was calling to him, beckoning him to do what he'd set out to do so Darren Howe would meet his long-overdue end.

Slowly, Aiden approached the column. The mechanism keeping the board in place was attached to the wall behind it. All he needed to do was cut the stabilizing cord. Darren's dark eyes followed him as he circled the table until he was out of their line of sight.

He took the knife out of his pocket, dragging it along the cord. "Darren Howe, I will kill you," he vowed and tucked it back inside, grabbing his access card instead. He unlocked the cuffs with it, then took out the blue maintenance one, tossing it onto the table. "This will get you back into your cell. Make sure the guards don't find it in the morning."

He didn't stay, didn't escort Darren either. He left before he'd had the chance to change his mind.

Aiden just sat in the warden's office, cradling his head in his hands as he tried and failed to process everything he'd learned tonight.

How much was true and how much had Darren made up?

Nothing fit in anymore, the pieces of the puzzle he'd painstakingly been arranging scrambled all over the place. And yet, he had another clue, a real direction to a real place where Claudia's murderer had promised the truth awaited.

The craziest thing was that Aiden was going to do it. He'd already booked tomorrow and the day after off so he could go to Mars and find out the coordinates of this mysterious place. And probably get himself killed by whatever trap Darren had prepared.

Clearly, he'd lost it.

A knock at the door snapped Aiden out of his head. "You're still here, boss? Headache?" Nigel asked, propping his shoulder against the frame.

"Yeah…" Aiden forced out a well-practiced professional smile and straightened up in his chair. "Something came up, so I'll be taking time off. I've sorted out whatever was urgent. I'll also prepare a list for you before I head out."

"Sure thing, boss. Should we postpone the opening of the court and game area for when you are back?"

Aiden waved the concern off. "No, proceed as we discussed. Either you or one of the Team Leaders can do the announcement. As for the repairs inspection paperwork, I'll leave that on my desk. If you have questions, just call me."

"Will do." Nigel turned to leave, but then paused, slowly angling his head Aiden's way. "Um, boss?"

"Yes?"

"I went for a smoke earlier, during the break, and I saw the door to the courts was unlocked… Was that you?"

A chill ran down Aiden's spine, but he willed his expression to remain neutral. "Yes. I… wanted to have one last look around." He held up the form for tomorrow's inspection. "I noticed a few small things, nothing major. I'll note them down, so pass my comments over to Lin."

"Gotcha." Nigel grinned. "And I'll do my best to hold the fort in your absence."

"I'm certain it will be quiet. Just make sure they don't break anything or Management will come for my head," he offered, following up with a laugh. "We still have the prison inspection coming up next month."

Nigel laughed too, then wished Aiden a good night. When the sound of his footsteps subsided, Aiden saw a shadow dart past his door. A faint clank from the direction of the prison block reached his ears as he turned the lights in his office off, and then it was quiet again.