8. Raegan

Chapter eight

Raegan

The Tower looms over me as a monolith of steel and glass. It’s unlike any building I’ve ever seen before in its style. It’s not a tall or wide rectangle like they usually are. The front entrance is within a curve of the building, like a very soft and short U-shape that makes me feel like it’s welcoming me into its arms. The first few stories are stacked on top of each other, just steel and windows, but once I count ten windows up, it shifts.

Rather than going straight up, the left side starts to open with green courtyards. The first one is the largest, and then the next level up has its own courtyard that hovers above it but a bit shorter to not sit right on top of the other one. And on and on until the courtyard balconies get smaller and smaller, as does the enclosed floor of the building until it reaches the top.

I attempt to break in through a window, any window, but they're sealed on all four sides. I try the front door next, even pulling out my lock-picking kit from Jackson’s hoodie pocket—that I’m borrowing—to see if I can get inside .

This building has been shut down since GE attacked it a few weeks ago. There are Closed for renovation signs posted all over the place, from the doors and windows to a sign out front. When Aiden had been ready to bring its residents back in, we’d learned about Vera being alive, and he’d stopped that plan. Apparently, this building pretty much runs on technology. From its security system, to doors opening, meal ordering, communications, everything. It’s too much of a risk to stay here when Vera could easily lock us all inside.

He’d cut the power to the building and then locked it up so no one would have access to it while it was unoccupied, but I didn’t realize how serious the locks on it would be.

My hand trembles with effort in trying to hold down a pin in the lock with my pick, and then it snaps. In the lock.

Shit.

I try to dig it out with my nails but can’t get enough of a grip on what’s sticking out to do anything. It’s staying there. Well, at least that means others can’t try to do the same thing, right?

“Do you go out of your way to be a pain in the ass for me, or is this just your natural state now?” a voice that’s smooth as cognac croons behind me.

I sigh and drop my head. “Despite what you think, my decisions have very little or nothing to do with you, Aiden.” I look at him over my shoulder while still crouched down in front of the door handle. “Did you follow me?”

His brown eyes, so dark that they look black more often than not, give me a hard stare. “Contrary to your belief, not everything is about you either.” Aiden steps up next to me and grasps the handle of the door I’d just broken. “I was already on my way here when I saw you trying to break into my building. Why is that?”

The pin that was stuck in the lock gets pushed out by his gift and tinkers when it falls to the concrete between us.

He stares down at me, and I feel small beneath him and that look. It reminds me of all the times he’d cornered me in the past to chastise me. Or that one time…when he’d finally kissed me in the library and took my breath away. I’d compared every kiss off the island to his, and they never came close.

Until Kellan and Jackson.

But theirs were different than Aiden’s and each other. Just as unique and panty-melting in their own ways.

Wait. Why am I thinking of kissing him?

I stand up to shrink that distance he has lording over me while I’m on the ground. It helps. Not a lot, but it’s something.

“I’m here to look for clues. See if GE left anything behind while they were here.” What I can’t tell him is that there’s a chance Gordon may have done exactly that just for me. Because in his delusional mind, he might think he still has some sort of control over me, and I’d actually want to go back to him.

The very idea makes me sick.

Aiden studies me, and I know he’s trying to read what I’m not saying. He used to be able to do that with me once before, but I’ve changed too much in our time apart. And so has he. Now, I’m little more than a stranger whose motives he hasn’t been able to figure out yet.

Unfortunately for him, he can’t read my body language as well as Elias can. And he can’t see straight through to my soul like Jackson.

“The Guild floor was cleaned up weeks ago. If there had been anything left behind, it was either found, or it’s gone now.”

If Gordon had left something, I doubt it would have been recognizable as anything to anyone tidying up. Then it clicks what he just said to me. “You said it was found. Did you find something, then?”

Aiden offers me a cold smile. “There are two rules in life,” he starts, and my brows pinch with confusion about what feels like a change in topic. “Number one: never give out all the information.”

I wait for him to give the second rule, and his smile shifts to a smirk. He turns the handle of the door, and it opens without any resistance. His words sink in, and I scowl. What an asshole.

He holds the door open for me and waves his hand inward for me to enter first.

“You’re letting me in?”

“Better to be here and see what you’re doing than have you come back another time without supervision.”

Just what I need. Aiden breathing down my neck as my own personal chaperone. My skin prickles with goosebumps at the imagery that came with that, and I scrub at my arms roughly to knock that shit off. Him being so close to me is not hot or sexy. It’s claustrophobic.

The more he tries to keep me under his thumb, the more I debate running.

I’ve been on my own for five years, and I got used to that freedom. There was no checking in with the group about what I was doing or why. I just did it .

He raises his eyebrows at me when I don’t immediately move inside. “Well?”

I huff and storm past him to enter the foyer. As much as letting him stalk me through the building pisses me off, I’m not going to pass up the opportunity to look around. I doubt I could get inside if I wanted to. Not unless I was willing to break the door or glass to do it. And I’m not looking to give GE easy access to this building because of me.

The main foyer is big and open, with more windows than walls. There’s the security desk right in the middle that you have to pass through before you can make it to the elevators. Since no one is here and everything is off, I walk right through.

“We’ll need to take the stairs. I assume you wish to go to the floor where the fight happened?” Aiden asks. I nod, knowing he’s probably drilling holes in the back of my head while trying to figure out what I’m expecting to find here. “That’s the Guild’s main hall on the eleventh floor.”

Ugh. Eleven floors up? Why didn’t it seem like that many when I came here to rescue them?

He opens the door to the stairwell, and I glare at the flights of stairs. My legs are still sore from Kellan splitting me in half in the woods this morning, but I’d rather stick a needle in my eye than mention that to Aiden. I huff and get started up the long trek.

Aiden doesn’t say a word as he follows behind me. All I know is that I’m panting for air when I finally see the big number eleven next to the door and Aiden’s staring calmly at me in his navy suit. Is he for real? I must have that very expression on my face when I’m looking at him. “I take the stairs. It’s an easy way to stay in shape while still doing other things.”

“You’re not human,” I gripe.

He smirks and opens the door for me. “Yes, that is debatable. But then the same goes for you if that’s true.”

We enter the eleventh floor, and it’s massive. The entire room is at least two stories high, with a hundred feet of the ceiling arched in a dome made of panels of glass in a diamond pattern on one side. There are doors that lead out to the large courtyard. It’s like a well-manicured garden of plants and trees, with gazebos and picnic tables or areas of green grass. Maybe calling it a park would be more accurate.

The area under the half-dome is filled with long wooden tables, sofas, cushioned chairs, and even a standalone bar. Once you’re back under the rest of the building, the ceiling is vaulted with massive wooden beams. The tables continue into this room up to a large rustic bar and stools. Between doors and corkboards along the back wall, a flight of stairs leads up to a short, open second floor that sticks out over the bar.

Aiden watches my face and then looks around the room like he’s trying to see it from my eyes. I guess when something is in front of you day in and day out, it’s hard to step back and really appreciate what you’re looking at. “This is the Guild’s main hall. It’s where members can hang out, eat, or pick out jobs. The floors below are the general offices for various businesses, all worked by Guild members. Their apartments are the floors above, and of course, the Loft.”

His eyes scan over an area in the middle of the room that’s bare. It looks like tables used to be there, but they were probably destroyed in the fight. Aside from some blank spaces like that, no one would know anything had happened here. Aiden slides his hands into his trouser pockets and turns to me. “Now’s your chance to look for whatever it is you think you’ll find. You have”—he whips his phone from his pocket to look at it—“twenty minutes before I kick you out.”

Only twenty minutes? In a room this big?

“Nineteen minutes and thirty seconds,” he amends when I don’t move.

Fuck a duck.

I take off to the nearest wall and decide to work from the perimeter inward. I check for anything on the floor, carvings on tables, something on a wall. Anything that might trigger a memory of my year under Gordon. I’m expecting the tables to be marked up, carved, or even the rude bubble gum user sticking it under the tables, but there’s no sign of it.

There are a few marks and cuts here or there, but they don’t look like the work of someone purposefully marking it up with a knife.

What kind of people are in this Guild?

It makes my task that much easier, though, since I would clearly see anything out of the ordinary. Not only are the tables and benches long, but there are a ton of them.

A jingle tune starts up, and I look around to find Aiden sitting at one of the tables and looking at his phone. “Time’s up.”

Did he seriously set a timer for me? What am I? A child? “I’m sorry, am I taking up too much of your precious time?” I snark at him while still peering under the current table.

“You are. I have someplace I’m supposed to be.”

“Then go. I’m not keeping you here.” I look up and search around the room to better prioritize where I think a clue might be left.

Aiden scoffs and stands, sticking his phone and hand into his pocket. “I gave you twenty minutes of uninterrupted time to sniff around my Guild. If you haven’t found anything, then I doubt there was anything to begin with.” I glare at him, and he tilts his head to the side. “What did you think you’d find here? A note from Gordon?”

My body tenses on reflex, and his eyes narrow when he sees it.

He stalks over to me, and my heart pounds with every click of his shiny black shoes on the wooden floor that echoes through the grand room. I step back when he doesn’t appear to be slowing down and fall onto the bench.

Aiden grabs me by the throat and shoves me back until my head meets the table and my back arches. He leans over me until there’s no space between us, and his face is all I can see. “Ow,” I growl at him, even though it didn’t actually hurt. He’d bent me to his will by his presence more than brute force.

“I’m getting really tired of you keeping secrets from the rest of us. One of these days, they are going to get one of us killed because we don’t have all the facts. Either you’re with us, or you’re against us. There is no in-between anymore.”

I swallow roughly, and fortunately, his grip allows it.

“I can’t keep the others safe if everyone is running off in different directions because of you. ”

“I have nothing to do with what the others—”

Aiden’s fingers squeeze to cut me off. “You are either blind or willfully ignorant. I know you’re not stupid. Jackson has been off doing his own thing for you since you showed up. Dane snuck out after Vera with you in tow after you agreed to free him. I’m sure he hasn’t given up, and he’s planning something else. Then you’re sneaking out and poking around my Guild with no explanation.”

His lips move to my ear, and he whispers in that velvety tone of his. Like he’s telling me a dark, dirty secret. “If I could tie you up at the firehouse to keep you from causing trouble right now, I would. You’re lucky you have the gift you do, or else that’s exactly where you’d find yourself right now.” The smell of cinnamon floods my senses as I breathe him in, and my shameful body reacts to all of it.

His voice. His scent. Even the threat of him tying me up in his attempt to control me has my heart fluttering.

More evidence there’s something wrong with me.

His grip loosens, as if he thinks that’s the end of it, but I take that opportunity to fight back his fire with my own. “You’re never going to control me, Aiden. You and I both know it, and I can see how it tortures you so.”

His eyes flare with heat. He pushes me back down with his body, the air between us sweltering as he presses into me and sets my heart racing frantically in my chest. Aiden’s hand twitches around my neck, and I can see the battle warring in his face of what he wants to do and what he should do. We stay in that position for what feels like ages.Long enough that my body tingles and trembles from my unhinged heartbeat and not enough oxygen.

Finally, he releases me. “We’ll see,” he answers slowly, and it sounds like a dark promise. He steps back, straightens his jacket, and fixes his tie. I cringe at the twinge of pain from the awkward angle I’d been in, but it passes quickly.

“Get up. You’re coming with me while I run my errand, and then we’ll both return to Old Red.”

I’m tempted to be a brat and ask him why—he just really seems to bring that side out of me—but I’d rather not waste any more time if Kellan’s going to be training me tonight. I know Aiden doesn’t want to let me out of his sight, and I’m also curious to see what he was up to coming here. If I’m to believe he wasn’t actually following me.

He leads us to the kitchen through the bar area, and then to the pantry or stock room. He moves some empty shelves aside and inserts a small piece of metal into what appears to be the gap between two concrete slabs. After a click, the floor pops up by two inches. Aiden presses the floor down and slides it to the side, creating enough space for a body to fit.

“There’s a ladder. Climb down, and I’ll meet you at the bottom.” His face is unreadable when I stare at him. His threat of tying me up haunts me, and I’m getting the distinct feeling that this might be his alternative. Lock me away in a concrete box somewhere in the middle of a fifty-ish story building?

“Uh, I think I’ll just head back.”

“Don’t you want to learn my secrets?” Aiden purrs, and a trickle of fear slides down my spine at his threatening undertone.

“Not if you’re keeping them in a dark pit of hell. You can have them.” I turn on my heel and walk out because. Fuck. That. It reminds me a little too much of solitary on the island, and I’d rather not go through that again, thank you very much.

Aiden takes my arm to stop me. “You’re going down there, Raegan. Either on your own or with my help. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

Oh, fuck no. I yank my arm from him, but his grip doesn’t budge, and then his other hand takes my other arm so he’s between me and my escape. He pushes me toward the hole in the floor, and my feet push and kick at the floor in an effort to stop moving.

“Aiden, wait. Wait. Wait!” I scream in panic when my foot slips just a little over the edge.

“Are you going to tell me your secrets now?” he murmurs softly in my ear.

I bite my lip as I wrack my brain for something, anything , I can think of giving him.

“I didn’t think so,” he says way too soon, and then he pushes me into the hole.

I scream as I fall into darkness, my voice echoing around the concrete walls until my body crashes into something soft. I feel around me, and whatever I’m on shifts and sounds like rice when it moves. Is this…a fucking bean bag?

The entire room goes pitch black, and I gasp when my memories shove to the forefront. The cold, dark room. Alone for hours, days , with just me and my thoughts.

Then light bursts over me, and it snaps me out of it before my memories can fully sink their claws in. I squint up and find Aiden watching me with a pinched brow and a frown before he quickly covers it up with the clearing of his throat. “You ready yet?” he casually asks like he didn’t just throw me into a terrifying hole and then trap us in complete darkness. He moves to another wall, shining the flashlight from his phone over it, and does something that makes it slide open like some Batman shit. Then he turns expectantly to me.

He really made me think he was going to lock me in here. I thought I was going to die or break something, at the very least from that fall, without knowing how far down it was. It wasn’t far at all, considering how his hair is almost touching the ceiling.

Fury twists in my chest at his deception. Did he think that was fun ? Or was it just a fucking power move against me?

As if reading my rage, he responds tightly, “I gave you a chance to go down the ladder, and you refused. Remember that the next time you think to go against my instructions.”

“You’re a sadistic bastard ,” I snap, pushing myself upright from the oversized bean bags. “I fucking hate you.”

He gives me a sardonic smirk. “And I, you.”

We travel downstairs in the dark with the flashlight to guide the way for a long fucking time. It’s probably about thirty minutes, but with him, it feels like forever. I’m still in disbelief over what he’d done, what lengths he was willing to go to pry my secrets from me.

If only he knew my secrets would change nothing in this fight .

They’ll just change what he thinks of me. What the others think of me.

It’ll shatter whatever self-confidence I’ve built up over the last few years, the moment I see how they look at me after that. It’ll destroy me.

We reach a large wooden door, and Aiden stops before it and turns to me. “Against my better judgment, I’m going to show you something. Whether I believe you’re a sleeper agent or not is moot, as the others wouldn’t let you go at this point, anyway. I will find out the truth, but until then, expect to be with one of us at all times so we can make sure you aren’t communicating with the enemy.”

I roll my eyes at him. “If this is your S the fact that she knows my gift, or my birthday. I didn’t even remember when that was. The text keeps scrolling upward and revealing more information about me. No! There’s still a room full of people here who could read it. I swing my head back and forth to make sure no one is watching us, then step forward and reach out, as if I can swipe it away. The gold light fades out.

Cibrina gives me a kind smile. “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t upset you. Showing my gift rather than explaining it is easier.”

“No, it’s—I’m okay. I’m not used to sharing so much about myself with others. How did you know all that about me?”

“Well—” Her smile curls. “I may have gotten that from Aiden.”

I draw in a frustrated breath. Aiden.

She must read my expression, because she waves her hand. “Oh, it’s not that he specifically offered that information to me.” She taps the side of her head. “Everything I hear and see automatically gets stored in my Archive gift so I can pull it up again later. Even if it’s information made as a passing comment. And it’s not something I can turn on and off.”

“Oh,” is all I can manage. That gift is…a bit terrifying. Does that mean this entire conversation is being recorded by her gift? Is it picking apart everything we’re saying ?

“Thank you, Cibrina,” Aiden says, rejoining us. His dark gaze sweeps over me, and I press my lips together. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”

“Not at all,” she answers.

He turns to face her fully. “While I’m here, I wanted to let you know I’ve received your request, but I haven’t changed my mind.”

“They want to fight, Aiden. They have every right to join you,” she pushes.

“Look at them. They aren’t ready for what it might cost. This is my fight, not theirs. I won’t involve them.”

Cibrina purses her lips but nods. “I’ll let them know.”

Aiden’s hand finds the small of my back. “Thank you. I’ll be back again soon, but I have some things at home that I need to fix first.”

Her smile returns, and she moves her attention to me. “Of course. I’ll be here if you need anything. It was a pleasure to meet you, Raegan.”

“You too. This has all been…uh, enlightening.”

Cibrina laughs softly. “I’m sure it has been. Please come visit again.” She walks away, her heels clicking on the floor.

When I look back at where the fight had been, it’s already cleaned up and quiet. A woman with long brown hair and tanned skin glances up to see Aiden and stands. She strides over to us with something in one hand.

“Aiden,” she says to him with a respectful bow of her head.

Okay. I can’t do this anymore.

I turn away and start walking back the way we came. I’ll guess my way back and ask for directions if I have to, but I need a minute. I knew Aiden would be a great leader one day. That he would help and protect others like he had our little group. And I know why I’ve been excluded from his protective bubble. Why he left me behind on the island with our enemies rather than talk and figure it out.

But seeing what he’s built…how everyone looks at him with respect and…almost reverence, as if he’s somehow saved them from something…

Tears sting at the corners of my eyes.

I wish I had been one of them. Someone he’d helped or tried to save.

Not a lost cause.

Even though he knows what happened with Vera now…he still treats me like a traitor. He doesn’t trust me.

I’m an outsider and always will be.

So, watching what it’s like for those on the inside…seeing his protectiveness over others compared to his severe mistrust of me…

It hurts.

Aiden catches up with me by the time I make it up the first set of stairs, probably because I’m still too worn out to take them quickly. He doesn’t say anything to me; just takes up the front to lead the way. We go through a different door after the security room and take a new route that lets us out at some bar in the city. I’d wonder about it if my brain wasn’t already overwhelmed with information.

I don’t even know how we made it back to Old Red. All I know is that not a single word was spoken between us. I go straight to my tiny-ass room and lock the door behind me so I can be alone.