Page 14 of Infinite
“Aaron? Why am I here?” I try again.
“I wanted to save you. Someone has to do it.”
“Save me from what?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t distract me!”
I look at him, needing to keep him talking despite the throbbing in my head. “Why did you want to save me?”
Then, when his eyes focus on me, there is rage burning in them and his teeth are clenched. “So you don’t have the same fate as everyone else.”
I have no idea what that means. Who the hell am I ending up like?
As much as I’d like to decode his riddle, my brain is misfiring, my throat is dry, and I’m trying to piece any of this together. I don’t remember too much—just small clips of time where there was the misfire with the gun, talk about ransom, death, and escape before I would black out again.
We were both trained by the same people, so he knows all the tricks and protocols. The only thing I can do is ask questions and hope he answers or trips up.
“How many days has it been?” I ask Aaron as he paces.
“Don’t worry about it.”
I know it’s been at least four, and I am able to deduce that I’ve been drugged for at least three of them.
They don’t want a ransom.
They apparently want to keep me here.
“Okay, again, you need to explain why you took me and drugged me.”
He shakes his head like I’m a fucking idiot. “To protect you!”
“That’s what you said, but from what?”
He turns, his eyes are back to being unfocused.
“Do you know what that place does to people?” he asks.
“What place?”
“Cole Securities!” Aaron bellows. “They take everything from you. Piece by piece, little things will become theirs. First, it might be a limb, they took that from me. But then, your life will dismantle in front of you. My wife, my child, my best friend, who is also to blame in this. They take and never wonder what it will do to someone. Well, here it is. This is what you’ll become.” His hand sweeps down his body. “Is this what you want? No. No one does. So, I’m helping you before it happens and yourbest friendfucks your entire world.”
He means Liam. “So, you thought it best to take me away?”
“How long until someone there decides Ashton should be theirs? Don’t you see, Quinn? We’re better off away from them. We need to stick together. Your best fucking friend stole my wife.”
I would love nothing more than to set him straight and remind him exactly who lost his wife, but I don’t. He’s talking, he’s agitated, and he’s armed.
“You think Liam would go after Ashton?”
He shakes his head quickly. “No, he already has Natalie. But the other ones, they’re all the same. They find someone who is a little broken, like you and me,” his words start to come quicker, almost frantic, “then they make you think they’re giving you something, but it’s a show. We were all in that ambush, and now I’m the one who has nothing!” Aaron’s hands grip the side of his head. Does he really think that the guys left him behind on purpose?
“I get it,” I say calmly. “You want your life back.”
His eyes meet mine. “I have nothing to get back. I’m half a man who can’t stop the sounds. I can’t get them to stop, and I have nothing to try for. But you? You have a baby and a woman. We’re the same! I had a wife and a baby on the way, but then I went to work for Jackson, and look where it got me. Nothing.”
“You have Aarabelle,” I remind him. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for my child, and I haven’t even met them yet.
I will fight, live, move Heaven and Earth to protect that child. I won’t stop until I’m back with Ashton and can see everything is all right.
