Page 43 of Worth

Our doors slam closed in unison and I slump into the passenger seat, panting. I glance over at the same time Aiden looks at me, and we both burst out laughing.

“That was so close,” I gasp between chortles.

“I thought he was going to see you,” Aiden wheezes, tears tracking down his cheeks.

It’s adorable he’s laughing so hard he’s crying that I lean across the console. Warmth blooms in my chest as I kiss Aiden without any insecurity, with a new acceptance to do what I want, no matter how crazy.

One of his hands grips the back of my neck as our lips lock, holding me firmly in place. Our lips break, our heads turn just so, and we kiss again. I suck in a startled breath when Aiden sucks my bottom lip into his mouth, biting. It’s not as punishing a bite as the last time we kissed, but it makes me moan nonetheless. Crimson creeps into my face at the noise, which is startling in the quiet vehicle.

We break apart, foreheads resting together, and stare at each other.

“We should probably go before Zander realizes I’m gone,” I whisper.

Aiden steals one more kiss and then releases me. “To be continued,” he promises, then starts up the SUV.

He cranks up the radio as he hauls ass onto, what looks to be, a main highway. I’m comfortably silent as he sings along with more of those older country songs that he seems obsessed with. Less than an hour later, he’s slows down, pulling off the road, and killing his lights. It looks like we’re in the middle of nowhere, a mass of greenery to the side of us. But there is a similar SUV to the one we’re in, parked facing us.

“That’s Val,” he says, nodding ahead of us.

My shoulders tense immediately. I had never been jealous a day in my life until Aiden was on the phone with this Val yesterday. I still don’t understand why I am.

He hops out of the car, and I follow at a cautious pace. A woman that doesn’t seem to be much older than me appears from the matching car in front of us, her shoulder length, fire-engine-red hair unbound and whipping around her face in the breeze.

She eyes me with curiosity. “Who’s this?”

“Valora, this is Kitten,” Aiden introduces, holding his hand out to me. I take it, slipping my fingers between his and squeezing. “Kitten, this is Valora.”

“Val,” the woman says, rolling her eyes. “Just call me Val.”

“Blake,” I respond, my tone tense. “You can call me Blake. Not Kitten,” I add, shooting Aiden alook.

Val chuckles at Aiden’s pout. “We ready to do this?” she asks, clapping her hands together.

Aiden nods and looks at me. “I’m going to start a fire. Once it’s going and the dickholes who own Skins here notice, we get the Skins to the cars. There are some in the house we need to get out. Kitten, you are going to go get them while Val and I work on the ones in the barn.”

I gape at him, but Val says before I can protest, “Aiden, she’s too new.”

“She can do it,” he says, heading to the back of our car. A pack of cigarettes appears in his hand and he lights one before throwing them back. Keeping the cigarette wedged in the corner of his mouth, he pulls a ladder from the back.

“You don’t usually smoke,” I blurt out.

He grins as he walks toward me with the ladder. “Only when I’m on a job. Helps with the nerves.” He winks at me and walks past, continuing to speak over his shoulder. “The fire will distract the family. There should be four Skins inside. Get them out and bring them back here.”

He doesn’t give me the opportunity to object, and I’m too busy trying to wrap my head around going in there alone, anyway. He sets up the ladder against the greenery and I realize there’s a block wall hidden by it. He climbs up the ladder and straddles the wall. Val follows him and jumps down from the top. When I reached the top of the wall, Aiden gives me a searching look, taking a pull on his cigarette and blowing the smoke away from us.

“Don’t get caught,” he warns, dragging his thumb along my bottom lip. “I would have no problems murdering anyone who tries to hurt you or take you away from me.”

I look down at the ground below us, at Val waiting, and butterflies fill my stomach in a way that’s probably inappropriate considering he just threatened to murder people. “I won’t,” I answer. Because I would rather die than get caught, if I’m being honest. I push myself off the wall, landing lightly on my feet in a crouch. Aiden pulls the ladder up and over the wall, replacing it on our side.

We walk together for a moment, and then Aiden slips away from us. Val stops when he does, and we hide in the shadows, away from the house’s outside lights. Within a few minutes, I smell smoke.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Val chuckles. “Aiden, the pyro.”

A storage shed one hundred feet on the opposite side of the house erupts into flame with a loud bang. I jump, startled, and then step forward.

“Wait,” Val says steadily, throwing out an arm in front of me. A light flicks on, shining through one of the windows. I can hear yelling in the house. A man breaches the front door first, running towards the burning shed in nothing but a pair of underwear. A woman follows him, pulling a robe on over her nightclothes. Two kids walk to the end of the porch, eyes fixed on the fire. The man screams for his Skins.

“Go,” Val urges, and takes off towards the rear of the house.

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