The Absolution of Aidan(39)
“I’m happy for you, my friend. You should be with them right now instead of having to deal with all of this.” Goddamn. I love my friend. He’s my true brother right here.
“Let’s get this over with. Feel her out. See where her head’s at. Like I said before, this woman has no idea who she’s dealing with when it comes to them.” I grip the steering wheel tighter, focusing on the task ahead. Roan nods his head in agreement to the truth I just spoke. He’s one of the very few people who know about the situation with my blood family. How much hatred I hold inside of me towards them.
Roan’s urge to protect this woman, Anna Drexler, and her mother, match my own. We’ve always been this way. Cain included, we protect the ones we care about then with a flip of our hand, we destroy the ones we hate.
Like I told Deidre, we know what she does for a living, where she works, and that’s about it. I didn’t tell her we knew her name, for reasons of my own. Deidre may have saved my ass the other day by barging in like she did, but she made one big mistake by announcing she was my fiancée. Unbeknownst to her, she has put herself in their line of sight by making them think we’re getting married. She’s targeted herself. Who the hell knows if they’ll come after her or not?
“Look. You know I love you like a brother. Hell, you are my brother.” Roan pauses for a bit. I’m wondering where the hell he’s going with this sentimental shit all of a sudden. Proclaiming our brotherhood bond out of the blue.
“I talked to my dad the other day, after Deidre showed up. I’m going to assume she told you everything.” I nod, keeping my eyes fixed on the road ahead. “All I’m going to say is I think she’s still the same, yet stronger, man. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean just like Alina, she’s immune to the life we lead, the shit we do, the trouble lurking around every damn corner. If the two of you are going to have any kind of relationship at all, then never lie to her. She’s far from stupid. She knows some of the shit we do. But now, with a child in the picture and this bullshit we’re getting into with your family, she has the right to know everything.”
“Fuck.” My outburst rattles off the interior of this truck like a goddamn rattlesnake ready to strike. Darting off to the side of the road, I slam on my breaks, not giving as many fucks as the fuck yous I’m sure the people in the cars blaring their horns at us are as they drive by.
“What the hell, Aidan. You going to beat my ass alongside the road? I’m only trying to help you out.” Placing the truck into park, I drag my hands down my weary face, ignoring his comment about beating his ass. What he just said activated my fuck-up. If anything, I owe him a big thank you.
“Jesus Christ. I’m so fucking stupid. We need to get someone on Deidre, man. I can’t believe I fucking forgot to get her protection. Fuck.” I punch the dash then look to my friend, whose facial expression answers it all. He gets me.
“Calm the hell down. I’m on it.” Easier said than done. A year ago, he was as panicked as I am now when he called me and all but demanded I get my ass to New York to protect Alina.
With a flip of his phone, he’s on the phone with his cousin Dilan. Immediately, I calm down when I hear Dilan agree without hesitation or knowing why he’s even watching her. We’re all like a band of brothers. Hell, we have our own personal army, our own code of conduct. The main one being loyalty.
“Make sure she doesn’t know. She will flip her goddamn shit if she finds out she’s being protected. Unless she leaves. If she leaves, then tell him to stop her ass no matter what the hell he has to do.” Goddamn it. I pull back into traffic once it’s cleared, more eager now to get this day over with. Fuck.
My mind races back to the confrontation with my mother. I cannot for the life of me recall if Deidre told them her name or not. Son of a bitch. I need to get back to them as quickly as possible.
“Thank Christ for modern technology and computer hackers.” Roan brings me out of my dark thoughts, slams the laptop down, and tosses it in the backseat, then gleams like a choir boy about ready to sing. I hope he has more information about Anna.
“What did they find out?” I crank the wheel to exit the highway.
“She has the day off today. Pretty damn convenient.” My chest rises and falls quickly. Good news indeed. This means we don’t have to confront her at work.
“Punch in her home address into the GPS. We’ll start there.” Pulling onto the street that would have taken me to where she works, I continue driving until Roan has the address punched in.