Aiden, page 18
“Of course he could,” she agreed, “and, if he’s as good as you say he is, then there’s a good chance that he’s doing just fine.”
He smiled at that. “He is a different man. I can promise you that.”
“Because you say that then, I’ll believe you. I just know everything from his past.”
“And sometimes you have to let a man let that go,” Mountain suggested.
“If you say so,” she muttered.
But, at that moment, Aiden hopped to his feet, reached out a hand to Toby, and said, “Come on. Let’s go find a snack or dessert.” She let him pull her to her feet, as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You’ll love California.”
She shook her head. “I’m coming as a friend,” she warned.
He chuckled. “The way things are between us, the friendship will turn into something much deeper, much quicker.”
“Says you,” she protested. “I didn’t say I was interested in a relationship.”
“You don’t have to,” he noted. “Your body already says so.”
“That’s bullshit,” she murmured.
“No, not at all.” He reached over and kissed her gently on the temple. “Remember. No pressure. You had enough of that shit from Moscow.”
“You’re not kidding,” she agreed. “I haven’t had a relationship in a long time because of him too, so I won’t be too eager to jump into another.”
“Unless you’re really eager to jump into it because, you know, maybe you’ll really enjoy it this time.”
“I’ll enjoy the fact that I’m free to have a relationship again.”
“Did he really hound everybody who you know?”
“In so many ways,” she said, nodding her head. “He just made life miserable. I was out on a date one night, and he beat up the guy at the restaurant.”
“And nobody pressed charges?” he asked in shock.
“No, once my date had been thoroughly threatened, he took off, and I’ve never seen him again,” she explained. “I’m pretty sure he was in town only for a few days and hasn’t come back to the city since.”
“You can understand his point though, I’m sure?” he noted. “However, I don’t scare so easily.”
She smiled up at him. “You really are a nice man, you know that?”
“I am,” he stated, “and you’ll learn just how nice I am as time goes on.”
She nodded. “The only reason I’m even taking the chance with you is because Mountain vouched for you.”
“And I also know that, if I do anything to cross those lines with you, Mountain’ll kick my butt into tomorrow,” Aiden confessed, with a laugh. “I know it. You know it, and that keeps everything aboveboard.”
“Sure,” she said, “but what happens if I fall for you and if I treat you badly?”
“Then Mountain will kick your butt all the way into tomorrow,” he teased, not missing a beat. “But I’m looking forward to you trying.”
She burst out laughing.
He looked down at her and grinned. Reaching over, he kissed her gently and repeated, “Honestly, no pressure.”
“That’s a good thing,” she said, “because I wasn’t really thinking about such a thing.”
“Yes, you were,” he argued, with a smile. “But that’s okay, I’ll let you believe it.”
She shook her head. “Are you always this determined?”
“Yep,” he said, then turned to his buddy. “Am I right, Mountain?”
“He’s not kidding,” Mountain muttered from behind them.
Aiden looked over at his friend and realized that Mountain was quite distracted by his phone. He turned to Toby. “Come on,” he said. “Mountain needs a healthy distraction. Let’s get together a late-night snack.” And, with that, he now dragged Mountain into the kitchen, and they grabbed grapes and cheese from the fridge and some nuts and dark chocolate from her pantry.
“It seems like we’re always eating,” she noted cautiously.
“I can eat,” Aiden said, with a shrug.
“Being able to eat doesn’t mean it’s the same thing as being hungry,” she argued in a scolding voice.
“Mountain, can you eat?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” Mountain declared. “About time you mentioned it.”
“Hey, we already had dinner. Remember how I cooked for you two?” she noted.
“I remember. It was steak and corn and really tasty,” Mountain said, looking at her. “What does that have to do with anything? I’m still hungry.”
She threw up her hands. “Maybe that’s why your parents didn’t want anything to do with you,” she said in a joking voice. “You just ate them out of house and home.”
“Yeah, what about your parents?”
At that, she stopped and winced. “God. You know that we need to leave for California before they find out that somebody else has the blackmail info—or worse that the cops have the blackmail stuff now and where it came from—because my parents won’t be nice to me.”
“Well, they won’t get to you in California in that case,” Aiden stated immediately.
She smiled. “Now I like the sound of that. You have no idea how reassuring it is to know that somebody’s in my corner.”
“I understand,” Aiden said. “I’ve been alone in my lifetime too. That’s why people like Mountain are important in my world.”
“That’s what real friends are for. I guess I missed that stage,” she noted thoughtfully. “And that was another side effect of Moscow. He wouldn’t let anybody be my friend. I was his, and he wouldn’t share, and that was it.”
“But he’s gone, so it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“I know. I know,” she said, “and every time I remember that, it’s just a huge sigh of relief. It’s just going to take a while before all his abuse fades away, and I can really relax. In a way, I’m like Michelle. Not quite believing the boogeyman is gone.”
“And will you be okay if we move away, with Michelle still here?”
She frowned at that and then slowly nodded. “It would be hard, but she can still talk to me on the phone. Plus we can come back and see her. It would be harder on her if she didn’t have Rick.”
“Or maybe you can also find a place in California so that she’d be closer too.”
She shook her head. “She’s got really good friends in the group home here, and that’s important to her.”
“And that’s what happens in life,” Aiden stated. “Maybe you’ll find that now that she’s had a chance to tell her story and that this is out of her life, maybe she’ll settle in and gain more friends.”
“I think so. She’s really lovable,” Toby said warmly. “I just don’t know how she’ll handle me moving.”
“Well, let’s not cross that bridge right now,” Aiden noted. “And, if necessary, you know that we’ll reassess it down the road.”
She looked up at him.
He smiled. “I’m really easy to get along with.”
“You’re almost too easy to get along with,” she replied shrewdly. “It’s almost like you have an agenda.”
“The only agenda I have is to keep you happy, safe, and around me,” he shared. “Everything else is secondary.”
She looked over at Mountain and asked, “Is he really like this?”
Mountain nodded. “Absolutely. All the time, every day, it’s that bloody happy puppy look. Pretty sickening, isn’t it?”
At that instant, a grape hit Mountain in the head. He spun so fast, but Aiden was already out of sight.
“See? That’s what I mean,” Mountain complained. “The guy is just a walking joke.”
“And yet obviously you two love each other like brothers.”
“We do,” Mountain agreed, with a nod. “Because, when you find somebody like this, you hang on to them. I know that, if I run into trouble up north and if I need to have Aiden bail me out, he’d come.”
“In a heartbeat,” Aiden added immediately, rejoining them, “because that’s what friends do.” He looked over at her and added, “It’s okay. You’ll learn too. You might not have a whole lot of confidence in that whole process, but you’ll learn to trust it.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Right now, I’ll have to take your word for it.”
Just then a knock came at her front door. The door opened, and a woman stepped in, calling out, “Hey, anybody here? Toby, you here?” She stopped in the kitchen, staring at the men.
“This is Annabel,” Toby said to the guys. “She’s the one who sent the picture of the bruises on my back.”
Immediately Aiden stepped forward and said, “Hey, this is a surprise.”
Toby stared at her friend. “Are you okay?” Obviously Annabel had been crying.
Annabel shook her head. “No, I’m not really okay.” She glared at Toby. “All because of you, yet I even went to bat for you.”
“What are you talking about?” Toby asked in confusion.
“You told the cops that I killed those men,” Annabel said in a hurt tone.
“I did no such thing,” she protested immediately.
But Annabel wasn’t listening. “They told me that.”
“Of course they did,” she snapped in disgust. “Remember? The cops lie.”
“No, they told me that you didn’t kill them, and, therefore, you pointed the finger at me,” she complained. “I don’t understand how you could do that. We’re friends.”
“Sure we are,” Toby agreed, frowning, not sure where it was all going. “But I didn’t tell them that. They asked me if anybody had bought a new vehicle, and I said you did, but I didn’t know anything about it. I couldn’t even tell them what vehicle it was.”
Annabel looked at her suspiciously. And then she turned to the two men behind her. “Who are these guys?”
“This is my cousin, Mountain,” Toby said, “and this is Aiden, a friend of mine. I mean it, Annabel,” Toby continued. “I didn’t do anything more than that. And what am I supposed to say when they asked who else bought new vehicles recently?”
Annabel shook her head. “I told him that we shouldn’t buy a vehicle right now, but he didn’t listen.”
“I didn’t know buying a vehicle was a problem at any time,” Toby admitted.
“Well, it is because he shouldn’t have done it,” she snapped, “but he never listens.”
“I’m sorry,” Toby said. “I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble.”
She stared at her and shrugged, yet still glared at Toby. “You did bring us a lot of trouble. It makes me so sorry that I gave you that photo.”
“Why?”
“Because it got you off the hook.”
“No, it didn’t,” she countered. “But I had an alibi for the latest murder, so they could hardly charge me for that. Plus they had absolutely no forensic evidence on me,” she stated in disgust. “My father-in-law was pushing for me to be charged.”
Annabel stared at Toby. “You married that louse?”
“Yeah, and then he was killed. I mean, if the same person killed Moscow who killed the other six now, I almost want to thank him, but I don’t think it was the same person.”
“The cops were talking about all these murders and questioning me,” she stated, frowning.
“I know because I went through it earlier, and it’s terrifying,” Toby explained, “but the cops lied to you. That was not on me.”
“Crap! But you haven’t been honest with me,” she said, pointing to the guys. “I didn’t know about your boyfriend here, but then I didn’t know about your husband either.” She shook her head. “Just what a shitstorm. After just a simple thing like buying a new car.”
“Where were you planning on moving to?” Toby asked, trying to distract her.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Annabel snapped. “We have to get clear of this mess first.”
“Yeah, you do. Running right now won’t be a good thing in the eyes of the cops.”
“Maybe not, but you know I won’t stick around for them to stick these five murders on us.”
At the word five, Toby stared at Annabel. “Five?”
“Yeah, five,” she repeated.
“I thought they were talking about six total murders now, not counting Moscow’s.”
The woman flushed. “I don’t know what the hell they were talking about. Anyway I’m out of here.”
But Toby opened her arms and headed toward her, and Annabel stepped back. “Don’t even begin to pull that shit with me,” she said. “You’re not stopping me.”
“I’m wasn’t thinking that,” Toby argued. “I was going to hug you goodbye.”
Annabel reached into her purse and pulled out a small handgun. “Yeah, sure you were,” she said in disgust.
Toby came to jittery stop. “What are you doing?”
“Well, if you’re trying to accuse me of something,” she stated, “I’m not having it. And don’t bother trying to follow me. I hope to never see you again,” Annabel spat, and, with that, she bolted outside.
Aiden followed immediately and checked out her vehicle. “Yes, it’s an Escalade.” He pulled out his phone and immediately called Henry. “So your murderer just took off in the Escalade. You may want to get out an APB, as they’re planning on leaving town as soon as possible.” With that, he hung up and looked over at Toby. “See? That was pretty simple.”
“I don’t think so,” she disagreed and pointed. At that instant, the Escalade pulled up in front of her house again. “There she is again.”
But, instead of the woman, the big bouncer popped out, and he raced up the front steps. He smiled and started firing blindly at them. She bolted toward the couch, as Aiden tackled her; she felt a pull on her shoulder and started swearing. More shots were fired into windows and doors, flying all around.
“That’ll teach you fuckers to not get involved where you shouldn’t be,” he yelled, and, with that, he jumped in the Escalade and raced off down the street.
Aiden pulled out his phone and called for an ambulance. At the same time, he put pressure on Toby’s wound. He looked over at Mountain, who raced toward them. “She took one shot,” Aiden noted, “at least that’s all I can see.”
Mountain quickly checked over his cousin. “Looks like it,” he said, checking the wound closer. “It’s high in the shoulder, but she’s bleeding pretty heavily.”
By the time the ambulance reached them, they had the bleeding somewhat slowed, but she was unconscious. They quickly got Toby loaded up and down to the hospital.
On the way there, Aiden phoned Henry and then Corbin. “Things have blown up like you wouldn’t believe.” He quickly explained.
Henry met Aiden at the hospital. “We got both of them,” he stated. “Don’t worry. We got the escalade too. At the moment, Annabel’s pissed that her boyfriend came in and shot at all of you, but she’s the one who drove him back to Toby’s house to do the dirty deed. So both of them are in jail, and one is singing like a canary.”
“Which one is that?”
Henry shook his head. “Doesn’t matter because, by the time I’m done with them, they’ll both be singing.”
“Fun times,” Aiden noted. “Meanwhile, Toby’s in surgery, getting that bullet removed from her shoulder.”
“That’s good,” Henry noted.
“Maybe,” Aiden agreed, “but, at the same time, the fact that Toby even got shot is bullshit. The bouncer fired dozens of shots into her house, so, in one way, at least that was the worst of it.”
“I know,” Henry noted. “All I can tell you is it’s over now.”
“Not fully,” Aiden argued, “but you know we’re getting there.”
“I did talk to the new DA,” he shared. “No charges will be filed against Michelle, but they will talk with her and will have a therapist work with her. Michelle has to know what she did was wrong and that she can’t be allowed to ever do anything like that again.”
“That will make Toby feel much better.”
“Even with Michelle here, I’m surprised Toby’s planning on staying here,” the detective said.
“She’s not. She’ll sell her husband’s apartment to her father-in-law, and then she’s coming out west with me,” Aiden shared. “The best thing for her is to get her out of here.”
“I agree,” Henry stated. “It’s been a pretty rough ride for her.”
“You’re not kidding,” Aiden agreed. “I just need to get her out of surgery and well enough to travel.”
At that, the detective took his leave from the hospital, and Aiden sat back down again.
Mountain had gone out to make a phone call, and he returned and sat down beside Aiden.
“When are you leaving?” Aiden asked.
“I don’t know,” Mountain replied. “I just put a call into the Mavericks.”
“Why the Mavericks?”
“Like I said, I need somebody who can operate within yet on the edge of the law. And I need supplies and support. I also need a team. And Corbin is working on it,” Mountain added. “When we get there, we’ll need you too.”
“Do you want me to go north?” Aiden asked.
“No, I won’t need you on the ground in that op,” Mountain noted. “I want you to stay here and to look after my cousin, to get her moved out west, to help her sell all this Moscow shit, to bank whatever money she can bank, and to start over out there in California. I have no idea what her parents will do, but I expect they will probably just ignore her. So she definitely needs a fresh start.”
“She’ll get it,” Aiden stated, without hesitation.
“Oh, one more thing,” Mountain added. “Corbin had the local retired military guy check out the safety deposit box and also the rented storage unit. Both filled with cash. Our local guy’s changing the lock on the storage unit, and he has the paperwork to change the signee on the bank box, all while Corbin consults a local attorney. Then, if all goes well, that money will be transferred into Toby’s account or go to some investment firm or whatever she decides.”
“Sounds good,” Aiden replied. He looked over at his buddy and added, “It’s you who I’m worried about now.”
Mountain directed a glare at him. “And with good reason. It’s a nightmare out there.”
“Is it really bad?”
