Missing (The Brannock Siblings Book 3), page 17
"I'm not dating anyone."
"Don't be so obtuse. I'm sure you and Cindy have a wonderful time together without the baggage I so obviously carry."
"Aiden-"
"Just go, Gus. I have a lot to do and no time to do it."
"Aiden-"
"GO!" she screamed and I took a step back. She sucked in a sharp breath and held it for several long seconds before blowing it out slowly and tearing my heart out all over again. "Please."
The look on her face told me there was nothing I could say right now to fix it. I forced myself to move and every step away from her felt like I was trudging through three feet of wet cement. She wanted me gone and I wasn't stupid enough to think I wasn't too furious to stay.
I pulled hard on the door and it slammed shut behind me, but I didn't stop. I had pushed and pulled with her when I should have been shoving and yanking.
Now I was too late.
***
Hours later, after returning to the station only to realize that I was completely useless, I sat at my desk and sulked like a child, feeling worse than I had when I walked out of that apartment. Evan hadn't asked questions, but he wasn't stupid either. We'd spent the afternoon on the phone with the families of Johnny and the little girl who had been taken before him. Their answers to our questions hadn't changed. They couldn't think of a single person that they knew or had even casually come across that would do something like that. There was no unusual activity to their accounts, nothing unusual in their general day to day activities, and no word from the kidnapper ever since.
They wouldn't admit it, but they were suffering. Not knowing why their child had been taken was almost as bad as the actual taking.
I felt like we were just turning in circles, like my entire life was just turning in circles. The captain kept us busy with a consult on another case and for a moment, I thought the day would turn back around.
It didn't.
The minute I stopped thinking about work, I was thinking about her and it all came flooding back. I felt like a 16 year old girl pining after her high school crush. It was ridiculous, but fuck if I could do anything to stop it.
When my phone rang and I saw that it was Con and Emily, I almost didn't answer. When I finally did, it was exactly what I had expected. They immediately started in on how much they loved Aiden and the tightness in my chest felt like a vice squeezing the life out of me.
"Are you going to be with her again tonight?" Emily asked excitedly. "I wanted to talk to her about Ash's bachelorette party. I think her and Lily would have a blast with us."
"No. She's going on a date tonight," I said flatly.
"What? But I thought-"
"Em, baby will you give us a minute?" Con said tenderly.
"Oh, sure. I'll talk to you later, Gus. I love you. You know that right?"
"Yeah, Em. I do. Thanks."
I heard a click on the line, then a rustle and the sound of a door shutting. Then it was just me and my brother.
"What did you do?" he asked immediately.
"Nothing."
"For some reason, the only word I can think to tell you is exactly. You did nothing."
"Listen, Con. I've spent weeks trying to get her to see what we have and she wouldn't let her guard down. I can't penetrate that wall she has and I don't think she wants me to. For a while there, maybe, but then all of a sudden, it was gone."
"You love her?"
"Brutally," I growled, hating how uncontrolled I actually felt about my feelings for her. "I can't even find the will to be mad at her. I just want her to be happy and if she doesn't want to try with me, what can I do?"
"Smack yourself in the back of the head for me, that's what you're going to do."
"It's too late, Con."
"Bullshit," he barked. "It's never too late to fight for her and Mom would kick you in the balls if she heard you say that."
"Well, it's too bad Mom's not here, huh?" I was an asshole and I immediately begged forgiveness if Mom had heard me say that from wherever she was.
"Yeah it is, so you're going to have to listen to me now. If you love this woman, I mean really love her, to the point where you forget to breathe the moment she walks into the room or every time you look at her your chest feels like it's about to cave in, then it's never too late and you never stop fighting for her. Because, brother, losing her now without doing everything in your power to keep her, without taking that chance… it will destroy you and you will spend the rest of your life thinking of that one moment you walked away, that one small moment you gave up the one thing you didn't want to live without. I can't watch my brother lose himself like that." His tone softened and the emotion in his voice hit me like a ton of bricks. "I refuse to let you lose this, Gus."
For the first time since I walked away from Aiden that afternoon, I felt myself take a breath. Maybe… possibly… hopefully… I could get her back to my side. "She's worth it, Con… she's worth losing myself over."
"Then she's worth finding yourself over, too."
Like always, my brother who didn't ever say much, said the only thing I needed to hear.
It didn't take much to decide what I needed to do and not long after that phone call, I was climbing the steps to my apartment, plotting out ways to somehow stop Aiden from enjoying this date. It wasn't going to be easy, but it didn't matter. It would be worth it. I was taking the advice my father had already given me, giving her enough space to take a breath and that was it.
The sound of a male voice made me pause on the final step and what I saw made my fists clench.
Some slick haired, lanky dickhead was putting his arm around Aiden as she turned away from locking her door. I've never wanted to break a person's arm so much in my life.
Aiden's eyes lifted to mine and she stopped abruptly, making Mr. Touchy stumble.
"Gus. You're home early."
"Yeah."
Her eyes shifted around, attempting to look at anything but me and I wanted to grab her and shake her senseless, until all she saw was me.
"I'm Donny," Douchey said and offered me his hand. There was something familiar about him but I was too on edge to try and figure it out. He was still touching my Red and I still wanted to break is arm.
"Gus," I bit out.
"This is my neighbor and a good friend," Aiden said to Douchey.
She looked beautiful in the same green dress she was wearing for our date. Her red locks looked vibrant in contrast with the dark forest green and her curves made my mouth go dry.
"How did you two meet again?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.
"Online," Douchey replied with a creepy ass smile. His arm pulled Aiden in tighter and I ground my back teeth together to keep from ripping her away from him. Give her this one night, Gus, then lock her down. "One of those crazy dating sites. She didn't even have a picture up, but we spoke this morning and just connected."
"Connected."
"Yeah."
Aiden's eyes still hadn't come back to me and there was something on the floor that seemed to be changing her world. Good.
"Well, it was nice to meet you David."
"It's Donny."
"Whatever. Have a good night, Red."
I shouldn't have been such an asshole, but I couldn't help it. She was going out with that guy? There would be no plotting needed to ensure the date was a total loss. Was she really that desperate?
No, she wasn't. She was just doing what she thought she needed to do. She had a life and I was very much a part of that, but it was time to tell her it wasn't enough. I was getting more. She was going to hear me out if it killed me. No more interruptions, no more inconvenient timing.
First thing in the morning, she was mine.
I paced around my apartment for a half an hour and repeatedly talked myself out of breaking everything in sight before I finally decided to call it a night. The second I dropped onto my bed, my phone started buzzing on the dresser. I didn't want to answer it. Then the thought of Aiden or Lily needing my help forced my body upright.
A sigh of disappointment left me when I looked at the screen.
Lincoln.
"Brannock, some of the guys and I are heading to Sam's Pub. Come with us."
"I don't know, Linc. I'm pretty worn out."
"No. You get your ass down there before I come over there and drag you out. You give Aiden tonight and that's it, but you can't stay there by yourself and let it consume you. Got it?"
Linc had about shit himself when I told him that Aiden was going out tonight, but after my talk with Con and the reattachment of my balls, I filled him in on what was going to happen.
"Her date is shifty. I don't like it."
"Then she won't either. You'll be there when she gets back, Gus. It's one date and don't tell me you think Aiden is the type to run away with a guy she just met."
He was right. Aiden was smart. She was strong and wouldn't do anything stupid like fall in love with Douchey on a first date. There was nothing special about him. Nothing he could give her that I couldn't and even if she did fall for him, I'd fix that immediately.
"I'll meet you there in thirty minutes."
I changed my clothes, keeping a sensitive ear out for any sign that Aiden may have returned early, but there was nothing. By the time I left, I was even more pissed off and needed something a lot stronger than beer.
The short drive to the bar felt like a lifetime and my mood had only darkened.
"Gus! Over here!"
Lincoln was at his usual spot with Pax and Eckart and I threw myself down in the only empty seat available.
"Someone's in a shit mood," Pax stated with a chuckle.
"Leave him alone guys. His girl is out with some creep."
"Your girl? Why aren't you with her?"
"Because I'm an asshole," I grumbled and raked a hand through my hair for the millionth time.
"What's the creep's name?"
"I don't fucking care."
The guys didn't say much more about it, seeing I needed a moment to myself. They talked about the game on the TV, the projects they were working on at home, but they kept the topic off of anything to do with women.
Me? I couldn't focus on a damn thing any of them said. My mind was wherever Aiden was. I pushed away from the table and made myself comfortable at the bar by myself. I was there only five minutes, staring at the label on the beer bottle in front of me before realizing that there wasn't a damn thing that was going to take my mind off of her or what she was doing at that exact moment with that piece of shit.
"Hi handsome. Want some company?"
I looked away from my untouched beer toward the sultry voice at my side. The woman next to me was pretty. Her face, her body. For the briefest moment, I thought maybe I could have a night of my own.
"Sure."
She pressed into my side and ran her fingers over my shoulders. "You look lonely."
Then I got a glimpse of her hair. Auburn. A brown that was trying to be red, but couldn't pull it off no matter how hard it tried. Nothing like the red I wanted to tangle my fingers in. Her nose was perky, but there was not one freckle to be seen and I desperately wanted to see freckles.
No matter how hard I tried, all I saw was a woman who could never be Aiden. That should have helped, but it wasn't what I wanted. It would never be what I wanted.
I wanted the flaming haired, freckled nosed, sassy little firecracker that lived next door to me. The one who blasted crappy kid music for her niece in the morning, the one who could keep up the banter for hours on end and the only one who I could see a future with, wanted a future with. I wanted to see the woman that looked like a goddess when she was covered in paints of every different color. I wanted the woman who couldn't cook a damn thing to save her life, but wouldn't stop trying.
"Who is she?"
My eyes came back into focus and I looked at the woman who was now a respectable distance away. "Who?"
"The girl you are sitting here pining for. The one you were just trying so hard to see in me. Who is she?"
It didn't surprise me that it was so blatantly obvious. I could hardly keep a casual conversation going with the guys without biting one of their heads off, how the hell could I even start one with another woman?
I smiled regretfully and she moved further out of my space, but stayed seated next to me. "Sorry."
She shook her head and smiled back before resting her chin in her hand, her green eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Nothing to be sorry about, I just wish I was the one on the other side of those thoughts. She's a lucky woman, so tell me why you aren't with her right now."
"It's complicated."
"Please, honey. I'm a woman. I thrive on complicated."
She ordered a beer and settled in with a nod of encouragement. So what did I do? I told her the short version. Angela was her name and she was actually quite the listener. I told her how I had fallen in love with a woman I hadn't met yet, she turned out to be the neighbor I thought I hated, we became friends, I got attached, she wasn't giving me anything until she started giving me something, the stupid call from Cindy that probably ruined everything, and her recent decision to start dating anyone but me. Then I told her about my plan to get her back.
"Wow. That is so fucking romantic."
I shook my head and stared down at the shiny bar top. "If you think about it, it's actually really sad. If I hadn't acted like such a jerk for all those months, I probably would have forgotten about the woman I hadn't seen face to face and thrown myself at Aiden. She's beautiful, she's funny, she loves her family as much as I love mine. I can't see a life without her. I just need to get through this night."
"But why are you waiting?"
"I'm giving her some space, letting her see that what we can have together is better than what she could have with anyone else."
She rolled her eyes at me and shook her head at the ceiling. "Men. You all just don't open your eyes to the bigger picture. You think we want space when we don't, think we want to be smothered when we want space. It's so frustrating."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I'm serious," she scowled at me.
"Then why don't you fill me in on where I can get the book of secret codes you women live by?"
"It's not us that live in code. All you men need to do is talk to us, be honest with us, and ask us to talk to you. Your plan is perfect in every way except for one flaw."
"And what would that be?"
She smiled wickedly and patted me on the back as if I were a child just learning my first math problem.
"It's pretty obvious, don't you think?"
"It's not," I replied in exasperation. "So I am asking you to fill me in here."
"You think you need to give her this night to decide what she wants, but what you don't realize is that she has already decided. She's had to question everything since she met you and not once has she gotten a direct answer from you. It sounds to me like she was risking everything at one point only to suffer from a self fulfilling prophecy. Being present for that phone call probably shattered her world. You have to go get her, Gus, but you have to go now. If she isn't there yet, wait for her to show up. Not tomorrow, not later tonight. NOW!" she shouted and slammed her hand down on the bar.
I stared at her in shock. Her rant had gradually grown louder and louder and by this point, the entire bar heard her last two sentences loud and clear. She sat there staring back at me in concentration for a few seconds before seemingly coming to a very important decision. "If you don't walk out of this bar in the next five seconds, I'll kick you in the balls myself because you won't deserve her anymore."
I immediately stood, threw down some money for our drinks, kissed her on the cheek, and walked out of the bar without another word.
Aiden may have a wonderful time with Douchey, but she was coming home to me. We weren't going to leave each other tonight until everything was said.
Chapter 11
Aiden
What a nightmare, Aiden thought as she entered the door to her building. She should have listened to Lily when she begged her not to go on the date, accusing her of setting up a revenge date instead of facing what she had with Gus.
Revenge date.
That was totally opposite of what this date had been, or was supposed to be. She didn't want to make Gus jealous or get back at him for going out with another woman. She had no right to do that. She just wanted to move on from the never ending distraction that was Fergus Brannock. No stringing him along, no games, she just wanted to… she didn't know what she wanted anymore.
Not that the date had been even a smidgen of enjoyable. It was awkward from the very moment she opened her door to that man. Donny Marks was attractive and smart, but he couldn't keep a normal conversation for even a minute. No matter what topic she tried to steer him to, he shifted it into something weird and creepy. At first, she thought it was just her stubborn mind playing tricks on her because of the heavy guilt she felt at the look on Gus' face. Was she giving herself a reason not to like Donny? After their meal had arrived, she wasn't so sure. It kept happening and she knew the heavy feeling in her chest wasn't just guilt, but a bad vibe altogether.
Donny was a douche bag.
Only three bites into her meal and he had hammered the final nail in his coffin.
"So, why do you have to watch your niece so much? Isn't that kind of a pain in the ass?"
"No, I love my niece and I don't have to watch her. I want to. I would do anything for her and my sister and I don't appreciate you criticizing them," she snapped.
The date was over and she made a hell of an exit throwing her napkin down and shoving her chair back. Lily would have been proud.
"What about your cop? You two seemed awfully chummy. Would he do anything for you?"
She hadn't given him an answer because she was already making her way out of the restaurant, but she couldn't help the nagging feeling that the man knew more about her than she had told him herself. She wracked her brain the whole cab ride home trying to remember if Gus had been wearing his badge when they ran into him. She finally chalked the whole thing up to the guy being a manipulative prick and made the decision to delete her account on the site the minute she got home. She would focus on Lily and Aidy and try to find a way to make it up to Gus.
