Chapter 33
Aiden didn’t quite sleep for twelve hours. But it was close to it. The rest was exactly what his body needed. When he woke up the next morning, he was almost back to normal. His shoulder had a slight dull soreness, and twinged when he moved his arm. Everything else was fine. Before breakfast, he did a light stretch routine to work the stiffness out of his muscles. After another hot shower, this one on his own, Aiden felt even better.
Mike came into the room as Aiden finished getting dressed. He glanced at Aiden’s bare wrist before he spoke.
“You haven’t put your ACG watch back on yet. Caleb just called us into HQ. Bring your gear.”
Aiden immediately shifted into battle-ready mode. He had a hunch something big was about to go down and that it had to do with the Playground. Aiden grabbed his bag with his gear and weapons and strapped on his watch.
“I’m ready. Let’s go.”
∞ ∞ ∞
“It’s going to be a battle.”
At the first words Strong spoke when the team he’d called in arrived, Aiden knew his hunch had been correct.
“Caleb’s cyber monitoring uncovered a new plan. A force of both Purity Alliance white shirts and Pruitt police bots are going to mount an offensive on the Playground today.”
“I guess he decided he didn’t want to play the long game of stealthily sowing hate and disorder before swooping in with the buyout,” Caleb said. “He’s going for an extremely hostile takeover instead. With the force he’s gathering, Pruitt Inc. will have control of the Playground by the end of the night unless we stop him.”
“If it’s a fight he wants. It’s a fight he’ll get,” Aiden angrily bit out from between clenched teeth.
“You’re still recovering,” Strong pointed out. “You can stay back and let others on the team handle it.”
Aiden vehemently shook his head. “Absolutely not. The Playground is a second home to me and the people in it are my family. I’ll be there to defend them.” He pressed a hand to his shoulder. “I’m healed up more than enough to join the fight.”
“Okay then. The team will be you, Dr. Z, Sonica, Blaze, Frost, and Amina. If you get into trouble, Bulldozer is on standby. But I’m positive the six of you will be able to handle this.”
Aiden nodded. He turned and caught Amina staring at his shoulder with her brown eyes narrowed and arms crossed over her chest. “What’s wrong. You don’t think I’m ready to fight?”
“No. It’s not that. It’s something that I’ve been suspicious of for a while and now I’m almost sure I’m right about it. Pruitt knows who you are.”
“Yeah, he’s social buddies with my parents. I’ve met him a few times.”
“No.” Amina shook her head. “He knows that you’re Stardust.”
The room went completely silent.
“Think about it,” Amina continued. “The first protest was at your job and for a while a lot of the white shirt attacks were focused there as well. Plus...” She gestured at Aiden’s shoulder. “And the fact that the one instance of violence at the festival didn’t happen until you were an easy open target is a definite sign he knows your identity.”
“Fuck,” Caleb breathed the curse word. “You’re right, Amina.”
It clicked for Aiden too. “No wonder he brought up the Playground at my parent’s cocktail party. And he was all creepy and in my personal space when I looked at my ACG watch. The first time we tangled with the P-Bots one of them scanned me. I thought for sure it couldn’t identify me with my mask on, but I guess I was wrong.”
“That’s good intel to know,” Caleb said.
Blaze spoke up. “That tells us two things. One, Pruitt is definitely directly involved and it’s not his company or a bunch of executives acting without his knowledge. And two —.”
“He made it personal and tried to have Aiden killed,” Mike angrily growled with his hands clenched into fists.
Taken aback at the visible display of anger from his usually calm lover, Aiden laid a hand on his chest to soothe him. “Is it my turn to tell you to stay cool while you fight?”
Mike looked down at him, lips pressed into a hard line, brows drawn down, and eyes burning an intense bright green. After a moment, the fierceness in his expression eased and his eyes banked to their usual color.
“No, I’m good. I’ll have a cool head when it’s time to fight.”
“If not, let me know,” Frost said. “I can always make you an ice helmet. One hot head on the team is enough.”
