Jeans, black T-shirt. The kind of simple uniform that shouldn’t be criminal but somehow was when it pulled that tight over his arms.
The thing about Aiden—he was big.
Everywhere.
Tall, muscled, and carrying enough presence to suffocate a room without saying a word. Alone in the hallway with him, it felt worse—like there wasn’t enough air left for me.
He looked down over his nose, dark blond hair still damp from the shower, almost long enough that I knew he’d be heading for a cut soon. He messed with the ring on his lip, his restless habit making my stomach twist with worry he would back out tonight. I wasn’t sure what I would do if he did—beg him to go or leave alone.
I didn’t really need him there for anything, but breaking into a dark, creepy, abandoned office building wasn’t exactly something I wanted to do alone.
“Not quite your normal Friday outfit. No shiny little dress to destroy lives? What else would be fun enough to waste your night on?” he asked.
“Going to Valeport. There’s a building downtown I need to check out.”
“For what? Something for us?”
“Not everything revolves around you. I have things going on in my personal life that I need to take care of.”
“Like what?” he snapped, heading down the hallway after me. “Stalking another ex-boyfriend?”
“Something like that. Are you ready?”
He nodded and led the way out, holding the garage door likehe always did before heading for his bike. I slung my backpack on, grabbed my helmet, and slid on behind him. He didn’t say a word, he never had to. After this many rides, we knew the routine by heart.
I tapped on his arm as we turned toward Valeport, holding up my phone so he could see the directions. I should have put them into his phone, but I didn’t want him to ask any questions before we arrived.
“We turn left here,” I said, pointing down an older, run-down road.
“You going to tell me where we are going yet?”
“It’s more of a need-to-know thing.”
“Considering I’m driving there, pretty sure I need to know.”
“It’s only an old building, nothing important.”
We finally pulled off, and I struggled to not let my eyes well up with tears. My parents had been here, standing in this exact spot again and again as they walked inside this place. I wish I knew why. I wish I could call them and ask, or step into their warm home and yell out. I wished I didn’t even need to worry about this, but instead, I would dig and dig until I had all the answers I wanted.
“This is the place?” he asked.
“This is it,” I said, pulling out my laptop and heading over to the side door. I could see there was a code keypad on it, and the little blue light was lit up, so I knew it was working.
“Do you have the code, or are we breaking and entering?”
“I’m notbreakinganything. I’m politely going around their security system until it lets me in.”
“Evie,” he warned, watching me set up my laptop.
“Suddenly an upstanding citizen?” I asked.
“I’m suddenly wondering how I let you drag me out into the middle of the city at night to break into an unknown building for an unknown reason.”
“Because I have a photo of you jumping me that you don’t want anyone to see.” I clicked through the networks, trying to see if there were any hidden ones connected to the security system. I went through the steps, boosting the sliver of a signal from the Wi-Fi connected to the security system, and waiting for the screen to flood with encrypted data. I entered my commands in the decryption tool. I knew this type of firmware and already knew how to find the vulnerabilities in it.
I held my breath as the computer worked, my fingers tapping against my leg.
“The clothes, the minimal annoying comments, the anxiety. You need to tell me what’s going on now,” he said.
