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I’d tried to get some work done after shooting a message to Scout about the newest text, but my brain couldn’t focus on anything in front of me when there was a stalker probably right outside the door. So I’d kept the lights down and curled myself into a chair that I knew was hidden partially in shadow but allowed for a view of the door. With each minute that passed, I seemed to slide further into the chair as if my body was naturally escaping the only entry point in the room. No one had ever accused me of being particularly brave.
The door opened suddenly, and Aiden Cabot stomped in looking very flustered as he scanned the barely lit room. His eyes landed on me, and I watched as all emotion drained from his face before being replaced with an easy smile. He shut the door behind him and casually made his way toward me, sinking into the identical chair next to mine, a small antique table between us. “Why are you sitting in the dark, Ms Harrington?”
“Lake,” I corrected, not bothering with the same pretense he had. I was in no mood to beat around the bush or pretend things weren’t completely insane around us. I gave his tactical vest a sharp look before glaring at him. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“Nothing to worry about,” he smiled at me, his teeth flashing in the dim light. “Boss just wanted us geared up if we were outside.”
“If you looked like the type to be bought, I’d offer you money for information,” I grumbled, going for pouty more than indignant bitch. It was hard to bitch at that lopsided sexy smile through the neatly trimmed beard.
“We just need to have another talk with your neighbor’s son is all.” His shoulder lifted in a noncommittal shrug.
“Which neighbors?” I felt my eyes narrowing suspiciously as I tried to recall which of my neighbors were close enough to warrant talking to… and with a son. I’d made a point to be friendly with the surrounding properties when I’d started using the estate on a semi-regular basis between jet sets in the warmer months. While the condo was a party pad and the place I liked to be when I needed to be in the thick of things, the estate here in the Hamptons was my refuge. So as far as my neighbors knew, I was the angelic and quiet good girl who the media was completely lying about.
“The Pasternaks.” Aiden said, tilting his head.
“The Pasternaks don’t have a son; they have a daughter named Janice. She’s married to awoman, so they don’t even have a son-in-law.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, next time I need backgrounds, I’ll just ask you then!” It was Kasey’s indignant voice that cut through the quiet ambiance of the room, making me jump and Aiden roll his eyes.
“You need an entry tone like an elementary school sound system!” I was clutching my chest and glaring nowhere and everywhere. It was hard to direct fury at a disembodied voice. Jack wouldn't stop calling himself The Wizard of Oz when he’d stop me for a chat at random cameras, but I was starting to suspect he got a sick thrill out of watching me jump and usually drop whatever I was holding when his voice came out of a relative silence.
“Nah, if I did that, people would know I was there; I like being a ghost in your halls, Lake.”
“You could just use a tone when you’re about to speak that way you can still listen to all the gossip you live on.” Aiden was watching his phone with interest and it finally occurred to me that Aiden wasn’t just sitting and chatting on a break. He was staying close to me for safety, because something bigger than their initial lockdown was happening.
“Okay, enough with the tones and you acting like a poltergeist, Jack. What’s happening?”
“Right now, an alphabet soup is descending on the mansion next door. Guest house, my ass. The Pasternaks were never home when we’d approach but their son was.”
“But-”
“Yeah, yeah, they’ve got a lesbian daughter with no men around to speak of. But before you try to chew me out too, this ‘son’ has a background that is airtight. If Janice hadn’t told me herself that she was an only child, I’d be playing like a daytime talk show host and reuniting a lost family. Anyway, in a nutshell, the top branches of a tree were cut, making a lovely view from the roof of the house next door directly onto the property and anyone tanning by the pool.”
I’d been sitting here thinking there was a camera feed watching me; I hadn’t honestly put thought into the fact that an actual person had been within viewing distance of me. It felt like the world around me had begun to tremble until Aiden’s hand on mine snapped me out of my terror- induced haze, and I’d realized the tremors had been coming from me. I found myself silently questioning, yet again, what I’d done to deserve this, only to mentally kick myself. I did nothing in this. Of all the things my father had blamed me for over the years, this was by far the most fucked and it was all his fault for pissing off some terrorists and getting me caught up in it. Being threatened only to pull some response from him was a joke.
Hah. Like he’d care if I got snuffed out by some terrorist organization. They could publicly execute me and Robert fucking Harrington would probably make some comment about how of course I’d have to die so publically, onlyalwaysthe center of attention.
Asshole.
But somewhere among the vitriol bouncing around my mind about my father, another thought was fighting to surface. The Pasternaks were summer people for sure, spending every second of the warmer months in the house next door. I’d spent almost all of my summers next to Lillian, a former vice president’s daughter, and Hank, the self proclaimed “retired suit”. They’d been married forever and he’d worked in advertising, though he’d never liked to talk about it. As he’d said, retirement was for fun, not reliving the old days of the grind.
“What’s the date?” I asked, panic forming a hard mass in my throat. Attempts to swallow it down were unsuccessful.
“The 28th,” Aiden offered to the conversation. “Why?”
“The Pasternaks arrive on their anniversary every year and spend their summer together here. They should have arrived by the 21st.” I searched the antique table for my phone, but Aiden shot a hand out, placing it over mine and giving me a soft look of pain as our eyes met.
“Uh, yeah, Janice mentioned that, which is why we’ve got every abbreviated agency on it. Decker won't be allowed in until all is clear, if they even let him in, but we’re working on it, Lake.” Kasey paused and then took in what sounded like a large breath before letting it out. “We’ll find them Lake, don’t worry.”
“Right, if worrying were a switch I could flip on or off, you guys wouldn’t be shoving Fitz in my face every time something inconvenient happened.” I stood and paced between the wingbacks nibbling on the side of my thumb in anxiety. I was attempting to piece things together with half the picture. I’d need to see the rest of the letters if I wanted an idea of who was behind all this. And if anything had happened to Lillian and Hank Pasternak because they’d been guilty of no more than owning the home next to me? Could I live with being the cause, no matter how indirectly, of that violence?
Somewhere in the back of my mind a voice was questioning how I could be to blame for it, when I’d just been blaming my father for this entire mess. Logic had no place in the room with panic, and I drowned that voice out with the thousands of others screaming about how I could never forgive myself. A long taught self-hatred bubbled up.
Aiden watched me pace a few laps before he stood and put his hands on my shoulders, stilling the path being worn into the rug. He bent his knees slightly so we were eye level; my attention caught in his indigo gaze. “I know this entire thing is fucked,” he said in a calm even tone. I hadn’t heard any of them curse knowing I was around at all until today. All the men protecting me had dropped that part of their professionalism in the face of murderous intent just outside these walls. It did nothing to improve the worry. “But,” Aiden continued, eyes still holding mine in an unseen grip, like the words were so important that I couldn’t afford to miss a single one. “You need to calm down or you will spiral out again. I have an idea.”
He jerked his head back toward the door and slid his hand around to the small of my back to nudge me forward. Hesitantly, I moved, casting suspicious glances at him every so often, only getting a smile of encouragement every time I did. As we entered the command room, the faces working at the computers in the center of the room all looked up. Jack’s minions, as he’d called them. They all acknowledged us with a fleeting glance before going back to clacking and clicking away on the computers in front of them. Leaving them to their work, Aiden guided me to a computer that sat under a large monitor with a video of a guy working on a computer too.
“Who is that?” I asked, pointing to the video.
