CHAPTER 52

I pulled out my phone, which was still, miraculously, in tact. How that happened this crazy night when I seemed to break and lose phones on a regular basis was beyond me.

"What is it?" Aiden demanded, sensing my urgency.

"Something the werejaguar said to me, he mentioned an insider, it's how he found us during the full moon and shot Rob. I think I know who it is."

Aiden's face went hard. My guess was because while his special biometric security could keep out anyone trying to force their way in, an insider that was allowed access and wasn't stressed about betraying their pack would be able to waltz right through his fancy security.
He stewed over the idea while I typed in Anthony's number. Before I could press dial his warm hand slid over mine, stopping me.

"Wait. We can use this."

"What?"

"We can't let on that we know about their inside people, because I guarantee you there's more than one."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "He needs to know. Leanne's been working as pretty much his personal assistant since he took the alpha position. She knows everything about him, his schedule, who he's meeting. Where he is at all times. I get that you don't like him, but I can't just stand by and wait for her to pull the trigger on him too."

"Slow down," Aiden said softly. And maybe I was getting a little worked up, and maybe it had a little bit to do with my lingering feelings for the man. And the guilt I felt at not being able to be what he needed. "I didn't say I don't like him. We're alphas of two different packs, we'll never be great friends, but I respect Anthony. I don't agree with his methods, especially today, but I respect him. If she's as essential as you said then he won't act without proof anyway, even if it's coming from you."

My mind latched onto something he said.

"What methods?"

"We've hacked her phone, but she must have a second, burner phone for contact outside the pack because there's no record of calls to anyone we wouldn't have expected. She keeps her schedule and organization related topics offline too."

"Aiden..."

"Anthony's phone is no better. Nothing important is noted online, or spoken of over the phone. I imagine it's something that Rob instilled in his people, extremely wise, but no real help to us."

"Aiden!"

He blinked at me.

"What methods? What happened today?"

His expression shuttered, and I could tell he didn't want to tell me.

"If we are working together then I want all the information. You promised me everything you know."

Aiden sighed. "The man he set to capture you at the diner..."

"Micheal?"

Aiden nodded. "His wife, Yetta, runs a little bakery in Revere, at two this morning the bakery burned down leading to an investigation. Unfortunately for her, she is an illegal immigrant and is currently being deported."

It was a good thing I was sitting down.

"It wasn't an accident."

Aiden nodded. "Anthony himself was in the area half an hour before the fire. As far as I can tell he had no other reason to leave Boston."

He'd taken what was organization business and made it personal. He'd involved Yetta and her bakery, all because Micheal had lost me. The whole thing, was my fault.

Guilt hit me hard, and suddenly the coffee wasn't helping anything. Even the scent of griddles warming up in the kitchen did nothing to keep my mind from shutting down. Sometimes life was just too much all at once.

I put my phone away, my feelings a giant tangle of anger and self recrimination. I could feel the heavy bags beneath my eyes, the drawn and sour pinch to my lips.

"I'd hoped to be able to feed you, but even I can see you're done for the day," Aiden stood and gestured for me to do the same. There was a soft hum and he looked down at his phone. "My doctors say that Darius is stable, would you like to see him before I show you to one of our spare accommodations?"

I sighed, a tiny bit of the pressure and guilt seeping away. He'd lived. Nothing else good had happened this night, but he'd lived.

We walked out of the central building into the morning sunshine. I lifted my head to it, feeling the warmth on my skin and trying to force out all other thoughts, just for a bit. The place where we'd parked the Oldsmobile was now empty, neither the car nor Bobby anywhere in sight.

"Don't worry, he'll be taken care of," Aiden gestured to the doors of the South east building. Inside there was another reception hall, this one not as grand as in the central building. There were three doors leading to different building sections. We turned to the rightmost door and I found myself in a long corridor that might have been torn directly from a modern hospital, with all of the equipment and bedding you would expect. The rooms were far more lavish, but you couldn't get rid of the medical feel of them.

Darius was in the fourth room down, which was empty except his queen sized adjustable bed, a few IV poles, and a chair and desk. His flayed skin had been roughly patched back together, swollen and terrible, but no longer bleeding profusely. He looked horrible, and for a moment all I could see was that boy on the bridge. The one who hadn't immediately rejected me, even when he'd found out who I was.

*The one that had been using you*... I reminded myself, the stabbing pain that always echoed through me with the thought dulled a little by the state he was in. Because despite what he had done, he hadn't deserved this.

I walked up to the bed, awkwardly putting a hand on his chest, where I wouldn't disturb any of the many many cuts that littered his body.

So many memories from when I was somebody I could never go back to. His gentle teasing about my shyness, our shared conversations about anything and everything, the times we kissed...

He shifted a little on the bed. An involuntary movement, given that he was still out cold. His mind would be shut down for some time now so that his body would heal. A beeper on the IV pole went off.

One of the doctors came in, an older man with a grizzled mustache and deep green eyes. He wore a white coat and stethoscope.

"He should rest now," he told me, his eyes sympathetic but firm.

Yeah. I wasn't much good in here.

"Come on," Aiden encouraged, and we left, but not before I gave one last glance back at the occupied bed, longing for a false past of a girl who no longer existed.