Aiden doesn’t wait for me to ask the pertinent question. He’s determined to make his point. “The second he drove away. I had him followed. Ran his name through every database. Knew every bar he frequented, how much money was in his bank account, knew his debtors and creditors, knew the name of every girl he’d even so much as looked at…all of it,” he admits. A contrite expression crosses his face. Big puppy-dog eyes begging me to understand.
“Why?”
“I’d like to say it was because I wanted to protect you, but the truth is I wanted to ruin him for daring to kiss you…even just a simple kiss like that peck on your forehead. I might seem like I’m level-headed most of the time—the UACT training is good for that—but I’m just as capable of jealousy as the next man.”
I’m reeling. Both at his obvious confession and at the larger confession hidden behind it. “And Gordy?” I ask, curious.
Aiden turns away from me and faces the elevator gate. “He’s a good man. Lives simplistically. He’d be a safe choice.”
I scoff. Does he think I’m interested in Gordy? “He’s not evenin the running. I’m just asking if you gave in and ruined him.”
He turns back to me, surprised. “Ahhh, no. Seemed a little extreme given that I was secretly following you and had no right to be jealous in the first place.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “About that.”
“Yeah. About that.” He chuckles nervously. “Let’s go take a look around the first floor, and I’ll tell you everything. You deserve to know it all before you choose us.”
“Bit late…” I mumble, but I don’t mean anything by it.
“Never too late to change your mind, Jules,” Aiden tells me solemnly. I swallow hard. Why does it sound like I’m not going to like what he has to say?
Back on the ground floor, we exit the elevator and ascend the staircase. It rises in a steep incline straight up to a single metal door—the kind you find on reclaimed apartments. The kind that protects empty homes from the homeless.
He unlocks it with aclunkand aclangand a squeal of under-used hinges. We walk in and I’m at once blown away by the vast barrenness of the space. Huge pillars reach to the ceiling; lines and lines of them like concrete clones of Atlas holding up Aiden’s world above. From every direction, light explodes through the Crittall Windows, painting streaks of gold along the floor.
“It’s massive.”
“Double the size of the apartment,” he confirms.
“How?”
“There’s a second apartment up there…or the beginnings of one. I’ll be converting it into a gym…or perhaps I’ll extend into it and create more rooms?” He shrugs. I sense the options are changing daily.
“You could do both if it’s as big as this.”
“Probably.”
“And you want to put a team in here? Like bunks?”
“More like an office. A place to investigate from. I’m thinkingof an elite team with specific skill sets. In-house investigations, from corruption to murder. Offices at this end. The forensic lab is over there. We’ll need a couple of vaults. One for the evidence lockup and—”
I listen as he lays out his initial plan, his excitement growing with each addition. I watch him move from section to section, plotting the floor plan of offices and labs, canteens, morgue, and evidence vaults. Dorms too, which I imagine are a new addition to include my input.
“You’ll need more than one floor.”
“We’ll dig down. Make the ground floor accessible only through the first floor. Keep security tight.”
“Like brick up the windows downstairs?”
He tilts his head, considering it. “It’s an option.”
“Then you might want to include natural light wells in the floor up here.”
“Good idea. Or we could keep the labs downstairs? No natural light or ventilation is needed in those. The more controlled, the better.”
“Good idea,” I return. He grins. “It’s a good plan. A way to branch out.”
“A way to build a home and a base of operations that doesn’t rely on Trevainne,” he agrees.
