Good Will Ghost Hunting: Hell's Bells [Good Will Ghost Hunting 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (19 page)

Number two was far more comforting. Not to mention a dang sight more believable.

Frankly, he could wrap his head around the concept of Hell being in Atlanta. He’d flown through there enough times to swear a blue streak at the damn place. Any town with an airport that screwed up had to at least be Purgatory, if not Hell itself.

Add to the mix that whenever Aidan flashed his big, sweet butterscotch eyes at him, Jeff couldn’t think straight.

No pun intended.

Jeff always got the distinct impression there was a long-buried past between Aidan, Will, and Ryan. Kal had alluded to it without expounding upon it. Jeff had the feeling she didn’t know the full story either.

Maybe it was the wine cooler or their recent change of relationship status, but Jeff felt like asking tonight.

“What’s the deal with you and Will and Ryan?”

Aidan tensed, pausing his hands. When he started the rhythmic chopping again, his green peppers weren’t as neatly diced as they had been before Jeff spoke.

“Long story,” Aidan grunted. “Old news.”

“I’m listening. I like old stories.”

The knife paused again. Aidan’s knuckles whitened around the handle as he gripped it tighter. “I don’t know the full story.”

“You lived it.”

“Doesn’t mean I know it.”

After a few strained moments, Jeff tried again. “Tell me what you know.”

“You won’t let up on this, will you?”

“Nope. I want to know all about you. No secrets between us.”

Aidan lifted his gaze. His sweet, honey-hazel eyes nearly soaked up all of Jeff’s reserve. “We’re soul brothers.” He didn’t continue, switched to chopping a Vidalia onion.

“That tells me nothing.”

The cadence of the knife against the wooden cutting board didn’t sound as smooth as it had before. “Ryan’s dad bound the three of us as soul brothers a long time ago. He had to. Ryan would have died, and he was afraid I might have died, too.”

“Why?”

Aidan’s hands stilled as his eyes closed. It took him several long moments to answer. When he did, his voice sounded soft and sad. “Because Chloe was murdered.”

* * * *

Aidan hated revisiting those times. He didn’t want to think about her, about how she died. He wanted to remember his baby sister, watching her grow as he raised her after her human mother died when she was still an infant. Their archdemon father practically disappeared after dropping Chloe on his doorstep. None of his other siblings wanted to raise a child, so his father assumed that since Aidan was single—without a real life, as he’d phrased it—that he would be the perfect surrogate dad for the baby.

He’d also made a snide comment about how Chloe might help Aidan “sucker in” a wife, as he’d put it.

Aidan wanted to think about playing hide
-
and
-
seek with her, about holding her through nightmares and waking with her beside him. He wanted to think about all the hours they talked together, about everything and anything. About teaching her to ride, to hunt, to wield a sword and shoot a bow.

Even thinking about her meeting Ryan was a better memory than thinking about the day she died, the day Ryan nearly died trying to protect her.

“Chloe went to a meeting with me this one time. Hades and some of the other archdemons. I’d met Ryan before, but didn’t know him very well. I wanted to keep guys away from her. She was my baby sister, even though she was nearly thirty and half demon. Beautiful, long amber hair and eyes the color of wheat. Then Ryan walked into the room
,
and I knew I’d have to step aside. Not just from the look on Ryan’s face, but hers, too. It was literally love at first sight.

“Two days later, they were inseparable and she was his soul mate. For better or worse.”

“How did you get along with him back then?” Jeff asked.

“Not always the best, at first,” he admitted. In the beginning he resented Ryan taking his little sister, worried he wouldn’t be good enough for her. As the years wore on
,
their happiness was transparent, and Chloe insisted on Aidan living with them, knowing he might never find a soul mate of his own. Knowing his secret and loving him regardless.

When Aidan realized Ryan also knew he was gay, he was surprised to find that Ryan didn’t care. It wasn’t a topic of discussion, as far as Ryan was concerned. He was glad to have Aidan around to look after Chloe when he wasn’t home.

They butted heads on occasion. Aidan felt duty-bound to distrust him on general principles.

She was, after all, his baby sister.

And Ryan was the boss’
s
son.

But they both loved her
,
and that was enough to usually keep the peace between them.

Pulling himself from his memories, Aidan looked at Jeff. This was something he struggled to forget, seared into his memory by countless centuries of grief.

“Ryan was Chloe’s husband, her soul mate. I didn’t know Will back then even though we were cousins. I knew of him but we’d never met.”

He slowly chopped the Vidalias, being careful not to lop off a finger in the process. “They were together for a couple hundred years, Ryan and Chloe.” He wistfully smiled. “If she had told him to jump, he’d have said, ‘How high?’ and that’s not a bullshit cliché or exaggeration, that’s the truth. His world started and ended with my baby sister. She was his everything. He literally never looked at another woman but her.”

He looked at Jeff as his voice softened with emotion. “You don’t see the guy Ryan was before. He was a different man with her. He was a normal, loving guy. We laughed all the time together. He was always smiling. I don’t think I’ve heard a deep, genuine laugh out of him since…” He went back to chopping vegetables.

Jeff didn’t speak, watching Aidan and knowing this had to be painful for him. After a few moments, Aidan had chopped all the onions and moved to the bok choy. “The bottom line is Chloe was murdered. The guy almost killed Ryan in the process. He nearly died trying to save her. From his injuries and from losing Chloe at the same time. So what’s Hades going to do, let his son, the guy in line to take over, die like that?”

Aidan rubbed his face against his sleeve. Jeff didn’t miss the way Aidan’s eyes looked moist.

“I don’t understand how it all works,” Aidan continued. “Hades brought Will in and bound the three of us as soul brothers. Because of that bond, Ryan could draw strength and energy from both of us to survive. Being bonded to both of them helped keep me moving forward
,
too. If you have a soul mate, you can heal from damn near almost everything. Ryan was severely injured and had just lost his soul mate. It was a double whammy.”

“That must have been rough on you, too.”

“Yeah. If Ryan could have found a high enough cliff to jump off and kill himself, we would have held hands on the way down, believe you fucking me.”

He wiped his eyes on his sleeve again. “She was my baby sister,” he softly said. “As much as it nearly killed me to lose her, Ryan was so injured that he would have died if Hades hadn’t done it, bound us as brothers. Will’s a full-blooded archdemon
,
too, he was strong and young, really young then. Jesus, he was younger than Chloe.” He paused his tale while chopping more vegetables. “Between the two of us, we finally pulled Ryan through. Will’s strength helped both of us get through it.”

“Why did the guy kill her?”

Aidan was slow to respond. “We don’t know. We think he wanted her. Assholes used to cross over all the time from other realms, tried to steal women, especially half-demon ones. Full-blooded demon women were usually too strong for them to try to take.”

“Steal?”

Aidan nodded. “Yeah.” He continued chopping. “Apparently, he’d set his sights on Chloe. He picked the wrong woman to fuck with.” Aidan wistfully smiled. “I taught her how to fight. She could have kicked my ass if she’d wanted. She didn’t go down without a fight. By the time Ryan got there
,
it was too late to save her. The guy attacked him. Ryan had to fight to save his life at that point.”

Jeff remained quiet for a moment. “What happened to the guy who killed her?”

He shrugged. “He got away. We never did find him. Ryan put a fucking hurting on the son of a bitch in the process, though. It wouldn’t surprise me if he died later. Ryan nearly put his sword through the asshole’s face. We think he jumped off-Earth because Hades and the others couldn’t track him. Back then it wasn’t as easy for us to cross like it is now. I don’t know why that is.”

Jeff carefully worked on the wine cooler label, slowly peeling it from the chilly bottle. “Then what happened?”

“We survived.” Aidan’s face darkened. “It took a while. Took a long fucking while before Ryan tried to live again, even longer than me. Will kept us going. Then the three of us stood together, taking on the world.”

A sad smile caressed Aidan’s lips. “Like real brothers. Going on assignments together, fighting side by side. No one could get past the three of us. For years we were like that, you know?” He chopped some more vegetables, his face darkening again. “In some ways that was a good thing. Ryan and I used our rage over Chloe’s death in a constructive way. Hades made the three of us his head Enforcers.” Aidan lifted knife and brought his hands together, flexing his empty one before turning it over and staring at his palm. “We exacted a lot of justice, the three of us, but we never could avenge Chloe.” He stared at his hands for another moment, lost in his memories before he started chopping veggies again.

It struck Jeff for the first time that the kind and gentle man he’d given his heart and body to had a bloody history he might not want to know more about.

Now that the story was coming, Aidan would finish it. “One day, Ami and I went on an assignment while Will went to a nearby village to scope things out, right? We met up again in three days and
,
dude, it was like a fire had lit inside Will. To call him glowing was no understatement. He’d met a girl and wham, love at first sight. Just like Ami and Chloe. Me and Ami—”

“Ami? Who is that?”

Aidan dumped the veggies into the wok. “Sorry. Amiago. We called him Ami. That was Ryan’s name back then. We were happy for him, right? Our brother had found a soul mate. Then we went back with Will to meet her.”

He fell silent. Jeff was loathe to interrupt him again. Eventually, Aidan continued. “I couldn’t understand it. I loved her immediately. Like a sister,” he quickly added. “She was great. Abby was wonderful. Real feisty woman, too. Perfect for Will, a young human woman. The first thing I thought when I shook her hand was how much she reminded me of Chloe.”

He stirred in some garlic and whisked the contents around as it cooked. “Ami, man, he looked like someone socked him in the gut when he shook her hand. He wouldn’t talk to us. He walked away from us later that night without explanation.”

“Walked away?”

The sadness etched on Aidan’s face nearly brought Jeff to tears. “No explanation.” He shook his head. “We tried to get him to tell us what was wrong, but he wouldn’t. Finally, the chickenshit sent word through his old man that our trio was now a duo.”

“Except for Abby.”

“Yeah, well, that. It was the three of us in that way, yes. Abby insisted I stay with them and it was almost like having Chloe back in some ways, right? That’s the kind of relationship I had with her. Like my little sister all over again. Jesus, I loved her to death.”

“So the soul brother bond…?”

“We’re still bound. That’s the only reason Will survived Abby’s death. There’s other archdemons out there, not just the group of us. We’re the ‘top three’ so to speak. Being bound to Ryan makes us both line heirs for The Firm. Ryan was working under his old man back then, of course. Hades was actively running The Firm for a lot of years. After a while, Ami—Ryan would give assignments to Will through Abby if I wasn’t around. They started talking and they got along great. Ryan never would tell her why he walked away.”

He paused again, considering it. “I thought maybe he was jealous, or maybe because he lost Chloe
,
he didn’t want to see Will happy, but then I realized that wasn’t it. I don’t know what it was, but he and Will were never on good terms since. I hung my hat with Will. I couldn’t desert him, man. He’s my cousin by blood, but he’s my soul brother. Ryan might have walked away from us, but I damn sure wasn’t walking away from Will.”

Jeff had never mentioned to Aidan the look in Ryan’s eyes when the man talked with Kal when the other men weren’t around. Perhaps that was something best left unsaid for now. “Ryan gets along good with Kal.”

Aidan nodded. “Yeah. Like Abby all over again. Kal’s so much like Abby—” He stopped talking, pursing his lips as if he’d almost revealed something that should remain unsaid. After a moment he spoke again. “She’s good for Will. I don’t agree how the shit weasel brought them together, but I won’t deny she’s good for Will and I love her like a little sister.”

He met Jeff’s gaze. “I don’t have a beef with Ryan except for him walking away the way he did. Part of me still loves him as my brother-in-law, and I always will. He took damn good care of Chloe. He really, truly loved her. Part of me still loves him as my soul brother. As far as I’m concerned though, he’s my boss, and not someone I’d call a friend. I mean, yeah, we’re getting along better now than we have in a long while, mostly because of Kal.” He let out a sigh. “I’d rather not spend our evening talking about him.”

Jeff had finally denuded the bottle of its label during their talk. He nodded. “Sure.” He thought for a moment as he watched Aidan cook. “Has your name always been Aidan?”

He laughed. “No, but it’s been that long enough. Chloe…” He looked wistful again. “Chloe sort of named me that. When she was a baby and learning how to speak she’d call me daddy and I’d say no, big brother. ‘Frère ainé.’ Eventually she shortened it to ‘ainé’ and it morphed into Aidan after a while. She liked it, so I never changed it. I didn’t have the heart to change my first name after she died.”