Safe (5 page)

“Jeez, Carly. Settle down. You always were dramatic. That’s not what I meant at all. Sit down,” he said sharply. She didn’t see Aidan as “soft” at that moment. Suddenly, his words alone let her know that he was a man.

“Don’t tell me what to do, Aidan,” she argued anyway.

“Why are you so angry?” he asked.

“Why? Well, let’s see… I am cooped up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with someone who hates my guts while a madman is chasing me. I don’t know why I am not more relaxed,” she said sarcastically throwing her hands up into the air.

“Who said I hate your guts?” he asked standing up to meet her gaze. His eyes bore a hole through her soul unlike anything she’d ever felt.

“Well, I assumed you did when I never heard from you… after you saw me with Ethan.”

“Good Lord, Carly. You really think highly of yourself, don’t you? Please. Don’t flatter yourself. I wasn’t alone for long,” he said with a smile.

“Oh, really?” she responded, hand on her hip again.

“Yes, really. In fact, I am engaged to a wonderful woman right now. We are getting married next year in Cancun,” he said with a wry smile. Carly’s insides knotted up. He was getting married? How could that be? Over the years, she had thought about Aidan a few times. Never once did it occur to her that he might be married or have kids. She knew how narcissistic that seemed, but she didn’t really care.

“Congratulations are in order then,” she said softly. For a moment, he looked at her in a way that made her question exactly what he was feeling. He could always see right through her, and she could see through him, too. Something about his explanation didn’t sound right.

“Thank you,” he said looking down at his coffee.

“What’s her name?” Carly asked.

“Who?”

“Your fiancée… the one you just mentioned?” she said with a sly smirk.

“Oh. Her name is Danielle,” he stammered.

“And what does she do for a living?” Carly asked, fully intending to throw him off his game.

“She’s a model, actually,” he said with a smirk in return. Aidan wasn’t about to let Carly throw him off. He was with the FBI, for goodness sakes. Even though he was working in a dangerous, high-powered career now, Carly still had the ability to make him anxious and off-kilter. “She’s in New York City right now.”

“Wow. Way to go. A model. Nice.” Carly sat back down with a grin.

“So, back to my original question, Carly. How on Earth did you end up with this guy? You had such a bright future,” he said as he sat back down in his chair. “And, if memory serves, you were never one to allow any man to lead you astray.”

“It’s a long story,” she said closing her eyes.

“Well, my dear, we have plenty of time,” he said sitting back and getting comfortable.

With that, Carly knew that there was no escape. She had to tell Aidan all of the gory details of the last few years, including witnessing a murder.

Carly stood in her bedroom, looking out the window at the blue-gray shadows of the north Georgia mountains. She had spent the last hour talking with Aidan downstairs, explaining what had gone on in her life since they last saw each other. They danced around the issues from their own past and avoided the conversation that they both knew they needed to have.

Looking out the window, Carly was struck by how secluded she really was. No guards were watching the backside of the house as it veered straight down a cliff. Anyone coming up that way would have to be a world-class rappelling expert.

“Are you getting hungry?” Aidan asked from behind her. His husky voice mixed with his English accent sent shivers through her in places that she didn’t want to think about.

“You could have knocked,” Carly said turning around with her hand on her chest. “You scared me to death.” If she was truthful, the heart pounding she was experiencing was less about fear and more about arousal.

“I did knock. I think you were lost in thought,” he said with a chuckle.

“Oh… Yes, I am starving.”

They went downstairs to the kitchen, which Carly discovered had been fully stocked for quite some time. Seeing the amount of food in the freezer and refrigerator made her somewhat sad because it meant that they planned for her to be here for awhile.

“Have you heard anything?” she asked as she bit into a ham and cheese sandwich a few moments later.

“Nope. Not yet. You know, it will probably take some time for them to find him, Carly. They don’t even know who he is. Your husband has been difficult to question and has no interest in protecting you,” he said.

“Well, that is obvious. Apparently, he wants to see me suffer. I don’t really understand why.”

“Because you witnessed him murdering a guy. He wants you out of the picture so you can’t testify.”

“I understand that part. But he had to have ordered a hit on me well before the murder. I was next on his list. Why?” she shook her head in confusion. Carly knew that Ethan had been doing some shady things in recent months - possibly years - but why would he want to kill her?

“Did you have a good marriage?” Aidan asked. More than anything, he wanted to know if she had really loved Ethan.

“I thought we did… at first. Then, the last few years, I noticed he was hanging out with some scummy characters. I tried to ask about it, but he would get mad. He started traveling more, and money came up missing. Just a lot of strange things. So, I started following him,” she said.

“Following him?” Aidan asked as he almost choked on his food. The thought of Carly following her husband and uncovering his dealings was amusing to him. She really was a spunky little character.

“Yes. I work as a marketing executive. One of my clients is a surveillance supply company. I started using some of their products to find out what he was doing. That’s how I ended up in that industrial park when he killed that man.”

“What did you see?” Aidan asked, aware that Carly seemed to be separating herself from the emotions of what she saw. She showed no sadness or grief or horror, and he knew that wasn’t like her. Deep down, he didn’t want to admit that he was worried about her. After all, he had been her best friend for a long time.

“I saw him shoot someone. You already know that,” she said looking at him with a blank stare. Every time the scene played in her mind, she felt sick at her stomach.

“Carly, I know you. Or at least I used to know you. I am just saying that it is okay to talk about it. To get upset.”

“I don’t want to get upset. I don’t have time to get upset. I have to keep a clear head.”

“Why?”

“Because if I think about watching my husband whom I loved for so many years ruthlessly take the life of a man, I will go crazy. If I think about how that man’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates when he saw that gun rise up from Ethan’s side… if I think about the sound of the pop when he shot the gun and the sight of blood spattering across the room… if I think about his wife and what she must be feeling… I just can’t… I can’t…” Carly’s voice shook as her emotions spewed out like a geyser. She dropped her sandwich and sobbed, trying to catch her breath.

Aidan stood and pulled her up to him. She put her cheek against his chest and let the emotions flow out like a river of sadness. Aidan was uncomfortable being this close to her again, but what man would allow a woman to sit there sobbing without comforting her? This was just part of his job, he assured himself.

Carly could feel the warmth in his embrace. His tall stature had always made her feel safe, and he had grown muscular and manly with time. His cologne ripped through her swollen sinuses and made her stomach start to flutter. How could she be so incredibly upset and attracted to him at the same time?

“I’m sorry,” she said pushing back against his chest. But, Aidan didn’t move. He kept her there against his chiseled chest.

“Carly, just let it go. It’s going to be okay,” he said soothingly as she put her head back down. He put his chin on top of her head and caressed her hair with his hand. For a moment, Aidan traveled back in time to a place where Carly was the center of his universe. The smell of her hair, the feel of her skin. It all came rushing back. Every fantasy he’d had of her while trapped in England for a year became so real again. He was no longer an FBI agent, he was a lonely young man holding on to what he thought was the best thing that ever happened to him. They stood there for what seemed like an hour but was only a couple of minutes before Carly slid back down into her chair.

“You always were good at calming me down,” she said with a slight smile. Her eyes wouldn’t make contact with his.

“That’s because you were always so dramatic. This time, the drama is real,” he said.

“What am I going to do if they don’t catch him?” she asked, looking up into his eyes for some easy answer that wasn’t there.

“They’ll catch him. We have the best guys on the force looking for him.”

“I’m exhausted. I think I am going to take a bath and go to bed,” she said standing up.

“Carly?” Aidan called to her as she walked up the stairs.

“Yes?”

“I won’t let anything happen to you. No matter what. Past or no past, my job is to protect you.”

His words darted through her heart in a way she had not felt before. What did he mean by “no matter what”? She was too tired to think about it tonight.

Aidan stood in the kitchen looking up the empty stairway wondering if she could feel his emotions for her. How could he ever tell her that he had spent the last decade wondering where she was, how she was doing, and how he might get her back? Had he ever had her in the first place? Even as a strong FBI man, his childlike adoration of Carly was hard to shake. Why couldn’t any other woman compare to her?

The way that she had left him was the one hurt in his life that he couldn’t seem to get past. But, he had a job to do, and he could not let her know that he still had these feelings for her. She had only wanted to be friends a decade ago, and they were even less than friends now. Sitting down, Aidan took a sip of his beer
and sighed. How would he live here with her for days or weeks on end?

As morning broke, Aidan sat in the skinny stream of sunlight that was piercing through the living room window. Rather than sleeping in his own bedroom adjoining Carly’s, he had opted for a night of tortuous fighting with the pull-out sofa bed in the living room. Being too close to her seemed like a bad idea.

He didn’t get much sleep anyway as he ran over the time that he spent in England over a decade ago. It was amazing to him that, all of these years later, his stomach could still churn at the thought of her sitting in that restaurant with another man. He could still remember part of his favorite letter from her:

“Aidan, you know that you will be back here in no time. I can’t wait to see you! I have missed you more than you will ever know. Things at home aren’t so great, and your letters are the thing that I look forward to the most. Love, Carly”

He knew it was silly to remember word for word what she had said. Had he imagined that she had feelings for him at some point? Did he overthink it and scare her away? Had it been his fault all along? These were questions that he had wrestled with over the years. He heard the wooden stairs creak as Carly sleepily made her way down from upstairs.

“Good morning,” Aidan said as a sleepy-headed Carly finally appeared at ten o’clock. Seeing her first thing in the morning did things to his libido that he did not want to admit.

“Good morning,” she said in a groggy voice. Her hair was a mess, she was wearing no makeup, and she had on black yoga pants and an oversized gray sweatshirt. Even in that get-up, she was beautiful to him.