When I meet them back, I put on a fake facade so they won't notice much. Layla is posing for several different selfies. Rosie is armed with her tech gear. And I am masking clear fear. The flash drive. Whatever is on it is what I need to retrieve.
I accidentally make eye contact with Ethan, and his narrowed eyes either means he's concerned or he knows something. He must have followed me earlier, I was sure of it but I can't prove it. At least not yet.
He cannot know my parents are being held for the sole purpose I am the one to provide the enemy what they want. And I initially had been against that 2 years ago. I know what he wants me to get–the hard drive.
Ethan surprises me in particular by saying, "Okay so... this mission involves us getting the hard drive."
"Perfecto... a hard drive. What's in it?" Layla asked. I froze then and there. Well, I didn't know either. or do I? I am the very reason he's in a coma. My Aaron. Aaron Cross.
The figure's last name is cross. His twin brother's first name... He whispered that while we were wrapped in each other's warmth. After the best sex too. Shit I can't remember. It starts with a J.
"It could be anything so... stay sharp," Ethan adds looking right at me. My hands formed tight fists on both sides. Energy sizzling underneath my skin.
**
As soon as we check into a hotel, I slip out and find a telephone to use. When I dial the number and wait for him to answer. J.C. I call him that now. The moment he picks up I say, "It's me. I'm in. With Hunt."
"That's good. Keep close, and don't make them suspicious of you," J.C. replied.
"I won't just... are my parents safe?" The question hung in the air for a bit before he laughed. "I swear to god if you did something to them I'm coming for you."
"You wouldn't dare," he says, voice now serious. "And if you don't want anything happening to them you will do exactly as I say. Oh and my brother's will paper's? I can do whatever I want with that too... Now get moving."
The call cuts off after that. Leaving me in the deafening silence. I cry after a minute not crying. The tears come in hot and thick. And Ethan walks up, out from the shadows. Did he hear all that? I place the receiver onto the phone and get out of the booth.
"You heard everything, didn't you?" I gently prod after crying for awhile. "Why'd you follow me?"
"I've heard enough," he said. "And I followed you because I've seen that look before, Lexi. It's the look of someone who is trying to carry a mountain on their back while running a marathon. In this business, that's how people get killed."
**
The next morning after we all get some sleep we are up bright and early. Ethan kept looking at me, like I might explode any minute now.
"You okay, Lexi?" Layla asks me, while sitting down with a coffee in her hand.
"Yeah I'm fine..." I reply looking Ethan. He repeats what I said but reassures her that I am focused on the mission and that I should be. Setting the cup of coffee down, he walks over to the table with the digital blue-prints.
That's the company's blueprints. The building's entire blueprint is there. He stands next to me, purposefully–close enough that our shoulders touch.
"The gala starts at 19:00. Rosie, you're on the server room bypass. Layla, you're our eyes and ears on the floor. Lexi and I are going for the private vault on the 42nd floor."
He taps the specific spots on the map itself. The pent house level, where Aaron and I would be intimate with each other. All our naked truth's in there. "That's not Julian's office. It's clearly Aaron's."
"You're right. It is Aaron's office. And that's exactly why Julian chose it. He wants to inhabit the life he didn't earn. He wants to look in the mirror and see the man you loved, while he holds your parents' lives in his hands."
Aaron took my virginity in there. And now Julian is using it? I knew something was about that accident. I don't say any of that, my silence is louder than anything.
"Rosie, Layla–gear up," he commands them. He and I need to be alone. For what?
"I sent them out because you're about to break, Lexi," he says, his voice dropping to a low, rough skin. "And I can't have you breaking in front of them. Not today."
No of course not. "Aaron is in the hospital hooked up to machines, barely holding on..." I said to Ethan. Maybe I can trust him, for now.
"He's holding on because of you. Julian knows that. He's counting on your grief for Aaron to be your blind spot. He wants you so focused on the machines in that hospital that you don't see the monster sitting in his chair."