The Absolution of Aidan (The Syndicate Series Book 3) (6 page)

Stuffing my makeup back into my bag, I make my way down the hall to the baby’s room. The sun is shining in through the windows. He’s sleeping on his stomach, clutching his favorite blue blanket in his tiny little hand, peaceful after his morning bottle feeding. The one thing I didn’t get to experience with him was breast-feeding. Medication passes through the breast milk, Xanax especially. It can cause serious issues, such as drowsiness, weight loss, and other complications. No way was I taking my chances when it comes to my sweet gift. I never want harm or danger to cross his path. Not as long as I’m around to defend him, which will be for the rest of his life. That’s what parenting is all about. It doesn’t matter how old your child is, a good parent will do everything to make sure their child’s life is healthy and happy and full of love. That’s all I want for him.

Bending over the railing of his crib, I kiss him lightly on his head before I leave him to his sweet dreams.

By the time my mother gets there, I’m dressed in a light yellow sundress, my long, black hair pulled into a high pony tail. I slip my feet into a pair of brown flip-flops, greeting her at the door.

“You look lovely, honey,” she says, pulling me into her arms.

“Are you sure you’re ready to do this?” she asks.

“Well, no, but it has to be done,” I say with a fake smile. She’s been through so much with me this past year. It won’t matter what I say to try and convince her to not worry, she will anyway.

“Thanks for staying with him. I need to go before Aidan decides to show up here first.” I tell her in a rush how Alina told him I was back before I hesitate to get out the door.

“Go. We’ll be fine.” She shoves me out the door.
So much for stalling.

I waver. “Deidre, go. You can do this.”
I can,
I think to myself.

Forty-five minutes later, I’m sitting in the same parking lot I sat in last night, only this time my stomach is rolling. My entire body is sweating, I’m shaking so bad.

“Get out,” I tell myself. I grab my wallet, phone, and keys, then step out into the humid air. My feet feel like they’re full of some sort of heavy lead by the time I enter the lobby. Glancing up to security, I see that there’s a different man sitting at the podium.
Shit, will he let me up without notifying him?

I stop and dial Roan, praying he’s still here. When it goes to voicemail, I turn around, wondering what the hell I’m going to do.

A soft hand grazes my shoulder. I jump, then turn around to the soft voice of Calla Bexley, and see her holding the cutest little baby girl I have ever seen.

“Deidre. It’s so good to see you. You look great.” She smiles.

“You do, too. Congrats on the little one. My parents told me all about her. She’s beautiful. I love her name, too. Hello there, Justice,” I say softly. She grins toothlessly. Adorable.

We stand there for a few minutes while she explains the meaning behind her daughter’s name. I get it, especially after the shit she’s been through. Royal did a number on both of us. I will not bring either one of our experiences with that man up, though. Justice was served when he died.

“She’s a handful. Teething right now.”
I know the feeling
, I want to say. I don’t. I have no clue if Roan has told her or Cain anything. Instead, I focus on her baby. She has two dimples, blond, curly hair, and eyes that twinkle.

“Are you here to see Alina?” she asks politely.

I sigh and forge a smile. “No. Aidan, actually. I wanted to surprise him. I tried to call Roan to see if he could get me past security.” She cuts me off by reaching for my hand.

“You don’t have to say any more. Come on.” She guides me past the guard. We both say good morning.

“Thank you,” I say when we get to the elevators.

“You’re welcome. And Deidre,” she calls out as I step into lift. “Believe me when I say he’ll be happy to see you. We all are. I’m running late for work, we’ll talk soon.” With that, she turns and leaves.

I press the button for his floor. The second the doors close, I pace two steps one way, then two steps the other in the tiny compartment. The blood drains from my face the closer I get. I take a deep breath when it stops at his floor. The minute the doors shut behind me, I take one step toward his apartment and halt when I hear his loud voice from where I’m standing.

Damn it. I hope it’s not the same woman from last night. Alina assured me he wasn’t dating anyone. She was also very confident that he doesn’t do hookers. Yes, I went there with her last night. I couldn’t help it. Curiosity got the best of me, I guess.

Whomever he’s having a conversation with has him enraged. In fact, the more I hear him shouting, the more concerned I become.

I walk closer, pressing my ear to the door. The disagreement he’s having surprises me.
I hear everything. “Oh, my god. It’s his mother,” I whisper softly.

I take a step back, ready to press the button on his doorbell, when I hear declarations that instantly put me in protection mode.

I lose my shit when she says his step-father is dead and the voice of a man I assume is his brother starts talking about a young woman who wants money. The last thing I hear before I grasp for the door handle to see if it’s unlocked are the viscous words, “I want you to kill her,” coming out of his mother’s vile mouth.

“Honey, I’m home.” Three pairs of eyes turn my way. The only one I’m focused on is the man’s whose eyes look exactly like our son’s. They grow wide with shock, then travel slowly down from my face to my chest and then to my tanned legs. When they meet my eyes again, his brows furrow. I’m hoping he can read my expression trying to tell him to play along.

“Who are you?” His mother looks me over with contempt. Asking me like it’s her business of who I am.

“I’m his fiancée. Who the fuck are you?” I’m still spinning out of control from hearing her say the word ‘kill’. And fiancée? Good lord almighty, I’ve lost my mind again. I’m pissed. But it’s obvious he doesn’t want them here, from what I overheard, so it’s for a good reason.

My hands clench at my sides. I’m ready to lurch at her, to take her ass out, when Aidan strides to me, bringing me into his strong arms. My insides melt, filling up with this indescribable feeling. His warm, strong body pressed up against mine. His strong arms holding me close. Squeezing. My heart embraces him too, doing this little flip in my chest.

“What in the every loving fuck?” he whispers in my ear. I look up into his handsome face. His hair is darker than I remember, his eyes brighter than the sun glistening down on the ocean. I need to step back. My body feels all tingly from his simple embrace.

“Aww, baby, I missed you too,” I coo loudly enough for them to hear. “Now shut your big fat trap and play along. What’s going on here?” I demand quietly. Looking right at his mother, I try to escape the hold he has on me, to step around him. He resists. I think of those big hands more often than I should, and damn it, right now they have me all flustered.

“Nothing I can’t handle. These two were just leaving. Weren’t you?” He slings his arm around my shoulder casually. I tuck closer to him, because, well, he feels good. Too damn good. Like I-could-lick-him-up-and-down-and-all-around kind of good.

“You have a fiancée?” the man I know to be Ryan asks. Good thing this dip-shit spoke. I was beginning to visualize licking Aidan like you do with the extra batter on a wooden spoon.

“He does. Not that it’s any business of yours. Now, I believe he asked you to leave.” His mother’s eyes go wide. The bitch’s undertake on what I said does not go unnoticed by me at all. She stands there gawking at me like she cannot believe I’ve spoken to her the way I did.
Screw you, you uptight, good for nothing Botox face bimbo with the 1980s hairdo.

“I came all this way to see my son. We have unfinished business that does not concern you.” She looks me over as if she were better than me.
Oh, no way, Bitch. You have no damn idea who the hell I am or the things I will do or say to get you the hell out of here.

“Anything that has to do with the man I love is my business. Now, if you don’t leave, I will personally make you.” Aidan chuckles beside me. Yeah, love, right? I’m sure he’s thinking more like hate. Which is far from the way I truly feel about him.

“I’d like to see you try,” Ryan says.

“Oh, please. The two of you show up here after not speaking to him for years. Demanding he kill someone. That’s a crime. You and your last year’s Louis Vuitton bag could spend a long time in prison for plotting a murder. Just in case your brain is lodged in that beehive of a hairdo you have, I thought I would mention that. Now, get the fuck out of my apartment.” I unlodge myself from Aidan’s arm, move to the door, and open it.

“Get out now. And don’t you dare come back. And one more thing. Aidan doesn’t kill people, but I sure as hell do.” Which is a lie. But hey, if it gets them out of here, then I really don’t care.

“Why, you little bitch. Do you have any idea who I am? I can destroy you both.” I take a step closer to this dickface Ryan. He thinks he can threaten me? Oh hell, no.

“I know exactly who the two or you are. She’s an ugly nit-witted troll who has no idea how to be a good mother and you’re the male version of her. He’s your family. Your brother. The two of you come here, unwelcome I might add, and ask him to kill someone?” The part of my brain that triggers angry emotions has gone crazy. Aidan and I may never have truly liked each other, well that’s not entirely true, but that’s not what’s in question right now. What is, is how these two people are his family. One being his mother, and how dare she treat him like shit.

Diesel flashes through my mind, which causes one part of my body to catch fire and the other part to flood like a tsunami.

“This isn’t over by a long shot.” Ryan glares at me with steely eyes.

“It’s definitely over. If either of you step foot in this building or even in New York ever again, you won’t have to worry about the money you’re trying so hard to keep. I will have you both killed.” My rage of fire starts to gradually put out the flood inside of me. I feel my face turning red. My entire body starts to heat up. These assholes don’t get it. They’re still standing here.

Aidan doesn’t give either one of them time to respond to my threat. He grabs Ryan by his throat with one hand and backs him up, slamming him hard against the wall.

“Don’t ever come here again. If you do, the first person I will kill will be you.” He slams his head hard against the wall, releases him, and turns to the bitch troll.

“And you. Get the fuck out of here. I never want to see you again. Do I make myself clear?” he asks, pointing his finger at her.

“Aidan. I knew the moment you were born that you were going to cause me nothing but grief and heartache. That you would desert me just like your father did. You’re exactly like him.” Oh, my god. She is horrible. Like I-want-to-jump-her-and-pull-her-eyeballs-out horrible. Does she not see what a decent man she has in her own son? I hate her.

“I wouldn’t know that, now would I? Being that I don’t even know who my father is? I will say this though, I’d much rather be like him than be like you. And one more thing. If I find out anything happens to this woman you’re talking about, you’re both dead. Now, get out.”

I stand there while Ryan adjusts his clothes and his mother pulls her purse straps over her shoulder, the two of them saying nothing else. They walk right out the door, slamming it shut behind them.

Then there’s the deafening, eerie soundlessness of silence for several seconds, minutes. I’m not sure how long exactly. I do know that now that they are gone, my thoughts are back on why I came here. I’m scared, not just because of how Aidan will react to knowing he has a son. It’s the fact that I know with every ounce of breath I have left that this is the beginning of trouble.

“You’re back?” Aidan’s low words feather lightly across my neck. He’s standing close to me. His warm breath scatters across the back of my neck.

My breath escapes my lips when he touches the long scar across the top of my back, lightly tracing his finger from one end to the other. The dark, hollow places I have buried deep inside of me cease to exist as his smooth lips trace behind his finger. The floor beneath me vanishes. I’m left floating.

“Aidan,” I whisper. His reaction to me barging in here as if I owned the place baffles me. I came prepared for an argument. Which undoubtedly I received, just not in the way I was expecting. And after I tell him what he deserves to know, we will be talking about his obvious shocking visitors. I snap out of my trance his simple touch has put me in. I step forward a few feet, my heated skin suddenly cold.

“I… we need to talk.” Staggering on unsteady feet to his gray leather couch, I sit. There is so much to say. The first two being me telling him about his son and why I left. Then I need to know exactly what is going on with the two people who left here. It’s not just Aidan and I who we need to worry about anymore. It’s our child. I will live in hell for the rest of my life to protect my son. From what I witnessed a few moments ago, I believe Aidan will, too. The horrible things she said to him weigh heavily on my heart. God. How could a mother say those things to her child? She may think she’s some high classed woman. She isn’t a woman at all. Hell, she’s a cunt. A worthless piece of shit.

Our son may have been conceived by one night of passion between two people who can hardly stand each other, whose last words to each other before the worst night of my life happened were hateful. Words I did not mean.

By the way he’s seeking out my teary eyes, the look of guilt and remorse coming from his, he’s sorry too. He doesn’t even have to say it.

I take a deep breath and lean forward, those conversations I had with myself over and over on how I planned on telling him meaning nothing now.

“Aidan. We have a three-month-old son.”

AIDAN

I sit, stunned. I’m a father? Jesus Christ. This is why she left?

I don’t know whether to be pissed that this has been kept from me or to snag her sexy, little ass in her tight, little yellow dress, that has my dick throbbing painfully, off from the couch and kiss her until she’s numb.