22

22

Lauren was frozen in her seat, looking at Selena’s delighted expression as she asked if the jersey would fit her little girl.

“If you gotta go away, I can take good care of her, honey. Don’ you worry,” said Selena with a reassuring hand on Lauren’s shoulder.

What did she mean? Before Lauren could ask questions, Aaron’s bulk cut across in front of her, blocking her from his mother and she stared up at his back, feeling fury rise.

“Okay, mom. It’s time for your medication now,” he said, keeping his back to Lauren.

She hadn’t moved from her spot on the chair and from what he heard his mother say to her, he suspected that she was probably positively pissed right off.

He could feel her stare boring holes into the side of his face as he handed his mom a glass of water.

Soon, Selena was handing it back and reaching for her knitting.

It came easily out of Lauren’s numb fingers as she stared coldly up at Aaron. Picking up the dishes, he risked a glance at her and winced when he felt his heart get pierced with the sharp end of her glare.

Walking tensely out of the room, he heard Lauren murmur a goodnight to Selena and then her glare was on the back of his head all the way to the kitchen.

Dropping the dishes in the sink, Aaron hunched over it for a while then straightened and turned to face her wrath.

Lauren crossed her arms, giving him a tilted head with a look that asked what the fuck he was waiting for to start talking.

The heavily charged silence hung for a while and when Aaron saw tears of rage fill her eyes, he broke.

“I’m sorry,” came his quiet apology.

Christ, this was all too much. How was he going to explain all of this to her? He knew he’d really done nothing wrong, but it was usually the messenger that got shot.

Lauren said nothing, only stared coldly at him. He sighed and ran a hand through his dampened hair, fatigue evident in his slow movements.

She didn’t care about his inner turmoil any longer. Why should she when he didn’t care enough to at least let her know that her mother had once been in his damn house?!

She scoffed out a laugh and shook her head.

“Why are you keeping so many secrets…?” she asked in a voice he heard as tired and fed up.

Aaron walked around the kitchen table and stood looking down into the grey eyes that easily undid him with just one look.

“Lauren, I was going to tell you—”

“To tell me what exactly? Huh? Because I hardly know what’s going on around me, Aaron. With everything, you, the murders, the mayor, the damn journal! I have a vague idea of everything, but I really know nothing! It’s scary!”

Her hands fisted at her sides as she struggled to draw in a breath that was shaky.

He took a step towards her, hands reaching, but Lauren stepped away.

“Lauren—”

“Don’t touch me.”

“Lauren—”

“It’s painful, Aaron! I hear your mother speaking to me, thinking I’m my mother and it hurts. I need to know, Aaron, why my mother was here and why she might have needed to go away.”

Aaron winced and turned away. Lauren immediately acted, refusing to let him shut down on her.

She stepped toward him, grabbed his jaw and forced him to look her in the eyes.

His gold eyes swirled and she saw the conflict there.

“I’m just tryin’ to protect you, Lauren,” Aaron murmured, closing his eyes for a moment.

She felt herself soften, but she forced steel into her heart.

“I don’t need protection! I need answers.”

He started to draw away from her, but she wrapped her arms around him and settled her soft chin on his chest, so he could look down directly into her pained eyes.

Aaron ignored the jolt in his body at the feel of her against him but was powerless to stop his arms from coming up to wrap her warmly against him.

“Lauren, I promise,” he said, looking into her eyes. “You will get the answer to any question you ask... just not now.”

She groaned in frustration and tried to pull away, but he held her firm until she melted against him, keeping her gaze away from his.

“Tomorrow,” he said and Lauren looked back at him. “We’ll start tomorrow.”

“What do you mean?” she had no idea that her fingers were clutching onto his body as he held her. “Are we going to have some sort of question and answer session?”

He shook his head, letting a tired smile curve his lips.

“I’ve got one week off from work. One week to bring down the evil in this town. The answers to your questions are going to hurt you and that’s going to have you unfocused. I can’t risk that with somebody trying to kill you. I need your help this week, I need you to stay with me.”

She bit her lip, considering.

“Why are the answers going to hurt me? Just tell me…”

He shook his head. “I will. Yes, Catherine Burns was in this house once, but I promise you, Lauren, I never hurt her. I was...I was helping her.”

Lauren blinked.

“Mrs. Spencer said... you saved a girl from a monster,” She began. “Tell me—”

Clenching his jaw, he lifted her face and let his mouth relax against hers.

Kissing her slowly and lovingly, he let himself draw reassurance from her physical presence. She was here and she was safe.

Nobody was going to hurt his Lauren.

He lifted his head, parting their lips and stared down into her dazed eyes as she blinked up at him.

A sudden frown appeared on her face.

“You’re trying to distract me.” she accused and Aaron chuckled.

She wasn’t too far from the truth.

“Maybe, but I really needed to taste you again. It’s been a long day.” His eyes went from gold to dark coffee brown. “Too long.”

Lauren felt her breath get caught up somewhere in her lungs at the look he was giving her, but quickly shook out of it.

“You’re distracting me again. Aaron…”

He pressed a quick, sudden kiss to her mouth.

“Tomorrow, Lauren. We’ll figure this whole thing out together, I promise you. But, I’m really hungry right now.” He grinned and turned to the kitchen.

She pursed her lips and nodded.

“Fine, but you promised, I’m holding you to that.”

He was reaching for a plate, but she gently slapped his hand away. “'One who cooks, serves,' Aunt Abby used to say. It’s stuck with me.” She turned around and fixed him a plate.

Aaron pulled out a chair to sit when he felt her phone in his back pocket. With a frown, he pulled it out.

“Oh, yeah. Found your cell ringing on the bed. I think you’ve got about fifteen missed calls.”

She set his plate in front of him and gingerly pulled her phone toward her.

Martha. Sighing, Lauren set the phone aside.

“It’s Martha. She probably wants to play Sweet Mama again, she’s been overplaying the role since I arrived.”

Aaron slid his thumb up and down the smooth neck of the fork as he leaned back into his seat.

“I can’t wait to send those people to jail for the rest of their lives,” he murmured simply, a cold glint in his eye.

Lauren crossed her arms in silent agreement.

“But, we don’t have proof of their planning to kill me, Aaron. Even the photographs we found. We only suspect they belonged to Martin because he sent a man to find them, but I clearly heard them saying they only found the photos ten years ago, meaning they can’t be his.”

Aaron smirked and Lauren was momentarily stunned by how damn sexy he was.

“Oh, but we do have proof, honey,” he drawled.

She blinked, knocked back into her senses by his words.

“Wait, what? What proof?”

Aaron bit into a saucy meatball and closed his eyes on the spicy flavors that exploded on his tongue.

“Jesus, Lauren. You cooked this?”

She blushed and shrugged. “Grayson helped cut the onions and tomatoes. A-anyway…” she continued when Aaron only snorted. “What proof?” He was not going to sidetrack her with his hypnotizing little eyes or his sexy curving mouth or his devilish seductive voice or his…

“Recording.”

Lauren blinked. Again. “What?”

Aaron gave her a look that told her he knew exactly where her mind had wandered to.

“Grayson recorded the phone call, Lauren. We have a recording.”

When Lauren could find her breath again, she gasped. “What?! When were you going to tell me?”

Aaron gave her an innocent look. “I’m tellin’ you now, hun.”

She raised her chin, fighting the warmth that rose with his pet name. It was stupid of her, she knew it. Everybody in Woodfair called everybody else ‘honey’ or ‘darlin’’ or ‘dearie’ and all that, it was for them like breathing air. Yet here she was, turning red from heat and blue from lack of oxygen just because Aaron called her ‘hun’.

Honestly.

She sighed and sunk into the chair beside him.

“Well, thank God,” Lauren murmured before she realized something and perked up in her seat, her hand curling around his bicep in alarm. “Oh, my God, Aaron. Do you know what this means?! We have incriminating evidence against the Mayor of Woodfair that could put him away for a while! It’s hard proof, Aaron, let’s take it to the police now!”

Aaron calmly rested his fork against the plate and turned to face her, taking in the bright look in her eyes. His Lauren was so naïve.

He knew that she’d react like this. That she’d want to put the bad guys away the first chance she got.

With a sigh, he patted her hand on his arm.

“We will, but we can’t take it right away, Lauren, it’ll never work.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?” Wasn’t it simple enough? Evidence to cops, evil mayor to prison, Lauren safe. Or not?

Aaron bit his lip searching for words. “Well...it wouldn’t…” he sighed. “Who knows if those damn cops would destroy the evidence and put us away for trying to take down the mayor?”

Lauren raised a brow. “That’s the kind of corruption you have in Woodfair?”

Aaron shrugged and nodded, returning to his food. He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t want to take chances. That’s how things were years ago, who knew if they were still the same or not?

Lauren pursed her lips, racking her brain for ideas on how to put the mayor away without involving the police. It really seemed impossible, unless she and Aaron dug a dungeon underneath the house and jailed him themselves. Which...she didn’t see happening.

She turned to him. “Wait, and the photographs? How do we prove it was him?”

Aaron didn’t look up.

“We can’t.”

“Crap. But why not? It’s there—”

“It wasn’t him who did that, Lauren.”

She sighed. She figured as much but didn’t want the mayor to actually be innocent of something. Regardless of what Aaron said, she still felt like Stanford was connected. “Well, how do you know that?” Maybe it could still be the mayor, who knew?

Aaron looked at her. “Because there’s one picture of a victim... with the men who did it around the body toasting fucking brandy.”

********************

Marcus swirled his drink in its glass. Vincent Krowski had stayed at the bar when Marcus suddenly moved to a table. He glanced over at his father’s Deputy, who he’d gotten rather close to over the years. His back was to them and Vince didn’t seem to be hearing a thing besides what the sexy bartender was saying to him.

Convinced that it would remain confidential, Marcus turned back to the other person at the small table.

“Well?” he questioned. “You said you had something for me. What is it?”

She looked up. Natalie Dannison called him a long time after they’d last had sex and offered a bit of information. Marcus hoped it was good. He didn’t have time to waste, he had to get home before his parents so he’d have time with Lauren. He’d taken too many cold showers in the past week, it was enough.

“Make it quick!” he urged and Natalie jumped.

“Okay, okay!” she hissed, glancing over her shoulder before turning back to him. “I know where Lauren Burns is.”

Marcus frowned. “In my house. Soon to be in my bed.”

Natalie scoffed. “Give it a rest, Marc. I don’t give a fuck who you’re fuckin’, but it sure as hell ain’t gonna be Lauren. She’s in Aaron Spencer’s house.”

Marcus froze, narrowing his green eyes on her. He stared silently at Natalie. His finger had begun twitching again. He pulled the hand into his lap, where she wouldn’t see its crazed twitching. “What?” Marcus asked quietly. “What did you say?”

Natalie nodded and Marcus saw the anger in her eyes. “I saw her there with my own eyes.”

Marcus’ jaw clenched. Fuck. That was why he had so many missed calls from his mother. He tilted his head at Natalie. “And what were you doing there? Last I checked, you don’t live at Blaine’s.”

She paled horribly above her red lipstick and shrugged. “That’s none of—”

“You want him, don’ you?” Marcus cut her off. Natalie’s eyes grew large. “You want Aaron Spencer.”

When she stayed silent, he threw his head back and laughed. “I knew you were messed up when you were in heat for me, but... Aaron Spencer? Wow. You’re into the crazy type, aren’t you?”

“Fuck you, Marcus.”

“You already did.”

Natalie huffed and dragged a hand through her hair. “Just... stop! Okay, I didn’t come here to fight with you. I’m just lettin’ you know what I saw. Now, I know you want Lauren. Right now, she’s in Aaron’s house. What are you gonna do about that, Marcus?”

He stared silently at her and when Natalie thought he’d never say anything, the corner of Marcus’ mouth tilted in a smile she no longer found attractive.

“You just wait...” he whispered. “And see.”