Chapter 33 CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: PAUPER PLAY
AIDEN
“Do you want me to look into it, boss?” Leo emerged from where he had been hiding and listening in to the conversation between Zara and me.
Nothing happening made sense, but I had never had a reason to distrust Lysandra until last night. Why did she drug Zara? I had to get to the bottom.
“She is claiming that the bar is used for a drug front,” I muttered gently, turning to him. “Why don’t you check that out first?”
“Yes, boss,” he said, disappearing at once.
When I hurried out of the bar after getting Lysandra's text, Leo had followed me, saying he was worried. I asked him to make sure that Zara didn't see him, or he won't have a job by the end of the day.
I get back into the car; I had come in just in case she is around the corner waiting to catch me. She had been too suspicious of everything now; I watched her eyes turn and try to calculate every single thing I said.
Taking her on that jewellery date as soon as possible was the best thing to do. Getting a piece of jewellery from a shabby place might convince her that I was nothing more than Michael Black, the simple bartender.
If I let this linger longer, then she would recognise all the cracks in my pauper act. I couldn't bear to handle what was going to happen if she got to know.
By the time I get into the back office at the bar, Lysandra is already waiting in my chair. At least I didn't need to sneak around to try and find her for answers.
“What are you doing here?” My voice was flat as I took off my jacket and placed it on the hanger behind the desk.
“You really are going all out. She must be a special one.”
“You’ve met her,” I murmured, turning the seat and steadying it so she could get out of it.
“I did meet her; I just don’t see what all the fuss is about,” she ticked with a scrunched-up face. “She is a basic bitch.”
“Lysandra!?”
"Oops!" Her eyes widened. “Forgive my language.” She pressed her hand to her mouth like she realised her error, and she blinked rapidly. “I mean, there is nothing specially different about her.”
“She is different,” I threw out and tapped on the headrest of the swivel chair. She leaned in instead, crossing her hands over her chest like she was ready to throw a tantrum.
“Never heard you say something so romantic yet strange before.”
“Why are you so curious?”
“Aiden, I have known you your entire life. “You have never looked twice at a woman, and suddenly you are ready to throw your entire life away and build a new fake one just to stay with her,” she spat and leaned forward.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d have said you were under some kind of spell.”
“What I do with my romantic life is none of your business.”
She got out of the chair and crossed her hands over her chest, and a sly smile crept onto her lips. “Then I am guessing you are saying that I can tell her the truth.”
I hated how she had this power over me. I was sure my plan was going to be easier if she was not lurking around threatening to spill. Moreover, she was not a good secret keeper. She talked an awfully lot and it made me want to lose my mind.
My jaw tightened; no one ever held a carrot over my head so this was stranger than acting the bartender role.
“Lysnadra?” Her name dropped like a warning bomb. She whipped her head at me, too comfortable with me that none of my warning threats worked on her.
“Oh, come on, let’s make it fun. Let’s see how much more you can lie to her,” she added with a pout.
“What are you trying to do? Why are you doing this?” I narrowed my eyes, crumpling my hands into a tight fist to control the anger surging through my entire body.
“I am just curious. Why Zara Crawford? Why not me or anyone else?” The smile on her face stopped on her lisp, never reaching her eyes. This was an emotion I had never seen on her before now.
She stopped at the other side of the table and pressed both palms onto the table to steady herself in place as I slid into the chair and drew it closer.
“What the hell does she have?”
“Lysandra, you are awfully focused on the wrong things. Zara is the woman whom my father chose for me.”
“But he was never going to marry you.” She tilted her head, maintaining the position she had been in. “You forced her to.”
“It’s complicated, and I do not have either the time or the patience to explain it to you.”
“But you want me to keep your secret.” She clicked her tongue and shook her head. “So what are you going to do for me?” She asked like this was some kind of business transaction.
“You know if the case was reversed, then I would have done this for you,” I said, and her lips curved up in a sinister smile.
“She is suspicious already, and all she needs to find out the truth is just a word from me.”
“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said, feeling my heart beat out of my chest. It didn't make sense to give her an open cheque like this, but I needed to make Zara feel comfortable with me before I told her the truth.
Hearing it from Lysandra was definitely not going to help me. I knew giving her a blank slate to ask whatever she wanted was not going to end well but that was my payment for getting this done.
“Good.” She smacked her lips and pushed herself into an upright position. “You are finally speaking my language.
I wanted to ask her about the bar and what really happened, but I was not sure if she would tell me the truth. She had been close to me for far too long for me to think of something else. Maybe Zara was right about the drug front.
“From now on, you tell me before you meet Zara, not while you are meeting her,” I said.
She turned to me and smiled. “I told you today, and you acted like I was trying to harm your wife when all I was trying to do was make a new friend.” Her eyes watered up as if she was driven into a corner, and her lips parted gently.
“I was just worried because of last night.”
“She was drunk.” I searched her face for some kind of tell, but all she had was the same generic expression she always had on. “I am sure she is already sober.”
“I guess I overreacted.”
“You did.” She said it was too simple for me to read any more into it, yet there was that lingering eerie feeling creeping into the room with us.
She fished her bag from my desk and looked around the small office. It was smaller than the restroom in my original office, but this had to do. This was the only way I would get to keep my secret as Aiden Knight.
I didn't belong here, not now and not ever, but this was the only way I would get to keep this act up.
“You are really living as a pauper for her,” she added as if she were mad about it. Her eyebrows furrowed, and her cheeks sagged gently.
“I hope it pays off.”
Her voice tone rubbed me the wrong way. She was not saying this to cheer me on. It was like she was cursing me out. I watched her pull another smile and check herself in the mirror before she sauntered out of the room.
“Lysandra, there is something fishy, something you are currently hiding, and I am going to find it out soon.”
And if she was involved in something shady, then I knew I had no choice but to make her pay for it.