Page 49 of Lust & Lies

AIDEN

IN THE CAR, I COULD still smell it. It was faint, but there. The stench of death. It had followed me from the gravel pit, and now it was clinging to my suit. A reminder of the secret I was trying to keep from Noe. I glanced over at her, wondering if she could smell it too.

“Do you smell that?” I asked, trying to take her mind off our previous conversation.

She sniffed, then looked at me. “Smell what?”

I wasn’t about to say the stench of rotting bodies. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up at all. Perhaps she didn’t smell anything.

“Do you smell something?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. Maybe the workers had been smoking or something. I feel like the stench is on my suit now.”

She frowned slightly. “Now that you mention it, I do smell something. I thought it was roadkill from outside. I smelled it at the hotel site also.”

Shit. “Can you reach in the glove compartment for me and grab that small bottle of car freshener?”

“Sure.”

Opening the glove compartment, she grabbed the bottle and showed it to me.

“This?” she asked.

“Yeah. Mind spraying a little in the car to see if it gets rid of the smell?”

“No problem.”

Turning, she sprayed some in the back seat. Then she paused, inhaled deeply, and sighed.

“That smells good,” she said, holding the bottle up and staring at the label.

“It’s Sandalwood,” I told her. “You like it, so I keep some in the car in case we pass by something that doesn’t smell good.”

“You keep this in here for me?” she asked.

Yes. Because you always keep a bottle in your car, too. You hate the smell of blood and say Sandalwood helps mask it.

“Everything I do is for you,” I told her, unable to tell her the real reason behind the air freshener.

From the corner of my eye, I watched as she slid the bottle back into the glove compartment and closed it.

“Are you sure everything you do is for me?” she asked, looking at me again.

“I’m sure, love. Even if...” I paused just as my phone rang.

What now?

“Saved by the bell,” she drawled.

“Sorry, baby.”

I glanced down at the console, half expecting it to be Julian. But it wasn’t. It was Min-Gi. Shit. I opened the console, grabbed my earbuds, and answered the call.

“Hello.”

“Boss, we’ve got a problem,” Min-Gi told me.

Another one? “What is it?”

“Chan let me know what occurred at the hotel site. We started the process of wiping the camera footage of the gravel pit that showed the bodies at the site and Louis being beaten by Julian Cattaneo. But we noticed that Noe was caught on camera at the hotel.”

“What? The cameras in the parking lot haven’t been set up yet, right?”

“Right. But she walked away from the car, into the line of the hotel’s camera.”

Shit. “Have you taken care of it?” I asked.

“We’re working on it now. I’ll text you when it’s all done. But there’s no way of knowing whether your grandfather has viewed the footage or not. He shouldn’t have looked at it that quickly. But, since we’re on high alert, I wanted to let you know about it.”

“Thanks. Let me know when it’s taken care of.”

“Will do. Chan is still following you all from a safe distance,” he added.

I glanced into the rearview mirror. A few cars back, I spotted the black van. Chan.

“Also, the restaurant you’ve chosen has been reserved. Only you and Noe will eat there this morning. The rest of the diners will be our people,” Min-Gi told me.

I returned my eyes to the road. “Thanks. Keep me updated on the situation.”

“Okay, boss.”

I ended the call and placed the earbuds back in the console. Those damn cameras. How had I forgotten about them? I should’ve made sure she didn’t walk within their view. There was no reason for Grandfather to be looking at that footage.

The hotel wasn’t even open yet. If the team erased everything, there’d be nothing for him to see. Hopefully. But hope was for those who deserved it. I didn’t, so I had to be prepared in case the worst happened.

“Something wrong?” Noe asked.

I looked her way, plastering a smile on my face. “Work issues.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I would love to talk about it with her. I’d love her help.

But with her memory gone, there was no way I could tell her that my employee dumped bodies at my Bak Boutique Hotel site, and now I was allowing him to be buried alive there and returning those bodies to the office of the person who’d murdered them. Yeah, I couldn’t say that.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “I want to forget about work and focus on you this morning.”

She stared at me for a while as I drove. I knew she wanted to say something, I was just waiting for her to speak up.

“But will you be able to focus on me with work matters weighing you down?” she asked.

“Of course, I can,” I told her, just as my phone dinged.

I gritted my teeth. It seemed Fate was determined to prove me wrong.

“Go ahead. Answer it,” she told me.

“It’s just a text,” I explained, staring down at the screen.

It was from Min-Gi. If it were important, he would’ve called. I focused on the road again, just as another text came through. Damn it.

“Let’s go home,” Noe stated.

“What?” I glanced her way briefly. “No way. We’re going to breakfast. This will be our first real date in a long time. I’m not letting work mess this up for us. Plus, we need to talk about... our past,” I reminded her.

“I know. And I’m happy you’re ready to talk about it just as much as I am. But when we talk, I want to have your undivided attention. Right now, work needs you.”

“You come before work,” I told her. “Work can wait. I can get my brothers to help with work.”

“Aiden,” she said, placing her hand on my lap. “Handle work things today. And we’ll try again in the morning.”

I shook my head. “Baby, I really want us to have this time together, away from the estate. I want...”

“I want it too,” she told me. “There’s so much I want to say to you.

So many questions I need answers to. And I want to give you a chance to answer those questions openly and honestly.

To do that, I need you to have a clear head.

Can you honestly say you can do that this morning with the issues you’re having at work? ”

Could I? My phone dinged again.

“Fuck!” I yelled.

“Let’s push our date to tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“I’m sure.”

She was right. Work would continue to bother me over breakfast, interrupting our conversation.

I sighed. “What kind of man would that make me if I let you starve?”

“Trust me, I won’t starve. I saw some cereal in the cabinet. I’ll eat fruit and cereal for breakfast. And I’m sure I can make you a bowl of cereal without burning down the kitchen.”

I chuckled. “I don’t know. I’m nervous. How about I handle the cereal? That would be safer.”

“Whatever, Aiden!” she laughed, slapping my leg playfully before staring out the front window.

“It shouldn’t take me all day to handle things,” I told her.

“It’s okay if it does. Take care of business. I want your undivided attention when we talk.”

I tapped my finger against the wheel. Just like yesterday, this day wasn’t going the way I’d planned.

“I hate to leave you alone while I’m locked in my office, having meetings.”

“I can find something to do with my time,” she murmured, and that scared the hell out of me.

“Like what?” I asked cautiously.

“Like....” she tapped her chin. “I can explore our house. I mean, really explore it. That alone could take a full day. I can find a good book to read. There’s a box in the garden room of some books that I want to go through.”

There shouldn’t be anything in that box that could mess things up for me. Then again, if there was, that was fine too. It was time for us to put all the cards on the table. I’d thought her losing her memory was in my best interest. Now, I realized it wasn’t. It had only complicated matters more.

“Okay, love,” I told her. “I’ll order some food for breakfast. I don’t want you eating cold cereal.”

“Is there a place that delivers way out at the estate?”

There was a family diner that delivered. It would take them almost thirty minutes to get to our estate, and they’d expect a damn good tip. But it would be worth it. Or, I could send Chan to pick it up and play the role of delivery guy.

“Yes, they deliver to our estate, love,” I told her.

“Perfect. Let’s eat cereal for breakfast, then order out for lunch. Then you and I can work on dinner together. And if you’re done with work by morning, we can try to go out for breakfast then.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I told her.

Smiling, she resumed staring out the window. I glanced her way a few times. She looked relaxed now. Not as upset as she’d been earlier. If I could keep her in a good mood, maybe our conversation about our past would go smoothly.

I steered the car back toward our country estate. We drove in silence, preparing to leave the city behind and return to what was supposed to be our little haven. But now, the watchdogs were on to us, and we’d have to leave it soon.

On top of that, I had this shit with the Bak hotel to deal with. This had to be punishment for all the reckless shit I’d done these past months. I hadn’t planned for problems like these to arise. My carefully thought-out plan was unravelling at the seams and I...

“Watch out!” Noe screamed.

I automatically jerked the wheel, eyes refocusing on the road as a car swerved into my lane, trying to merge onto the exit ahead of me. I jerked the wheel more to avoid hitting the back of the car, my arm shooting out to protect Noe.

My car skidded across gravel and dirt. I slammed on the brakes, but the car didn’t stop in time. We hit the tree. The impact jolted the whole car. Noe’s body lurched forward, then back, her seatbelt catching her.

It all happened so fast. Breathing heavily, arm still outstretched, I stared out the front window. The hood of the car was smashed in. It looked like a wrecking ball had crumpled it. Steam hissed up from under the hood.

The smell of burnt rubber filled the air. I looked over at Noe. Her wide eyes met mine for a moment, just a moment, and then they fluttered shut. Oh, no!

“Noe!” I reached for her. “Noe, baby, open your eyes.”

There wasn’t any blood on her. No scratches. No visible injuries. But she wasn’t moving. Her eyes weren’t open. Fear cut through me.

“Noe!” I cradled her face. “Noelani! Look at me. Open your eyes for me, baby.”

She didn’t respond. Tears blurred my vision. A knock sounded on the passenger side window. Blinking, I stared over at Chan, a member of my security team who’d been tailing us. I leaned across the seat and unlocked the door.

“Help me get her out!” I told him.

Chan opened her door as I fumbled with her seatbelt, trying to be quick about it without hurting her. Why the hell wasn’t she waking up? My hands were trembling badly, my mind racing, filling with the worst-case scenarios. Once I had her unbuckled, Chan eased her out of the car.

“Careful,” I told him, watching him lift her.

I got out on my side and came around the back. By the time I reached her side of the vehicle, Chan was already walking toward me, carrying Noe in his arms.

“She’s not waking up,” I told him. “I need to get her to a hospital. Now.”

“You can’t take her to a hospital, boss. Not right now. Your grandfather’s got eyes on every medical center in the area.”

Fuck. He was right. Grandfather still didn’t believe Noe was dead. He was keeping an eye on Medical Facilities just in case she showed up at one. He was also monitoring all of her aliases in case she used one.

Credit cards, computers, cell phones, he was keeping track of all of it. And he had access to all of it because she still worked for him. I never should’ve left the estate with her. What the fuck was I thinking?

“Give her to me,” I insisted.

Chan handed her over carefully. I held her close, trying not to let my panic make me do anything irrational.

“Handle the wreck,” I told Chan. “And give me your keys.”

He passed them to me without question.

“I’ll take her home while you take care of this. Call Dr. Mercer. Have him meet us at the estate. Quickly.”

“I’m on it, boss.”

I rushed to Chan’s car, opened the passenger door, and eased her in as other cars sped past. Noe’s head lolled against the seat, lips parted slightly.

She was still breathing, but out cold. I glanced over her after I buckled her in.

There wasn’t a cut on her. So why wouldn’t she wake up? I brushed her hair from her face.

“Hold on, baby,” I whispered. “I’m not letting anything happen to you. Not again.”

I closed the door, rounded the front of the van, and climbed into the driver’s seat. Then I took off toward the estate. I kept glancing her way as I drove, checking to see if she moved or woke up. She did neither.

This was my fault. I should’ve been paying attention instead of letting my mind drift to work and the conversation I needed to have with Noe. I hadn’t been paying attention. And neither had that other fucking driver.

If he hadn’t tried to get ahead of me, the accident never would’ve happened. Once Noe was safe and being treated, I’d find out who that motherfucker was and where he lived. I needed him dead before midnight. I looked over at Noe again.

Come on, baby. Wake up for me. I’ve just got you back. I can’t lose you again.