He leans down and whispers softly so that no one else can hear, “I wanted you to drive today so you would have your car in case you needed to leave in the middle of your shift or something. I didn't want you to be here stranded. But I'm going to be here bringing you to work and taking you home to my house—our house—every day. At least until all of this is settled.”
I put my hand on his chest. “And what's going to have to happen after it’s settled?”
He twirls a piece of my hair on his finger and then puts his hand on the side of my neck. “Well after this is settled, you'll still be driving to our house because I'm not going to be apart from you, not even for one night, May. I meant everything I said last night. I don't want to leave you right now and you start second guessing how I feel. I love you.”
He knows me. He knows me probably better than anybody because once he walks away, I probably would have started to question everything that happened last night. “I love you, too, Aiden.”
He kisses me right there in front of everybody. “I'll be back,” he says, and I watch him as he walks back down the hallway and gets onto the elevator. Another nurse walks up to me, fanning her face. “Who was that?”
I can't stop the smile from forming. “That's my boyfriend.”
“Wow. Does he have a brother?”
I laugh at Nurse Stevens. She’s known as a hard-ass around here, but obviously Aiden can even charm the hardest of hearts. “No, he’s one of a kind.”
She pats me on the back. “He sure is, honey. He sure is.”
She walks down the hallway and is fanning herself the whole way. I completely understand why.
9
AIDEN
Fuck, I hate leaving her. I really do. But I know she's not going to like it if I just sit in the nurse's station while she works all day. Plus, I know that I can get help from the guys at work. I drive back into Whiskey Run and pull into the compound. The guy at the gate flags me through, and I no sooner park and I'm out the door and running inside. I say hi to Brooklyn, Walker’s assistant and now wife, as I pass her and go straight towards Dylan's office. Dylan is the tech guy. He can find out anything. He's smiling when I walk in, but when he sees the look on my face, the smile disappears. “What’s up?” he asks.
“I need you to do me a favor.”
He shrugs. “Sure, anything.”
I bypass all the small talk and get straight to the point. “I need you to give me all the information you can on a Dr. Lassiter. He works at Jasper Hospital.”
Before I even get the words out, Dylan's typing into his computer. He goes through, scanning the screen. “On the surface, everything looks like it's on the up and up.”
I nod “Figured that would be the case. I need you to dig deeper, if you can.”
He doesn’t look up from his computer, but I don’t take offense. He’s like that. Once he has something he has to figure out, he stays on it until he’s completely satisfied that he’s gotten all the information. He mumbles, “Sure. No problem, man.”
“I'll be back,” I tell him as I walk out the door and go to the meeting that Nash, my boss, is holding in the conference room. I barely make it to my seat before he starts talking.
I’m thumbing through the file that was placed in front of me, and I can feel Colt staring a hole through me.
Nash is at the front talking about the upcoming mission, and he addresses Colt first thing. “I need you on this one. You've been to London numerous times, and you already have contacts in place... people that trust you. It's going to be a lot easier if you do it.” I can tell that Colt wants to say no, but he doesn't. Almost nobody tells Nash no.
Well, except for me, it seems, because the next thing I know, Nash looks at me, and I know that for where they’re going they’re going to need a pilot, and that's primarily me. Before he even asks, I tell him, “I can't go.”
There's a hush that falls across the room. I’m ready for it, though. I’ve never let my team down, and I don’t necessarily want to do it now, but there’s no way I’m leaving May right now.
Nash rubs his hand across his beard, staring at me. I can tell I’ve thrown him for a loop. Basically if I don't go then that means that Nash will have to pilot the plane. Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal. He used to travel all over the country from what I hear, but lately he’s tried to stay in Whiskey Run and limit his time out of town.