Adverse Possession (The Anna Albertini Files #3) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,96
and then they’d get back together. The guy had serious commitment issues, and Lacey deserved better. I’d hoped last time they broke up that it would be the last time. “We haven’t gotten back together. Don’t worry.”
But I did worry. Lacey deserved somebody who thought she hung the moon and then painted it. “Pauley misses you, too.”
“I talked to my brother earlier today, and he’s fine. I’ll come home soon. For now, what’s up?” she asked.
I told her everything. From the moment Sasha had shown up on Aiden’s front porch to right now. When I wound down, she whistled.
“Well, that’s a lot.” Movement sounded across the line. “I know I should concentrate on the fact that there’s a bomb expert in town, but for a second, I can’t believe you’re talking to me from Aiden Devlin’s bed right now. I mean right now. Do you remember the fantasies we used to weave about him?” She chuckled.
I smiled and snuggled deeper. “Oh, yeah. He’s better than any fantasy.”
“Not fair,” she complained. “I had a crush on him, too.”
“Everybody had a crush on him,” I said. He was the bad boy in high school with an Irish brogue. “Part of me thinks that maybe that’s why Jolene keeps writing articles about me.” They’d been pretty hot and heavy junior year.
Lacey scoffed. “Probably. Either that or you keep ending up in situations that make good copy. Maybe both reasons.”
My eyelids grew heavy. “Probably.” I yawned.
“For now, try to see the connections between everything that’s going on. It’s all there. Look at the situation from a different perspective.” A griddle sizzled over the line.
“Okay. I’ll call you with a Tessa and Nick update when I get one.” I clicked off. Then I let myself lounge for about another hour, but I still didn’t sleep. So I got out of bed and padded out of the room. Aiden’s shirt covered me to my knees, so I wasn’t worried about anybody seeing me.
A quiet peek into the extra room showed Chelli on the floor in a sleeping bag with another woman across the room. Five men sacked out in the living room in sleeping bags, two of them snoring.
Maybe it was a good thing Aiden hadn’t bought furniture yet.
I found him in the case room, and I shut the door. He sat with his back to the wall, his long legs extended, looking at the mounted case board. “Hi.”
“Hi.” The shadow across his jaw gave him the look of a rogue. Lightning zagged outside the window. “Why are you awake?”
“I don’t know.” I sat next to him, extending my bare legs. They didn’t go nearly as far as his did. “Why are you?”
He stared at the board. “I’m missing something.”
“What?”
He stood and moved to the board, taking his hand and wiping off the client. “There’s no client.”
I blinked. “I don’t understand.”
“No client. This has been a set-up the whole time. We are the job. My ATF SRT unit.” He started making notations. “Barensky has changed strategies. He’s changed the chessboard and become the King.” He scribbled notes. “The rooks are the governmental agencies, and the pawns are the two dupes who ended up dead as well as the Lordes members in general.
I tried to remember what Aiden had told me about Barensky. “The explosives are the knights.”
“Yeah.” Aiden scribbled some more, making diagrams.
“Okay, so then the Queen would be the SRT unit, and the bishops are unknowns.”
Aiden stood back and studied his scribbles. “Not this time. He really did change strategies. The SRT unit would be the bishops because we are unknowns but identifiable. He knows our moves, and he has an idea of what we’re doing. Not once did he believe the cover of the Lordes. This has all been the entire game—from the beginning.”
It was impressive how much Aiden had been able to get into Barensky’s head. “So the Queen is, whom?”
Aiden turned, his gaze dark. “You. You’re the Queen in his game, Anna.”
I swallowed. It made a really bizarre and kind of creepy kind of sense. “Isn’t the Queen often sacrificed in the end?”
“Yes.”
Chapter 36
I ignored my very cranky boyfriend and carried the flowers into the hospital before work on Friday. Aiden had really wanted me to stay at his place, but I wasn’t going to let down my clients. Plus, he was guarding my body for now, and then Bud would be back on duty at my office. I couldn’t be safer, really.