“I wouldn’t, Angel.” His voice was calm but his gaze a heated blue. He turned his head toward the truck. “Pauley, get out of the truck, please.”
I blinked.
Spider grunted. “We need him.”
“No, we don’t.” Aiden faced the club president, looking almost bored. “He’s a minor, and we don’t need that kind of trouble right now. We have the numbers and can work it out from there. This isn’t worth the risk.”
Spider scowled. “You’re whipped, Devlin.”
Aiden partially turned and put me behind him while keeping my hand. “Have I let you down? Even once?”
Spider faltered. “No.”
“Well then, trust me.” Aiden waited until Pauley had walked back to my car. “Get in, Pauley.” Once he had, Aiden switched his hold on my hand and then began moving toward the school. “Pauley? You and Spider stay here. Anna and I will be right back.”
“No.” I protested and dug in my heels.
Aiden barely pivoted while ducking to the side, and less than a heartbeat later, I found myself over his shoulder, looking down at the ground as his strides ate up the distance toward the door.
“That’s better,” Spider yelled.
“Hey!” Rage ripped through me so fast my skin burned. I punched Aiden as hard as I could in the lower back. “Put me down.”
He ignored me, and pretty much the few patrons in the library, as he stomped through toward the office in the back. Then he unlocked it and dodged inside, flipping me over to sit on the desk. He had his own key. I opened my mouth to scream, and he planted his palm directly over it.
I sucked in air.
He leaned in; his eyes so blue they were hard to stare at. “Pauley is outside with Spider. We have about five minutes before Spider decides to fuck it and takes your cousin away from here to work on some math we’re struggling with. Yeah, you can call the cops. Yeah, it’d probably be kidnapping. If you find Pauley again.”
As a threat, it was good. Tears threatened to prick my eyes, and I shoved them away as he removed his hand. “You’d hurt Pauley?” I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t.
“No. I’m trying to help him and you right now.” Lines etched into the sides of Aiden’s mouth. “Work with me.” Turning, he ripped the map off the wall and gathered the stacks of paper in one arm. “Then get your cousin out of the way and you stay there, too. I don’t like your face bruised.”
My face bruised? Seriously? “Fuck you, Aiden.”
He quickly went through the desk drawers, which were empty. “Let’s go.”
I jumped in front of him. “You’re not taking that evidence out of here.” Stumbling, I started dialing my phone to call the police.
A motorcycle roared to life outside.
I gasped and turned to run through the stacks of books and out into the day. Spider was on his bike, and Pauley was still in my car. Okay. My legs trembled. I walked toward the car as fast as my black funeral pumps would allow.
Aiden followed and shoved the papers at the guy with the nose ring, who took them to the vacated passenger side seat. The truck roared away followed by Spider, who gave a short wave as he left. The remaining truck idled quietly with an older man at the wheel who stared straight ahead.
I furiously turned on Aiden as he walked back around my car toward me. “You just stole evidence in a homicide, dumbass. Might as well follow me to the police station.”
He opened my door. “All I took was my own documents. No stealing. There’s no proof of a homicide in those papers, which probably won’t exist much longer.”
“No, but you have no right to a key to an office at this college.” I shoved him as hard as I could in the gut, and he took a step away from me. “In fact, I think that alone is probable cause to arrest you.” Oh, I was bluffing a mile a minute now, but I was too pissed to stop. “Got it?”
He grasped my arm and flipped me around, pushing with just enough strength to land my ass in my seat. “Scot gave me the key because we were working on a project together.”
“Handlebars,” Pauley said helpfully, staring straight out of the windshield.
Aiden’s jaw firmed. “Yeah. Handlebars.”
I slapped his hand away and reached to slam my door shut, flipping on my headlights. “I can’t believe you got my cousin