Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) - By Unknown Page 0,53
and the drug doesn’t work, they’ve cut their own arm off. It would be stupid.”
“Is there a chance that they already have a sample of the drug and know it’s working?” Manus asked. “Maybe they don’t need her anymore.”
“I don’t know. We’ll have to ask her about that possibility. What about the fire?”
“Ah, the fire. I rode with the fire truck and played fly on the wall. Looks like they suspect arson, most likely some incendiary device. They found something in the kitchen where the fire started. Could have been a timer.”
Aiden rubbed his temple. If somebody had deliberately set the house fire after failing to run her over, then he couldn’t write off any of these events as a coincidence or just bad luck. Two attempts on her life in one night couldn’t be explained away so easily.
“I heard a loud sound. Could have been some sort of explosion. What if something in her kitchen malfunctioned? There were plenty of electrical devices that could have shorted out and caused a fire. Or it could have been the gas stove.”
“The fire chief doesn’t think so. It definitely wasn’t the gas stove, and that’s the only appliance in her kitchen that could have produced the sound of an explosion if that’s what you heard. It’s still early in the investigation, but he seemed pretty convinced that it was arson, and I’m inclined to agree with him. I had a look at the kitchen. There was no electrical cable or outlet in sight where they believe the fire started: on the counter.”
Aiden nodded. “We have to figure out who could have brought something into her apartment without me or her noticing. I was there before she got home. I didn’t see anything suspicious.”
Manus shrugged. “Then somebody must have planted something later.”
“Impossible. I was in the apartment most of the night. Nobody could have gotten past me.”
His friend lifted one side of his mouth. “So you were watching the door all night?”
Heat shot through his chest. Did Manus know that he’d been in Leila’s bedroom, watching her pleasure herself?
“How I do my job is none of your business,” he snapped.
Manus jumped up from the couch and faced him. “Really? Is that because you don’t want to admit that you’re just like me? That fucking a charge excites you? That Leila excites you?”
Aiden growled low and dark.
“Can’t you just admit it?”
“There’s nothing to admit.”
“Isn’t there?”
Aiden clenched his hands into fists, trying to rein in his fury. While he’d never before fucked a charge, unfortunately the rest of Manus’s accusations came too close for comfort. Leila excited him, and he wanted her.
Manus took a step back, nodding. “Well, I guess we’d better talk to Leila about her drug then. Besides—” He pulled out a little box from his jacket pocket. “—I have a birthday present for her. She loves Swiss chocolate, you know.”
Aiden stared at his second. “Her birthday.”
“Of course, I thought you read her file.”
Realization flooded his senses. How could he have missed that? It had happened right in front of his own eyes. “It’s her birthday. Of course. That’s it.”
Then he turned toward the door.
“What are you talking about?” he heard Manus ask behind him.
“Come.”
NINETEEN
The first thing Aiden noticed when he entered the kitchen, followed by Manus, was that Leila’s face looked like she’d seen a ghost. The second thing he noticed was that her eyes were transfixed on the TV screen.
He instantly followed her blank stare and focused in on the sound coming from the program.
“ . . . no signs of the missing researcher. The police have not revealed whether Dr. Cruickshank is considered a suspect in the brutal murder of her boss, however, they have called her a person of interest, since she was the only other person in the building at the time of the murder besides the security guard.”
The newswoman suddenly glanced to the side and listened to somebody off camera. A moment later, she looked back into the camera.
“I am just being informed that the apartment Dr. Cruickshank lives at was gutted by fire earlier tonight. Fire investigators have not announced a conclusion as to the cause, but suspect arson. Whether these two incidences are related is unclear at this point. This is Deborah Winters, WOTK News.”
Aiden walked to the TV and switched it off. He’d expected this, however, he’d hoped to prevent Leila from seeing this.
“They think I did it,” she muttered as if talking to herself.