Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) - By Unknown Page 0,89
her. He understood that now. He’d never had a chance against the forces that had brought them together. And he was glad for it. He would fight it no longer.
As Leila walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, he called out, “Come in, Pearce!”
A second later, he watched his fellow Stealth Guardian pass through the door and appear in his room. Pearce surveyed the room briefly, his eyes catching on something behind Aiden.
“Is your guest all right?” he asked.
“Why shouldn’t she be?”
Pearce motioned his head to a spot on the floor. Aiden turned and realized what he was looking at: Leila’s shredded jeans.
“She’s perfectly fine,” he insisted and turned his gaze back to his visitor, unable to even feel embarrassed about what he’d done.
“Good, good. Anyway, I wouldn’t have disturbed you, but I have a couple pieces of news.”
Aiden listened intently. “Don’t make me pull it out of your nose.”
“About Zoltan. The news just came through that the body of a Mr. Zoltan has been found. He’s been dead for days. The news station showed his picture, but Hamish said it’s not the demon who attacked you at the farmhouse.”
Aiden rubbed the back of his neck, contemplating the news. “He must have killed the real Zoltan and then taken his identity to infiltrate Inter Pharma.”
“I agree. Wouldn’t be a first that a demon is impersonating a real person to get what he wanted. Anyway, unfortunately that’s not gonna get us any closer to him.”
“You’re right. Anything about my phone?”
“Yep. Somebody uploaded a little program that made it possible to operate your GPS remotely, switching it on and off whenever they wanted.”
“Shit! How?”
“I’ll spare you the technical details, but the only way to have done that would be to physically have had possession of your phone. I’ve deactivated it now.” Pearce scratched his head.
Aiden furrowed his brows. “But who could have gotten hold of my phone?”
“Exactly. The only time you leave it lying around, is here in the compound.”
“You mean someone here could have done that?” He shook off the thought. No, that couldn’t be. If that was the case, he and Leila weren’t safe here.
“I mean, unless you’ve left it somewhere else for somebody to access it, but I can’t see how a council member—”
“That’s it. I know how they did it.” Why hadn’t he thought of that earlier?
“How?”
He ignored the question. There wasn’t the time now, because he’d just figured out how to trap the traitor on the council. “Can you replicate the software and upload it to other cell phones?”
“Sure, but aren’t you gonna tell me whose phones?”
“I’ll tell you when we get there.”
“Get where?”
“My father’s place.”
THIRTY-ONE
After presenting his plan to Hamish and the others, Aiden felt confident that they could ferret out the traitor and in turn find Zoltan and the pendant.
“And when you get the pendant back, what then?” Leila asked, now dressed in clothes Enya had lent her.
He brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Then he pressed a quick kiss on her lips, not caring whether his friends were watching or not. They would get used to it. “Trust me, baby.”
She gave a quick nod. “I do.”
“I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Flanked by Pearce, he made his way down to the basement.
“What’s your plan?”
Aiden gave his friend a sideways glance. “I just told you my plan. Weren’t you listening?”
Pearce made a dismissive hand movement. “Not about the traitor, about your charge.”
He couldn’t answer that, not because he didn’t know the answer, but because the person to hear it first should be Leila. When he was back, he would talk to her about it. And he hoped she felt the same way. “There’s nothing to tell.”
“That surprises me, considering you shared virta with her.”
Aiden spun his head toward him and let out a frustrated breath. “Can nobody in this joint keep a secret anymore?”
His friend made a comical face. “Must have surprised the hell out of Hamish, otherwise he wouldn’t have mentioned it. So what’s up with that?”
“As I said, there’s nothing to tell.” Yet.
Next time he and Leila made love, it would be like the first time again. But he hadn’t told her that it would always be like that between them from now on. And at the thought of that, his chest puffed up with pride, knowing what that would do to her, knowing what it would do to both of them. Even now as he stepped into the portal, Pearce