Page 29 of Witness Security Breach

Two months of dinner and drinks and public displays of foreplay. Two months of watching Nick’s infatuation grow while Charlie maintained her “touch, but don’t feel” approach, guarding her heart like the gold reserve at Fort Knox, and Aiden played man-trapped-in-the-freaking-middle.

Sixty-five days of torture.

Charlie had been blind to the pain it caused Aiden. She still was. In her defense, he worked very hard to blind her.

She wasn’t property that he owned. They were friends, close as family. She had a right to sleep with whomever she chose without a guilt trip, without pettiness, without judgment on his part.

Aiden only wished she had chosen him.

They got off the trolley in the Gaslamp Quarter, two blocks from Nick’s apartment building. The urban center was the heartbeat of the city.

Aiden preferred his tranquil condo overlooking the water. There he had peace of mind and the quiet to reflect.

Whereas Nick enjoyed the hubbub with energy always circulating, always something to do to keep him from thinking about life. Perhaps that was why things had lasted so long between Nick and Charlie. They’d been objects in constant motion bouncing between work, activities down at the Seaport, entertainment here in the Gaslamp Quarter, which turned into a playground for adults after dark, and then off to the bedroom.

Pushing it from his mind, Aiden followed Charlie into the residential parking garage. They walked to Nick’s designated spot and found his Dodge Ram.

“Can you break in without smashing a window?” Aiden asked her.

“No need.” She dropped to the ground by the front wheel on the driver’s side and felt around for something. “Bingo.”

Charlie stood, holding a magnetic key box. Inside was an extra fob.

Aiden had no idea it was there. Nick was like a Boy Scout, always prepared, but it was salt in the wound realizing that his buddy and his best friend—the woman he loved—knew things about each other outside the bedroom that Aiden didn’t.

The stab of longing and jealousy in him was sharp.

No way was he delving toward things inside the bedroom.

Aiden tossed the bag in the back. They stripped off the scrubs and he got behind the wheel, firing up the fully gassed truck.

They took I-8 East. The first step was to get out the city, then the state.

“We need to find Albatross,” Charlie said. “Finish what we started.”

It was their duty to save him, if they could, but it went deeper now. “As well as clear our names. Everyone believes we’re guilty because of this alleged eyewitness. I can’t wrap my head around it.”

“Pretty convenient, isn’t it?”

“Too convenient. Too tidy.” The whole thing reeked.

“Do you still have the hit man’s burner phone?” Charlie asked.

“Sure do.”

“Can I have it?”

Aiden dug in the pocket of his jeans and handed it to her. “What are you thinking?”

“We need to know who is accusing us, but we’ll need a little assistance to find out.”

“Draper won’t lift a finger to help us, and no one else in the office is going to be inclined to stick their neck out. Not with this kind of heat. If Draper found out, he’d tank their career.”

“There’s one person who might help us.” Charlie shifted in her seat, turning to him. “Nick.”

Aiden was quiet for a long moment. Shame swept through him as he remembered the resentment that he’d held against Nick during those two agonizing months.

“On vacation, he can help from a distance,” Charlie added. “He hates Draper just as much as we do, probably more, and is already planning to transfer to another office. I think he’s our best chance to get some answers.”