Perfect posh accent.
Perfect manners.
Perfect everything.
“Indeed, son.” Uncle’s chest puffs. “King Enterprises has a bright future with you as an heir.”
He’s calling him Son.
Fucking Son.
But then again, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Uncle is impressed. He always loathed how big companies looked down their noses at smaller ones, but here is an heir of the biggest company of all telling him exactly what he believes in.
“I can only try, Sir. Iʼm only at the beginning of the path, but I hope to work as hard as you and everyone else.”
I know they’re rehearsed words that he must’ve said a thousand times before, but with the sincerity mask he’s wearing, even I am close to being fooled.
Aiden is a parasite.
No.
He’s the devil who can flow in someone’s bloodstream and tell him exactly what he likes to hear without appearing sleazy or an obvious manipulator.
But before you know it, he’d be telling you what to do and how to do it.
By then, you’d have no control over your actions.
“You didn’t have to hide it from us, pumpkin.” Uncle beams at me, already under Aiden’s spell. “We’re not that strict with you, are we?”
If I begin screaming right now that Aiden is lying and that we should burn and bury his corpse in the back garden, Aunt and Uncle will probably take me back to Dr Khan and ask him to admit me to that hospital I hated when I was a kid.
“That’s because Elsie never had a boyfriend.” Aunt is softening, too, but unlike Uncle, something is holding her back.
Aiden raises one perfect eyebrow at the needless information Aunt just shared.
His lips move in a tiny smirk only meant for me as he squeezes my shoulder hard. I suppress a wince. He quickly masks his sadism to resume his perfect disguise. “I’m honoured to be her first.”
Aunt touches her collarbone, a habit she does whenever she’s uncertain. “We’ll talk about this, Elsa. For now, you should go to school.”
She packs my sandwich in a container and places it in my backpack.
“Come on.” Aiden clutches me by the arm like a doting boyfriend. “We’ll be late.”
While I’m thinking about ways to get away with murder, Aiden offers Aunt and Uncle his golden boy smile.
“It was nice to finally meet you, Mr and Mrs Quinn.”
“Please, call us Jaxon and Blair, Son.” Uncle glances at me. “Make sure to bring him over.”
Over my dead body.
“I’ll certainly visit.” One more blinding smile. “Elsa tells me you’re an Arsenal fan.”
“Why, indeed. A gunner at heart.”
“Me, too. In fact, it runs in the family. My cousin, Levi King, plays for the team. The president is my father’s old friend. If you want to attend a game, let me know and I’ll get you a special pass.”
Uncle might as well have been star struck. “That would be brilliant. Go, Gunners.”
“Go, Gunners,” Aiden fist-bumps him.
Uncle is the one to usher us out. I’m contemplating running upstairs to my room, hit rewind and pretend this morning never happened.
Or better yet, I’ll wait for Aiden at the door with an axe.
He parked his car in front of the house. A bright red Ferrari. Of course. An arsehole like him would drive a fast Italian car.
Aunt remains at the threshold of the house. Her folded arms and unreadable expression are the complete opposite of Uncle’s enthusiasm.
Aiden guides me to the passenger seat with his hand on the small of my back. I try not to squirm in the black leather seats and hold my backpack close to my chest like a shield.
Once we’re seated, Aiden throws one last pleasantry at Uncle before he hits the button. The engine’s strong vibrations startle me and I grip the backpack tighter.
The car revs in the wide streets. I suppress a gasp at the strength of this thing. I can’t even help clenching my thighs together.
“You like the power, sweetheart?” Aiden watches me intently as I fight the strange rush of excitement.
All the thrill fades away when I recall that I’m riding with the devil. “Pull over.”
“We’re not there yet.”
I face him with an incredulous look. “You really think I’d let you drive me to school?”
“I told you yesterday that you’d regret ignoring me.”
“You honestly believe I would reply to your crude texts?”
He lifts a shoulder. “But for future reference, I dislike being ignored.”
“I don’t care about what you dislike, Aiden.” My voice rises.
The stunt he just pulled and Aunt’s disappointed face makes me sick to my stomach.
“You should or…” He reaches over and clutches my hand in his. “I will continue dropping in unannounced and make your adoptive parents fall in love with me.” He lifts my hand to his lips and brushes a kiss to my knuckles.
To an outsider, the gesture would look gentle, almost chaste. But this is Aiden fucking King. The malice in his eyes twists me in knots.
“The look on your face when I stepped into your house was priceless, sweetheart. I should’ve caught it on camera.”
I jerk my hand free. My automatic reaction would be to scream and make him drop me off, but things don’t roll that way with Aiden.
He gets off on anger and strong emotions. Since I’m almost sure he’s a psycho, and therefore lacks feelings, he uses them to antagonise others.
If I give into his trap, I’ll never find a way out.
I just saw first hand how he manipulated Aunt and Uncle, who’ve known me for my entire life, into thinking I was hiding a love affair from them.
The only way to escape his intricate manipulation web is to be level-headed.
I square my shoulders as I face him. My voice is calm. “I don’t know what your obsession is with me, but it’s not going to work.”
He squints an eye. “Let me worry about that, sweetheart.”
“Iʼm not your sweetheart, Aiden. I’m just a girl you bully and I hate to say this, but I prefer the days you had your minions bully me over this unwanted attention. I don’t want you anywhere near me or my family. It’s one more year and everyone will go their own way, so let’s pretend these last couple of days never happened.”
“Pretending was never my thing.”
“Oh, please. You just pulled off a Broadway-level performance about how much you care about me when we both know you don’t.”
“I do care about you, sweetheart. Maybe not in the conventional term, but I never stopped caring about you. It’s becoming tiresome and fucking irritating.” His dark eyes shoot a path into my soul. “The time has come to do something about it.”
Chapter Thirteen
The time has come to do something about it.
The car ride has been silent since Aiden said those words.
I’m at a loss for words.
Trying to find a crack in Aiden’s wall is like hitting thick steel; it’s hard, painful, and maddening.
As the car cuts the distance with high speed, a crazy idea barges into my head.
Maybe I’ve been using the wrong method to find that crack. Not only does strength have the opposite effect on Aiden, but he’s also getting the upper hand whenever I display it.