Free Safe by Rachel Hanna Page B

she was saying, but she also worried that she wasn’t the right person for Aidan. What if she made his life miserable?
     
    ***
     
    The next few weeks were filled with legal proceedings, depositions and divorce paperwork. Carly wanted to be done with Ethan, but she knew that their lives would be forever intermingled in the press and in the court room.
     
    Marcus Cantrell pleaded guilty to attempted murder, and Carly faced him down in the court room. The look in his eyes was one of avoidance and sorrow over what he’d done. Unlike Ethan, he didn’t have money and power. He had agreed to kill Carly for one reason:  his home was in foreclosure and his wife was threatening to leave him. Ethan had offer ten thousand dollars to kill Carly, and Marcus was so distraught that he saw no way out.
     
    Carly kept expecting to see Aidan in court, but he never showed up. The other agents on the scene spoke for the FBI when Marcus pleaded guilty. Was he avoiding her? Had he moved on? Carly wasn’t convinced that Aidan shouldn’t move on. In her mind, she was nothing but trouble to him anyway.
     
     

Chapter 13
     
    Aidan had spent the last few weeks trying to shake Carly from his mind. He had let himself get too close yet again, even ending up in her bed. Now, he was paying the price for his inability to leave her alone. So, that was just what he was going to do - leave her alone.
     
    He hadn’t shown up for her court proceedings, which he knew would hurt and confuse her. A part of him wanted to hurt her just as she had hurt him. When she left the bedroom and went down that mountain, he was terrified. Had he found her dead, he never would have forgiven himself. Allowing Carly access to his damaged heart was dangerous in his mind.
     
    “Aidan, there is a young lady here to see you. She says she is an old friend from school,” Aidan’s secretary, Mary, said as she appeared in his doorway.
     
    Aidan froze in his chair for a moment, never looking up from his computer screen. It had to be Carly. Now was the moment of truth. What would he say to her? Did he even want to see her?
     
    “Send her in,” he managed to say in a stoic tone. Aidan turned his chair and closed his eyes, trying to brace himself for the onslaught of feelings that came with Carly.
     
    “It’s rude not to turn around when a person comes into your office,” a female voice said. That was not Carly.
     
    “Zinnia?” Aidan said turning around in his chair with a smile. Her red curls flowed down her back now, making her look like the cover model for some strange Alice In Wonderland type novel.
     
    “Hey, honey!” she said with a smile as she walked over and hugged him.
     
    “So good to see you. What are you doing here?”
     
    “Well, I just wanted to catch up with you a bit. Have time for lunch?” she asked with a grin. Aidan knew this had to be about Carly, but he wanted to act cool.
     
    “Sure. Let me grab my coat,” he said.
     
    As the two sat down at a local deli, Zinnia could not wipe the smile off her face.
     
    “Why are you grinning like a Cheshire cat?” he asked with a smirk.
     
    “I love how you say ‘Cheshire’. You sound like royalty,” she said laughing.
     
    “Don’t divert attention, Zinnia. What’s going on?”
     
    “It’s about Carly,” Zinnia said with a sad face.
     
    “Is she alright?” Aidan asked, a little too jumpy for someone who was trying not to care.
     
    “No, she’s not. She misses you, Aidan.”
     
    Like an arrow through his heart, Aidan felt a wave of guilt. Had he pushed her away too soon? Had he unknowingly done the same thing to her that she did to him all those years ago? Left her in her time of need?
     
    “How do you know that?” he asked biting into his sandwich.
     
    “Because she told me. She thinks that she isn’t good enough for you… that she would just hurt you again,” Zinnia replied.
     
    “Well, she has hurt me a couple of times now. I don’t know if I want more of the