The Wild Moon by Riley Storm
Chapter Twenty-Nine
My throat dropped into my stomach as the elevator whisked me upward at a rapid pace.
“Urgh,” I muttered, adjusting the straps of the backpack I had slung over my shoulders. The straps were digging deep through my shirt and into the skin, courtesy of the heavy weight the backpack contained. The sudden extra weight as the elevator shot higher had caused them to dig in even deeper.
“You had better be worth this, Aaron,” I grumbled to nobody in particular–the elevator was empty aside from me–as I waited for it to come to a stop.
After escaping Aldridge Manor, I’d run to where I’d stashed my dad’s truck, then driven the few hours back to Kellar. I’d crashed at the back of a truck stop, waiting for daylight before getting in touch with Aaron.
He’d directed me to meet him at his offices.
The elevator slowed, my stomach returning to normal, and the doors opened, spilling me out into an ultra-sleek-looking lobby, filled with rectangular light fixtures, rich dark hardwoods, and brilliantly white tiled floors.
There was no secretary at the front desk, so I strode past to the offices. There were six in total, but only one, at the very end of the hall, seemed occupied with its door ever so slightly ajar.
I walked right up to it and went in without knocking.
“I can see why you need to charge so damn much,” I growled, unslinging my backpack and dropping it onto his desk.
Hopefully, it scratched it a bit. The huge U-shaped construct likely cost half the amount of gold I had been lugging around. It would serve him right.
Aaron grinned at me. “Your father often said the same thing. But he always paid as well. My services are well worth it, I assure you.”
“Right,” I said, shifting my weight from side to side.
Truthfully, I was uncomfortable in a place like this. I was wearing jeans, black knee-high boots, and a gray sweater.
Aaron was wearing the shit out of a black three-piece suit. Even the shirt was black, though it was a bit glittery, reflecting the light in fun patterns. He rose as I watched, coming to sit on the corner of the desk next to me.
He didn’t even look in the backpack, simply taking my word for it. Instead, he stared at me, those oddly bright blue eyes searching my face for…something. The intensity of his gaze left me unsettled and incredibly aroused.
Maybe it was because I didn’t feel the need to fight it with him as I did with Johnathan, but every time he looked at me, I nearly threw myself at him. Which probably wasn’t a good thing. Any man who could turn me into a puddle of desire with a simple gaze did not have my best interests in mind.
“Thank you for this,” he said, sliding the backpack across the desk to his side of it.
I watched him slide it away from me, peeking inside.
“Impressive,” he said.
“We good, then?” I asked a bit bitterly. I didn’t like handing over my culture to him. I could feel it even now as he pulled the statuette away from me. I didn’t want to let it go.
But I didn’t have a choice. I needed his help, and I needed it fast. I could get the money from fights–eventually–but it would take too long, and the next Wild Moon was almost upon us. I didn’t know what would happen then, so that’s why we had to move now.
“Yes,” he said, answering me, though his eyes were asking me a question. “We’re good.”
“Spit it out,” I said. “What?”
He licked his lips, then spoke. “What do you expect to find out there, Dani? Your father never found anything.”
I almost told him I thought he was wrong. That my father did find something. But that was just a hunch, a theory on my part. My instincts told me something was out there in the mountains northeast of Kellar. Something I had to find.
“I don’t know,” I said instead. “But he left me that journal for a reason, and I have to know what it was.”
“Very well,” Aaron said, accepting my words.
I guess when you’re getting paid as much as he was, it didn’t really matter if I did or didn’t find anything. His fee was covered, and that was that.
“Great.” I really wasn’t sure what else to say here. Making a comment about business being over with, so now we could get to the pleasure didn’t seem like it would go over well.
“I’ll start the preparations for the expedition,” Aaron said, standing up. “It will probably take around ten days for me to have everything ready.”
“Ten days?” I cried. “Not good enough. We can’t take that long.”
Aaron frowned at me. “Are we in a rush? That wasn’t specified.”
Of course we were in a rush. But I couldn’t tell him about that. He didn’t know about us, about my people, and what happened on the full moon. I had to be gone. I needed to be out there when it came. I didn’t know why, but I just knew I had to be in the mountains when the Wild Moon came over the horizon in a few days’ time.
Everything was counting on it.
“Two days,” I said firmly. “We’re leaving in two days.”
Aaron opened his mouth to argue. “I don’t–”
“Two days, Aaron,” I growled, putting my foot down. I shoved his super-sexy good looks and the effects he had on my body to the side and stared him down. This was a non-negotiable point, and I needed him to take me seriously.
He took a long time to respond, staring at my face–not just my eyes, but the whole thing, which was a bit unnerving–before he finally responded.
“Fine. We’ll do it your way, two days.”
“Thank you,” I said, giving him a firm nod, preparing to head out.
“But if we’re going to leave that fast, then you’re going to have to help me.”
I paused. “Help you with what? I thought I was paying you. Isn’t that enough?”
“Not to leave that quickly,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re going to have to help me get my team together.”
“Team?” I said, dumbfounded. “This is the first time you’ve mentioned a team!”
Aaron just stared at me, waiting for an answer. He wasn’t about to explain himself. That much was clear.
“Fine,” I said grumpily. “Where do we start?”
He grinned at me, and I nearly gave him the finger. Aaron was enjoying the victory, and if I got lippy, he would probably like it even more. So, I gave him sullen silence instead. I’m so mature.
“The docks,” he said. “Tonight. Ten.”
