CHAPTER 350: EXPLANATIONS?

"Do you think I should tell him everything?" Athena wiped her mouth elegantly with a serviette and dumped it on the empty plate before her.

She hadn’t known how hungry she was until Aiden had served her a plate of spicy spaghetti with meatballs, gotten from a nearby restaurant. She had been awake for twenty-five minutes.

Beside her on the bed was Ewan, with an empty plate and a naked upper body. Kent had dressed his wounds too before leaving for his hospital.

"I don’t know," Ewan replied after a slight hesitation. "He’s a close family friend. I don’t want my feelings around him to influence your decision." He turned to Aiden. "What do you think? You’re a neutral person."

Aiden shrugged in response, drank from his beer can. "I think we should keep the core details between us. Just tell him to sack the twins. That would make them run, and make it easier to trace them and their stupid lab."

"That might work too," Ewan agreed, peering at his phone when its ringtone pierced the air. Sandro.

"Hey, are you guys done moving in?" he put the call on speaker, seeing Athena’s subtle—or so she thought—effort in eavesdropping.

"Yes. Just putting together some things, making it fit for the boss woman." Zane’s chuckle was heard in the background.

"How is she doing? The surgery done?"

"Yeah," Ewan answered, a frown appearing on his face, one of distaste, as he spoke his next words. "The bastards put six trackers in her. I’m sure they calculated that we might discover their antics and had put multiple to counter our efforts. Those idiots! Those..."

A catch of breath, a seize of words when he felt Athena’s calming touch on his hand.

Stay calm, her beautiful eyes seemed to communicate to him.

Did she know what her touch did to him? He wondered, forgetting Sandro for a second.

Because if she did, she wouldn’t be touching him like that! Looking at him like that! Did he enjoy it? Of course. But it was torture, knowing he couldn’t kiss those succulent lips, that he couldn’t run his hands freely on her skin.

He cussed out in his mind. She belonged to another man—or so she thought.

"Ewan..."

He cleared his throat, ignored Aiden’s scoff, and asked Sandro what he had missed.

"I was asking you about the trackers. What was their make?" Sandro didn’t know what was going on on the other side, but he was sure that it had something to do with his friend’s honey-bee attraction to the lady boss.

"Yes. Government stuff. Another indicator that our man is in the seats of power."

"Do you think it’s the president?" a whispered question. "That maybe Morgan has been flown to a luxurious suite and is taken care of by naked, curvaceous women?"

The laugh escaped Athena’s lips before she could stop it. "Sandro! I never knew you had such a vivid imagination!"

The latter immediately hung up, and Aiden burst out into laughter. "Way to go, Athena. You just alerted the poor guy that the call was on speaker."

She shrugged, smiling. "I just couldn’t help it. Neither could I believe he mentioned multiple curvaceous women."

Ewan managed a nervous laugh. Sandro was going to have his ass. But how was he to know his friend would make such a remark?

A knock sounded on the door.

"Probably Linda coming to inform us that Herbert is still waiting for us in his office." Aiden guessed. And he was right on the money.

"He is probably too excited to sit still," Linda added as she closed the door behind them, then headed in the opposite direction; she had patients to call on.

Linda was right on the money too. Herbert was still pacing in his office when Athena entered, flanked by Ewan and Aiden.

"Herbert, sorry I gave you cause to worry. How are you doing?"

"Forget about me. How are you doing? Is something wrong with you? Why did you need to call in Kent? Wasn’t Dr. Finn and Linda enough? And the other doctors?"

Which question was she supposed to start with now? Athena mused, sitting on one of the chairs, too tired to remain standing.

"Well, I couldn’t involve Finn because he is working with Morgan. The twins too," she finally spoke after a long second.

Herbert raised an eyebrow, interest successfully piqued, and sat on the chair. "Tell me more. Do you have evidence?"

Athena nodded. "Saw Finn’s coat at one of the hideouts, and when we captured him, he confessed to being Heron... the benefits of plastic surgery, huh..."

Herbert had no words, visibly shocked.

"For the twins, I don’t have concrete evidence, but I know they are responsible for planting bugs inside me... they utilized the accident case appropriately... that could be the only way of planting several bugs inside me."

Athena’s lips paused, a frown clouding her face as she processed the information again. She had been watched for more than a month.

"Wow, that’s... huge."

"Yes... you have to fire them, Herbert."

When a sorrowful look overtook Herbert’s astonished face, she was sure a ’but’ was right on her path.

"I can’t. The contract... I told you about it," Herbert replied.

"Damn the contract! This is a case of national emergency. Or should we involve the president?" Ewan cut in, hands folded across his chest.

"But there’s no evidence, so how do we prove that to the national security? And mind you, a signed contract is a binding legal document too..."

"There can be exceptions," Aiden countered. "I’m sure there can be one in this case. This is critical, Herbert."

"And you think I am not aware of that? That I don’t regret my hasty decision to employ them, even though it was the only way to save Athena’s life?"

Athena had the good grace to look away.

"And how do you know the president isn’t part of this shenanigans? That too-good fellow who laughs a lot and hides a secret behind his eyes?" Herbert thundered, revealing his businesslike countenance.