A silence fell between them.
Aiden couldn't believe the curveball Colton had just thrown his way.
Derail the plan he said.
Aiden was beyond intrigued now. He wasn't expecting to hear that. After all, he knew that he and Claire had been planning and plotting for at least over a decade now.
So if Colton was willingly wanting to change the plan, especially so close to it's execution, then it meant either he had a change of heart, or he knew something everybody else didn't. And seeing as he wasn't the kind of man to let the ones who tortured his sister go unpunished, much to Aiden's approval, it meant the latter.
"What's wrong?" Aiden's voice was calm and collected. Nothing like the raging fire of pure fury he had going on inside of him.
Colton couldn't help but grin. "You seriously have one hell of a sharp sensor." After letting out yet another deep tired sigh, he continued. "Our original plan, as you might have already guessed, consisted of taking out the Phoenix Clan as a whole. So in preparation of that, we've invested the past ten years into quietly gaining the control they once had."
"How so?" Aiden's intrigue had been sparked.
"We have men stationed inside every single rank within their group, assured the liquidation of their monetary assets once we take action, bought or blackmailed anybody willing to provide a helping hand and cut off all opportunities for them to expand their reach into anything other than the underworld within the country's limits." They may have been secretive group, but they were nothing short of amazing when it came to their detailed work ethic.
"Then what's stopping you from wanting to go through with what you originally intended?" Aiden was confused. He had seen first hand how prepared they were to take down the clan as a whole. So to side track such an amazing feat, there needed to be an undeniably important issue.
"Malcom Kitsch isn't in the country. And from what I can gather, he won't be coming back anytime soon." Colton practically spit the man's name out as he shared his reason for not wanting to move forward with the original plan. Disdain was but a timid definition of what he felt for the man. "Meaning-"
"Meaning Calvin can keep wrecking havoc on you and your people's life long before you can put your original plan into action. " Aiden finished the sentence for him. It was easy to do, seeing as both men shared similar observation and deduction skills.
If a group as big as the Phoenix Clan hadn't either attempted to contact him, or kill him, then that meant one of two things. They either lacked the power to do so, which was implausible given the information had on them. Or the original attack wasn't necessarily clan business. In other words, somebody was using the resources as they saw fit. And given how the importance hierarchy usually plays within underworld clans, it meant that only a person of major influence could do such a thing.
'So Calvin Kitsch is playing big boss in Daddy's absence huh?' Aiden could put one and two together rather quickly.
"Is that all?" Aiden knew there had to be more. He wasn't convinced that a Calvin, who could only be considered a pawn in the gran scale of things, was reason enough for Colton to want changing things.
Colton wasn't surprised by his question. And although necessary, he wasn't exactly thrilled to delve into the complexity of the situation. "What actually makes everything worse is..."Colton rubbed his temple with his eyes shut. A few seconds passed before he finished his thought. "I'm afraid by sister has begun to spiral."
At that Aiden's eyes turned slightly intense.
He had obviously noticed how his little lady would shift from confident to anxious in a heart beat, but he had checked it off as a part of her adoring personality. Maybe even a result of her low self esteem. And even if he could obvious detect a variety of other unusual traits she had, he was also painfully aware of at least a fraction of the amount of trauma she had endured. How she could still function as she did was a mystery in itself.
But hearing Colton, her most trusted older brother and guardian, say she was unwell in his eyes? Now that was a warning Aiden couldn't ignore. Nobody knew her better than the man sitting before him.
"I'm listening." Aiden didn't mean to sound curt, but he couldn't help it. At the end of the day it was his angle he was there for. So this matter would take priority over anything and everything else.
Colton sighed. He almost looked as defeated as he felt. "My sister has had it far worse at the hands of these assholes than most our team has." He said as his fist closed tightly. Action that Aiden's eyes immediately picked up on. "I obviously won't go into detail, that's for her to share when or if she's ever ready, but it's important that you know." Colton could se Aiden paying close attention, so he continued. "So having Calvin try to roughly yank her life to pieces as she can only hold back for fear of ruining our years of work is only going to make he lose her sanity. I've seen it happen before and I....." There was a long pause before he finished. " I don't think I'll be able to help her this time around if she hits rock bottom again. I almost lost her the first time. And I'm not willing to see her go through that again. Even if it means having her be pissed at me for the rest of her life."
"I see." Aiden couldn't help be feel somewhat empathetic for the man before him.
It wasn't hard to see that, similarly to his sister, asking Aiden for help in this matter wasn't something he was comfortable with. Any man would want to pride himself in his ability to protect his own. So having him sit there with a bruised and broken body while asking another man to help him keep his girls from harm? Yeah. It gained him respect. To put ones pride aside for the sake of others is not easily done. Especially when talking about men as powerful as they were.
"What did you have in mind?" Aiden said smoothly. As if his hands hadn't started to itch since the moment Colton presented him with the opportunity of spilling blood so soon.
Colton felt relieved. If Aiden hadn't put his Cece's well being before the annihilation of his target, he wasn't confident of being able to derail from the original plan like he desired to. Not to mention, he'd lose a quite a few brownie points as his little sister's love interest.
"Well, our most immediate threat is Malcom's sorry excuse for a son. And an even worse excuse for a human being." Colton did nothing to try and hide the fact that he despised the man to his very core. Sentiment that was clearly evident in his tone. "He's the one responsible for all the shit that's been happening these past few months. It wasn't until I confirmed Malcom was out of the country that I finally understood why all of the moves they made were so flashy. Only a narcissist like that idiot would do things the way that he has."
"But why try to kill you?" His little Angel's mysteries had been slowly getting clearer, but there were still too many pieces that Aiden couldn't put together on his own. At least not without risking the chance of being completely off mark. "Logically speaking, you're as much of an asset to them as you are a threat. So shouldn't your capture be just as important as hers?"
"You'd be correct if we were talking about Malcom, or even the Phoenix Clan as a whole. The problem is, that we're not. We're talking about his idiot son." Colton wasn't exactly thrilled about sharing private, and somewhat disturbing, parts of his little sister's life, but he had to. He needed Aiden to understand. "You see, he's been obsessed with Cece ever since he was a kid. And he's always hated my guts for being the wall he couldn't climb over to get to her."
"So you're an obstacle. The thing in the way of what he really wants." Colton's words made a catalyst of gruesome thoughts tumble into Aiden's head. But thanks to how skilled he was in maintaining his facial expressions as aloof as humanly possible, none of them showed on his face.
"Exactly. And thanks to how he's been acting now that he knows she's alive, it guarantees me that he hasn't shared that important piece of information with his dear old daddy."
"And you think George Flinn was the one who tipped him off?" Aiden hadn't forgotten about the insignificant rat.
"Yes. Other than him, there was nobody who could've let him know. Claire and I were nothing more than ghosts of the past. I made sure to leave no trace behind when I staged our deaths all those years ago." It had been a dark time in the Collin siblings lives. So in an attempt to avoid any unwanted questions from the man before him, he sped by the fact and continued his explanation. "At the time, George was in direct dealings with the clan when we assume Calvin made the connection between the two. And given the access he had to her due to his affiliation with the now missing asshole, it was only a matter of time before he caught on to who she was. We miscalculated George's influence through his underworld connections. A mistake we're now paying for."
"So even a simple description about the annoying CEO who worked at his company over drinks with the wrong person could have sufficed for her identity to be compromised." Aiden noticed how Colton had didn't give space to discuss whatever he was unwilling to share regarding their escape, but he was too busy plotting George Flinn's death to press him about it.
"Well yeah. As you know, Claire tends to stand out." Colton teased Aiden with his words. Was the conversation a serious one? Of course. But so was his need to fulfill his big brother responsibilities.
"Tell me about it." Aiden saw the knowing look Colton was giving him and couldn't help but chuckle lightly. The man truly knew how to throw people off if he intended to. "Well, being the kind of man that you are, I'm assuming you already have a plan in mind?"
"You've assumed correctly." He had calculated and designed a number of different plans. Even his backups had backups. "The only thing I'm still unsure of is how to get him relatively alone."
At that Aiden couldn't help but smile. Not the kind that reached his eyes, but the kind that made the temperature in the room drop a few degrees.
"Well isn't this the perfect way to finally make our first move as partners?" Aiden could see the grin on Colton's face widen as a silent agreement was made between them.
------------------------------------------
Claire felt her eyelids struggle to open. So instead of fighting with them, she opted to simply let them be.
She remembered how Ben had woken her up. After apparently falling asleep in the training room, she found herself in Cameron's arms. Being easily carried as both men explained how she should shower and go to bed. And seeing as she had been drained both physically and mentally, she didn't mind the idea. So after doing exactly that, she had now woken up in Colton's bedroom.
But now that her sleepy dazed state was wearing off, the usual thoughts began to make themselves comfortably heavy on her mind.
She was laying on her back as she now stared at the ceiling. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dark, like they always did, and focused on the way the roof above her looked like a clean slate. Uninterrupted all white coloring, with no cracks in it's foundation. And just like the possibility of having a fresh beginning herself, unreachable to her hands.
'Envious of a damn ceiling. Unbelievable.' Claire thought to herself as she rubbed both of her hands down her face.
She turned to face the digital clock Colton had on top of his night stand and noticed it was a few hours before sunrise. Not really wanting to venture into another nightmare, she sat up. Wrapped herself in the bed's blanket and made her way out. Once she did, she saw an unexpected face in the small living area.
"I guess sleep really hasn't been all that popular around here these past few days now has it Madam?" Ben's usual warm voice made it's way to Claire's ears. Making her immediately smile.
"I guess it hasn't." She replied as she took the few steps needed to join him at the couch.
While sitting down next to him, she noticed he was silently watching television. The volume was low, but since it was so quiet, they could both hear the movie playing perfectly.
"I guess some things really don't change." Just like always, Ben was watching a black and white film. One of the very few things that spoke about his personal interests.
Although he was indeed loyal to the people he happily lived with, Ben was never to overly share. Not about his past, his preferences or anything that spoke about him as a person. In fact, everybody that held him dearly in their hearts would base their opinions of him off of his very silent, but very loving actions towards them. Because other than that, they didn't really have much to go on.
So considering that his love for old films was one of the very few details Claire knew about him, she would always enjoy the calm effect this minor unchanging and constant detail about him brought her.
"Some things are never meant to." Ben's words were a heavy burden on Claire's already pessimistic thoughts. After all, the fear she carried within ever since she was a child wasn't the kind to magically dissipate over the years. But, he hadn't finished his wise teachings. "But change, is one of the very few things in our lives we actually get to have a say in from time to time."
Claire heard his words and couldn't help but look at him. And not to her surprise, he was already smiling at her. Letting her know that he had seen through her jumbled up head, and was confident that she would be okay. Without another word said, he stood up.
"It's been a while since we had some hot chocolate." Lovingly patting her head like a father would to his small child, he continued. "Don't you think so?"
Claire's eyes glistened from the tears building up in them. Not because she was sad, but because whatever magic spell his words casted over her, made her remember something she had begun to forget. The very thing that had pushed her to fight for survival all those years ago.
"I believe it has." She replied to him with a gentle smile spread across her lips.
She then saw him make his way towards the kitchen and begin to prepare enough hot chocolate for the both of them. And as he watched his back while he did so, she couldn't help but feel comforted by the sight.