Lie To Me

Aidan

Aidan leveled a sideways stare at his brother as Flynn quietly filled Mistral in on Raven's whereabouts and recent movements. "You're a bastard," he murmured under his breath.

"You already said that," Kieran returned with a straight face, his lips barely moving.

"Evidently you've forgotten, but there isn't much reason for whispering," Mistral commented without taking her eyes off Flynn.

"And nonetheless, there is some small measure of secrecy to it," Kieran answered levelly, ignoring Aidan's questioning stare.

"Perhaps from one person in the room," Mistral shot back, even as her frown deepened at Flynn's words. "Tristan Vargas?" she inquired.

Kieran turned back to Aidan. "Hearing implants," he said explanatorily.

Ruefully, Aidan grinned. "Of course."

"Let me get this straight." Mistral's voice rang through the room, and Aidan turned reflexively to face her. "My sister abandoned her colleague and mission to attend an Oscars after-party, and no one saw fit to tell me?"

"In a nutshell, yes," Veronique asseverated. "But as I'm sure you can perceive, her actions go far deeper than that."

"And no one saw fit to tell me?" Mistral repeated, steamrolling right over her mother's words.

Aidan winced fleetingly. "It's a delicate situation, as I'm sure you understand. We have no way of discerning Raven's plan or motive, and therefore the wisest course of action was to keep you isolated until we were in a safe environment." Even though he didn't know the explicit reasons behind Kieran's decision, it wasn't hard to guess.

Patronizingly, Mistral gestured to Kieran, who remained silent. "You have a human supercomputer sitting at your side. I'd be surprised if it took him longer than a minute to run through all of the probabilities and come to the conclusion that Raven wouldn't involve me, either from lack of preparation or from a desire to keep me from harm. Although, I suppose I'm involved by default," she added with a bitterly ironic twist to her mouth.

"The probabilities," Kieran said quietly, finally speaking. "Thus far, Raven has meticulously avoided a majority of probabilities, and I felt it prudent to assess your actions while you were seemingly ignorant of your sister's doings."

"And?" Mistral inquired sardonically. "Did I pass?" But she didn't wait for his answer. "Well, what is the plan for retrieval?" she asked, a disgusted emphasis on her last word.

*

*

*

A/N:

I kind of hate this chapter, darlings. It feels rough and raw, both to read and to write, but I don't know how to fix it. I feel like it's a lot of information crammed into not very many words, which is rather the opposite of my style, and I hate that. Any advice on how to improve it would be much appreciated--as would be your vote, if you like this chapter despite its rough, raw edges.