Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

ASHER

S o much has changed in the past few months. It’s hard sometimes to reflect because we’re always reacting in some way. The beach, Nate, Brooke, and now Harper. I know what tomorrow will bring, and I think my girl is in a better place now than when she last came face to face with her hell. Yet, part of me is shifting—I feel something coming. Something that will change the game yet again, and part of me feels helpless to stop it. It’s a feeling I’m not comfortable with and I don’t like it.

“Ready?” a voice calls out to me from the door, and I look up. I see Harper in a dress for the first time since the night she came back to me. Her bruises have faded—it’s only when you get really close you can still see ruminants of her abuse. That’s the thing, though—bruises fade, but the scars she carries inside of her will last a lifetime. On the surface, when she smiles like that, she looks happy and normal. No one would guess what she had been through. But the cracks under the surface can rupture at any point and that anger, the hurt, can spill over and break her all over again. One wrong word, one flash, and the happy Harper I see right in front of me could disappear.

As she looks at me pensively now, knowing I’m lost in thoughts, I know that no matter what and no matter how long it takes, I’ll always be here to help put her together again. But the biggest realization I have is that chances are she won’t need me too. My girl is strong. She is a fighter, and right now, I couldn’t be prouder of her.

“What’s wrong?”

I stride over to her, cupping her face to mine. “Nothing, Little Demon. I’m just thinking about how lucky I am that you chose me and that I’ll be the proudest man until the day I die to know you’re keeping my heart.”

Her eyes well up. “Ash…”

“I love you, Harper Stanford.”

“And I love you, Asher Moore.” She laughs to herself. “Why do I feel like I’ve just married you or something?”

“Maybe one day, I’ll be lucky if you say yes.”

“Oh god, don’t start.”

I laugh, putting my arm around her. “Okay, let’s go do this.”

“Do they know we’re coming?”

“Yeah, I texted Chase. I think I have some of my own damage control to do too.”

“You were just defending me.”

“I know, but I still insulted his girl, and trust me, that’s not easily forgiven.”

HARPER

As we stand at the front door, I wonder if I left it too long. Will she even still want to be my friend?

“Ready, baby?”

I nod and so he knocks on the door. Brooke opens it, and immediately, words start tumbling out of my mouth like word vomit.

“I’m so sorry, Brooke, I’m so fucking sorry.” She grabs me, pulling me into a tight hug and I wrap my arms around her.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You’re my best friend, Harper. Everything else doesn’t matter. All I care about is you.”

Chase looks down at us, smiling. “Girls,” he states, shaking his head.

“Got a minute? I owe you an apology too.”

“No need, brother. I get it. You think I haven’t lost my shit over my girl before?”

Asher smiles as I unwrap myself from my friend. Chase embraces him like a brother.

“Boys.” Brooke laughs, and for the first time in a long time, I finally feel like a piece of me that was missing is now back.

“Come in.” Brooke takes my hand, leading us through the hall and into the living room.

I take a seat on the long sofa and Ash does the same but pulls me onto his lap. “What did I say?” he whispers in my ear, and I just swat him away.

“Urgh, I remember that stage, Chase couldn’t keep his hands off me.” Chase grabs her from behind, nibbling her ear. “I still can’t, and you know it.”

“Looks like you two are good again?” Asher speaks, smiling. You can tell he’s happy for his friend.

“Yeah, we worked our shit out.” Brooke grins as she sits on the sofa opposite us. Chase disappears into the kitchen as he calls out.

“Yeah, after you threw a vase at my head and a plate.”

“Yeah well, that’s what lying to me will get you.”

“Don’t ever throw a plate at me.” Asher chuckles, and I smirk.

“Oh babe, if you piss me off, a plate is the least of your worries.”

“Jax told me you saw Nate. How is he?” Brooke asks. I can tell she wants to see him again.

“He’s okay, I guess, kinda working out what the future holds for him while trying to deal with the present. A little like all of us.”

“Is he still angry?” she asks. Brooke holds a lot of regret for what happened between them still.

“No, Brooke, he’s not angry at all.”

Chase reappears, handing out beer to all of us, and I take it gratefully.

“And you? Are you doing okay?”

I nod, “Asher helps, it doesn’t get easier, but I guess it’s like it’s not the only thing on my mind anymore. Before, it was all I could think about, but now, well, it doesn’t haunt my dreams anymore is the best way to say it.”

“That’s good, Harper, I’m really glad to see you’re doing well,” Chase says as he sits down. “Well, considering everything,” he adds on, embarrassed, not really knowing what to say.

“It’s okay, I don’t think any words can really sum up everything, I knew what you meant.”

Asher takes a sip of his beer, putting it on the table.

“You heard about tomorrow?” he says, changing the subject, sensing I’m getting uncomfortable.

“Yeah, we weren’t sure if you would want us around or not.” Chase looks at me.

“I do. We do. Listen, I know you said it’s okay, but I am truly sorry for what went on between us a couple of weeks ago, hell, even before that. Since the night at the karaoke bar, I’ve carried a lot of feelings that I wasn’t used to dealing with. I was angry because I felt like I was being left out of a huge secret, and I’m not afraid to admit I was a little jealous of you two. You both knew how I felt about Asher.” I look at him and he gives me a smile, but the sadness in his eyes says everything because no matter what I say to him, he will always feel guilty over the way he treated me.

I shake my head a little. No one else would notice but him, and he nods, taking another sip of his beer. An unspoken exchange between us. I don’t blame you. I turn back to Brooke and Chase.

“Things were falling apart around me and I’m usually the one that has her shit together. I was grieving Nate, confused about why it happened, and watching you two move on. And then, after I was taken, I was hurt that you both had lied to me. I felt betrayed and even though I knew you were desperate to help me, I took that in the wrong way.”

“Harper, you don’t need to apologize to me, to us.” Brooke gets up, sitting next to me. “We did lie to you. It’s funny because I told Asher that he needed to stop lying to you and be honest about how he felt. We all did and yet I did the same thing to you. It’s easy to get lost in this and I was trying to deal with it all on my own. I thought I was protecting you, but I know now I was wrong. I am sorry, Harper. I will always be sorry because if we had done things differently, maybe all of this wouldn’t have happened to you.”

“I think even if I knew, it might have. They wanted to get to Ash, to hurt him and they knew the only way to do that was to get to me.”

I see Asher’s jaw clench out of the corner of my eye. The anger that they did this to him, to me. My fingers lightly caress his arm around my waist, and I feel him settle underneath me,

“The point is, yes, I want you both there tomorrow, I need you to be there, Brooke.”

“Then I will be.”

“Chase, get Jax over here.”

Chase grabs his phone from his pocket walking into the back yard to call him.

“So, you two are good?” she asks me, smiling.

“I dunno, Asher, what do you think?” Teasing him.

“We are very good, my little demon.”

Brooke grins. “What is it with you guys giving us names like that?”

“Why, what does Chase call you?”

She blushes and changes the subject, “Do you want another beer?” she asks, and I laugh.

“I haven’t even taken a sip of this one yet.”

“Oh, erm, yeah, well, Asher, I’ll get you another.” She quickly runs out of the room to get away from this conversation.

“Do you know?” I ask Asher.

He laughs, nodding. “Yeah, he calls her a couple of things, to be honest, but I think the one she’s talking about is brat.”

“Okay…” I say, confused. He smirks back at me raising his eyebrow.

“Oh…you mean…”

He laughs, “Yes, Little Demon, that’s exactly what I mean.”

I blush suddenly, wishing I hadn’t asked. “Maybe we should keep the demon thing between us.”

He shakes his head, putting his drink down. He tugs my hair so my head pulls back as he lowers his mouth to mine. “No fucking chance,” he whispers before kissing me.

“Damn, is that what I’m like with Brooke?” Chase laughs.

“No, you were worse.” He laughs. “I’m probably not gonna get some poor dude’s fingers cut off ’cause he danced with my girl.”

“Sorry, what?” I ask.

“You remember at the Twisted Brothers’ party, I kinda pulled you from the room?”

“Yeah? I was pissed at you. We ended up having a huge fight.”

“Yup, well, it was because I knew something was about to happen.”

“I swear to god, if you ever get that macho with me, I’ll make you regret it.”

“Would you dance with another guy in front of me to make me jealous?”

“Well, no, but Brooke… I mean…” I trail off because that’s exactly what she did. “There were circumstances.”

I laugh. “Well, I can tell you now, Harper, that guy you danced with wouldn’t lose his fingers.”

“Good.”

“I’d kill him.” He looks at me seriously.

“Okay, note to self: only dance with people I hate and want dead.”

“You guys take it way too seriously, I swear.” Brooke laughs.

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Chase grabs her waist, pulling her close. “That night we—” Brooke puts her hand over his mouth as both Asher and he laughs.

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” she says, pulling away as Jax walks into the living room.

He looks at the scene in front of him, grinning. “Well, it’s about fucking time. I swear I’m getting sick of trying to fix y’all all of the time.”

He hops over the couch sitting next to me and Ash.

“So, was I just called over here so you can make me jealous with all the love?”

I smile at Jax, “You do need someone now. You’re kind of a spare wheel.”

He feigns being insulted, hands over his heart. “You slay me, Harps.”

“She’s right, you know; I never see you with the same girl. You’re not quite as sleazy as these guys were, but you need to find a girl to settle down with.”

“Did that once, it didn’t go well.”

“What happened?”

“I ended up spending six months in juvie because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.” Jax’s eyes darken, and Ash jumps in, changing the subject,

“So, I guess we should fill you guys in with what’s been going on.” He looks at Chase, his eyes pleading to help change the subject.

“We know you took out three of them.”

“Yeah, there’s going to be another seven of them at a warehouse tomorrow a few towns over. They have a meeting about resuming their operations on this side of the coast. All seven of them were in that room with Harper.” He caresses my fingers making sure he’s acknowledging how I might feel.

“I want to get all of them.” I grit.

“I know, baby, and we will. Taking on seven of them at once is risky. We can’t afford to take risks right now, so we can’t take them. We need to do it in that building all at once.”

“It’s what me and Nate have been talking about. They leave two exits unlocked each time they meet, which means there’s only two ways in and out. Both are usually guarded,” Jax says.

“Why would they guard the doors?” Brooke asks.

“Because this warehouse is where they store most of their artillery. We go in guns blazing we all die. The weapons they store there…well, let’s just say we wouldn’t last thirty seconds.”

“So, what do we do?” Brooke sighs.

“We lock them in and burn them alive.” I smile.

“Makes sense, but how? Burning down a whole building from the outside is going to be difficult.”

“Which is why we won’t be doing that. Nate is there earlier on in the day. He’s there with another guy. They go in early to check everything out and set up.”

“So, he leaves an exit for us unlocked so we can get in?”

“Not exactly. I’m taking the other guy’s place,” Ash says.

I look at him. “No fucking way. There’s no way I’m letting you go in there on your own when the place is about to be filled with those guys.”

He shakes his head. “Nate isn’t invited to the meeting. He’s too much of a newbie. He’s just someone they’re using to do the shit job of setting it up. I’ll be there waiting for them tomorrow. We only have to take out one guy.”

“I don’t like this. If you’re not even going to be there in the evening, then why does it matter? I don’t get it?”

“Because of this,” Jax says, carefully pulling an object out of the bag he has with him.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Yep, it’s C4. Asher and Nate plant these during the afternoon at the key positions in the building.”

“It’s too risky. What if they find them beforehand?” I ask.

“They won’t.” Ash looks at me.

“But what if they do? We just gave up Nate. No. This is how it’s going to go down. Nate and the other guy sets things up like usual. He then leaves an exit unlocked for us, like Chase says. A window or a door, it doesn’t matter. We then sneak in during the meeting. Jax, where do we need to plant this thing?”

Jax pulls a sheet rolled up from the bag and spreads it out of the coffee table. It’s a blueprint for the warehouse. He points, “Here, here and here, and if possible, just to be safe, one here.”

“Okay, so four locations. Why them?”

“This is by the main gas line. The other three are by support structures. If we blow the building, we need part of it to collapse so they can’t get out. This blocks their exits.”

“Okay, fine. We go in teams. Jax, you go with Nate, you take here.”

I point to one of the structures. “It’s on the far end, so you won’t have time to do more than one.”

I point at two more. “Brooke, you and Chase, here and here. Both are near each other, just in separate back rooms. Asher and I take the one by the gas line. It’s the riskiest as it’s in the room just behind the main space where they will be meeting.”

“Hell fucking no, Harper, this is too dangerous.”

“Think about this Ash. You plant these too early, and someone sees one, it’s game over. They will know Nate did it. We can’t risk him being discovered.”

“I get that but…” Chase cuts him off.

“No, she’s right, I’m not risking my brother’s life more than he already has, but there’s one problem with your plan, Harper. They know what you look like, and they definitely know what Asher looks like. You get seen by any of them, you’re fucked. We need to swap out. Asher, go with Brooke. You take the two. Harper and Nate will take the one at the far end. Least chance of him being seen. Jax and I will take the one in the main hall.”

“If you think I’m leaving you that night, you have another thing coming, Chase Anderson,” Brooke scolds him.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

Asher leans in. “Nate and Harper take the far end. Chase and Brooke take the gas line and me and Jax will take the two in the offices. The only one who saw you, Brooke, is dead. You two are at the least risk. Plus, Brooke, you’re fucking tiny and likely to slip through.” He grins cheekily.

“Wait so why are me and you splitting up?” I ask.

“Because you and Nate are the ones that will get us caught. We can’t risk Nate being seen there and you… Baby, they all know you. You both need to be the ones that keep the furthest away.”

“Works for me,” Jax says, Brooke and Chase both in agreement.

“Fine, but I don’t like it.”

“I know you don’t, Little Demon, but that’s what’s happening. How do we set these?”

“It’s easy.” Jax pulls the device up. “These two wires you twist together, it starts the countdown. We will have no way to communicate. Since you and Nate will be at the far end of the entrance. We can set them to all go off at the same time. We set the timers according to our phones, which we make sure are synced. I suggest fifteen minutes from the moment we get in that building. We’re all going to be exiting the building at different times. We don’t want these going off when you’re still in there. There’s no room for error here. If you don’t get out in time, that’s it.”

“Is there not another way?” Brooke asks.

“There’s technically a remote, but if we’re all there, I’m not sure we should use it.”

“Why?” Brooke asks.

“Because if one of us gets trapped, then no one will blow that building and they all escape. We can’t have that happening because otherwise, more girls will be hurt. But let’s be honest. In that moment, none of us could push that button and sacrifice someone,” I say, understanding.

Chase looks at Brooke. “It’s true, I wouldn’t leave you in there.”

“But what if one of us does get trapped?” she whispers.

“Then we die,” Asher says so plainly.

“Wait, this is fucked. Can’t we set the timers for longer, just to be safe?” I ask.

Jax shakes his head. “There’s two guards on the doors but there’s another eight that walk the building. The longer we leave this the greater risk we have of getting caught. We can’t afford for that to happen.”

“Baby.” Ash pulls my chin to him gently. “This is the only way, and you have to trust us that we will make it out. We are more than prepared for this.”

“What about getting the brothers involved,” Brooke asks.

“They already helped with the C4.”

“So, they help us more? I can talk to Levi.”

“We’ve been cut off, B. They’re done helping us for free.” Jax looks at Asher as he speaks.

“He said that?”

Jax nods. “We ask for one more thing, and it’s a favor. We will owe them.”

“So, we owe them?” Brooke grabs her phone, and Chase quickly whips it from her hands.

“We can’t owe them. Brooke, there’s more that goes on with them than you think. We would owe them a life debt. They pull us into something, and they won’t give a shit if it means we risk our lives, and if we refuse…”

“Let me guess, we die?” I ask.

“You pouring bleach down that guy’s throat will look and feel like child’s play compared to what they will do to us.”

“No, I don’t believe it. Give me the fucking phone.”

“Fine, hear it from them if that’s what you need.” He hands her phone back to her.

She dials a number putting it on speaker. It rings twice.

“Hey girl, We miss you at the club. How’s my little killer doing?”

“I’m okay, I miss you guys too. I’ll try and come and see you guys soon.”

“Good, we need to keep up with your training.”

“Listen, Levi, I didn’t call just to chat.”

“You want a favor,” he states.

“I need help.”

“No can do darling, Devin said no more. After we had to clear the fucking bloodbath up at the house, you’re lucky we even helped with the C4. We’ve done too much for you guys, and people are starting to talk. We’ve already had to break a few bones to make a point.”

“And if I wanted a favor, what would that mean for me.”

“It’s a blood oath, Brooke. You sign away a life debt. At any point, we can call it in.”

“And what happens if I don’t want to do what you want.”

“Brooke, you are much too beautiful to know.”

“Tell me what would happen.”

“Brooke.” His voice goes cold.

“Levi, you’re my friend.”

“I am, you’re right.”

“So?”

“So, nothing. Friendship isn’t thicker than blood. Yes, I was there to help before because I wanted to be. I wanted to help give you your strength back because it was taken from you and I liked you from the moment I saw you. But trust me when I say this. You will wish you were still that little na?ve girl because what my brothers will do to you will keep you on the floor crying and bleeding, and I won’t be able to help this time.”

Brooke goes silent.

“Listen, I like you; my brothers like you, and you are always welcome here. I will always help you if you need it, but if it involves my brothers or their help, then it’s officially a favor. So, decide now.”

“We will handle it.”

“That’s my girl. Come see us soon.” With that, he hangs up the phone. Brooke sits down, her head in her hands.

“He does think of you as a friend, Brooke.”

“Just not enough to help us.”

“Would you help him if it meant putting us at risk? Those three are family through circumstances that pushed them together. Much like us. I wouldn’t risk the safety of anyone in this room unless we all agreed.”

“I guess. Okay, so we’re on our own. Are we sure this is the only way?” she asks.

“Yeah. But I know I can’t wait to hear those fuckers burn,” Ash says.