Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

ASHER

I wake up to a loud, agonizing scream. Jumping out of the chair, I hold my gun out, my eyes sweeping the room. It’s Harper, there’s no one else here. I tuck my weapon into the back of my pants and go to the bed. She’s having a nightmare, begging someone to stop. She starts thrashing and I instinctively grab her to stop herself from hurting herself and call her name.

“Harper, it’s a dream, you’re safe, wake up.” She continues to scream, thrashing against me until her eyes fly open. She pulls herself up and buries herself against me as I hold her tightly while she cries. My fingers slowly stroke her long blonde hair. It’s like silk in my hand. “Shhh, it’s okay, sweetheart, you’re okay.”

I feel her body tremble as she sobs, reliving the nightmare she’s been through. Holding onto her for a few minutes, I finally feel her settle then she pulls back, wiping the tears from her eyes. I let go of her, not wanting to frighten her any more than she already is.

“What were you dreaming about?” I ask tentatively. She looks away, her breathing jagged as she tries to calm herself down.

“I was back there, in the room. They took turns, Ash,” she says quietly.

“In the dream?”

She shakes her head, looking back at me. “No, it really happened. They took turns raping me. They held me down and laughed. I can still feel their hands on me. I can still hear them.”

Fuck. I knew it. I knew in my heart what they did to her, but hearing her confirm it so bluntly wrecks me.

“You’re safe now,” I say, but it’s beginning to sound empty.

“I… Asher…” She trails off.

“It’s gonna be okay, Harps. I promise you that you’re going to get through this, and I swear to god I will kill every single one of them for hurting you.”

“I thought I was going to die in that room, you know, I felt myself floating from my body. I went numb and accepted my fate. It felt like days I was locked in there with them, but it wasn’t until I saw the sun come up through the window I realized it had only been hours. They left and the door slammed shut. I heard it lock and it was like I returned to my body. Why didn’t I die, Asher? If I had just died, it would have ended there, but instead, it got worse.”

I don’t interrupt her. I try to keep my hands low to stop the anger from bubbling over and forcing me to walk out of this room and beat someone until their blood covers me.

“I kept getting passed around after, they kept moving me. I was drugged and woke up in another room. There was a different guy there. I thought being raped was the worst thing that could happen. I was wrong.”

“What… Harper…” The words don’t come. She shakes her head at me, and I know she’s done for tonight. She won’t talk about it anymore.

“Do you want to go back to sleep?”

Shaking her head, “I close my eyes, and I can see them, all of them.”

“How many, Harper? How many of them…”

She looks away from me and I know she can’t answer me yet.

“Okay, I’m not going to push you. I’m here when you’re ready to talk.”

“Ash, are we safe here?”

“We are tonight, but tomorrow, they will realize you’re missing; they know where I live because they were going to have Nate drop you off here once they were done with you. I only stayed for that reason or we would have left days ago.”

She inhales sharply. “Why Nate? I don’t understand. He’s with them? Or…” She trails off, unable to finish that sentence.

“Nate is undercover with them. After the beach, he wanted to help to protect you girls.”

“He knew about you. About your sister?”

“No, not until that night.”

“And Chase? Jax?”

I nod, not knowing how much I should tell her tonight. I’m worried I might overwhelm her.

“They know—we do this together.”

“Do what?”

“Harps, this is a lot and I’m not sure how much you can take right now.”

“I’ve been drugged and beaten and raped, and you don’t think I can handle a conversation, Ash.”

I sigh because she’s right. After everything she’s gone through, she needs to know the truth. “After my sister died, we moved here. A few years later, I found her suicide note. She wrote what had happened to her and gave the names of the ones she knew. Me and the guys…”

She cuts me off. “Killed them.”

I nod.

“Good, they don’t deserve to breathe.”

“Harps…”

“The men that took me, they raped your sister?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so. It’s bigger than we thought.”

“Brooke knows about this, doesn’t she? She said earlier we killed Kyle. She helps you, doesn’t she? After Nate…is that why she disappeared?”

I nod. “She took Jax’s phone. We had names on there.”

She nods quietly, absorbed in her thoughts.

“Did Kyle suffer?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Is there anything else you’re hiding from me?”

I love you.

I want to say it, but she doesn’t need that from me. So, instead, I shake my head.

“It’s more complicated than what I told you, but that’s about the sum of it.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

She nods. “Okay. I want to know everything, every detail, eventually, but you were right—it’s a lot.” She shuffles back against the headboard of the bed, pulling her knees up tight to her chest.

“I know.”

“Is that why…why you treat me the way you do?”

“Harps…”

She stops me. “I think I should go.”

“Go? Go where?” I ask, panicking, not wanting her to leave.

“I don’t know, maybe Brooke was right. I should stay with her.”

“Don’t. Don’t leave.”

“Why?”

Because you’re mine

“It’s not safe.”

“I don’t think anywhere is safe anymore.”

“We’re leaving in the morning. Me and the guys, we have safe houses. We each bought one a few years ago. No one knows about them. They aren’t in our names.”

“And Brooke?”

“She doesn’t know yet, but Chase is getting her in the morning.”

“Then I’ll stay with her.”

“She’ll be with Chase—and Harps. I don’t think you wanna be in the middle of them right now.”

“I thought they were good?”

“When B found out about Nate, well, they aren’t really talking right now.”

She nods understandingly.

“Maybe I can stay with Jax then.”

“I can keep you safe, Harper.” I stand up and she flinches from the sudden move.

“It’s not that,” she says quietly, looking away.

“Then what?”

“I want to go back to sleep.”

She shuts down completely. Turning away from me and lying down.

“If that’s what you want.”

She whispers something and I barely catch it.

“I can’t have what I want.”

“What do you want? If it’s in my power, I will give it to you.”

She doesn’t say anything, and I don’t push—nothing good will come from it.