Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Ashley

S he was losing her mind. Nothing else made sense. As she cooked dinner, she replayed her confession over and over. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought it through because she had, but now she was fully regretting it.

Carter had disappeared after that, and she hadn’t seen him in hours. Nate had woken up and offered to keep her company as she’d started dinner, but she’d waved him off. If Carter came in and saw him hanging out with her, she’d have to defend Nate, and she didn’t want to argue now.

Ashley seasoned the chicken and got it in the pan. As she went to grab some vegetables, she noticed a radio in the corner. The silence had been eating at her nerves so she turned it on, taking a few minutes to find a station.

Satisfied, she turned it up and went back to what she was doing. The chicken went into the oven, and the vegetables went to the cutting board.

“Are you making dinner?” Christian appeared in the kitchen. For a large man, easily over six feet and definitely over two hundred pounds of muscle, he was quiet on his feet.

She turned on him with the knife in her hand she’d been using to cut potatoes. “You guys have got to stop sneaking up on me. My heart can’t take it.”

He chuckled. “The music is blasting. I would argue you did that one to yourself.”

“Hmm.” Probably, but he was quiet. “To answer your question, yes, I’m making dinner.”

“If you keep cooking like this—“he took a peek in the oven—”I might not be motivated to get you out of this situation.” She knew he was teasing.

“Ha-ha.” As she continued to cut potatoes, she wondered why he’d come in here. “Did you find out anything else?”

“Umm.” He clearly wasn’t sure how to answer.

“Call Carter in here then.” At least he’d kept his word to keep her in the loop.

“Waiting on him, actually.”

“A step ahead it seems?” She scooped the cut potatoes into a pot and filled it with water before putting it on the stove. “Guess we wait for him.”

“Are you making something else in the morning?”

She laughed. “I might. Depends on my mood.”

“Well, I’ll just hide some of these.” He took a few of the remaining muffins and stuck them in a cabinet.

“You can’t do that.” She huffed.

“What? Nate will eat them all if I don’t sneak some.” He was all innocence, like he wasn’t hiding food.

Instead of taking them from the cabinet like he thought she would, she opened a drawer and tossed him a plastic bag. “You’ll attract bugs.”

His grin wasn’t as playboy as Nate’s. It was more boyish charm.

“What’s up?” Carter asked as he walked in the back door, looking from her to Christian and back again.

She hadn’t seen him since her confession and didn’t have it in her to look at him. She wasn’t super shy, but that had been enough to make her avoid eye contact with him.

He had no such qualms. Apparently unbothered with Christian in the room, he walked up behind her and pressed his front to her back, rubbing her upper arms soothingly. It was an intimate moment and one that clearly told Christian what was going on.

Christian raised his brows as he took them in but didn’t comment. “I just have one detail we were looking in to, and now we have our answer.”

“Did you find him?” Carter tensed slightly behind her.

“Technically no. He did run a red light and that was on camera so I can say for sure he stole that car. There’s no GPS in it, so we are still looking for him. Good news is there’s an APB out on him for all the other stuff.”

“That it?” Carter asked.

“No. We know that Mr. Hawkins passed away, and there was some debate on Ryker’s side about whether that mattered. Like, would there even still be money in it for Julian, or was he, like Catherine’s stalker, just off the rails?” Christian opened his laptop and turned it to face them.

“A contract?” Ashley asked in wonder.

“Turns out the man made sure that even if he wasn’t here, everything would still work out.”

Carter scrolled on the screen so he could read more of it. “I don’t speak legal, but this looks legit.”

Christian nodded. “Everything we knew he wanted was spelled out. There’s money for him if Julian marries Ashley and more if he gets her pregnant, and the DNA must prove it’s both of theirs.”

“How is that possible and I have no say in it?” She had a lot of questions.

“It wasn’t required for you to do anything, and no money was going to you.” He swallowed. “There’s more, but I don’t know if you want to know.” He spoke to Ashley.

She sighed and let herself lean into Carter. “Just say it.”

“It looks like he had a DNA test done years ago because of the speculation about who your father was.”

Carter cursed behind her. “That he made this contract and looped her into everything means he knew.”

Christian nodded again. “He did.”

“Damn.” He kissed the top of her head. “Keep an eye on dinner, Christian.”

“On it. Anything I need to do?” he asked Ashley.

“Take it out when it’s done. The potatoes are going to be mashed.”

“Got it.” Christian went to the stove.

“Come on, baby.” Carter led her upstairs with a gentle nudge. As he closed the door to her room, he spoke. “You okay?”

Okay? No. Shocked? Yes. “I don’t know.”

“I mean, we assumed it was true, right? There was a reason he was pulling you into all of this since it didn’t work with the others.”

“I just didn’t want to know.” Her voice was just above a whisper.

“I know,” he soothed, coming to her and wrapping her in a hug. “It won’t change anything. They already offered you their last name and welcomed you as a sibling without knowing.”

They had. She didn’t feel close to them, though. No more than she did with Luke now. They’d grown apart when he’d started working for his, no, their father. She’d just wanted to assume they weren’t related to that man because that meant that level of crazy wasn’t in her.

“He never wanted me anyway. I wasn’t offered the things that Luke was, so it made it easier to pretend there was no relation.”

“Right. We know he was stuck in the nineteenth century or something because the man really was too worried about all of this marriage and lineage stuff.”

“What if there are more?” She pulled out of his arms and went to look out the window.

“More what?” Carter followed her but didn’t invade her space.

“Contracts. What if there are backup ones for me or for Catherine? Will this ever end if this man is still messing with me from the grave?”

“I will make sure they deep dive into things and check into his lawyers to make sure you are safe. There’s no reason to think it will go any further than it has. He stopped with Catherine when her things didn’t work out.”

That was true. It had seemed to be one attempt and done. “I still want to make sure.”

“It’s a great thing to ask. They are probably already on it, but I’ll talk to them about it.”

“Thanks.” She turned to face him. “What was that in the kitchen?”

“What?”

“You pretty much told Christian that we are together.” She knew he knew what she meant.

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that.”

“Probably career suicide, but I don’t want to fight this anymore. If you’re willing still, I want to see where this will go with us.”

“I’d like that very much.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. She didn’t want to fight it anymore either.

“Now we just need to tell Nate and then tell them to keep it to themselves until I have a chance to tell Ryker and Matt.”

“We,” she corrected him.

“Huh?”

This man was truly clueless when he wanted to be. “ We will tell them.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea.” He leaned back so they could look at each other.

“It’s my choice, too, and Ryker is family, sort of.”

“When it’s time, we can do this together,” he agreed.

She smiled. “Good. Now let me go make us all dinner.”

“What are you making?” He followed her out of the room.

“Chicken thighs, mashed potatoes, and carrots. Figured I’d round out everyone’s diets while I can.”

“They won’t want to leave if you keep this up,” Carter warned.

She giggled. “That’s what Christian said earlier.”

He leaned into her ear as they walked down the hall, filling her senses with a rumbling growl. Against her own will, she shivered in excitement at the throaty sound.

“Calm down,” she teased.

“I think another conversation is needed for how this will go.”

She tensed. If he was accusing her of flirting, or worse, with other people, this would end before it started.

“Not like that, baby,” he said, reading her mind. “I mean how we are going to tell people and how much touching is allowed, things like that between you and me.”

“Good, because if you ever accuse me of anything like that again, it’ll be the last time.” She meant it.

“I never intended to accuse you of anything.” He sped up and stopped in front of her, facing her and holding both her hands. “You do know that, right? I was jealous that someone else had your attention even for a second, but I never thought you were the type to jump from man to man.”

“No, I didn’t know that. I appreciate you explaining it, but I still don’t like it.”

“I’m going to get jealous, but it’s not a reflection of your character. It’s on mine.” He sighed and dropped her hands, running one hand over his. “It’s not meant to be disrespectful to you. It’s possessive and that may not be better, but that’s all it is.”

“Possessive, huh?”

“If you’re mine, you’re mine all the way.”

“I think I can get behind that idea.”

For now, she’d accept his explanations and do her best to let the comments from before go. He seemed sincere, and that was all she could ask from him. The idea of him possessing her was equal parts thrilling and annoying; they’d just have to see which one won out.

“Come on.” She tugged his arm. “I need to go make sure that Christian didn’t ruin dinner because I refuse to have fast food.”

Carter chuckled. “After you.”