18. ~Asher~

18

~Asher~

I was jolted awake.

It took me time to realize by what, when I looked to see Jonah wrapped around me, his hard, muscular body and all that glorious ink cocooning me holding on so tightly like he couldn’t stand it any other way.

After I’d given myself over to him the way he’d been needing for so long—the way I’d needed it last night when everything had finally gotten to me—he’d begged me to take him too, needing to feel my cock splitting him open. I hadn’t wanted to go there, to give him any pain. I’d wanted it to be solely about pleasure. For once. That didn’t come easy to me, but I’d managed it—for him. Until he’d literally gotten onto all fours and begged me to give him the ass fucking of his life. I mean, fuck, even I had my limits.

It hadn’t stopped there either. He’d been so beside himself with what I’d offered up to him that he’d been all over me, licking, kissing, nibbling for at least an hour afterward.

It had taken a lot before I’d managed to get him down to sleep.

Knowing him as well as I did, it had been clear that he was worried it was just a fluke, that I’d go back to the withdrawn, cold, and commanding bastard he was used to.

The bastard he somehow still loved.

Through all of that?

How?

How could he love that?

That version of me, the dark and sadistic, brutal version I’d had to become to ensure our survival?

Was it because he knew that was why I’d done it?

Buzzing pulled me from my thoughts.

Incessant fucking buzzing, and I looked to see my phone flipping its shit on my nightstand.

I managed to extricate one arm from Jonah to snatch it up.

As I unlocked it, I took in the time. Barely three in the morning.

And then I saw the source of all the uproar.

Text messages from two sources and an alert.

I pulled up the alert first and tensed as I saw the motion sensors I’d planted at the final dollhouse site had been tripped.

All of them.

That signified a mass amount of movement.

Either an invasion or a mass exodus.

I needed to access the surveillance cameras to determine which, and what the fuck was going on.

As I pulled completely from Jonah and climbed out of bed, adjusting my boxers as I went, I opened the messages.

Caleb: Infidels just took preemptive action. Hostages moved. Call me.

Fuck.

I checked the timestamp of his message. He’d said just. It had just happened.

All right, he’d sent the message ten minutes ago, just after the alert. I had given him access to it too as a precaution.

So I’d woken up immediately then. Good. I hadn’t lost time.

I opened the other message, my muscles locking as I took it in.

Blocked ID: Site Lima hostages transported for auction. Hail Mary move from Infidels. Don’t know where. Need intel.

Lance.

Contacting me with another burner now it suited him.

Fucker.

Asher: How do you not know?

Lance was always ahead of us all, always watching, either personally or using his network of assets and plants to do so.

Blocked ID: Focused on keeping Heretics off your six, keeping you safe.

Asher: Or keeping you safe?

Blocked ID: ?

Asher: I know their agenda now.

Blocked ID: Call this number I’m sending over. One-shot deal.

He sent the number and the asshole had me fucking hesitating.

I didn’t do that.

I was sure in myself and my actions.

But I couldn’t read him like I could others.

He was like me, too good at wearing a mask, at locking himself down.

I walked to my dresser and pulled out a long sleeve tee, hurriedly slipping it on, along with my jeans that were on the floor after last night. The fact I hadn’t had the wherewithal to tidy up the floor before I’d passed out said a lot in itself.

I glanced at Jonah, confirming he was still sound asleep, then I strode through into my art studio, snatched up my cigarette pack I’d left in there with the lighter inside, then blew on out to the balcony.

The second I fired up a smoke, I called the number.

It picked up on the first ring.

“Asher,” he rumbled.

“Lance,” I returned right back with enough edge just in that one word to make it clear to him that he was on thin ice with me.

“Let’s remember that we’re allies here.”

“That should be my line.”

“We’re in emergency situation territory, let’s table all the rest.”

“I know the goal of the Heretics is to step into the shoes of the Infidels.”

“I’d ask how you were able to glean that—or from who—but we don’t have time. Either way, neither of us wants that, so your accusation via text moments ago makes little sense.”

“If you didn’t think it had merit, you wouldn’t have facilitated this phone call.”

“What is it you think I’m doing to save myself? What’s this selfish, secret agenda you seem to believe I have?”

“You don’t want the Heretics to ruin what you’ve worked at for years, what pulled you from your family, from your own daughter. So, you won’t let them take the Infidels’ place. It’s why you’re really holding them off from us, because what we’re doing is undermining and weakening the Infidels, and if the Heretics made contact with me and mine, they’d help me. You should be allowing them unfettered access to the Infidels, using them as a weapon, not holding them off.”

“You’re smart, I’m certain you can see the dangers of that. They’ll just take the Infidels’ place, replacing one monster with another.”

“My goal is to destroy my father and his organization. That’s it.”

It wasn’t, I didn’t want another monster replacing them. But Lance didn’t need to know that. I needed to plant doubt to push him, to drive it home to him just how much he needed me in on this and the fact that it would require him to lift the veil on his secrecy when it came to the Heretics.

“I know you’re not that shortsighted.”

“It’s only an issue if you are already aware of them having nefarious intent toward me and mine.”

He grunted. “You’re really pushing it.”

And I was going to push it some more. “Who is at the head of the Heretics?”

“Knowing that won’t make anything easier, or better. In fact, it will be the direct opposite.”

“I can’t work off just pieces of the big picture.”

“Information isn’t always power. It’s pain.”

Pain? Interesting way of putting it. “So, the head is somebody I know? Somebody I’ve crossed in the past? There’s a personal aspect to it?”

“I need that auction location. You’re going to need my help.”

“You know I was kept out of that aspect of the business.”

“Liv believes Valerie may know.”

“Only if they use a gala-esque event to conceal what lies beneath. That’s the only way she would be involved.”

“Can you feel it out?”

Before I could answer, a text came in. I started when I saw who it was from.

Jesus.

“Hold on. Message from Carson.”

Carson: Pop-up gala two days from now. Need you there showing support for Monroe Enterprises. Reed and Sam will be ordering Jonah and Killian’s attendance too.

Asher: All hands on deck in the wake of these devastating blows?

Carson: I knew you’d understand the gravity of the situation. Ensure your charges are made aware and on their best behavior, ready to serve.

Asher: Where?

Carson: Everyone gets the location two hours before the event.

Asher: So long as that’s enough time for me to drive there.

Carson: I can’t have you being tardy, that would reflect badly on me.

That didn’t narrow it down enough.

Asher: I’ll be there.

Carson: Good boy.

I gritted my teeth, then took a harsh drag of my smoke and got back to Lance.

“That was Carson. There’s a pop-up gala happening in two days. He wants me and the boys there representing.”

“That’s the cover for the auction then. Where?”

“He’ll reveal the location two hours beforehand.”

“Even only last-minute to you?”

“Yeah.”

“That doesn’t bode well. He might very well suspect you.”

“Then I guess we’d better pool our resources, because if I fall, we’re all in trouble. And I’m not looking to check out until I know he already has.”

“What does that mean?”

“What do you think it means? I want the motherfucker buried in the ground. Prison bars won’t hold him.”

“Why is you checking out and him doing the same connected in your mind?”

“Let’s not do this.”

“Asher.”

“It’s been my goal to rid this world of his filth. That’s it.”

“So, once you achieve that, you’re also done? Is that what you’re actually telling me?”

“We both know I won’t survive going up against him. I’ve known that from the beginning. The plan has always been to take him down with me.”

“It doesn’t need to play out that way.”

“Why does it matter from your perspective? In fact, it should be considered a positive thing. Ensuring I don’t make a grab for the seat of power down the road like you admitted you were worried about with me, me being removed from your daughter’s life. It’s all looking like sunshine and rainbows, right?”

“I owe you a life debt.”

“You owe me a debt. Period. And I want that intel on the Heretics as payment.”

“You don’t get to decide how I repay it. You need to trust that I won’t allow them to replace the current monster.”

“The problem is trust is fractured between us after that meet.”

“You left me no choice when you went after my daughter.”

“She’s one of us now.”

“Absolutely not. She won’t be with an Infidel.”

“I won’t be one of them soon. It’s moot.”

“It’s not just the title that makes you one of them.”

“I’m not him!” I found myself yelling. “I’m not my father!”

The bastard didn’t rise to it, responding all too calmly, “You hold yourself back, but he’s there in you, make no mistake. He drilled those depraved and sadistic aspects into you and ensured you’d retain them through years of his torture. He corrupted you, twisted you. You might hide it, but it doesn’t change what truly exists beneath that mask. All it will take is one definitive push and all those blocks you’ve put in place, all that resistance, will come crashing down. All over my daughter. I won’t allow it. You’re damaged, Asher. Irreparably.”

Movement caught my attention and I looked to see a sleepy Jonah making his way through the art studio, looking around every which way, before he zeroed in on me.

“I need to go,” I told Lance.

“Get me that location as soon as it’s communicated.”

I hung up without another word and shoved my phone into the back pocket of my jeans.

As Jonah came out onto the balcony, I stubbed my smoke out, much harder than I needed to, a grunt escaping me.

“Sorry I woke you,” I told him.

He laid his hand on my shoulder, frowning. “Who got you so worked up? There’s one of two people I can think of who have that ability. Carson? Revenant?”

“The latter.”

“That was seriously him you were talking to?”

“Yes.”

“I heard what you yelled. He actually accused you of being your father?”

I nodded. “He doesn’t want Aurora with an Infidel.”

He squeezed my shoulder. “That’s bullshit. And it’s not like he’s a fucking saint either. The shit he’s done, it’s not all white-knight acts. You never told Aurora any of that so it didn’t sully his good guy image for her, he should be damned grateful for that, not coming at you.”

“Our world is dark and brutal. He’s not wrong about that. Look at her, it’s already corrupting her, just like he claimed. I had to bench her, for fuck’s sakes.”

“That was already in her. If anything, it’s lucky she came to us, because we were able to give her an outlet for it, let her explore it. Bottling it up and trying to deny it would’ve made it way worse. Remember, I told you I saw it in her that first night she and I clashed? I’m never wrong about that shit. And that was back before we’d brought her into the fold. Nah, Asher, she was already infected with that before we got our claws into her. Trust me.”

I blew out a breath and sank back against the balcony railing, tilting my head back and gulping in the early morning air in a bid to soothe me and center me.

Jonah had me groaning in the next moment as he trailed his lips over my exposed throat, brushing soothingly, kissing, clearly trying to help the calming process along.

“For the record, you’re not him. You’re not Carson. There’s no doubt in my mind. I don’t give a fuck what anybody else says. Nobody knows you better than me, all right? And I’m telling you right here and now that you’ll never become that fucker, you don’t have it in you to sink to his level.”

I took his words in, letting them roll over me. “Thank you, sweet boy.”

He stroked the back of my head and breathed me in. “You ready to come back to bed now?”

I lifted my head seeing the need in his sleepy eyes.

I reached out and cupped his cheek and he nuzzled into my touch.

“As lovely as that sounds and as tempting as it is, I can’t. Revenant contacted me for a reason.”

He tensed and stepped back, his ready-for-anything rigid stance taking him over. “What reason?” he asked worriedly.

That worry definitely wasn’t unfounded.

Hell, it was fucking well warranted.

“Something has happened,” I told him.

And everything was about to come to a head because of it.