23. ~Asher~

23

~Asher~

My stomach was churning violently.

Adrenaline was ripping through me like white-hot flames.

I stared down at my most recent text exchange.

Asher: Compromised. Move in. Brutal. No mercy.

Caleb: Roger that.

Locking my phone and pocketing it, I shored up my focus.

It wouldn’t be long now.

I stood at the back of the space, several feet back from the rows of chairs set in a semi-circle with the monsters in suits watching the show, some already bidding as the dolls were being led out from a corridor to the right. They were lined up, each wearing a golden negligee and caked in several layers of makeup to hide the bruises and abrasions beneath. A leash encircled their necks, a robed Infidel clutching it tightly. As they reached the large stone circle, they were paraded around, the hostages forced to crawl on all fours as they were presented to the audience.

Normally, that alone would’ve been enough to make me sick.

But now there was so much more.

Hexwood House was down.

It had been compromised.

I had no idea where Aurora was, what had happened, and my vivid imagination was running wild with all the awful possibilities. The most likely of which was that Carson had ordered her to be taken.

With me away, it had been an opening.

Thinking he’d be solely focused on the spiraling situation of the Infidels on the verge of their downfall should have held up. The only thing that could have warranted this, him reacting this way was if he’d found out about my involvement in it.

Fuck, he had.

And this was retribution.

The start of it, anyway.

To make matters worse, Killian and Jonah were now MIA and unreachable.

Lance had lived up to my growing distrust in him and ignored all my attempts to reach him.

The only one who’d remained steady was Caleb.

As one of the dolls was sold and cheers erupted, I looked away with a grimace and caught sight of my father emerging from the right corridor.

He scanned the area until his eyes landed on me.

They flashed and a sadistic smile spread over his face.

He knew.

He absolutely knew.

He crooked his finger at me.

The message was clear.

My muscles locked.

Adrenaline skyrocketed.

And then I started forward.

He looked a little surprised that I didn’t even try to make a break for it.

Of course he was.

He’d always underestimated me.

I was Asher fucking Monroe.

I didn’t run.

I didn’t cower.

And I didn’t start something only to not finish it.

The dollhouse network was ending tonight. He was ending tonight.

Even if I had to take a fall to make it happen.

It was worth that and more.

It was worth every fucking thing.

As I made my way over to him, all the rest faded into the background. The sickening scene playing out, the fact that I was walking toward the Devil alone and unarmed—unarmed because weapons had been confiscated from all guests at the entrance doors.

Everything about him became heightened in vile detail.

The tic of his cleanly shaven jaw.

The twitch of his lips before they formed into a twisted smile.

The tenseness of his posture as he readied himself for what was to come.

The clenching of his fists over and over, a sign with him that his bloodlust had breached the surface.

The moment I was within reach, he snagged my arm and jerked me hard against him. A snarl escaped him as he dragged me away from prying eyes—witnesses—and down the barely-lit concrete corridor.

We reached the second door on the right, two fuckers clad in the familiar black hooded robes stationed either side of it, their heads bowing automatically as he reached it.

Carson opened the door and ushered me inside, growling at my ear, “You took from me, I take from you.”

I came to a jolting stop as I caught sight of Aurora.

Fuck me.

She was bound to a metal chair, a spider gag stretching her mouth open abnormally. Her white-blonde hair was matted and caked in blood and dirt. And he’d fucking well stripped her down to her black lace bra and panties.

Her beautiful blue eyes were bloodshot and glazed.

He’d fucking well drugged her.

As Carson shoved me into the room, her gaze was unfocused, but I saw her register me, the recognition there.

“Have you touched her?” I ground out.

“Of course not, son,” he answered in a deceptively calm and pleasant tone. “Well, not beyond the standard manhandling required to transport her here. I’m saving the show for you.”

Knowing all too well what he meant, a shudder rolled through me.

He took advantage of my shock of her being here and in this state and made a move before I could react in my compromised state, stabbing something into my throat.

He shoved me forward again and I staggered, slapping my hand to my neck and finding a syringe there.

I ripped it out and spun around to see him glaring.

“You somehow evaded my detection and managed to avoid my order to drink yourself into a stupor. But I always have a fallback, son.”

“I’m not your fucking son,” I gritted out, trying to gauge what he’d just shot me up with. Obviously a sedative, but what and how much? I had a powerful stimulant in my system, so it could possibly counteract it. At least for a time. I just needed to run the math and figure out how much time I had, so I could formulate a workable strategy to extract Aurora.

He snatched it out of my hand before I could get a good look.

I took in the space, rapidly analyzing the situation.

Aurora was in the far left corner. A few feet from her was a foldable metal table with several tools and implements laid out in a meticulously organized way. Definitely his work.

The implications were clear as I took them in.

A dog collar. A choke chain. Wooden pegs. Rubber gloves. A speculum. An empty bottle of champagne. A thick clear dildo, the kind I knew they used to train their dolls to deepthroat.

There was another chair with empty cuffs beside hers.

“That’s for you,” he said, watching me taking everything in. “You get to enjoy a front row seat as I break your little girlfriend in for me.”

I swallowed down the revulsion, knowing I needed to focus if I was going to get us out of this.

“You want her to take Olivia’s place?” I stared back at him. “Or is it Isobel’s shoes you want her to fill?”

His eyes narrowed.

“Either way, it’s several levels beyond fucked-up, wouldn’t you say? Having the daughter after having the mother? I mean, it’s twisted, even for you.”

“Your belligerence isn’t doing you any favors, nor making the point with me like you’re hoping.”

He took a step forward and I shifted my weight in preparation.

As I did, an intense wave of lightheadedness beset me and I wavered a little.

I saw him notice it, even as I managed to school it quickly.

“That should’ve affected you immediately, I’m impressed.”

“You piece of—”

He threw his fist. It was so fast, the motion was almost a blur.

But I reacted, managing to catch it in my palm.

My fingers squeezed, boring down around his to the point of painful pressure.

Not hard enough, though.

Whatever he’d shot me up with was hampering my strength.

He grinned, then shoved it forward suddenly.

I couldn’t hold it and it slammed into my face, both our fists colliding with my nose.

Pain exploded and I tasted blood on my lips a moment later.

A boot to the gut had me stumbling back.

I threw out my arm instinctively and his knee jammed into my palm.

It was enough of an obstacle to deflect the damage, but that was proven futile in the next second, as he’d obviously intended for that reaction, then slamming his fist into my throat. He connected with brutal precision, hitting at the right angle with the right amount of force to make me choke and lose the ability to breathe for a few moments.

That lightheadedness surged violently and I staggered back, smacking into the wall between Aurora and the table, gasping for breath.

He bolted forward and yanked on my hair, tearing strands from my scalp.

He swept his fucking boot into my side, connecting with my ribs and making me choke all the more, then he followed through as I doubled over, using his hold in my hair to smash my face straight down into the floor.

I wheezed and spat out blood all over the cold concrete.

I heard pained whines sounding from Aurora through that awful gag.

“Now, as I was saying, son, all your disrespectful attitude and goading is doing is inviting me to live up to that twisted image you have of me. I can’t disappoint my blood now, can I? I have an example to set.”

As I fought to get up, he thrust his boot into my ribs.

Once. Twice.

It shoved me onto my back, sputtering and choking.

“Stay down,” he spat.

I blinked hard as that fucking sedative spread, making my limbs heavier, willing me to succumb and lose consciousness.

I watched him walk to the bench and pick up the gagging dildo.

He spun it in his hand as he strode toward Aurora. “You thought you had what it took to come at me?” he yelled, the furor of his voice bouncing off the walls like an auditory assault. “All kings fall eventually… was that your reasoning? You thought you could dethrone me?”

“Don’t… want your… power,” I rasped.

He stilled and swung his head toward me. “No? What could have possibly been worth it to embark on such a risky initiative as coming at the likes of me? What was your endgame?”

I spat out another mouthful of blood. “To. End. You.”

I witnessed an utter rarity then.

Shock.

It was all over him, and it took him a few moments to recover.

It had hit down deep.

Good.

I’d gotten under his skin.

“Hmm… end me,” he mused aloud, that dangerous tone registering all too well with me. “Well, that’s something else entirely, isn’t it?”

In a burst, he was there, fisting his hands in my suit jacket and jerking me to him. His eyes flashed and he bellowed, “You don’t have the means to end me! I’m your father! Your fucking maker! I made you everything you are, you insolent shit! And you thought you could best me! Come at me!” He shook me violently, making my swimming head loll back and forth. “You can’t fucking well destroy me!”

He released me roughly and stormed up to Aurora and walked behind her chair.

He stroked her hair with fake softness.

I knew it well. I’d suffered through it before. I was all too aware of what came next.

“Don’t,” I rasped.

“You allowed her to become a part of your mission. You don’t trust easily, yet you let her in. That tells me everything, Asher.” His fingers trailed down her cheek, across to her lips. She tried to buck away as he slid a thumb and forefinger over her tongue, but he grasped her throat and pinned her head to the chair. “She means a great deal to you. You love her, yes?”

I glared back at him, fighting up onto one knee.

He shoved the dildo down her throat, the gag allowing him unfettered access.

I grimaced as she gagged violently.

He didn’t stop, her body fighting to twist away in the chair, but unable to do so. He kept going as he bit at me, “You need to learn, Asher, you don’t have anything for yourself. All that you have is mine.” He yanked the dildo out and she retched, choking on it when she couldn’t expel it properly with the gag in place.

“Stop!” I wheezed. “Fucking stop!”

He removed the gag roughly and tossed it away, watching excitedly as she retched again, all over the floor.

“Mmm,” he groaned, palming his cock through his pants. “There’s nothing like a resisting, convulsing throat around your shaft, is there son?”

When all he got from me was a snarl, he laughed and turned his attention back to her.

A shudder rolled through me as he trailed the slick dildo up her inner thighs, making her squirm.

“You’ll suffer for this,” she croaked out.

“I see you have extreme delusions of grandeur, just like my son.” His eyes flashed. “And your father.”

“They’re far from delusions.”

He grinned maliciously as he reached the apex of her thighs, then drew the dildo over her lace panties.

“Father!” I choked. “Stop!” I dug my nails into the concrete, gritting my teeth against the screaming protests from my ailing body.

He paid me no mind, as he drew leisurely figure-eight motions over her panties, enjoying her bucking wilder and wilder in the chair in a desperate bid to escape him.

Then he abruptly reared back and brought the rubber end down hard.

She cried out and clenched her fists.

He alternated between that and the leisurely strokes until whimpers spilled from her lips, curses threatening his life.

“No! No!” she screamed as he reached beneath her panties and dragged his fingers through her folds. “Don’t. Don’t touch me!”

That only made him take his time.

When he finally ripped his fingers out, she was panting, pain twisting her face.

He held them up, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, drawing out her humiliation. “Not even a drop yet. You’re resisting. Admirably, too, considering my ability.”

“I’ll never give you what you want.”

“You’re certain of that, are you?”

“Yes,” she hissed. “This is a waste of time.”

“Hmm, unfortunately, despite your bravado, I’m well aware that I’m already getting to you. Not enough, however. You’re more resilient than I realized.” He eyed me over his shoulder. “Thanks to the smokescreen you created around her. Another risky move, son.” He turned back to her and shoved the dildo beneath her panties, then left it there where it reached right up to her navel. “You know, your heroic daddy was resilient too. Stubborn beyond belief, in fact. In the end, all it did was cause him a great deal of pain and cost him everything. He still has my marks on him. Not just physical, either. There’s some deep-rooted psychological scars I left with him too. I really don’t advise you to take the hard road like he did. Refusing to submit comes at a very steep price. Just ask my son. Unfortunately, he still hasn’t learned his lesson.”

“I’m not gonna let you use me to teach him.”

“That’s not your choice.”

He unbuttoned his suit jacket and reached for the inside pocket, then withdrew a fucking shock baton.

I finally managed to make it to my feet and lunged at him.

He thrust his leg out, slamming into my ribs. Again.

I went down, smacking onto my hands, just managing to brace myself.

I pushed back to my feet, but he shoved me back with a hand to my face.

“Leave him!” Aurora cried.

He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me over to the other chair, telling me, “You’re going to watch me take her from you. I’ll defile every inch of her, brand her as mine, ruin that cunt you’ve mistakenly claimed as yours, tear into her ass too. I’ll have her tears, her screams, her cum, and her blood. All you’ll see as you look upon her from now on is me.”

As we passed by Aurora’s chair, I snatched the right armrest.

My father kicked at my inner arm, breaking my grip.

But it was too late.

I’d done what I’d needed to, and I saw the glint of my tie clip disappearing beneath her fingers as she managed to hide it quickly from his view.

With a roar, he hauled me into the other chair and snapped the left cuff to my wrist.

Instead of reaching for the right one, he shoved the baton into my side.

Burning pain shot from the point of contact, ripping through my entire body in seconds, making me convulse against my will.

I heard Aurora screaming, struggling in her binds.

When it finally stopped, I slumped against the chair, my head lolled forward.

I heard him telling her in that sadistic excited tone of his, “You’ll open to me, or he’ll suffer for every ounce of resistance you continue to put forward.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Believe me, I can. Now, don’t get me wrong, Asher can take a mass amount of pain. It’s the reason he’s still conscious to enjoy this little show. But that pain is a lot harder to take while having his mental fortitude taxed. More so even when he’s being tormented emotionally. Given that he’s developed deep affection—possibly even love—for you, what I’m about to subject you to will torment him beautifully.”

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment at the awful choice he was forcing her to make.

No. I wouldn’t let it play out this way. I wouldn’t allow her to suffer for me, to be subjected to him like this, while he was at his most malicious, desperate to punish me, and now having found a weak spot to exploit in me—the way I felt about her.

“Don’t give in,” I told her. “Don’t allow this to happen. I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

“Asher—”

Carson thrust the shock baton into my torso, the blinding pain tearing into me once more.

I gritted my teeth against it, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream.

“Stop! Stop!” Aurora cried.

“Submit and I will.”

My muscles were locked tight, spittle dripping from my mouth, the cuff clanging violently against the arm of the chair.

And through it all, the drug he’d shot me with was doing battle with me too, wearing on me, making the beatdown he’d levied on me harder than it should’ve been to overcome. Aurora’s screams, us being forced to endure his merciless bullshit, his fucking depravity, and knowing this was just the beginning… it had that rage sparking that I always buried down deep. After all these years, here I was at his fucking mercy again.

“All right!” Aurora called over. “Fuck, all right! Just stop torturing him!”

He pulled the baton away and smiled.

“There we are. Now we’re getting somewhere.” He fisted his hand in my hair and jerked me to him as he whispered hauntingly at my ear, “You won’t be alone in the dungeon this time, she’ll come to play too.”

The threat hit me down deep. After being subjected to that hellscape one too many times, the things that had been done to me there changing me forever, the idea of Aurora suffering through the same was beyond comprehension on any level whatsoever. It just couldn’t happen. I couldn’t… I wouldn’t allow it.

As he moved to secure my right hand to the other chair arm cuff so he could go to Aurora and play with her, I snatched his wrist.

His eyes shot wide, definitely not expecting it.

He pushed against me, but I held fast, a growl rumbling in my throat.

He’d never heard it from me before.

And it had been a long time since I’d heard it myself.

It wasn’t just any growl.

It was the beast coming out to play.

It knew no reason.

No mercy.

And it thrived on pain.

It gave a whole new meaning to turning pain into power.

The only problem was, when I let it out, all sense of strategy went out the window.

It was dialed to bloodlusting indulgence.

To delivering pain and punishment.

To eliminating any threat in its path by the most brutal means necessary.

But, right now, it was the only way through.

“Not possible,” he uttered, taken aback. He stared at me as our hands shook from the battle of strength. “You were shoring up your limited strength, fighting off the sedative.”

More than that, I’d been channeling the pain into something else.

But he didn’t need to know that.

He couldn’t.

It was my trump card against him.

Grunting, he shoved the shock baton into my chest.

“Motherfucker!” I roared. “Big… fucking… mistake,” I growled.

He was just making the beast rage all the harder.

There was no holding it off even if I’d wanted to now.

I used my hold on his other wrist to jerk him into me hard.

It pushed the baton painfully hard into my chest.

Just what I wanted.

More pain to fuel me.

With him now in the perfect position over my chair, I thrust my knee up into his solar plexus. He grunted and loosened his grip around the baton involuntarily. It gave me all the opportunity I needed to wrench it from him. I whipped it at the side of his face and he fell back with a hiss.

Before he could recover, I bolted off the chair. My left hand was still bound to it, but I used it as an asset—a weapon—swinging it around and smashing it into him, the metal connecting with a nasty thud. He stumbled and I spun, doing it again. This time he fell to one knee.

I shoved the chair down on top of him, caging him beneath, and putting a shit-ton of pressure on it with my full body weight.

“You got it?” I called over my shoulder to Aurora.

I heard some rattling around and then she was there at my side, free off the cuffs.

My father’s attack on me with the baton had bought her the time she’d needed to use the tie clip I’d passed her to free herself.

“The drug? Are you able-bodied?” I asked.

“I’ll manage. How did you—”

“I’ve seen it before.”

My father laughed. “Seen it before? Give it to her straight, son, you’ve experienced it before. Many times in my dungeon, yes? Do you remember those days as fondly as I do?”

I gritted my teeth at the bloodlust wanting to run with that like nothing else.

I ground the chair down on him. “You piece of shit!”

Aurora was there then, her fingers brushing mine as she worked to free me from the remaining cuff.

The slight touch nagged at my beast, like it was trying to tame it.

No. That would be the worst thing right now.

We’d never get out of here if I allowed that to happen.

To make that harder than it already was, Carson let out a sharp whistle, a distinctive melody to it that I recognized as his signal for immediate help.

“Incoming,” I warned Aurora.

I’d barely gotten the word out when the door flew open and four robes barreled in.

Seeing their uber big boss incapacitated on the ground had them pulling up in a bit of shock.

It was only for a few seconds, but it enabled Aurora the time she needed to free me from the cuff, then snatch up the shock baton, and shove into the throat of the closest one. She batted away another coming at her, then leapt up into a spinning kick that smashed across the face of another and had him falling back.

It wasn’t enough, though, and I also saw her waver on her feet.

I stared down at my father.

The monster in me called to the monster in him.

I couldn’t let this go.

I couldn’t let him survive this.

I shifted my weight and angled the chair, making it bear down on his throat.

And then I shoved. Hard.

He flailed beneath and fought to wrench it free, to stop me from ending his miserable life.

A cry of pain from Aurora bit into my haze of rage and blood-red.

I pushed it away only to hear another.

No!Finish this. Finish him.

Nothing else matters!

But that wasn’t true.

Because of her.

Because of Jonah and Killian.

To kill him right now, she’d have to take a fall.

And they’d never forgive me. I wouldn’t forgive myself. It would break us.

The option was taken from me entirely when a massive commotion came from down the corridor, back over in the auction area. Screaming, shouting, thuds, and the thunderous explosion of grenade blasts.

Caleb had hit with his team.

Backup was finally here.

The fucking end of the dollhouse network was finally here.

The fallout of it hit us in the next second, though, as a half a dozen robes rushed into the room—Carson’s protection.

They came at me and I jerked the chair off the piece of shit fucker beneath it, then tossed it into them so hard it had three of them falling back.

It made a path through all the rapidly rising chaos threatening to overwhelm us, and I took advantage of it, roaring as I snatched Aurora’s wrist, then forcibly drove us through them, body checking so many of them on my way, adrenaline and the monster in me propelling me on like a dangerous fucking machine.

As someone came at us when we made it out into the corridor, I let go of Aurora and snagged his shoulders, driving him into the wall face-first. Fisting my hand in the back of his head, I slammed it into the concrete over and over until blood exploded all over the rough surface. Until he went limp in my hold, his full weight threatening to drag me down to the floor with him.

I couldn’t stop.

I needed more.

More blood.

More pain.

More retribution.

“Stop!” Aurora cried, grabbing at my arm. “Asher, stop!”

I jolted, her voice pulling me back.

I staggered back from the guy who I’d brutalized so badly his face barely looked human.

Not just that.

He wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing.

As his body slumped down the wall, a trail of blood following his descent, all the light had gone out of his eyes.

He was dead.

“Asher, now!” Aurora called, tugging on my arm.

I blinked hard and looked between her and back down the corridor where we’d been trapped in that room. The robes were rushing out and I saw my father right behind them.

He caught sight of me and his eyes flashed.

He wasn’t done with me.

The feeling’s mutual, fucker.

Not today, though.

That chance had been shot to hell.

In my current state, I didn’t have unlimited energy left. Every moment that went by where I was exerting more was zapping it away, the sedative and the beating I’d taken threatening to take me down.

“Let’s go,” I told Aurora, and then I was leading her back down the corridor in the direction of the auction.

We rushed through and I took in Caleb’s team most definitely having the upper hand against the Infidels present. The buyers were panicking and trying to escape, but Caleb’s team put them down, then cuffed them before they could make it through any of the emergency stairwell exits available that led up to the main floor and would’ve been their way out.

I led Aurora to a secluded area between the makeshift bar they’d set up and a large column.

I hurriedly shrugged off my suit jacket and secured it around her.

I did up the buttons—or tried to—my hands were shaking, fumbling, and they were drenched in blood.

“Asher—”

“I’m fine.”

“That can’t possibly be true. And how you overpowered him when you were beaten like that is beyond me.”

“Years of practice with converting pain into an asset. I would’ve managed it sooner if it hadn’t been for the fucking sedative he injected into my veins.” I reached out and cupped her face. “Are you okay?”

She swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

“Aurora, what he did—”

“He didn’t get far thanks to you. That’s all that matters.”

“I’m so fucking sorry he touched you at all. I made you a promise.” I shook my head. “I’m so sorry.”

“That’s not the promise I’m upset about you failing to keep. That couldn’t be helped. You had no control over it, they blindsided all of us. But the other promise? Yeah, you had control over that, you could’ve kept it.”

“What are you—”

“You were working with my dad all this time, weren’t you?”

I started.

“Weren’t you?” she pushed.

“We’ve been in contact.”

Emotion welled in her eyes, cutting at me something fierce. “Why? Why would you do this? You broke your promise.”

“Aurora, I needed—”

“You broke my trust.”

“That’s not—he wanted this. Your father manipulated me into a no-win position.”

She scoffed. “You’re really blaming this on him? Saying you, the fucking puppet master, was actually manipulated? Come on.”

“It’s not about blame. It’s about the truth.”

“And what the hell would you, of all people, know about that?”

“Aurora,” I said, reaching out to her.

She jerked away. “We were building something between us, something I thought was real.”

“It was—it is—real.” I looked around the pillar at the carnage taking place. Caleb caught my eye through it all and I gave him a chin lift. I needed to implement a backup.

As I saw my father and his men getting a lock on our location, that became even more imperative.

“We can’t get into this right now, I need to get you out of here. Get you safe.”

“Okay,” she uttered in a broken voice that pulled at something inside of me. She blinked through it, trying to focus in her compromised state much like mine. “Killian? Jonah? Where are they?”

“MIA currently.”

“What? Then we can’t leave without them, without knowing they’re safe.”

“I’ll take care of that. After I get you out.”

She stumbled against the bar, blinking rapidly. Yeah, she didn’t have much energy left. She was still suffering under the sedation and the energy she’d expended to fight off the onslaught back in that room had been the last vestiges of it. She was fading fast, just like I was.

I wrapped my arm around her, supporting most of her weight as I pushed us along toward one of the emergency exits fifty feet away. The battle was raging all around, blood spurting, screams sounding, blurs of movement rushing by in a haze.

“Ash.”

The familiar voice had me managing to focus through it all and zone in on Caleb.

He signaled two of his team members to clear a path for me and Aurora.

He brushed against me and I made the transfer in that second, feeling my phone slide into his hand. He gave me a discreet chin lift, then spun back to finish off the takedown. I looked to see the hostages already being protected, some being filtered out through another exit.

I pushed through the emergency exit with Aurora, forcing us onward. Barely managing it, but managing it nonetheless.

“Everything I’ve done was to protect the four of us,” I ended up blurting out as we made our way through the labyrinth of corridors where an exit to the street awaited. Just a couple of blocks from where I’d parked my car earlier in anticipation of us requiring a discreet exit.

“You really think keeping me away from my dad was in the name of protecting us?”

“Yes. Considering his intentions, definitely.”

She glared at me. “My dad isn’t anything like yours. He’s not a threat to me.”

“He doesn’t know who you are, he doesn’t know what you’re capable of. He didn’t just want to bench you, he wanted to extract you completely, take you away from all of us. He sees you as a damsel in distress, not the tough, capable, and powerful woman that you are.”

The harshness in her gaze wavered at my words.

But then it was replaced by pain.

“My dad, Asher. You kept him from me. For three years, I’ve been searching for him non-stop. I’ve upturned my life to track him down. And for weeks now you’ve had a line to him. You could’ve brought me back to him, yet you didn’t. You acted as though nothing had changed, that he was still in the wind. You should’ve come to me with this!”

“The contact was intermittent at best.”

“That doesn’t matter! You still had a line to him!”

I stroked her shoulder as I continued to help her along. “Sweetheart—”

“No,” she said, shrugging off the intimate touch, and trying to pull from my hold. “Don’t,” she gritted out, managing it, then stumbling along ahead of me. “There’s nothing you can say.”

“You’re still ours, Aurora. That won’t change. It can’t.”

She reached the door that led out to the street and paused, turning back to eye me. “You’ve changed it. These secrets, keeping him from me. It’s broken.”

Something squeezed in my chest.

And I hated it, I fucking hated it. I hated that I felt it, I hated that she was making me feel this way, I hated that something I’d done had made her lash out at me in this way.

It… it hurt.

It actually hurt.

And it wasn’t a pain I was used to.

I didn’t know what to do with it.

“No,” I uttered with more difficulty than I would’ve liked.

“No?” she said, frowning, as she opened the door.

“I don’t accept that.”

“It’s not that easy,” she muttered over her shoulder, before she stepped out onto the street with me following at her back, flanking her.

She gave me a withering look.

Fuck, she looked so spent, so exhausted.

Now really wasn’t the time for this conversation.

She obviously thought the same, snapping at me, “Where’s your car?”

I pointed ahead of us. “Two blocks and make a right.”

In my peripheral vision, I caught sight of robes rushing out from the building, from a different exit.

“Shit. They’re like cockroaches.”

“They don’t give up either. Go. Get to the car.”

She managed to push forward with whatever tiny bit of energy she had remaining.

I followed after her, making myself into a barrier and a deterrent between her and them.

As I walked backward, watching them the entire time, I caught sight of movement down a cross street as I was passing by.

What on earth?

I looked to see an unconscious Killian being carried toward a blacked out vehicle by two suited guys with Valerie Carmichael following calmly, like it was the most normal thing in the world. What was happening?

And Jonah? Where was Jonah?

Was he in that vehicle too?

I couldn’t trust that Valerie’s loyalty would be to her son, that her actions would be to protect him. She’d been brainwashed and abused for so many years to do Samuel’s bidding that it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility to believe she’d take his side and wellbeing over her own son’s. Olivia had claimed that she wasn’t lost entirely, but how much of her was still her remained to be seen or determined as yet.

I made a move to sprint across the road, even as the doors closed and the vehicle started pulling away from the curb, but Aurora’s distinctive scream jolted me, and had me bursting forward and heading around the corner where I’d left my Beamer earlier. Off everybody else’s radar down an inconspicuous side street.

Just as I turned the corner, my father’s voice rang out, bellowing out my name, and I shot a look over my shoulder to see he’d tailed me, a half a dozen robes at his back once again.

As I fought to push my body harder, faster, I stumbled, my legs almost giving way.

I was panting all too heavily.

My hands were shaking violently.

I was about to hit a wall.

Almost there.

Hold on.

I just had to reach the car, that was all.

I overshot the turn in my lightheaded state and smacked into a streetlight. I clawed at it for purchase, and managed to steady myself.

It cost me precious time, though, and I looked to see Carson and his muscle were almost upon me.

I strained to peer through the dark, and I managed to catch sight of Aurora’s white-blonde hair just before she disappeared into the passenger seat.

Relief flooded me.

This was it.

We were almost out of here, then we’d be in the wind. I’d track Jonah and Killian, and then we would—

A high-pitched beeping sounded from the car when I was just twenty feet out.

And then a ball of fire erupted, tearing into it, glass, metal, and hell knew what else shooting into the air and all around the immediate area.

The impact blew me back and I landed on my knees and palms.

No! Fuck, no!

“Aurora!” I screamed. “Aurora, no! No! No!”

I ran toward the ruined vehicle, screaming at the top of my lungs, my chest burning with it.

But I never made it.

A hefty weight tackled me to the ground.

And then arms were dragging me back, so many wrapping around me and incapacitating me.

“No,” I cried. “Fuck! Aurora! Aurora!”

I saw my father step into my field of vision a moment before something smashed into my face and it was lights out.

Failure.

I’d failed.

I’d fucking failed them all.

To be continued inBURN IT DOWN