52. Asher

So, it’s safe to say I lost my mind for a lil’ minute there. I don’t know what came over me. Raw fear, maybe? The thought of Lani being here unprotected sent me into a fucking spiral. Walking in to find her safe and sound was the biggest relief.

But now I’m tensing up again, agitation sizzling through me as I move behind Grady Newman, the best running back in Nolan U’s history. The guy’s gonna go far and fast. He’s a bullet on the field. Not that I’m a huge football watcher, but I’ve heard about Grady, and I’ve checked out some clips online. He and Zander Donahue seem to work on the same frequency or something, because on the field, they’re hard to beat.

I give the quarterback a little side-eye. He meets my gaze, and I nod at him. Just a minimal movement to say thanks. He raises his eyebrows at me, telling me I had nothing to worry about in the first place.

Okay, so I overreacted.

But with all the shit going down right now, I’m on edge.

I’m allowed to be protective of my woman!

Sliding my hand down her back, I find a home for it on the curve of her hip, curling my fingers around her and feeling like I need the support as Grady fast-forwards through footage of the party.

“There I am.” Lani’s voice is small but definitive.

She points at the screen, and I lean in to study her black-and-white image. She looks gorgeous, decked out in a little black dress that’s sexy as sin, and smiling at someone. Shit, the quality of this footage is amazing.

“How much does this gear cost?” I murmur. “The quality is…”

“Yeah, it was installed last year when there was that prank war going on.” Zander scoffs and shakes his head. “I don’t know if you guys heard about it, but we had a few break-ins, and there’s only so much whipped cream and slime on the walls that you can come home to, right? So, we got the best cameras we could find, and Grady here set it all up for us.”

I nod, impressed. “You catch the bastards?”

“We did.” Zander’s smile is pure satisfaction, and Wily starts laughing.

“Oh, we got those frat boys good.” He tucks a lock of blond hair behind his ear, looking all proud, until his smile drops.

I follow his line of sight, glancing at Lani’s ashen face, then jerking my eyes back to the screen.

“That’s him,” she rasps. “See me dancing?” She points at the screen.

I watch her body gyrating on the floor and feel the earth shift beneath my feet when Harvey moves in behind her.

Fuck. She was right.

It’s him.

She shudders, her shoulders twitching.

“You don’t have to watch this,” I murmur.

“Yeah, I do.” She nods. “I need to see it.”

So we keep going. The air in the room gets sucked into oblivion, the silence ominous as we stand around the laptop, watching Lani dance, laugh, and make out with Harvey. My stomach churns at the way his hands rove her body. I hate that he touched her, that his tongue was in her mouth, that?—

“You don’t have to watch this.” Lani looks to me with a desperate frown.

I squeeze her side and mutter, “Yeah, I do.”

And so I remain by her side and watch in pure torture as they stumble off the dance floor together and head down the hallway.

They disappear off camera for a second, but then Grady clicks a few buttons and pulls up a new screen. It’s a shot of a hallway upstairs, and we get there in time to see Harvey opening a door and pulling Lani in behind him.

The door clicks shut, and we have to watch other people milling around for a while.

“How long were you in there?” Grady glances over his shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Lani whispers, her head shaking in short, jerky movements.

I pull her a little closer, and she closes her eyes—maybe reliving what happened to her? This is killing me.

Zander shifts uncomfortably, and I look at him. He’s staring at Lani with an agonized frown before his eyes dart back to the screen. “Fast-forward a little, man.”

Grady does as he’s told, and nine minutes later Harvey’s walking out of the room. He shuts the door behind him, running a hand through his hair and straightening his shirt. Moving away from the door, he walks down the hallway, raising his chin at someone off-screen. You wouldn’t know he’d just raped someone. He doesn’t even look guilty. How the fuck does he do that?

Lani squirms, and I wonder if she’s worried that the guys won’t believe her claims. This footage so far is not doing anything to help her cause.

But then the door creeps open again and she shuffles into view.

And it’s so fucking obvious, I want to break Harvey’s neck.

She looks traumatized. Even from this camera angle you can tell. Her eyes are huge, darting up and unwittingly looking straight at the camera. She’s in shock, glancing around like she’s not really seeing anything. She wobbles on her heels as she tries to walk down the hallway, almost like she’s drunk, but then she wraps her arms around herself and shrinks, shuffling toward the stairs with a desolate look on her face.

My jaw is shaking as I watch this shit.

He did it.

It was Harvey, and I’m so furious right now, I can’t even speak.

No one seems to be able to. Lani is full-on trembling beside me. She’s trying to control it, wrapping her arms around herself, just like she did in the video.

I shift, nestling her against me so she can lean into my chest. Cupping the back of her head, I hide her face from the guys as she buries herself in my chest and lets out a quaking sob. Her fingers curl into my shirt as she quietly shudders against me.

I glance to my left and spot Zander’s face. He’s raging. Wily’s looking pretty dark, too, as they share a look, and finally Grady mutters, “Who is that thundercunt?”

Tapping the screen, he looks up to his friends.

“He was an out-of-towner.” Zander’s voice is low and heavy. “Grades, make a copy of that footage. Put it on a flash drive, plus upload it to my iCloud.” He looks to me. “I’ll send it you.”

“Thanks,” I croak.

“Is there anything else we can do?” Wily’s expression buckles as his eyes skim over Lani.

I shake my head. “We’ll, um… take this to the police and see what comes of it.”

“Does she remember his name?” Grady leans around me, trying to look at Lani. “Do you remember his name?”

“I know who it is,” I growl.

Wily’s lips part as he points at the laptop. “You know the guy?”

“Yeah.” I nod, panic sizzling through me. It’s an effort to push it down. I’m trying to contain a lot right now—outright fury is mixing with panic-inducing dread. I know what I have to do. It’s not going to be pretty… and a whole bunch of people who I really care about will be affected.

Grady jumps up from his chair, heading out of the room, and I stand there, holding my girl. I share a few awkward looks with Wily and Zander, then flinch when the front door pops open.

Wily walks to the hallway, popping his head out to see who it is. “Carson. Shit, man, are you just getting home?” There’s a soft grunt, and Wily shakes his head. “Hungover again, I see.” He starts laughing, then booms, “Good morning, good morning, good morning!” He’s singing at the top of his lungs.

Zander snickers and then starts laughing when Carson swears up a storm.

“Shut the fuck up, you moron!”

“Moron?” Zander shouts toward the hallway. “That’s the best you can do? How much did you drink last night?”

“I hate you all!” Carson yells, thumping up the stairs. “May you all die in a pit of fiery… I don’t know… some shit that’s hot and will burn your asses to the ground!”

“Sleep well, dude!” Wily calls after him.

“Fuck you!” Carson shouts back.

Zander starts laughing again, just a soft one that dies away when Wily turns back with a frown. “He’s going to get kicked off the team if he doesn’t watch it.”

“I know.” Zander sighs. “I’ll have a talk with him when he’s not hungover.”

“Good luck finding that window.” Wily rolls his eyes.

Zander grunts and shakes his head, crossing his arms when Grady walks back into the room. “Did you know Darren’s still here?”

“What?” Zander’s worried frown changes to a pissed-off scowl.

“Yeah, he’s in the kitchen eating all of our cereal.”

“What the fuck is with that guy? Does he not know how to go home already?”

Grady shrugs. “I told him to get lost, but he just grinned at me and kept chowing down.”

Zander huffs, storming out of the room, and then we hear muffled conversation coming from what I assume is the kitchen. I can tell by his tone that Zander’s not impressed with their squatter.

Grady slips the flash drive into the laptop and starts creating a clip of the footage we need.

“None of your business!” Zander’s voice rises. “We’re just helping her out. Now would you go the fuck home, please?”

“I was invited here.”

“Carson wasn’t even home last night! I get that you guys were friends in grade school, but you need to let it go. This is a football house, meaning only team members live here.”

“But you’ve let me crash on your couch before.” The guy appears in the doorway, glancing into the dining room and eyeing us up before Zander nudges him toward the front door.

“What can I say, we’re generous like that, but it only goes so far.” There’s a click as I assume Zander opens the door. “Now go home and stop treating this place like your crib.”

“Fine, whatever. I’ll see you at the next party.”

Zander doesn’t respond, and a few seconds later, the door slams shut.

Zander stalks back into the room, scratching his head and looking pissed. “No more parties,” he mutters.

“You say it, but you don’t mean it.” Grady snickers.

Wily grins, then shakes his head when he catches my eye. “Maybe it’s not the worst idea.”

“Don’t stop partying on my account.” Lani pulls away from me and looks at the guys. Her eyes are rimmed red and she’s still looking really pale, but her voice has its strength back.

Zander shakes his head. “I don’t like this place being filled all the time with people I don’t know. Maybe we should be screening it more. If I’d known what that fucker was going to do to you, I never would have let him through the door.”

“You can’t know these things.” Lani sucks in a breath, brushing a finger across her cheek. “I didn’t go into that room knowing what was going to happen to me.”

I clench my jaw, my muscles vibrating.

Zander catches my eye, and I can tell he gets it.

“And I want to thank you guys for your help.”

They all tell her not to worry about it, and if there’s more they can do, we just have to let them know.

She gives them a weak yet grateful smile, and I kiss her forehead, still struggling to contain this emotion crashing through me. I need to get out of here. I need to find Harvey. Right now.

Grady holds out the flash drive and Lani takes it, wrapping her fingers around the stick.

“l can email you the file as well,” Grady murmurs, his fingers poised over the keyboard. “I’ll put it in Zander’s DropBox and send you the link.”

“Okay.” Lani trips and stumbles through her email address, having to correct herself twice. She winces and shakes her head. “My brain is mush right now.”

“That’s all right,” he murmurs, and then we hear the whoosh and know the email is heading to her inbox.

After that, it’s awkward. We’ve got to go, and there are pleasantries to be said. I don’t know how to do this shit when all I can think about is killing my cousin.

“I’m really sorry this happened to you.” Zander’s voice is deep and sincere as he looks at Lani.

She nods.

“And like we said before, anything we can do to help, you know?”

“Yeah.” She nods again and tries for another smile. “Thank you.”

“You guys take care.” Zander pats my shoulder as I walk past.

Wily opens the door for us, and I usher Lani down to my car. I hold the door for her, and she doesn’t even protest. No comments about her capability and how I don’t need to be so chivalrous all the time. She just slips into the passenger seat with murmured thanks, and I walk around to the driver’s door, wrestling with shock and grief and rage and…

Yeah, I really have to kill Harvey.