He approaches warily, even with the douchebag held down. There’s an argument going on behind his eyes fueled by righteous anger and a typically nonviolent personality. “I was just as defenseless as you are now every single time. You slipped pills in my drinks, never let me sleep through the night. You kept me weak so I couldn’t fight back.” The fury grows with each sentence, drawing him closer until he’s looking down on his abuser. Right in the eyes. “I was a child. Vulnerable and alone, and you took advantage. Manipulated me. Isolated me. You made yourself the center of my world so that I had nothing left. No choice but to stay when you started hitting me. For a long time, I thought of you as a monster. But you’re not. You’re heartless. Soulless. But you’re just a man.”
That’s when he slams the pointed toe of his shoe against the fucker’s ribcage. Aaron wheezes and struggles to escape, but we’re not letting him. Easton kicks him several more times and even spits on his face before red and blue lights take over our vision. There’s shouting and car doors slamming. We’re pulled off Aaron roughly, and distantly, I wonder if we’re really going to jail.
Everything is so loud, I can’t make heads or tails of anything. Through the crowd, I find Easton, and he’s terrified. Big doe eyes filled with concern and looking right at me. My heart clenches. Car tires squeal and everyone quiets down.
“What the fuck do you guys think you’re doing?” an impossibly loud voice shouts. Someone tries to explain only to get cut off. “I know that you’re not trying to arrest crucial witnesses. And where is Isaac?”
A young guy explains that Isaac is on a call, and apparently that explains everything. Apologies are handed out, and I find myself giving a statement. It’s a process, and when I’m allowed to reunite with the others, I find Easton nearly in tears. “No, you don’t get it. He’d rather let him die than tell you where he is.”
Distantly, we watch as they yank that sick motherfucker off the ground. His face twists in pain as his arms are shoved behind his back so they can lock the handcuffs in place. Even through the choking tension of stress over Asher, there is a never-ending well of satisfaction seeing the back door of the cop car slam with Aaron behind it. The defeated look in his downcast eyes. He can’t even look towards us now that he really has no cards left to play. Good. He doesn’t deserve to ever lay eyes on Easton again.
The guy in charge, probably the chief that Blake took Easton to so he could file a report, nods in understanding. “I realize that this is stressful for you, but we have tactics for people like this. We’re going to do everything we can to find Asher. You’ve got to trust the process.”
That rubs me wrong. We’ve been doing that and look where we ended up. Blakely’s eyes are steely, but she reaches out and places her hand on his shoulder. “You’re right, Chief. We’ll do that. We appreciate how much you’ve done to help us this far.”
Easton looks betrayed. He can’t look away while they say their goodbyes. Slowly, things wrap up, and eventually, it’s just the four of us. “How could you?” Easton demands, lips quivering. “I thought?—”
“Lovebug, that was fifteen minutes of us insisting that something had to be done and getting shut down. He was not going to change his mind. Come on. I need something out of my car.”
He’ll learn in time that if you can have faith in nothing else, Blakely Ellison is going to solve her own problems rather than wait for them to be fixed for her. I had guessed what she was planning just by the defensive way her arms were crossed over her chest during the conversation.
She takes off, and Brady follows. Easton is in my arms before they’re even out of sight, his thin arms trying to squeeze me in half. “Did he hurt you?” I ask when he loosens his grip, not that I’m really doing the same.
He shakes his head. “No. Brady didn’t tell me that punching him would hurt that much, though.”
It surprises a laugh out of me, but I check out his hand all the same. Nothing severe. Brady taught him well. “Feel good getting a little revenge?”
His answer is immediate. “He’s lucky I’m a better person than he is. If I wasn’t, he’d be dead.”
“Amen to that.”
Blakely comes back with something electronic in her hand, fiddling with it as she walks. Brady makes eye contact with me and shrugs. In another life, she’d run a successful criminal organization. We try not to ask questions that would make usaccessories to her activities. The car beeps, unlocked, though I’m sure the cops have the keys by now. Easton raises an eyebrow at me, and I cover his mouth with my hand. “I promise, you don’t want to know.”
She huffs. “Try saying thank you. One of us had to be smart enough to think ahead.”
“What the fuck are you going to do? Hack the computer system for an address or something?” I ask instead.
We crowd around her like a circus act, but all she does is check the navigation app. “See? This is the problem with men. You guys have to overcomplicate everything. He’s not from here. The only address that isn’t somewhere in the city in the recent history is where he’s staying. Now let’s go before Isaac gets here to process this car.”
She scares me sometimes, but damn she’s useful.
CHAPTER 30
EASTON- TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE
Just don’t give up yet, I’m coming as soon as I can, I swear to Asher.It’s all going to be okay soon.
Do I know that with absolute certainty? Not a chance, but he deserves good thoughts being sent his way, even if he never has a clue how much I care about him. It matters to me. Just like the countless times that Brady, Chase, and his family spoke love to me—undeterred by the miles and years that separated us. I may not have been able to hear what was said or when, but I can’t be convinced that those random little bursts of determination did not come from them. They may not have known where I was, but they swore time and time again that they were going to find me as soon as possible. I needed that, so it’s safe to assume Asher does too.
“Stop looking at me like you’ll never see me again,” I beg Blake in a hushed whisper. I can’t handle it. I’m already bordering on the edge of full-blown hysteria, and now is not the time to fall off the wrong side.
Her features transform into that fierce determination I admired in the police station. “I will see you in, like, ten minutes, lovebug. Then the cops will arrest him, they’ll find where he’sstaying and everything will be okay after that. Just don’t be scared, okay? We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
Thatwas what I needed to hear. “Love you,” I say softly, because I do, and I can’t go face this monster again with those words being left unsaid.
She pulls me in for a bone-crushing hug, which helps seal the cracks starting to show in the dam holding back my facade. “I’ll tell you how much I love you in ten minutes.”
It’s going to be okay. It has to be okay.
