“You say it’s not safe? Send one of the guys with me for protection. Have them ride by me or with me in the car. Nothing will happen. I just need to get away, Ash. I really need some space now.”
There was a bitter irony to that, considering I’d fought like hell to close the seemingly infinite space between us up to this point. But maybe space would be good. Maybe I’d realize I’d overreacted. Maybe Ash would realize he couldn’t grab me like that. Maybe a little heartache and disappointment was what was needed for us to get ourselves in order.
Or maybe I was dramatically overstating its good potential and knew this would only hurt us.
“I’ll send—”
Two knocks came at the door. I went over and answered before Ash could say anything. Sonny was standing there, along with someone a little older than him.
“I need one of your members to take me back to Phoenix.”
They looked over my shoulder at Ash.
“Do it,” he said.
I couldn’t look back at him. To do so would elicit too much pain.Too much of it my fault.
“Owen!” Sonny yelled. “Escort her back to Phoenix. Stay alert. We can’t take any chances at any moment, even on an empty highway.”
“Yes, sir,” a younger guy, probably no older than twenty-one, said.
I paused just for a half-second, wondering if I should turn around…and say what, exactly? Goodbye? I wasn’t ready to say goodbye forever. Call me? I didn’t know when I wanted to be spoken to.
So I just walked forward, past the space Sonny gave me. I only looked back when I got to my car and could look up at our—our—apartment.
I wasn’t crying.
But I sure as hell felt a little bit broken right now.
Asher
Usually, I was the one left feeling stupid.
No one had ever mistaken me for the smart guy. For fuck’s sake, there was a reason that I had become a mechanic in the first place and wound up with the King’s Men. It wasn’t because I’d gone to fucking Harvard.
But what the ever fuck was that?
I felt terrible about Callie getting hurt. She’d slammed against the wall pretty hard; she didn’t say anything about bruises or a concussion, but neither would surprise me. I had nightmares about her accusing me of abuse, not so much because I’d be in trouble with the law but because I would have inflicted the very violence I’d sought to keep far away from Callie on her.
But seriously…what the ever fuck was that?
Did she not recall a goddamn thing about why we were here? Did she not understand that this required us to be awake and ready to help the Black Reapers as soon as they showed up? Did she not realize I was trying to protect her from the embarrassment of being seen naked by the Black Reapers?
I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. I’d acted like I had a fucking job to do, which, surprise, I fucking did! I’d moved with purpose and necessity. And Callie…
Well, fuck it if it sounded un-PC. She acted like a crazy bitch.A crazy bitch who just wanted to be with you. To love you.
I shook my head.
“Do you need a moment?” Spawn said, sounding more annoyed and less compassionate.
“No, fuck it,” I said. “I’ll deal with that shit later. Were you followed on the way up?”
I asked the question, but the mind didn’t follow. Something like what had just gone down didn’t go away so easily. Even as Spawn opened his mouth to speak, thoughts of the last five to ten minutes or so repeatedly replayed in my head.
Especially the part where I lost my grip on Callie and she slammed into the wall.
“If we were, no one’s going to be dumb enough to attack us here,” Spawn said. “A shitload of us are guarding the outside. Even the locals are going to be smart enough not to fuck with us.”
