I throw the door open, and my heart sinks. They're standing close, too close. Rohan is holding something, and Asha is right there beside him, close enough that their shoulders are nearly touching. Her head is tilted toward whatever he's showing her, and there's an intimacy to the moment that makes jealousy flare hot and instant in my chest.
"Asha?" My hands flex at my sides, and I'm about to say something I'll probably regret when she turns.
Our eyes meet, and everything stops, because I've never seen that look on her face before. Not once in all the years I've known her. She's not guarded. Not defensive. Not angry or annoyed or hiding behind that mask she wears so well. She looks broken. Shattered. Like someone just ripped the ground out from under her, and she's still trying to figure out which way is up.
My anger evaporates, and all I can see is the way she's looking at me like I'm the only solid thing in a world that's suddenly stopped making sense.
I'm across the room in three strides, my hands coming up to frame her face. "What happened?" The demand comes out rougher than I intended, but I need to know. Need to understand why she looks like this.
Rohan clears his throat behind us. "I'll give the two of you some space."
I don't take my eyes off Asha. Don't acknowledge him. Don't care about anything except her. The door clicks shut, and then it's just us.
"Talk to me."
She blinks, and I watch the walls slam back into place. Just like that, the vulnerability disappears, replaced by that careful blankness she uses to hide everything she's feeling.
"Nothing." Her voice is steady, controlled. "It's nothing. The mare is fine. Just some inflammation in her fetlock. Nothing?—"
"Stop." I tighten my grip on her face slightly, making sure she can't look away. "I'm not asking about the damn horse. I'm asking about you. What did he say to you?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It clearly does matter." I can feel the tension in her jaw, see the way she's fighting to keep her composure. "Asha, you look like you've seen a ghost. What?—"
"I said it's nothing!" She tries to pull away, but I don't let her. "Can we just go back to the room? I'm tired."
"No." My voice is firm, final. She's not going to do it my way, so I'll play it her way. "Don't tell me because I care; tell me because of our deal. Tell me because the future of my merger might depend on whatever just went down in here. I can tell by the look in your eyes that something big just happened, and I need to know if my wife just screwed up my deal."
Her eyes blaze, and I can tell I touched a nerve.Good.That was my goal. I need her to open up, and if playing the enemy accomplishes that, I'll play the role.
She jerks her chin away, her eyes burning with anger and defiance. "Dar is my aunt."
I deflate. "Asha, that's not funny?—"
She silences me, pushing a picture frame into my hands. "See for yourself."
Suddenly, another question is on my lips, one I’d had but shelved as others took precedence. “Why did you choose me?”
After we said our vows and I dragged her out, Warrick came after us. She hesitated that night. She thought about going to him, then didn't, and it hasn't gone unnoticed that she's had her phone off since we arrived.
"What are you talking about? You already know why," she says exasperatedly.
"No, I'm not talking about why you saidI do. I want to know why you chose me over your father in that hallway."
She turns away from me. "You gave me no choice. I could either come willingly, or you were going to toss me over your shoulder like a caveman and drag me out."
"I know when you're lying, sweetheart. Try again," I say with an annoyed bite because, apparently, we can't talk unless we're at each other's throats.
I saw the trepidation, the fear in her eyes over the choice she had just made. She looked at me like I was the devil, and then she got in my car.Why?
"Let it go, Trigg. It has nothing to do with you or this merger, so it's not your concern."
"Wrong." I step closer, close enough she can feel me at her back. "You wear my ring. You carry my name. That makes everything you do my concern. Your problems are my problems. Your enemies are my enemies. So tell me what happened, or I'll find out myself."
She whips around, her eyes locked on mine with defiance. "You really want to know? Fine. I chose the devil I know over the one I don't."
My brow furrows as my mind processes her words. If I'm the devil she knows, then that means... "Wait." My hand reaches for her wrist as she tries to step around me. "You don't get to tell me your father, the man you once referred to as your best friend, is the devil you don't know without an explanation."
