They were the first words I’d spoken to Asher since dragging his ass off the property an hour ago.
We’d just pulled up to the loading dock at Waldrich’s warehouse after an hour of stone-cold silence, which was probably for the best. The long drive back to the Bay from the safe house gave me time to cool off.
Marginally.
I shut off the van and pocketed the keys. Without waiting for a reply, I hopped out and headed inside to pick up the delivery manifest from Waldrich, my and Gray’s boss.
When I returned to the dock, I found Asher already hard at work, stacking boxes onto a hand truck and loading them into the van.
“About time you showed up,” he snarled. “I’m freezing my balls off out here.”
“It’s not my fault you like to strut around showing off your eight-pack. Next time put on a shirt.”
“For one thing, that’s not where my balls are, and for two things, it’s not like you gave me a choice when you ordered me off the property.” Asher leaned back against the side of the van and shoved a hand through his hair. “For fuck’s sake, Vacarro. I was trying to help her.”
“I think you and I have different definitions ofhelp.” I shucked off my jacket and tossed it at him, then grabbed the hand truck to load up a few more boxes. “You were way out of line.”
He didn’t respond right away, though I could tell it was just eating him up inside. Ash wasn’t human, but he wasn’tinhumaneither; I’d seen the guilt in his eyes as he watched Gray head into the house with Emilio.
Still, I was letting him stew in it. Whether he thought he was helping or not, he hurt the woman I loved.
I clenched my jaw, swallowing down a fresh swell of anger as Ash made himself at home in my jacket.
“Try not to sweat it all up, dickhole.”
“Sweatthis.” He grabbed his balls, classy guy that he was, and the sonofabitch almost had me laughing again.
Fucking Asher.
“Look,” he said, grabbing the last box and tossing it into the van. “The way things stand right now? If that cocksucker gets his hands on her, Gray’s going down, guaranteed. Not without a fight, but all the fight in the world won’t matter if she ends up dead.”
“Tell me something,” I said, slamming the van door. “Exactly how many times did your mother drop you on your head as a baby?”
Asher flashed his tough-as-nails grin. “Not enough times to kill me, unfortunately for you and your witchy woman.”
I thought of that witchy woman earlier tonight, backed into a corner, lighting his ass up like a firecracker.
It would’ve made me smile if she wasn’t so upset about it.
“For fuck’s sake, Ash. She’s human. A witch of indeterminate power, but still human.” I started up the van and navigated us through the district, heading toward Black Ruby, Darius’s club and our first delivery.
The load was fairly light tonight—small favors. Between collecting overdue payments and pulling other odd jobs for Waldrich, I’d been handling Gray’s delivery shifts as best I could, but I wasn’t sure I could keep it up much longer. I didn’t like being away from her for so long, especially not while she was still struggling to get a handle on her powers, and I needed to focus on tracking down the hunter before any more witches got snatched.
Especially Gray.
“She’s a fucking target,” Ash said. “She’s not ready for him—that much is clear. And she’s way too exposed, even at the house. I don’t like it. Not after… after everything.” He cranked down the window as we wove through the narrow streets, keeping his eyes peeled for any bullshit.
Just another Tuesday night in the Bay.
But Ash, who’d ridden shotgun on shifts with me before and knew the drill, seemed antsy tonight.
“You got something else on your mind, demon?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything right away, but I caught the tick in his jaw, the tightening of his hand on the doorframe.
I punched his thigh. “Out with it. Or I’m taking back my jacket.”
“Some serious shit went down tonight,” he said.
