AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eighteen
You don’t have to do this.
Only… I did.
Even though the thought made me sick to my stomach, even though Wick had stopped just short of forbidding it, even though I knew my skin would be crawling for hours after… yes.
I did.
I had to do it because I needed answers, and Asher wasn’t giving them to anyone else. He was just in his cell, refusing to speak to anyone, about anything.
Except me.
So I went.
Because my desire to know what the fuck was going on somehow overrode my complete disgust.
I dressed in jeans, boots, a high-necked sweater, and kept on my coat when I went to sit down in the interrogation room with him. Because he’d insisted on being alone in the room with me, I insisted that he be bound to his chair. I wanted there to be no chance of him touching me.
Maybe I was just a bleeding heart, and gave people more credit than they deserved, but seeing Asher chained, and in prison garb, made my chest hurt. This had been myfriend.
How the hell had he fallen so far?
Ash was handsome –fine,actually – smart, wealthy, charming. There was no reason I could see that he couldn’t have found someone he loved, who loved him back, and given them the world. Instead… he’d chosen to makemyworld hell on earth.
“Hello, Asher,” I said, when he just sat there staring, saying nothing.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Hello, Monica. Is your new boyfriend on the other side of the glass?”
“I’m not here to talk about that.”
Yes, Wick and Sam were both on the other side of the mirrored glass, but I wasn’t about to give Asher the reward of confirming what he already thought.
“What are you here to talk about? You want to know how my pinky is holding up? Whoever put my shit back together… they did a really good job. I’d say thank you, but… you know…”
“I don’t know anything about that. I’m here to talk about what you did to Kim. And Amanda. And Sheila. And Kellen. Andme. That’s what I’m here for. For you to look me in my face and tell me why you did these things.”
He stared at me with those light grey eyes – now more unnerving than sexy, as they used to be – and then smirked. “Okay. If that’s what you want.”
“It is.”
“I didn’t doshitto Kim,” he started, shaking his head. “Other than scare her. I knew she was up to something because the girl I hired to do Kellen, thinking it would finally bring you to your senses… she told me she overheard Kim and Kellen talking, when they had no reason to be doing that. When you got attacked… I knew about it because… yes… I was watching. I was waiting in the parking lot, for you to come out, and go home… I was going to stop by. But I waited, and waited, and then there was an ambulance, and… I followed. After I saw you, I went to Kim, and I told her she had to come clean, or I was telling you what I knew, and I was calling the police. She got pissed, came at me with a lamp, and we struggled… I slapped her. But that’s all. That shit that landed her in the hospital? Not me.”
I scoffed. “So you expect me to believe that you went to her house, threatened and slapped her, but that’s it? What, somebody else came along and finished the job?”
“Yes.”
“No.The police found your fingerprints all over her place!”
“Because we struggled over the lamp. We… fought, I guess, but I hit heronetime. I don’t know what to tell you about anything else.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“That’s unsurprising.”
“Whatever,” I snapped. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. “Sheila. And Amanda?”
“More shit I have nothing to do with. Sheila is a damn junkie, and Amanda wasn’t much better. I loved her, but she… wasn’t all the way wrapped.”
