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Rex nods, before announcing, “Cops are on the way. They better hope they find him before I do.”
“Remember what I told you,” Asher says quietly.
I lift my head, about to ask him what he’s talking about, when flashing lights appear around the corner. The lights are blinding, making the headache that started a few minutes ago worse. Three cop cars pull to a stop in front of Liv’s house. Rex turns and walks over to the first one that steps out of his car. A couple more walk up as he speaks with him for several seconds, then turns to point our way. My hands fist Asher’s shirt when one breaks away from the group and walks over to us.
Asher senses my distress and tightens his arms around my shoulders.
For the next thirty minutes, I talk with the cops and tell them what happened. I have to go over my story two more times. My stress increases each time I have to recount the events, and Asher’s irritation grows with each time I’m asked to repeat myself. The fourth time, he snaps, “She’s already fucking told you what happened. Why don’t you stop interrogating her and go out and do your job and find the guy?”
“I’m sorry, sir. We’re just trying to make sure we have all the details,” the cop says, not looking sorry at all.
“No, you’re not. You’re trying to see if her story changes. A guy killed someone, sent her pictures that terrified her, then broke into her house and you’re treating her like she’s the criminal. You don’t care about your job that much, do you?”
“Excuse me?” the cop asks, raising his brow.
“You heard me. You don’t start doing your job right, you won’t have one.” Asher turns his back to the cop and faces me when he feels me shiver. He wraps the blanket one of the paramedic’s brought me tighter around my shoulders.
“Poppy!” a voice screeches, and I look up to see Liv rushing toward us. Her eyes are wide with worry and her hair is a mess, like she’s been tugging on it. Tony is behind her walking at a fast gait.
I worm my way down from the truck, just as she makes it to us. She pulls me into her arms and starts sobbing.
“I knew I shouldn’t have left you!” she cries against my shoulder. I cling to her just as much as she is to me.
Tony walks up behind his fiancé. “Asher?” he asks gruffly.
I pull back from Liv. She keeps hold of my hand as Tony puts his arm around her waist. Asher steps forward and lays his hand on my lower back, and reaches out to Tony with the other. “Yes and you’re Tony.” It’s not a question. Of course Asher would know who Tony is.
Tony looks at it for several seconds before he takes it.
“What in the hell happened?” Tony asks, his body stiff.
Asher’s jaw tenses as he slips his arm further around my back. His body shakes as he tells Tony of tonight’s events. I’m grateful he spoke up. I’m not sure how many more times I can speak about what happened. My body shakes at how close I was to being hurt. Tears gather in my eyes as I remember Brice. He wasn’t so lucky. He died protecting me. A man’s life was taken because of some sick person’s need to hurt me. It should be me that’s dead right now, not the courageous man that put his life on the line for my safety. I only met Brice once, the first day he started watching over me, but the impression I got was he was a good man. I never even asked if he had a family. Lord, please don’t let him have a family. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get over him losing his life and leaving a family behind because he was protecting me.
“There was no sign of him?” Tony asks, bringing me back to the moment.
Asher’s body goes rock solid and he growls out, “No. He was already gone by the time Rex made it into the house.”
“Oh, Poppy,” Liv says tearfully. “To think how close you were to something happening to you. I would never forgive myself if you were hurt. We left—”
“Stop!” I say firmly, squeezing her hand. “Don’t you dare take blame for this. Not one of us here knew something like this would happen. We all thought it impossible for him to get into the house. We had three guys watching it, for goodness’ sake.”
She nods, but I still see the doubt in her eyes.
“No offense to either of you, but Poppy will be coming home with me.” I stiffen, but either Asher doesn’t notice or he doesn’t care, because he continues like he didn’t feel it. “I know neither of you would let anything happen to her, but I’d feel safer if she were with me.”
When I pull away, Asher snags my waist to pull me back, and I glare up at him. From his hard eyes, he’s not backing down. They soften fractionally.
“Not tonight,” he says quietly. “Tonight you need to rest. We’ll talk about it later.”
I keep my glare on him, but give him a curt nod. We’ll definitely be talking about it later. He’s dictated my life for long enough without my knowledge. He certainly isn’t going to start doing it again with my knowledge.
We stand outside for another hour, talking about the events and what can be done, until one of the cops comes over to tell us they’re wrapping things up and we can move back inside. He said they’d be in contact tomorrow about what will happen next. My eyes feel like they have ten ton weights on them, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to sleep again. I stumble as we cross the street and Asher scoops me up into his arms. I’m so exhausted that I don’t even protest. I see Liv looking at us with a small smile on her face, but I ignore her. We pass by several cops that are still trickling out of the house.
Once we’re inside, Asher fo
llows Liv and Tony into the kitchen. Tony goes straight to the cabinet that’s beside the fridge, opens it, and pulls out a bottle with dark liquid. He sets four shot glasses on the counter beside the bottle. After filling all four, he slides them to each of us. I’m sitting on a stool with Asher glued to my side. I shake my head and try to push the glass away.
“Drink it,” Asher grunts. “It’ll help you sleep tonight.”
