Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Asher blocked an uppercut and ducked out of the way of a follow-up punch. He shifted on the balls of his feet, but when his eyes landed on Luke heading his way, he took a kick to the jaw at the loss of focus.
“Talk about timing.” Luke draped his arms over the rope of the fighting ring. “Sorry about that.”
Asher shook it off and looked at the fighter in the ring. “Give me five.” He grabbed a water bottle and sucked it down before approaching Luke. “How’d you find me? My phone is off.”
“This is the closest fighting gym to your hotel.”
“I switched hotels,” he grumbled back.
“Yeah, you could’ve given us the heads-up before we banged on the door this morning and scared the hell out of an old man.” Luke climbed over the rope to step inside.
“Why are you here?”
“The funeral is tomorrow, and you’ve been off the grid ever since Zander was arrested five days ago.” Luke eyed him steadily.
“For a reason.” He shook out his arms, trying to loosen the tension inside of him.
Zander and his crew were behind bars, thanks to the evidence Jessica and his team had anonymously offered the police. Ironclad case. No technicalities this time. But he didn’t feel better. And he wasn’t ready to have round two of a conversation with Jessica yet.
“The team’s worried about you,” Luke said. “Your mom. Sister.”
His words had Asher dropping his gaze to the padded floor.
“How is getting beaten up going to solve your problems?” he asked. “Because, based on your face, you’ve been letting someone hit you.” He stripped off his jacket and tossed it to the side. “If you want someone to fight, you can fight me instead.”
Asher nearly laughed. “I’m not fighting you.”
“Why not? You think I can’t handle you?”
“You can hold your own,” he said with a sigh. “But—”
“But what?” Luke positioned himself in front of him with raised fists. “We throw down all the time. And we’ll keep doing it if it helps.”
“Not gonna happen.” His shoulder blades pinched together, and he turned his back on him. “Go home.”
“Not leaving here without you.”
He motioned for the fighter waiting in the wings. “I need time.”
“You need to grieve, but maybe you shouldn’t do it like this.” Luke wouldn’t back down, damn it.
The fighter outside the ring did, unfortunately. He turned and walked away.
This wasn’t what he needed right now. No, all he wanted was to hit something. To be hit. “I don’t know if I can be on the team anymore. Maybe I should never have been on it to begin with. You should’ve let my superiors can my ass three and a half years ago.” A bitter anger barked up his spine.
“No.” Luke shook his head. “You’re Bravo. One of us.”
Asher swallowed. “I broke orders in Austria,” he unleashed the truth. “I took the kill shot. There was no hostage.”
He waited for Luke to process the news, but there was no change in his eyes, or in the way he stood. He didn’t look the least bit surprised, actually.
“How’d you know? Jessica told you?” He locked his arms across his damp chest.
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, she didn’t tell me.”
“Then, how?” His mind raced as he digested the fact Luke had known the truth and had never said anything to him about it.
“Because when I did a sweep of the area where you killed him, I found a camera we hadn’t accounted for. I scrubbed the footage to hide the evidence,” he said in a low voice when he met his eyes.
A tightness stretched across his chest. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“What was there to say?” he asked. “I probably would’ve done the same thing.
The man was an assassin who tortured my sister.
” He paused for a moment. “Egon had thirty-seven confirmed kills before you took him out. And you want to know how many kids died when he covered a kill with one of his explosions in Hong Kong last year?”
Asher held up his hand, not able to hear more.
“Egon belongs in a place worse than hell,” Luke rasped.
Asher hung his head. “Doesn’t change the fact you once said we don’t take justice into our own hands.”
And he’d been on the verge of doing it again with Angelo’s killer had Jessica not talked him off the cliff.
“Shit changes when it comes to one of our own.”
Asher’s shoulders flared backward at his words.
“You used to stay so far on the right side of the line you could barely even see it. And now, you’re saying it’s okay I did what I did?”
“I told you when you joined the team that every once in a while I need someone to remind me what’s right isn’t always protocol. Austria’s one of those times.”
“I don’t believe you would’ve killed Egon.” The muscles in his body grew more rigid. “You’re a better man than me.”
“Yeah? If that were true, why would I be okay with you being with my sister?”
His words practically nailed him to the floor, and he rubbed a hand over his jaw.
“I want her to be happy, and apparently, you make her happy.” Luke gripped the back of his neck and closed his eyes for a brief second. “After the funeral, take some time to clear your head. Get away for a while.”
“What makes you think I’ll come back?”
“Because you love her, remember? And I know you’d never hurt her.”