Chapter 11 Asher
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ASHER
“Fuck!”
Everything was going so well. So perfectly. Until it wasn’t.
The door is slow to close, a design to ensure it shuts without a sound, but each inch it comes closer to clicking into place adds to the distance between Hannah and me.
My sweet Hannah.
The heart I didn’t know I had. Didn’t know I needed.
“She just needs time,” Rowan clamps his hand on my shoulder the same way he has my whole life. The man has many flaws, but none of them extend to his parenting skills.
All the shady shit he’s done, that he’s dragged me into, may make him seem like a shitty parent, but I wouldn’t have him any other way.
“We don’t have time,” I growl.
Our need to keep her safe has already brought forward the timeline. When you deal in illegal betting and fights, you’re bound to make some enemies, and ours have caught wind of our obsession.
Not to mention Jeffrey fucking Malone.
That man made my skin crawl the first time I met him, and I have no clue how Hannah survived her entire childhood in the same house as him.
Not that she had a choice.
We may be criminals, and I may have made a living for close to a decade by beating the shit out of people in front of the whole world, but we look like angels next to Hannah’s grandfather.
Which is really saying something.
Hiding behind generational wealth, a mansion that rivals Buckingham Palace, and a reputation so squeaky clean it’s suspicious, is one of the worst humans I’ve ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with.
Rowan has done everything in his power to protect Hannah these past five years, but Jeffrey has started the process of finding his granddaughter a suitable husband, and I highly fucking doubt her ex-stepfather or his son are going to make the list.
“We have contingency plans,” he reminds me.
“Kidnapping her is not a contingency plan,” I snap.
“But it might be our only option.”
“She’s had her choices taken from her for her whole life. She won’t forgive us if we have to take that step.”
He sighs, rubbing a hand down his face. The man reigns over the family business without blinking an eye, but the idea of losing Hannah before we can ever really have her is what keeps him up at night. “She’ll understand. Eventually.”
I tug my shirt on and secure my belt before turning to the door. “I’m going to make sure she gets home okay.”
“Ash—”
“It’s fine, Dad. We knew this was going to be a process, but I need to know she’s okay. Even if she won’t talk to me.”
For a second, I think he’s going to argue again, but instead he nods and moves to finish dressing as well.
Once we’re both put together, he checks his mask and does a sweep of the room. The place where we finally had everything we’ve always wanted.
And the place we lost it, all within a few hours.
“She’ll come around,” Rowan promises.
I don’t respond because, for the first time in my life, he may not be able to follow through.
My knuckles rap against the solid wood.
The lights are still on, telling me she got home okay, but I need to see her before I can rest tonight.
For years, I relied on Rowan to make sure she was safe while I was away fighting, but now I can’t get enough of being the one to keep her safe.
Every opportunity I have, I’m watching over her, which is how we found out Jeffrey is lining up suitors. I got suspicious when he called three times in the same week, not long after Hannah and I started dating, and after a little digging, it was easy to find his motives.
The problem—other than the fact that he’s blatantly ignored her every time she’s told him that she’s seeing someone—is that every single name on his list is a piece of shit.
A senator who has been caught in one too many sex scandals.
The son of a mining mogul who has been charged with assault more than once.
And don’t even get me started on the foreign diplomat linked to human trafficking.
Rowan and I will never be good enough for Hannah, but we’re a hell of a lot better than any of these assholes looking to marry her just to get an in with her family.
Soft footsteps on the other side of the door drag my attention back to the task at hand. We have time before we have to worry about Jeffrey forcing her down the aisle, but we have to use it wisely, beginning with making things right with my girl.
“Hannah, let me in,” I say when she doesn’t immediately unlock the door.
“I need some time, Ash. Please.” Her voice is raspy, as if she’s been crying, and my chest aches to hold her.
When it comes to being a Dom, I lean more toward softness outside the bedroom.
The idea that my submissive is hurting hurts me, and I take a steadying breath to stop myself from pulling out the key I had cut when we first started dating and letting myself in.
But that would start a whole other conversation that she’s definitely not ready for.
“Little Doe.” I lean my forehead against the door, needing to be as close to her as possible. After so many years apart, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to leave her side, and I imagine Rowan will be feeling much the same right now.
Silence stretches between us, and the certainty that she would let me in at all begins to fade, but when I’m ready to admit defeat and order the world’s largest bouquet of roses for early morning delivery, the locks disengage and relief washes over me.
The door cracks open, and Hannah’s puffy eyes stare back at me, making my stomach roll uncomfortably. Causing her any pain that isn’t part of her pleasure makes me sick, and I’ve been grappling with what we’re about to do for months, even if it is what’s best in the long run.
When all is said and done, we’ll all be better off, but that doesn’t mean what happens next isn’t going to suck.
“What do you want, Asher?” she asks, folding her arms over her chest.
She’s changed into a lounge set I vaguely recognize from our last movie night. The shorts sit high on her thighs, and I know if she turned around right now, I’d have a sinful view of her perfect ass, likely still marked from the paddle.
“I didn’t want to leave things like that.”
“Then tell me who he is.”
I brush my hand over my face and look down either end of the hallway. “Can I at least come in? This isn’t something we should discuss where the whole world can hear.”
Hannah holds my eyes for a moment, considering her options before pushing the door further open and moving toward the couch on the other side of the open space.
Rowan bought this apartment especially for Hannah, wanting her to have a safe place to live until we can move her to his place, but right now, that just feels like another secret with the potential to break us.
The things we’ve done to keep her safe, to make sure she was happy and cared for, have definitely crossed lines over the years, and if she finds out before the time is right, I fear she’ll run a lot further than she has tonight.
I trail after her and watch as she carefully lowers herself onto the couch, wincing slightly when the backs of her thighs make contact with the fabric.
Ordinarily, I would have rubbed some cream into the affected areas to ensure the bruising and pain don’t linger too long, but she ran out before I had a chance, and it feels risky to mention it when I’m already on thin ice.
Hannah pulls her legs up against her chest and rests her chin on her knees, a position she favors in times of anxiety or stress.
A stray tear falls against her cheek, and it takes everything I have to take a seat beside her rather than lift her into my arms and hold her against my chest where she belongs.
“Hannah,” I murmur.
“Just say whatever it is you need to say and then get out.”