Chapter 19 Rook
ROOK
Ilunged for Asha, but her slender arm slipped through my grip. Her feet slapped against the marble floor as she raced toward the elevator. I followed her calmly.
She reached the doors and stabbed her finger at the Down button. “Come on, come on.” Her eyes volleyed frantically between me and the floor-indicator panel above the shiny steel door.
“That won’t work.” I held my palm up and wriggled my fingers. “You’ll have to cut my hand off and hold it against the scanner.”
Her eyes narrowed like she found my suggestion appealing. She gave up on the elevator button and snatched an antique vase from the console table behind her. She pitched it at my head, but I dodged it easily.
I advanced on her once more, and with a burst of speed, Asha rushed past me and across the living room. Where the bloody hell was she off to?
“Get away from me, you psycho!” Reaching the bookshelf, she plucked out a hardcover and threw it at me. Missed again. Then came another, followed by a heavy bookend.
Next, she set her sights on the buffet unit, the one laden with my favorite whiskeys.
Shite. Time to put an end to this.
Asha picked up a near-full crystal decanter.
“Stop!” I warned. “That’s seventy-two-year-old Macallan in there.” Two hundred grand’s worth of exceptionally rare and exquisite liquor.
“What, this?” She balanced the decanter precariously on one palm.
I tensed. “Put it down.”
“And you’ll let me go?”
“Afraid not, pet. But I’ll be less mad if no whiskey gets harmed and you surrender peacefully.”
“Surrender?” She scoffed. “You’re delusional.” Her eyes sparkled with reckless glee the moment the decanter left her hands.
I caught it, but the stopper flew free, and about twenty grand’s worth of whiskey splashed over my shirt.
Before I could rest it somewhere safe, Asha had another of my treasures in her hands, ready to launch.
No. Not the Dalmore.
It sailed past my head and smashed against the tiles behind me.
With the death knell looming for the remaining decanters, I had no choice but to hastily set down the one under my arm and rush Asha.
She squealed and made for the kitchen, but I caught her from behind and hauled her back against my chest. One earsplitting scream left her throat, then another. She thrashed, bucked, and kicked out. I let her deplete her energy while holding her in an unrelenting bear hug.
Even now, fury radiating off her like a furnace, she felt fucking perfect in my arms. Christ, what was wrong with me?
Eventually, she exhausted herself enough for my words to get through. “Scream and yell all you want, but this place is soundproof. Have you heard the neighbors above or below?”
Breathing hard, she snarled. “What do you want with me?”
“Jesus Christ, woman. Are you going to stop fighting long enough for me to explain?”
“Never.” She lifted her knee and slammed her heel onto the toe of my shoe.
I grunted in pain but didn’t release my hold. “Wrong answer.” I threw Asha over my shoulder and landed a firm slap on her arse. That really set her off cursing and kicking.
Strange. She’d enjoyed a wee spanking last night.
With renewed strength, her fists pounded against my back, and she snapped at me like a feral animal. “Let me go, you giant—oof.”
I tossed her onto the sofa and straddled her, pinning her wrists to her chest with one hand and clasping her jaw in a firm hold with the other. “You can stop this nonsense now. I’ve won.”
Although I was starting to think the only thing I’d achieved was pissing off a small, stubborn redhead.
“I hate you,” she spat, squirming beneath me.
“Noted.”
I’d known that was coming, and as much as I’d prepared myself to see the betrayal, distrust, and loathing in Asha’s eyes, it still hurt.
She had every right to feel that way. But God help me, some part of me still wanted her to trust me, even if I didn’t deserve it.
My phone rang. Keeping her hands restrained, I checked the screen. Aidan. Might be important.
“Can you be quiet, or do I need to gag you?” I pulled her lacy knickers from my pocket to show her. “With these.”
She turned her head away as though she couldn’t stand the sight of me, which I took to mean she’d behave.
I answered the phone on speaker. “Yeah?”
“Help me!” Asha yelled. “I’ve been—” I dropped the phone and covered her mouth while she raged beneath me.
I shook my head. “Christ almighty. You’re a fucking handful.”
“Do I want to know what that’s about?” Aidan asked from the phone, which was wedged between a cushion and a throw pillow.
“Probably not.”
“Just calling to let you know that I can hear you two fighting. Or fucking. Whatever it is you and Red are doing, it’s loud.” Aidan lived on the floor above, so I guessed the soundproofing wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. “Everything okay down there?”
“Everything’s grand. Just two newlyweds blowing off steam.”
Asha’s muffled protests continued. If looks could kill, her eyes would make my head explode.
“Since I know you didn’t marry the lass just to kill her, I assume it’s your new bride trying to murder you.”
“Something like that.”
“She sounds fun. Bring her to the gym, and I’ll teach her some moves to get the job done.”
Aidan might be my cousin and the person I trusted most in this world, but there was no way I wanted him or anyone wrestling with Asha on the mats.
“Not gonna happen.”
He chuckled. “Didn’t think so. If I don’t hear from you for twenty-four hours, I’ll do a welfare check to make sure Red hasn’t slit your throat.”
“Thanks for your concern, cuz, but I can handle this one.”
“Those sound like the famous last words of an overconfident fool. Enjoy your first night of marital bliss.” Aidan ended the call.
Time to deliver some hard truths to Asha.
“I’m going to take my hand off your mouth, and you’re going to behave. Nod if you agree.”
She glared at me but didn’t nod. Fine. This could be a one-way conversation.
“I married you because I need you to find the person who had my brother murdered.” This time, she only blinked. “You’re good at that, right? Finding people who don’t want to be found? Finding the truth?”
Asha tried talking, so I removed my hand from her mouth.
“That doesn’t explain this goddamn ring on my finger.”
“I need leverage. I'll annul the marriage as soon as you find the Soul Collector.”
Her brow pinched. “The Soul Collector?”
“Aye. Sounds like a pleasant bloke, right?”
Asha moistened her lips. “Look, I’m really sorry your brother was murdered—”
“No.” I shook my head. “You don’t understand. Niall wasn’t a bastard like me. He didn’t deserve what they did to him.”
He’d been the last of my family. I’d buried my parents, two sisters, and then Niall. All of them, gone. Nothing but rotting corpses buried deep in the earth.
The only thing that’d kept me going in the days following Niall’s murder was vengeance.
It’d taken months to ferret out every last member of the Albanian Mafia and wipe them from existence.
They were the ones who’d killed him, but if I’d known their orders had come from elsewhere, I’d have continued searching for justice.
I scrubbed a hand over my face. People said time healed, but that old wrath rose like acid in my throat. It never stayed gone for long.
Asha stared as if one wrong move might set me off like a trip wire. “I’m sorry for your loss, but I choose my own cases, and I don’t work for criminals. You need to find someone else.”
“I don’t want someone else. I want you.”
For just a moment, my voice broke. She heard it. I saw it in the way her chin lifted, cautious but not cruel. Then her eyes steeled over again, reminding me who I was to her now.
“You can’t have me.”
“I already do.” I showed her the ring on my finger.
“Ever heard of divorce?”
“Ever heard of a billionaire with a hoard of scary lawyers who will ensure any court proceedings take decades?”
“So this is a hostage situation.”
“No. You can leave whenever you like.”
“Seriously?” She eyed me with skepticism.
“Now that I’ve explained myself, aye. I strongly suggest you stay so we can start working on the case, but I won’t stop you from going. You’re free.”
She wriggled beneath me. “Then get off me. You weigh a freaking ton.”
I rose slowly. As soon as I released her, Asha leapt from the couch and straightened her dress.
“There’s no way in hell I’m helping you. We’re not married, and you can’t tell me what to do.” She snatched up her shoes and charged for the kitchen to collect her purse.
“If you walk out of this apartment, you’ll regret it.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“You’ll be back.”
She cackled like someone on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
“My number is in your phone when you’re ready to talk, Wildfire.”
Asha froze, turned on her heel, and stormed right up to me until we were toe-to-toe. Many a man had pissed himself in my presence, but not this firecracker.
Green eyes blazing, she poked me in the chest with her pointer finger. “Don’t call me that. You know what? Don’t call me anything. I never want to see or talk to you again. Got it?”
I only grinned, because Christ, she was stunning when she was all worked up.
Her lip curled. My smile grew.
With an adorable growl, she stomped to the elevator and jabbed the Down button. “Fuck,” she muttered when she remembered she couldn’t call the lift without me. “Do the handprint thing.” Asha pointed to the palm scanner.
“What was that, pet? Do you need your husband already?”
She huffed. “Put your stupid hand on the stupid screen so I can go.”
I took my time getting to Asha and placed myself between her and the steel doors. “Things will be much easier for you once you start behaving like a good wife.” I pressed my hand to the scanner and only moved out of the way when the doors opened behind me.
Asha stepped inside and spun to deliver me a breathtaking fuck you scowl. “Have the life you deserve, asshole.” Just as the doors started to close, she flipped me the bird.
Once she was gone, I stood there staring at the elevator like a fucking eejit, palm pressed to my pounding heart. “Mother have mercy. I think I’m in love.”