Chapter 60 Rook
ROOK
Another week had passed, and Asha was stronger by the day. She could sit up without wincing and shuffle short distances unassisted, and her sharp tongue had returned in full force.
But in my eyes, she was still breakable. Still the woman I’d carried into the hospital as she’d bled out in my arms.
Still the one thing I couldn’t lose.
I hadn’t let myself forget it for a second.
The phone buzzed in my pocket. A message from Asha.
Wildfire
Need your help, gangster.
I pushed away from my desk and strode to her room. She was propped against the pillows, green eyes wide and innocent. Too innocent.
“My water’s low.” She held up the glass.
I refilled it from the jug on the dresser and set it within reach. “Anything else?”
“Nope.” She didn’t even take a sip.
I narrowed my eyes but left.
Back in my study, the phone buzzed again.
Wildfire
Can you come back?
I returned and stood in the open doorway, my fingers thrumming on the frame.
“Could you open the curtains a little more?”
I crossed the room to do that. “Good?”
She smiled, nodded, then picked up a book from the side table.
The cycle repeated. She wanted an extra blanket, a pair of socks, her pillows adjusted.
On the sixth summons, I stalked into her room, my patience worn thin. “What are you playing at?”
She blinked up at me, all faux cluelessness. “I don’t know what you mean?”
“You don’t need my help with these things.”
Her lips curved. “Exactly.”
I folded my arms and waited.
“I’m much better, Rook. It’s time you stopped treating me like an invalid.” She rose from the bed without so much as a twinge of discomfort. Then she twisted the knife. “It also means you can touch me now.”
Every muscle in my body went rigid. Shite. I wanted to. More than wanted—I ached for it. To hold her, kiss her, bury myself inside her and prove she was still here, still mine.
But the memory of her collapsing in my arms and her blood soaking my shirt gutted me all over again.
“No.” The word came out harsher than I’d intended. “You’re not well enough.”
Disappointment crossed her features, and the sight wrecked me. She sighed, then fixed me with that stubborn glare I’d never been able to resist.
“I’ve given you time to work through your feelings, Rook, but this has carried on long enough. We need to talk. Now.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Bullshit. I know you heard everything I said while I was kidnapped.” Asha’s voice shook, but she forced the words out. “I told you I love you. Are you even going to acknowledge that?”
I acted like her question didn’t punch through me, but not a day passed that I didn’t think of her hurt, terrified, and alone, whispering that she loved me.
My throat tried to close over. “You didn’t mean it. You were scared. Confused.”
She lifted her chin. “Do I seem confused now?”
I shook my head.
“Then let me say this clearly in case firing weapons all these years has made you hard of hearing. I’m in love with you, Rook.”
The silence stretched. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think past the irony of hearing Asha saying the words I’d longed for but desperately wishing she’d take them back.
Asha stepped toward me. I retreated just as fast, and she froze. The anguish on her face almost cut me down, but I couldn’t let her touch me. If she did, any control I had would shatter.
Her lips formed a grim line. “You wanted me to fall for you from the very start. And you got what you wanted, Rook. Everything you wished for. So why won’t you take it?”
“Because I never thought you’d want to stay with me,” I roared, the sound tearing from me.
“That was never part of the plan. You were supposed to hate me. You were supposed to find the Soul Collector and then leave me, even though I knew letting you go would feel like a knife through my fucking heart.” My chest heaved with the force of my confession.
“And because I never wanted this.” I flung my arms wide, gesturing at the hospital bed and her broken body.
“You almost died, Asha. They stole you, sliced you up, and shot you. For Christ’s sake, there’s a bullet fragment still inside your kidney.
” I scraped my hands down my face, choking on the memory.
She held my stare without backing down for a second. “The Soul Collector is dead. The threat is over.”
“Is it? Soon, another rival will be out for blood. And another.” My voice faltered, wild with fear. “Even if I stepped away from the Beasts tomorrow—and I would do that for you in a heartbeat—my enemies could fill an entire fucking prison. You’ll never be safe.”