From the Ashes

21. Asher

Asher

Kyle is my brother’s roommate? That’s not surprising at all. Hunter and Kyle have been thick as thieves since they were in high school.

As much as I don’t like my brother, I like Kyle even less. They feed off of each other.

Kyle wants to break the rules? Hunter shows him how.

Hunter wants to steal something? Kyle’s scoping out the place.

I’m sure they’re getting up to no-fucking-good in college. I would expect nothing less from my degenerate brother and his half-brained bestie.

I have not one fucking clue why Kyle likes me so much, but at least I can still scare him. When he came in for his first tattoo and paid handsomely, I told him I’d be good with being his artist. Now his sleeve is almost done and the thigh piece we started tonight will be at least another grand. I don’t have to like the guy, but his money, on the other hand, I need.

It’s a shitty way to end the night, but he insisted on the last appointment slot so he ‘could go to a rager right after.’

What a dumbass.

Kyle’s being the little kiss ass—that hug about made me nauseous—he always is, when Ty walks outside randomly. I don’t pay much attention to it because Ty’s gonna be Ty.

“It’s so sick!” Kyle exclaims, looking at his new tattoo in the mirror before pulling the bottom of his shorts down and walking to his bag for the payment.

“I’m glad you like it. Next time, we’ll add in the stippling and some shading to add dimension.” I let my customer service face drop and write up the receipt that Kyle always requests. “It’ll be $580 this time.”

“Money well spent,” Kyle says excitedly, handing over a stack of cash. “Keep the extra one twenty for yourself.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” I nod and start immediately counting the bills. I trust Kyle about as far as I throw both him and my brother.

The bell dings and I ignore it. Ty’s coming back to his spot and I need to finish counting.

“Hey, Ty,” Kyle greets him, monotoned. His tone is so different from when he was talking to me that I want to laugh. Kyle and Ty have never seen eye-to-eye. Thank fuck for that. It tells me that Ty is actually a good person with morals.

I don’t hear Ty respond; not that I would, normally, but instead of words, I hear the crunching of a nose and Kyle crying.

Spinning around, I see Ty holding Kyle by the shirt collar. What the fuck is going on?

Ty rears his fist back and lets it fly again, the second punch well-placed over Kyle’s eye. The skin splits, and blood immediately pours down his face.

“What the fuck?!” Kyle screeches, trying to hit back, but Ty’s too strong of a fighter for him to even touch.

Moving to stand closer to Ty, I know better than to touch him right now, but I have to at least say something. “Ty, man, what’s going on?” I ask, keeping my tone even. He may be a hot-head, but he would never do something to jeopardize our business. He would never hurt someone that wasn’t deserving, or hadn’t already agreed to fight. I know all the unspoken rules of his underground fights, especially because Ty follows them in his daily life, too.

Kyle must have done something really fucked up for Ty to use these tactics to get justice.

“Tell him,” Ty growls at Kyle. “Tell him, or I will .”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, you crazy motherfucker!” Kyle screams in his face, spewing blood that’s dripped from his nose into his mouth.

Ty looks like he might actually murder him.“You rapist piece of shit!” Ty screams and punches Kyle in the mouth, making his teeth look like they’re coated in blood.

“What?” It feels like the word is knocked out of me with the punch, and my eyes go wide.

“Tell him, Kyle,” Ty spits his name mockingly. “Tell Asher how you and Hunter worked together so Hunter could rape Jade. Tell him .”

Fury.

Anger.

Rage.

Murder.

My entire body shifts from confusion to pure destruction the moment Ty says her name. My gaze moves carefully from Ty to Kyle, who no longer looks confused, but instead, scared for his life.

As he should be.

“You did what?” I ask, my fists clenching tighter and tighter with each word. I’m so fucking angry that I sound calm. Kyle’s squirming, trying to get out of Ty’s hold, his eyes wide with fear.

“Look, I don’t know who Jade is. I’ve never raped anyone,” Kyle stammers nervously, his eyes shifting between Ty and I. A bruise is already forming over his eye where Ty hit him.

“You sound awfully nervous for someone who’s innocent, Kyle. You also chose your words carefully just now. You might not have raped anyone, but did you help Hunter?” I snarl, my lip curling like I’m a fucking wolf about to pounce on my prey.

“I…” He gulps.

“Hunter. My sad sack of shit for a brother, who I’ve always known is a horrific human. But I never thought he’d become this terrible, this goddamn awful. Not after how we grew up.” My breaths are coming in rougher as my anger starts to become unbearable.

I need to fix this.

Now.

“Asher, man…” Kyle tries to rip himself from Ty’s grip, but Ty’s holding onto him like a python ready to cut off its prey’s oxygen.

“Don’t you fucking ‘Asher’ me.” I grip his face in my hand and force him to look at me. “Tell me that you and my brother, with the help of a bitch named Sarah, didn’t drug and rape Jade Henderson at a house party this summer, before leaving her alone in a fucking dingy laundry room. Tell me I’m making this up.”

I see Kyle’s eyes widen before he schools his features and shakes his head.

He knows.

He knows exactly who I’m fucking talking about.

“I don’t know who Jade Henderson is!” He screams, like he’s trying to give me the least amount of information possible.

“Okay.” I pull Kyle from Ty’s grasp and hold him by the throat, pushing him toward the bathroom. “We’re going to take a little break now. And when you’re ready, you’re going to tell me the fucking truth!” I throw his ass into the bathroom, hard enough that his head hits the wall and dents the sheetrock.

Quickly glancing around, I see that Ty has left my side; for a second, I think he’s gone. But I should’ve known better. Ty’s locking the front door, switching the neon sign off and pulling the rolled-up curtain down, effectively closing us for the night.

Also making it so no one walks in as we fuck this guy up.

“Asher, come on, you know me. You know Hunter. Do you really think either of us would do something like that?” Kyle stands up, his hands stretched out in front of him like he’s talking to a wild animal. I feel like a wild animal right now. And someone’s hurt one of my pack. That just won’t fucking do.

They’ll pay with broken bones and spilt blood.

“I absolutely fucking do,” I growl and lunge forward. Kyle screams as I open the toilet seat with one hand and shove his head in the water with the other. He’s fighting against me, his shoulders and arms pushing up against the porcelain, but I just put more of my body weight on him. I’ve got at least fifty pounds on this fucker.

“Asher!” Ty yells at me from the threshold. “Stop—we can’t do that.”

“Watch me,” I snap, pulling Kyle’s head from the water. “Are you ready to talk now?” I hiss close to his ear. His lip is trembling like a little bitch, and I smirk. “Good. I’ll ask you again. Did you and my brother set Jade up to be raped?”

“You crazy ass motherfuckers!” He gasps, but nods his head over and over.

“Did you?!” I scream at him, pushing his head toward the water again, but he fights back.

“YES! Yes, okay, we did!” Kyle says shakily, fearfully. “I didn’t touch her, but I gave Hunter the roofie. Sarah pointed her out, said she needed to let loose and would be a good target. Hunter said he needed a fuck, and she was desperate, man! It just lined up.” Tears are running down his battered face as I hold the back of his head, pulling his hair painfully tight.

“Where’s Hunter now?” I snarl, my face inches from his.

“Probably at the party!” Kyle snaps. I let his head go and he falls forward.

“Call him,” I snap. “Have him come here now.”

“What?” Kyle asks worriedly.

“Yeah, what?” Ty pushes my shoulder so I’m facing him. His eyes are wide, concern racing across his features as he searches for any ounce of humanity in my eyes.

I cross my arms over my chest. “Did I fucking stutter?” I snarl, turning my attention back to a shaking Kyle, kneeling by my legs. “Call Hunter now .” I won’t let this stand. Jade’s pain and torment came from my brother? No, no, I won’t let this go. I won’t let him get away with this.

He was my responsibility, but not anymore. Now, she’s the priority and it’s my responsibility to fuck up the person who hurt her.

Kyle gets his phone out and his fingers shake as he dials Hunter's number.

“What’s your thought process right now, Ash?” Ty asks quietly.

“I’m going to have a little talk with my brother.” I roll my head, cracking my neck. “It seems I failed as a parental figure, but I won’t fail as a boyfriend.” Ty looks at me with a nod and understanding, which I appreciate, but I don’t need his approval. “You should get out of here,” I suggest. “Actually, you should go wait out front for Jade and make sure she doesn’t see either of these pieces of shit near me.”

Ty purses his lips and narrows his eyes.

I raise an eyebrow. “What?”

Ty takes a moment to reply. “She was here… earlier.”

My heart drops to my stomach and stops. “When?”

“She ran off right before I came in and attacked Kyle. She… She saw you two being friendly and I told her that your brother was Kyle’s best friend. She put two and two together.”

My ability to breathe vanishes. “I’m going to kill him,” I mutter angrily under my breath.

“You can’t kill them,” Ty says pointedly, trying to bring me back to reason. “But you can take care of business.”

“Where is she now?” I growl. I want nothing more than to run after Jade, explain all the shit that’s going on. It physically hurts me to know she’s walking around, thinking that I am in any way working with these fucking assholes. Fuck, does she think…

Goddamn it.

“I don’t–” Ty starts to say, but he’s interrupted by his phone ringing. “One minute, it’s Roxie,” he says to me before answering. “Hey amor, I can’t talk right now.”

“YOU TELL THAT MOTHERFUCKER I WARNED HIM NOT TO HURT HER! I VOUCHED FOR HIM, AND WHAT DID HE DO? HE’S COLUDING WITH FUCKING RAPISTS?! WHO THE FUCK -”

I hear Roxie’s screams burst through the phone, loud enough that Ty’s phone speaker cracks from the volume. Ty cuts her off, speaking softly in Spanish, his explanation laced with hermosa chica, calmate, amante. I know enough Spanish to recognize he’s calling her beautiful and saying sweet nothings to calm her down.

“Roxie, you have it wrong,” Ty insists when Roxie stops screaming. “I know what it looked like, I was here when she saw him. No, I know. Roxie, Asher beat the hell out of Kyle when he found out. I only got like two hits in and this dude looks like he’s gone through a full five rounds.” Ty nods and makes affirmative noises. “No, he didn’t know... Yes, he’s handling Hunter, too. I’m going to stay here and make sure Asher doesn’t go to jail. Yes... Yes... Make sure she’s okay. Make sure she knows that Asher didn’t know and it isn’t what it looked like. Okay. Okay I will.”

He hangs up the phone. “You’re in a big shitstorm, brother.” Ty’s eyes widen and he takes a deep breath. “With both girls.”

“How fucking far is he?” I yell at Kyle.

And just as Kyle goes to answer, there’s a knock at the front door.

“Open the door, Ty,” I say in a scarily calm voice.

My brother—my brother , who I’ve raised and who I loved—drugged, raped, and hurt my girl. He hurt her.

She’s still recovering, but I don’t know if she will ever truly heal.

I feel like I’m dissociating because as Ty unlocks the door, my anger simmers to a controllable level.

And that should scare us all.

“Asher! How are you, bro?” Hunter walks in, arms spread wide and a big smile on his stupid face. “Where’s Kyle?”

Just then, Kyle crashes out of the bathroom, intent on making a run for it. His eyes dart around, looking for the next sign of danger, and he holds his hand to his head. I see fresh blood trickling down his face from an open wound hidden beneath his hairline. Probably from when he hit the wall.

“What the fuck…” Hunter’s eyes widen and he looks to me with alarm. “Did you do that?”

Kyle takes that moment to try and run out the front door, abandoning his stuff and Hunter. Chickenshit. The front bell dings and I jerk my head to Ty, letting him know he’s got Kyle. I know Ty will make sure he doesn’t open his fucking mouth.

The doorbell goes off a final time, signaling that it’s just Hunter and I in the building. Hunter shifts his weight back and forth on the balls of his feet while his eyes scan the room, as if he thinks someone else is going to jump out at him.

“What am I doing here, Ashe?” Hunter asks, throwing his hands out to the side.

My nostrils flare as I noisily suck in a deep breath.

“What have you done?” I ask through gritted teeth.

“Nothing as of late.” Hunter shrugs and rolls his eyes, putting his hands into his pockets like he’s bored.

“How about this summer?”

Hunter narrows his eyes. “Just spit it out, Asher. You obviously have an agenda. What are you getting at?”

My hands curl into fists so tightly, I can feel my knuckles pop.

“Did you drug and rape someone?” I say it clearly but my voice is so low. I didn’t know I could make myself unintentionally sound like Batman.

“What?” He scoffs, pushing a breath out and rolling his eyes. “Seriously, Asher? You think I’d do something like that?”

I stare at him roughly, looking for any sign of deception. I obviously can’t trust him; never have been able to, really. But I didn’t think he was this far gone.

“I’m going to ask you again. And don’t insult my intelligence by giving me some bullshit answer,” I snap while pointing at him aggressively. “Did you drug and rape a girl this summer?”

Hunter laughs and shakes his head.

But he doesn’t say no.

“Did you?!” I push, moving closer to him. The way his eyes dart to where I stepped tell me that he’s scared.

As he should be.

“Look, brother,” he says with a nervous tilt to his voice, putting his hands up in front of him. It doesn’t escape my attention that he’s trying to use that word to remind me of our relation. Not that it means jack shit to me anymore. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but you know me.”

“You’re right, Hunter. I do know you,” I reply calmly with a nod. There’s a ghost of a pause between us as he waits for me to continue. When I don’t react or continue, Hunter smiles in relief.

“Unfortunately,” I snarl at him, my eyes narrowing in rage, and I punch him square in the face.

Blood squirts from his nose as his eyes scrunch in pain. My knuckles sting with the force of my punch, but I welcome it. Hunter’s hands immediately cover his face as he screams in pain, his body recoiling from the force of my punch as he looks at me with disbelief.

“You are the scum of the fucking earth. I cannot believe you’re my brother. I could fucking kill you,” I growl before gripping his innocent looking blonde hair, holding him steady while punching him again and again.

“What the fuck, Asher?!” He screams at me, putting his hands out and throwing back a few ill-aimed punches. He’s so fucking weak that he’s easy to dodge. I get one more in before he falls to the ground and I climb on top of him, holding his shirt and punching him back down.

“You drugged and raped a girl this summer. A sweet, innocent blonde who came with a chick named Sarah. Her name is Jade Henderson. Ring any bells?” I snap, pulling him up by his shirt. Hunter’s face is covered in bright red blood, his hair completely disheveled from my grip, and his eyes are wild with pain and fear. But underneath it all, I can see recognition.

He knows.

He remembers.

“What does that bitch have to do with this?” He snaps, spitting blood in my face as he speaks.

“What does she have to do with this?” I repeat, getting closer to him. His jaw ticks and I can practically smell his fear. and I growl, “ Everything .”

Standing rapidly, I drag him to my station and throw him into the wall. Hunter clobbers to his feet and jumps to attack me, but I’m ready. I hit him in the face, and while his head is flung to the side, I jab him in the kidney. Hunter grunts in pain and throws a punch of his own that catches me by surprise. Pain blossoms over my eye; the point of impact feels like it’s fracturing and I grunt with the sting. Great, I’m going to have a black eye.

“How the fuck do you even know her? What, you want to know if her pussy was good?” Hunter says cockily, spitting a wad of blood to the side as he smiles like a fucking psycho. We start to circle one another, his hands halfway up in a fight stance. I happen to know he’s never been in an actual fight, though. He just gets others to do his dirty work.

I, however, have been fighting since I was seventeen and know how to take a punch.

And how to knock someone out.

“Shut the fuck up.” I snarl.

“Oh, does my brother have a crush on my sloppy seconds? You do, don’t you?” He laughs like he’s an evil villain in a horror movie. “She wasn’t even worth it, but she was begging for it. So fucking desperate. ‘Pick me, pick me,’” he mocks in a girly tone, “I should’ve thrown her outside when I was done and let someone else have a go at her. Maybe she’d be half decent for them. I still got mine, though—I was even the first fuck of her life. Maybe it took. Is that why you’re so pissed? Is the bitch pregnant with my bastard?”

I growl but try to keep my eye on the prize. He’s trying to rile me up now. And he’ll fucking pay for it.

The mental image of Jade pregnant with my brother’s child makes me sick. For more than one reason.

I have to shake it.

Clenching my fists again, I go to throw a punch but he jumps out of the way.

“Oh, man, have you got it bad,” Hunter says teasingly. “No stupid bitch is worth this, Asher.”

“You’ve got it wrong, asshole. She’s worth everything and more.” I throw another punch out and he just barely dodges it.

Hunter seems to want to egg me on, leading me in a circle, getting closer to the bench I use to tattoo people. “She’s nothing but a used-up cunt. But I will say, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out she’s on my dorm floor. I’ve been watching and waiting to catch her again… She might not have been the best fuck, but I’d be willing to show her a few more things.” He raises an eyebrow and winks as he says that filth. I grab his shirt, pulling him closer to me. My hand wraps around his throat, cutting off air to his lungs. Hunter’s hands wrap around my arm to try and throw me off, but it’s easy to ignore.

“You will never touch her again. You will never look at her again. Tomorrow, you will go to the dorm facility advisor and you will completely move dorms, I want you nowhere near her. Do you understand?” I sneer in his face, the rage I’m feeling seething through my voice.

Hunter snorts at me. “That’s not going to happen.”

“It’s going to happen, or I’m going to kill you,” I warn.

“You wouldn’t,” he says like it’s a joke, but from the way his eyes shake, I can see he’s actually worried.

Without saying a word, I pull my arm back and punch him in the sternum. Hunter immediately starts to wheeze, the small bit of air he had left pushing involuntarily from his lungs. He gasps for a breath. While that’s happening, I wrap my hands around his throat again.

“Are you sure about that?” I whisper menacingly.

Hunter kicks his leg out and lands a solid blow to my thigh, but instead of falling back, I grit my teeth and don’t let the pain deter me. Punching him one more time, I push all my power into it and aim at his head. I don’t want my brother to die, but I want him to remember this moment every time he even thinks of repeating what he did. He fucking deserves it after hurting Jade.

My punch lands on the side of his head and Hunter collapses on the ground, unconscious.

I feel nothing. No sense of empathy or brotherly comradery when I look at him. Only disgust. Only the need for revenge.

Touching my eyebrow, I wince and pull my fingers back to see that I’m bleeding.

I’ll live.

Out of the corner of my eye, my tattoo gun catches the glint of the overhead light. I hadn’t had time to put everything away yet, and now, that might have been a good thing.

There’s one way to make sure everyone knows who Hunter is. What he likes to do.

Permanently.

Mind made up, I grab the tattoo gun and a container of ink. I kick Hunter so he’s lying on his back and pull his shirt up. His jeans are stupidly, ridiculously low and tight. Normally, I’d make fun of him, but right now it’s going to work in my favor. I don’t even shave the area, I just click the machine on, dip the needle in the ink and get to fucking work.

* * *

In thick block letters, the word ‘RAPIST’ is tattooed on Hunter’s lower stomach, right over his dick. From now until the end of time, whenever he tries to get with someone, they’ll know the kind of person he is.

There’s no forgiveness. There’s no mercy.

Just like he didn’t give any to Jade. Or any of the others I’m sure he’s hurt.

He’ll carry this reminder of what he did for the rest of his life. Just like she will.

The bell goes off overhead, and I hear Ty come in.

“He’s taken care of,” Ty says ominously, his footsteps letting me know he’s getting closer to my station.

“So is Hunter,” I reply. My voice is still that oddly calm and flat tone as I answer him, sitting back and tossing my tattoo gun on the metal tray.

“What did you do?” Ty asks, looking over my shoulder. “You didn’t kill him, did you? Otherwise, we have a shit-ton of loose ends we need to tie up. I have some people we can call.”

My head whips to Ty quickly in surprise. “You have ‘people you can call’? Are you a part of the mob or some shit?”

“No, no. Don’t worry about it.” He grabs a towel from my desk and wipes his hands.

“Alright, we’ll be talking about that later.” I put my fingers on Hunter's pulse point to make sure he’s okay. I don’t ever want to see him again, so I have to make sure he’s alive to get the fuck out of my life. “He’s fine. That ugly, coal heart is beating strong. I just knocked him out and gave him a new tattoo. On the house.”

His face matches the worst tattoo I’ve ever done. Both of his eyes are already bruising, puffing his face out grossly, I’m sure his nose is broken from the slightly skewed way it’s sitting on his face now. All of the skin on Hunter’s face is red and painful looking. Same as the skin around his tattoo. It’s probably going to get infected, but I don’t care. Serves him fucking right.

“That’s… deserved,” Ty compliments, tipping his head downward and nodding.

“Let’s get him out of here.”

Ty helps me pick Hunter up and stuff him into the backseat of the car he used to get to the shop.

“We’re going to need to drop him off at a hospital,” Ty says, scratching the back of his head. “Not that the asshole deserves to have someone take care of him, but we don’t want this shit to fall back on us.”

“Fine,” I grumble and pull the keys from Hunter’s pocket. His jeans are rubbing right on the tattoo and I chuckle darkly. When he wakes up, it’s going to bother the fuck out of him as it heals.

“I’ll drop him off and say we found him in an alleyway. You need to go get Jade.” Ty pulls the keys from my hands. “She needs to hear it from you that you had nothing to do with this. You should've seen her face, Ashe. She felt betrayed.”

Fuck.

“Goddamn it.”

“She also needs to know these fuckers won’t be a problem anymore. They won’t be a problem anymore, right?”

“If me knocking Hunter out and threatening him to move didn’t send the picture, I’m not sure what will.”

“Good for you.” Ty nods in surprise and appreciation.

“I’ll make sure he gets the fuck out of her dorm. But I also think Jade wants to move out on her own. After this, I’ll be pushing for her to move in with me so I can make sure neither Kyle or Hunter fuck with her.”

“Good idea.” Ty holds his hand out to shake mine. I shake it and pull him in for a hug.

“Thank you. For having my back. For having Jade’s back. We owe you,” I tell him, clapping him on the back.

Ty returns it and chuckles. “You owe me nothing. We’re family.”

I smile at my true brother and run back toward the shop to gather my stuff, clean up any blood, and delete the video footage before going to my girl.