Chapter Thirty-Six
Ashen
Piled back into the car, we sped to the location we’d given Roland. On the way, I said, “We have to consider that this is a trap.”
Sara asked, “If so, we should assume they had surveillance at the house and are aware that you’re not alone. What do you think they’re hoping to gain from this now?”
Thane interrupted, “Whatever it is, they won’t get it. I have people enroute to create a solid perimeter around the parking lot. They’re not going anywhere.”
I rubbed my hands on my thighs. “They might be counting on us not being able to do much to them in public.”
Zachary said, “Then they’d be underestimating us.”
Scott inserted. “Why go to this extreme? It doesn’t make sense. How could they imagine this would work out well for them?”
I ran a hand through my hair and met Sara’s gaze. The truth was almost as ugly as the situation we were in. “Cruelty is a method that has worked to control me in the past. I should have considered the possibility. I shouldn’t have sent Sparkles—”
“No.” Sara’s hand took hold of mine. “Don’t you dare take any blame for this.
They’re the sick ones. They’re not just underestimating us, they’ve always underestimated you.
The reason their plan doesn’t make sense is because they’re playing by their rules and relying on you to be as weak as they are.
They cave to blackmail. Simmons controlled them easily with threats.
But you’re not like them. Let’s go show them how threats should be addressed—instant and absolute neutralizing. ”
My eyebrows rose. “You mean that.”
She didn’t hesitate to answer, “It’s what Max would have done.”
My throat thickened with emotion. Part of me wanted to tell her to stay behind. This was my battle to fight, and I wanted to keep her safe.
But she was so damn beautiful and fierce.
And mine.
She would never know a day or a battle without me by her side and I understood she felt the same with me. “We’ll make Max proud today,” I murmured.
Thane confirmed that his people were positioning themselves around the parking lot. They had a man with Sparkles in their sights. He appeared to be alone.
The parking lot was harshly lit, the kind of brightness meant to keep trouble at bay. My pulse thundered, my muscles coiled, every sense stretched taut as I scanned the area.
Roland.
He was seated in a dark sedan. When we pulled up near his vehicle, he stepped out then opened the back door of his car and led Sparkles out on a leash. I didn’t take my eyes off them as I launched myself out as Thane was still parking.
“Sparkles,” I exclaimed.
Roland released the leash and she barreled across the pavement, ears flying, tail a frantic metronome of joy.
I dropped to one knee as she launched herself into my arms. Her tongue started lapping, her whole body vibrating.
My arms locked around her, and I buried my face in her warm fur.
For the first time since the call, my chest expanded, air flooding back into me. She was alive.
Unhurt.
I hadn’t failed her.
Sara appeared at my side and I didn’t have to look her way to know her hand was hovering over her gun. “Roland?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said in a tight voice. I looked up at him. He was pale. Older. Worried, but unafraid.
Thane, Zachary, and Scott encircled us. A quick glance around confirmed that if Roland thought he could issue a threat and leave, he was mistaken.
I straightened slowly, taking Sparkles’s leash as I did. A gaping chasm of our shared dark history separated Roland and me. “What are you doing here, Roland?”
Let him say it.
Let him threaten me now.
And I’ll knock him into next week.
His shoulders rounded. “Our parents—”
“Not mine.”
He blanched. “How long have you known?”
My stomach churned. “How long have you?”
He took a moment to look from me, to Sara, to the men encircling us.
I waited for nervous sweat to bead on his forehead, but instead he looked .
. . defeated and as broken as I once had.
“I believed everything they said about you. They told me you were crazy. They said you’d hurt me if ever given a chance.
I thought you heard voices saying you were better than me.
” He swallowed visibly. “I was happy when they sent you away.”
I swayed on my feet but squared my shoulders. Sara’s hand slid into mine and Sparkles lay down on my feet. “I see.”
He shook his head. “I was horrible to you.”
“Yes, you were.”
He pocketed his hands. “I was wound up and angry all the time but I didn’t realize it until I went to college and started to meet people who weren’t.
It took me a few years and some failed relationships before I met someone I trusted enough to talk to about Mom and Dad, you .
. . and how different I felt away from all of you.
When I told her what your name was—that’s when it clicked. ”
Between gritted teeth, I said, “Did you consider telling me?”
His forehead furrowed. “You were doing better by then. Even graduating from college yourself. I didn’t want to make things worse for you.”
Rage rose in me. “So you were a coward.”
He looked away, frowned, then said, “My whole life I’d been told you were crazy. The doctors said it as well. What was I supposed to do?”
“Save him,” Sara growled beside me.
Roland’s head snapped back and his eyes shone with emotion. “I came back to see you, Enimton—”
“Ashen,” I corrected. “My name is now Ashen Ryse.”
He nodded. “Ashen. I like it.”
“I really don’t give a fuck what you do or don’t like,” I snapped.
His lips thinned. “Fair enough.” His attention turned to Sara. “I’m glad you’re not alone.”
The silence that followed was long and tense. Eventually, I pressed, “Is there something else you want to say, Roland? A message perhaps?”
He shook his head vehemently, then his eyes rounded. “You think I had something to do with taking your dog?”
I shrugged slowly, my hand tightening on Sparkles’s leash. “I don’t know what to think, so why don’t you tell me how she came to be with you.”
“Agnes called me,” Roland said in a rush.
“She threatened to quit if I didn’t get up here and explain to Mom and Dad that dog-sitting wasn’t part of her job.
I called Mom. She was all worked up and told me you’d moved out and how worried they were about you.
They said you were sleeping on the streets now and doing drugs.
This time, I didn’t believe them. When she said they’d taken your dog because it was the only way to get you to come to your senses, I dropped everything and flew up. ”
He sounded convincing. I exchanged a glance with Sara, then the others. We were all holding out for more before deciding. “And then what happened?” I asked.
“I went to their house, saw them with the dog, and knew what they were doing was wrong. So I grabbed the dog and left with it.” He looked around at all of us. “Then I drove around trying to figure out what to do.”
“You could have called him,” Thane said in a dangerously low tone.
He doesn’t believe him.
I shared another look with Sara and realized why.
Thane was raised to be strong and loyal.
He doesn’t understand weakness.
And fear.
Unfortunately, I’ve dabbled in both.
I said, “You think they’ll come after you now that you’ve sided with me.”
Roland looked down. “I made a new life for myself. I don’t rely on their money. I have a fiancée, a good job, and we’re buying a nice house together. They could take all of that from me.”
And they would.
Just because they could.
I closed my eyes briefly and summoned strength. When I met his gaze again, my core was grounded and I had sympathy for the man who could have been my brother had the Gravestones allowed him to be. “I’ll make sure they don’t mess with you.”
Roland slowly blinked. “Don’t get more on their bad side. You have your dog back. It looks like you have a new life you’re building for yourself as well. Maybe this will blow over.”
I looked around again and noted how everyone’s expressions had changed. Roland wasn’t a threat.
If I were a better man, I might have hugged him and told him we would be okay, but that chasm was still too wide.
Still, I needed to make sure the reign of the Gravestones controlling through fear ended.
“That’s not how this is going to go down, but you can go home, Roland.
Like I said, I’ll make sure they leave you alone. ”
Sara leaned into me and I could feel how proud she was of me. “Roland,” she said gently, “My name is Sara. Your parents are about to be in a lot of legal trouble. I would cut off all contact with them if I were you.”
Roland nodded.
Zachary leaned in. “Just so we’re clear, if any part of what you said isn’t true, it’ll be me you meet in a parking lot next. Or an alley. Or perhaps in your house when you think you’re safely tucked in . . .”
“Thanks, Zachary,” I said with a smirk. “I think he gets the idea.”
“I hope so,” Zachary said, rocking back onto his heels. “If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a liar.”
Roland swallowed visibly. “Everything I said is true.”
Sparkles stood then, stepped forward toward Roland, and threw up on his feet. He jumped back, grossed out.
Scott laughed, “Ashen, Sparkles really is your dog. Remember the first time we met? Gene said he’s still trying to fix the varnish next to his table.”
Zachary gave his shoulder a punch and shook his head.
“Too soon?” Scott asked, looking embarrassed.
I rubbed a hand over my eyes, groaned, then my lips twisted in a wry smile.
Brothers.
Next to me, Sara asked, “What did I miss?”
Before I had a chance to answer, Thane said, “Roland, you should go clean off. We’ll be in touch.”
My eyebrows rose, then I smiled at Thane.
We.
You know what . . . yeah.
We.
As Roland turned away to leave, Sara nudged me and whispered, “Not for him, for you.”
I cleared my throat. “Roland.”
He looked back over his shoulder.
I added, “I hate what they did to us. I hate who we became because of them, and I don’t know if there’s any way back from there—but I don’t hate you.”
He nodded, opened his mouth to say something, changed his mind, got into his car, and drove off without looking back.
With one hand in Sara’s while my other ruffled Sparkles’s fur, I watched him go. Where I expected pain to rush in, only gratitude came. Hate. Fear. Anger. It hadn’t protected me from the Gravestones and I didn’t need it now.
I had something better on my side.
Love.