Chapter 12 #2
“Now, now, Cody. Don’t you dare rough up her pretty face.
She’ll fetch a higher price if she’s not all bruised up.
” Ash comes over to stand beside the son of the CEO of Archer Realty, the corporate scourge of the Prescott neighborhood.
He frowns a little as he works the lid off the box to reveal the shrivelly micropenis that’s tucked inside.
It smells pretty bad now, won’t lie. I feel awful about having left it in Widow’s car all this time, tying him to a crime he didn’t commit.
“Is that my dick?” Cody chokes out, shoving up to his feet and snatching the box away from Ash.
The look of broken horror on his face is one of the most beautiful gifts I have ever received.
I love Bohnes so much. I love him, and I’m sorry that I had to let Ash take the lead on this one. “Oh God. Oh my God.”
Cody shoves the box back into Ash’s hands and gets in my face, splashing Alexis’ blood everywhere. The corner of Ash’s lip twitches, like his mouth can’t decide whether to laugh or scream. His eyes lock briefly on mine before edging to Cody with a flash of malice.
“Where the fuck is he?!” Cody demands, ignoring Ash entirely. My rebellious fuckboy cocks his head and looks at the man like a problem to be taken care of in the here and now.
“Who?” I ask, feeling a wide, psychotic smile stretch over my aching lips. When Cody punched me, he punched me hard. I bet my teeth are bloodied and red. Hope he can see that when I smile, it’s the smile of the devil herself.
“Don’t play dumb with me, you stupid-ass whore. Where’s that fucking undertaker bitch? Bohnes or Skeleton or something. Whatever the hell his name is, I’m jamming a hot poker up his ass when I get my hands on him.”
When I spit on Cody in response, he pulls his fist back to hit me again, but Ash grabs his wrist and squeezes so hard that I hear a crunch, like bone snapping. The two men make eye contact as Cody’s bodyguards bristle behind him, one of them placing a hand over the automatic rifle at his side.
“I said don’t.” Ash is still holding the box with the dead dick inside of it.
“Girls with broken jaws don’t suck cock very well, Chet Junior.
You know that as well as I do.” Ash shoves CJ’s hand aside and then squats down in front of me.
He stares at me the way Aspen stared at me, like a hole to be conquered.
It’s so different from the way Ash usually looks at me, like his soul is being ripped out of his eyes and jammed into my chest. Like he’s mine and I’m his, like we’re something special when we’re together.
He’s an incredible actor. Flawless. No wonder I’m the only person who could tell Ash and Aspen apart.
Widow is right: it’s the Prescott trap. I fell for the Prescott trap like everyone else. Ash is a pouty princess in need of rescue, and I want to be his hero.
“Where is he?” Cody repeats, ignoring Ash entirely and staring at me as he retrieves a cigarette and lights it. He takes a drag on it, and then he aims it at my eye. Ash’s fingers snatch him by the hair and yank him back to his ass, lips bared near the man’s ear.
“Touch her again and I’ll kill you right here.”
“With your father watching?” Cody retorts with a laugh, reaching up like he assumes Ash is going to let go of him. He even waves his bodyguards off when they reach for their guns. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh? You don’t think often though, do you? You’re not particularly good at it.” Ash tightens his fingers on Cody’s hair and grabs the rotten penis from the box with his other hand. He shoves it into Cody’s open mouth, abruptly cutting off whatever inane dribble he was going to spew next.
Ash picks his stolen gun up off the floor and shoots Cody in the temple.
Blood splashes onto the furniture, soaks the couch. Cody topples over, his own severed cock caught behind his death-clenched teeth. Uh. Well. Fuck. I…I’m not sure what to say. Does well done cut it?
With a sigh, Ash rises to his feet as his hired muscle clashes with Cody’s hired muscle. It’s over quick enough that he doesn’t need to intervene. Doesn’t even call the guys off that are still holding me captive.
“Escort Miss Force to the car,” he commands without even looking at me.
And then he sets fire to my house.
Ash steals Lexi’s lighter from my pocket as another man walks in with a gasoline can. As soon as I see that, I go wild again, an animal who bites and kicks and screams. I put everything that I have into breaking free from the men who are holding me.
I slam my head backward into someone’s face with a wet crush.
Hurts me, too, but I get free long enough to grab at Ash’s tie.
His eyes and mine clash together as he rears back like he can’t handle the idea of me touching him.
If I fuck Ash, he’ll leash himself and hand over the reins.
Burning the place down though…I don’t like that.
It’s a change in the game we can’t come back from.
“What are you doing?” I whisper, searching his expression for the truth.
Pain. His eyes are overflowing with pain. My hand is pried from Ash’s tie by his own quaking fingers, and I’m shoved against the wall by another pair of dudes. Cuffed like the delinquent I am. My cheek smears through a blood splatter, and I find myself at the mercy of Alexis’ empty expression.
I never stop fighting, nailing one of my attackers in the nuts.
“Doing?” Ash doesn’t bother to keep his voice down when replying. “Whatever the fuck I want. I won the race, didn’t I?” Ash steps away from me as flames crackle across my grandmother’s living room carpet. “Take her. Go.” He waves his hand dismissively, as entitled and cavalier as Aspen ever was.
I’m dragged outside, and up it goes.
My house is engulfed in an inferno. Gram isn’t in there.
You saw that. She was gone. Someone dragged her out the back door or something.
But my sister is being cremated right before my eyes.
That’s a tough truth to swallow. I deep-throat myself on it, choking.
Gagging on reality and greasy black smoke.
And Widow—
I see him on all-fours on the lawn, face a bloodied mess, a group of men surrounding him. Widow pushes up into a crouching position, his eyes on mine.
Adrian doesn’t look complicit: he looks wary.
“I love you,” he tells me as I’m hauled past, still fighting but making little progress.
Widow is panting as he lifts his gold eyes up to Ash, the moment downshifting into something slow, something sticky.
Ash is not smiling. Ash does not look like Ash at all.
His expensive loafers cut through the dead grass of our front lawn as he lifts his gun, aiming it at the center of Widow’s forehead.
Widow whispers this next bit, low and rough.
Gritty. “I will always love you, Scarlett.”
This last part is said with a finality that cuts straight to the bone.
“No matter how bleak it seems, trust me,” I call out, tearing an arm from the grip of my guard and breaking his nose with my elbow before he can contain me again. More blood. So much red. Trauma coating my skin, slick and sticky and hot. “I always have your best interests in mind.”
Adrian swipes an arm across his bloodied lips, tensing to fight back. Even with a gun to his head, he’s not breaking down. His eyes flick to mine. Heat sparks. Sorrow. Longing.
“What a delightful pair of street rats,” Ash says with a cutting smirk, lips twisting at the edge like a wire garrotte. His finger tenses on the trigger and—
The gun goes off, but I don’t see what happens because a hood is yanked over my head.
I’m shoved onto a seat in a roomy vehicle. The door is slammed in my face.
Panic creeps up on me, a sneaker wave of emotion. Drowning me in conflicting thoughts. In sudden fear. No more pie shakes. Think logically. Feelings do not require immediacy. Cold, reptile brain logic.
Ash raced at the track for a reason—because he wanted permission. He could’ve easily skipped that part of the equation and carried out this same plan. If I’d wanted to, I could’ve shot him when I stole his gun instead of aiming for his men. He gave me that opportunity.
These are the facts.
Ash is putting on a show for Jonas, trying to win back his trust long enough to be in the same room with him. To kill his father without regard to the consequences.
If Ash is as rotten as the other boys say, we’re all fucked. If he’s not, this is our winning move. This is how I get everything I want.
Adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline.
A stark smile pulls at the corners of my lips.
To outmaneuver both the mayor and the mob, we’ll need firepower. Loyalty. A gang.
Ash first. Then the others. One by one until they’ve all come to heel.
My arrogance is astounding, isn’t it?