Chapter 36
36
SUMMER
“Ash,” I urged, needing to know whatever was wrong.
He muttered a string of curse words, too jumbled to make any sense.
“Whoa, slow down. What’s the matter?”
“Someone broke my window,” he panted.
“Shit.” This had to be related to the fight earlier. I stood. “I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
“No,” he barked. “Don’t come. I don’t know if whoever did this is still around.”
I stood from the sofa, ignoring him. “That only makes it more important for you not to be alone.”
“Summer, seriously. It might not be safe. Stay home.”
I slipped a jacket on. “Call Nate.”
“Okay.” He hesitated. “We can deal with it. No need for you to be here.”
I hung up. Like hell was I leaving him to handle this on his own.
I grabbed my keys and my purse and rushed out the front door, sparing a moment to lock it behind me. The Ute was already unlocked—I needed to stop leaving it that way considering what had happened with both Kennedy and Grace.
I drove to Asher’s house and parked on the streetside. He was standing at the end of the path closest to the street, his arms wrapped around himself. I threw my door open, hurried over and hugged him. He stiffened for a second, as if unsure how to react, but then pulled me more tightly into the embrace, burying his face in my hair and breathing me in.
“You shouldn’t have come,” he whispered.
“You couldn’t have stopped me.” His shirt was damp, and he smelled of clean, masculine sweat. I pulled back slightly. “Where have you been?”
He glanced to the side. “Out cycling.”
“In the dark?” Didn’t he have any self-preservation instincts? Or maybe he thought he was too big and tough to worry? Never mind that a strong man could hurt himself alone on a mountain just as easily as a petite woman could.
“I had my lights on,” he said. “It was fine.”
He released me and stepped back. I regretted asking. He had enough on his mind without me lecturing him on bike safety.
“Aren’t you cold?” I asked.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to go inside until the police are here. What if whoever broke the window used it to get in and they’re still there?”
I shuddered. God, I hoped not.
The breeze stirred my hair, and I suddenly wished I’d thought to grab a hat as well as my jacket before I left. Fortunately, before I could stew in my discomfort, two cars pulled up opposite us.
I peered through the darkness, making out Officer Patton’s face as he exited the driver’s side of one of the vehicles. The officer with him wasn’t one I recognized. An out-of-towner, perhaps. Nate parked behind him, in his personal vehicle. He got out, pulled on a woolen hat—smart man—and strode toward us.
“Thanks for coming,” Asher said, addressing all three of them.
“It’s our job,” Patton reminded him. Not that Asher seemed to hear him. He was staring down the path at the house.
“Show us the damage,” Nate ordered, pausing to frown at me, obviously confused about my presence. “What are you doing here?”
“I called Asher to be nosy about the fight earlier today and I was on the phone with him when he saw the window.” Mostly true. Or near enough, at least.
Nate rolled his eyes. “So of course you hurried over without stopping to think it through.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but Asher cleared his throat pointedly, so I just huffed and let it go. It shouldn’t bother me that my brothers seemed to think me impulsive and reckless. I was too old to need anyone else’s approval. Yet it did frustrate me, nonetheless.
What would they say if they found out I’d kissed Asher? Would they consider that just one more poorly thought out decision?
Slowly, Asher led us up the path. As we neared the porch, the overhead light came on, illuminating the gaping hole in the center of his window. Beyond that, the house was dark.
Nate whistled. “Looks like they threw something through it.”
Patton tipped his chin up. “You think it was that rather than punching it out to gain entrance?”
“Based on the location of the hole, I’d guess so. They’d have done it closer to the bottom if they wanted in.” He turned on the flashlight app on his phone and shone it through the window. “There’s a rock on the floor.”
“I’ll dust the windowsill for fingerprints,” Patton’s partner said. “I’m not an expert but it’ll be better than nothing. You won’t get a crime scene tech out here just because of a little vandalism.”
He jogged back to their car.
“Do you think this could be related to the fight earlier today?” I asked. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that Asher would get assaulted in the morning and then randomly have someone else throw a rock through his window in the evening.
“What happened?” Patton asked as his partner came back up the path toward us.
Nate briefly explained. “It’s possible this is a continuation of that,” he agreed. “I’ll check with James Conroy in the morning to see if he can account for his movements tonight.”
I bit my lip. “What about Lionel Lowry?”
Asher turned toward me, frowning. “Lionel wouldn’t—”
“He’s an angry man,” I said. “Angry people do stupid things.”
Nate stepped aside so Patton’s partner could access the window. “Summer is right. We should check, just to be sure. In the meantime, Asher, can you unlock the door so we can have a look inside?”
With shaking hands, Asher withdrew a key from one of his pockets and slotted it into the lock. He turned and pushed the door open. Nate touched his shoulder when he tried to enter.
“Patton will go first,” he said. “He’s fully kitted out in protective gear.”
My stomach lurched. It was the sensible thing to do, but I hated the thought that someone with ill intentions might be hiding inside Asher’s home, lying in wait.
“Gee thanks, boss,” Patton said wryly, but he drew his Taser, held his flashlight high with his other hand, and stepped inside.
“Stay here,” Nate said as he followed him in.
Asher and I exchanged glances. I could tell he was listening as carefully as me, hoping that all would be well. A couple minutes later, Nate stuck his head back out the door and gestured for us to come in.
“The place is empty, other than the cat. She’s sleeping peacefully on the bed.” He jerked his thumb toward the living room. “You need to see this.”
Asher’s eyebrows knitted together. “What is it?”
Nate just shook his head and led the way into the living room. Patton was crouched on the floor, shards of glass scattered around him and latex gloves on his hands as he held an oval-shaped rock. Presumably, this was what had done the damage to the window.
“Come closer,” he said.
We gathered in a circle, everyone being careful not to stand on any large shards of glass. As I leaned over, I realized that a message was scratched onto the back of the rock in block letters. It read:
WHAT SCARES YOU MOST?
I shivered, a cold tendril of fear sneaking down my spine. “What the hell is that about?”
“We were hoping you might know.” Patton glanced at Asher. “Any ideas?”
But Asher seemed as stunned as the rest of us.
“No,” he said. “I have no idea why someone would write that on a rock and throw it through my window.”
Patton slipped the rock into a plastic bag and sealed it. “We’ll check this for prints back at the station. You don’t recognize the handwriting?”
“No. But then, I don’t know that I’d recognize anyone’s writing, other than maybe Maia’s and my parents’.”
“Fair enough.” Patton stood and pocketed the bag with the rock inside. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t clean up in here now. Boss?”
Nate nodded. “That’s fine. We should board up the window while we’re here.”
He rubbed his upper arms, and it was only then that I noticed he was wearing a thin sweater rather than a jacket. He must have been at home with Grace and Finn when we called and come immediately.
“Ash, if there’s somewhere else you can sleep tonight, you should do that,” he said. “Just in case whoever did this comes back.”
“You can stay at my place,” I offered immediately, then added, “I have a spare bed,” when Nate looked at me strangely.
I expected Asher to agree. It was the sensible thing to do. I was already here so he could just go home with me, but he shook his head.
“I’ll go to Frannie’s,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I can use their sofa.”
He was choosing to worry his sister rather than come with me. Why did that hurt so much?
I tried to shake it off. Asher hadn’t noticed my discomfort, and he was already leaving the room. I turned to Nate. If ever there was a time to share my concerns with him, this was it.
“I’m worried someone is targeting Asher,” I whispered, glancing at Patton, who made a show of not listening.
Nate put his hand on his hip and cocked his head. “Why?”
I explained how his cat had mysteriously been outside the morning after my birthday rather than in the house where she should have been and had fallen ill from pesticide poisoning soon after.
Asher returned with a brush and shovel just as I finished speaking. His lips pressed together in a firm line, and he studied my face for a moment.
“You’re seeing things that aren’t there because of what happened with Grace and Kennedy,” he said finally. “I had a shitty day, and I’ve had a run of bad luck and poor decision-making, that’s all. Work has been crazy lately, and it’s getting to me.”
I turned to Nate. “What do you think?”
Frustratingly, his expression gave nothing away. “It’s too soon to tell. It’s worth looking into just for peace of mind though, and Asher, if anything else happens, I want to know about it.”
Asher narrowed his eyes at me, but then nodded. “Sure.”
Gratitude swelled within me. My cynical brother hadn’t completely dismissed my concerns. Even if Asher still didn’t believe me, that was better than nothing. Nate had the resources to start investigating if he thought it was necessary.
Asher knelt and swept up the glass fragments. Nate disappeared out the back door and returned with a large piece of plywood and Patton’s partner, who was carrying a hammer and a container of nails.
Together, the three cops boarded the window, taking directions from Asher to ensure nothing was damaged. When they were done, they left, with Nate reminding Asher not to stay here tonight.
As soon as they were out of earshot, I asked Asher, “Why wouldn’t you come to my place?”