Chapter 11 #2
I keep my footsteps as light as possible, so I don’t kick up the bramble and give away my position.
At my slow pace I can just make out the huddle the boys have stopped in, fully enclosed in a protective bubble of bushes and tree’s.
The moonlight shimmering over them through the leaves like ripples on water.
When I get close enough, I crouch down and stay as low to the floor as possible. I have missed the beginning of whatever this meeting was about but with my hand over my mouth and my knees already screaming with the position, I eagerly listen as Daylan continues.
“I’m telling you Ash, no one has seen her,” Asher stands with confused eyes and a furrowed brow. His hands are clenched at his sides as though he is holding himself back from punching something.
“That can’t be. We already took care of this,”
Daylan stands closer to him while Jacob tilts his head back to the sky with a frustrated breath.
“I know man, but we must have gotten it wrong. Bronwyn hasn’t been seen in days, she even missed netball practice, which she would never do,” Daylan shakes his head.
“I haven’t spent much time with her but one of the other girls from the team said she still played with broken fingers; she wouldn’t miss anything without letting her coach know,”
“Did someone check she actually came back this year?” Jacob inputs.
My mind immediately flicks to the other evening when a girl asked if I had seen Bronwyn. Is this the same Bronwyn? And if it is, where is she?
“Yeah, Lilia spoke to her on the first day, they made plans for a coffee, but she never showed up two days after,”
“Has someone checked her room?” Asher takes his phone out of his jeans pocket and starts typing. The light off the screen reflecting on his chiselled features, making him look like a vampirish heartthrob.
“That’s where I have just come from,” Daylan waves his hand in front of him. “All her belongings are still there, but some of her drawers were emptied. Everything else was untouched,”
“FUCK!” Asher shouts making me jump, I squeeze my hand tighter to my mouth and try to calm my racing heart.
If this Bronwyn is missing, that is now two girls from the same academy that have vanished. Why is no one talking about this? Why aren’t the teachers involved?
“Jacob,” Asher turns to his friend. “I need you to be glued to Pipers side until we figure this out. If we got it wrong…” He pauses and a sliver of grief crosses his features. “We can’t let anything happen to her again,” He looks at his friend and Jacob nods.
“I won’t let her out of my site,” He promises.
“Thanks. Oh, and call your uncle. Ask him to check in with his guy that’s undercover”.
“Il do that as soon as I get to Piper,” Jacob agrees.
What the fuck have I just stumbled in on. Undercover.
“Go now. She’s in her room with Max on the door,”
My brows furrow.
I found it endearing if slightly overprotective, the relationship he had with his sister. Now it has my mind churning. What the hell happened to her that has him this fearful for her, so much so he has her guarded at school.
I push myself further into the ground as Jacob passes by on his way out of the tree line.
“I have messaged Bishop to look into Bronwyn’s family to see if they have heard anything, I am guessing Mr. Carmichael has been informed?” Asher asks oozing authority that has my thighs clenching.
“As of tonight, yes. But that fucker isn’t going to do anything as usual,” Daylan’s irises darken as he speaks of the headmaster. He has a heaviness to him that the other two don’t have. Something within I can see trying to claw its way out.
“Don’t worry Ash. If we have to repeat what happened last year, then so be it. We won’t let anything happen to Piper”.
Asher nods as his shoulders drop. “Thanks,” He runs his hand through his hair as an annoying high pitched voice echoes through the forest.
“ASHER!” Darcy shouts. “Where are you baby? I’m getting cold,”
“Maybe, because you said the coat I suggested you wear didn’t go with your outfit, you annoying fucking leech,” Asher whispers through gritted teeth as Daylan snorts with a barely restrained laugh.
“What are you going to do with her?” Daylan asks Asher and it piques my interest.
The moody man before me turns to his friend with a roll of his eyes. “Dear old dad told me to keep her sweet for a business deal,” He lights a cigarette and places it between his lips. “It won’t be a problem much longer though. Just got to bide my time,”
Daylan smirks. “I think even I will celebrate that day,” Asher chuckles and the sound of it warms my blood. “I’m going to grab a drink and ask around about Bronwyn,”
“Don’t freak people out,” Asher snaps. “We don’t need people panicking about more girls dropping out,” He air quotes the final two words with a sneer.
And there it is. Proof that he knows about Marlowe.
“I won’t,”
Asher takes a puff on his cigarette as Daylan turns to walk away.
“Do you think Ruella could be part of this?”
I freeze.
My heart starts to pound in my chest like a drum.
I watch as Daylan thinks it over. “Maybe,” He tilts his head. “Do we know anything about her?” He asks.
“No,” Asher shakes his head. “But I have ways to find out,” His jaw clenches before he takes a few more puffs of his cigarette.
He pulls his phone back out of his pocket while Daylan leaves.
His face is filled with something that immediately reminds me of my father.
There aren’t any physical similarities, but the way he holds himself, the power and authority emanating off him, the rage that bubbles beneath the surface.
It’s like looking at what my father would have been like at his age, and I grimace.
My legs are protesting and my mind reeling.
I really need to get out of here, Corden and Deena will be waiting for me, but Asher will see me from his position if I get up now.
“Ruella Griffith,” I shut my eyes in a panic at potentially being caught.
“Who are you?” He asks and I eventually relax.
He hasn’t seen me, just mumbling to himself as he stares at his screen.
The relief comes instantly, but then it is overshadowed by something else.
Something darker, pulsing and almost like a magnet I feel a pull between us.
Asher finally puts his phone away and turns his back on me, but I still don’t dare breathe until he has walked out of the tree line.
I groan as I stand, my knees clicking from crouching for so long.
I take a deep breath and crack my neck from side to side as I decide on what my next moves are after tonight.
I know for sure that Asher and the boys know more than everyone else, not only is Marlowe missing, but potentially others. And somehow this connects with his sister Piper. Plus, Daylan could be the one who attacked me earlier.
Looks like myself and Asher Vander have a long overdue conversation.
I smirk and turn to make my own way out of the forest when my feet come to a grinding halt.
“Darcy?” I ask as I scan for others.
Darcy is stood leaning up against a tree, staring at me with nothing but hatred oozing from her. If looks could kill, I would be obliterated.
“What are you doing out here, sneaking off into the woods like a creep?” She snaps with a disgusted lift to her lip.
She can’t have been there long, when she shouted for Asher, she sounded like she was still at the gathering. If anything, she saw me getting up from a crouch that’s all.
“Just taking a piss,” I cross my arms. “What’s it got to do with you?”
She shakes her head. “I saw Asher coming out,” She steps closer to me. “Were you with him?” She shouts. “Did you fuck him?”
For a second, I feel sorry for her. Does she know she is part of a business deal? Would she care as long as she got the crumbs of Asher Vander?
Then I remember all the crap I have had to deal with since getting here, and all at her hands.
I square up to her, making sure I wear nothing but confidence on my face. “No,” Her shoulders relax a bit. “But he definitely fucked me,” I grin and point behind me. “Right over there, against that tree,”
Her face flushes instantly and I almost miss her hand raising. My instincts kick in and pull back just as her sharp nails catch my cheek. I hiss out as I raise my hand to my face, when I pull it back a trickle of blood coats my fingertips.
Wow, I didn’t know Darcy had it in her. I assumed she was all bark and no bite, maybe I have her pegged wrong.
“Don’t get it twisted skank. I can live with you being his thing on the side,” she laughs. “Because I will get the best of him,”
“You mean his money and social standing,” I chuckle.
“No,” She tilts her head. “I get the public displays of affection, I get the family dinners, the marriage and babies,” My grin falls.
“And you will always get the dirty forest, getting pushed against a tree. Covered by darkness. Because no one wants anything from you other than what is between your legs,” She looks triumphant, and it’s not surprising.
I haven’t even done anything with Asher, but she is right on the money.
That is all I will ever be in this world.
A world of my father, Asher Vander’s and Darcy’s.
Before I let her make me feel any smaller, I shrug. “Say whatever you need to make yourself feel better Darcy”.
I turn and walk away from her as my nose twitches. Why the hell am I letting her get me like this. Since when did other people’s opinions of me mean so much.
I make my way out into the light, my head down as warmth from the fire hits my skin. I lose my breath as I bash straight into a solid figure, hands grab my shoulders to stop me from falling back and I peer up into the eyes of a man.
Asher.
“Sorr.,” He goes to say before locking his lips. Suspicion and anger fill his face as he glances to where I just came from. Then his brows furrow as his hand comes up to my cheek.
“What happened?” He asks while tilting my head towards the light. “This one is new,”
I pull away, still embarrassed and emotional from Darcy’s words.
“Get off me!” I grunt taking a step back.
“Why are you always injured?”
“None of your damn business. Why don’t you go back to your boring, stick stuck up their arse friends and your plastic bitch of a girlfriend and stay out of my way,” I spit.
I don’t know why I am saying these things, I need him for information, but I can’t stop my mouth running.
“You think because you have money you can do whatever you want. Treat and use people however you want,” He looks at me confused at my outburst and so am I.
I can see Corden off to the side, his wide attention bouncing between us.
“I am so sick of men like you! Now leave. Me. Alone!”.
As he opens his mouth to speak his eyes shift to the person emerging from behind me. I turn to see Darcy and her smug mouth lifts to one side as I push Asher out the way.
“Is everything okay?” Corden asks as I approach him.
“Yeah, lets grab Deena and get out of here when no one is looking at us”.
He nods as he puts his drink down on the log beside us before going to find the third piece of our mission group. I glance back over my shoulder and wish I hadn’t.
Asher has his arm around Darcy, her big eyes gazing up at him and I see what she was talking about.
Girls like her will always get the light, while girls like me get nothing but darkness.
What would a man like Asher want with a damaged and used girl like me when he can have his pick of shiny girls that have never seen the bad in the world.
Girls that still have a reason to smile.
I feel the black cloud starting to come over me and I set a reminder on my phone to take my meds and send a text to Corden to meet me back at the main building.
I shake tonight from my mind, because I have more important things to be doing.
Like breaking and entering.