Chapter 13 – Ashton
ASHTON
“What do you mean Viper is there?” I say into the phone, panicked.
“It means exactly what I just said,” Sebastian replies coldly. “He’s there. At the café. With Sydney.”
I pull the phone away from my ear and swear, reaching up to tug at my hair. The tape wrapped around my knuckles catches on a few strands, yanking them out. Fuck. Fuck.
“I’m in the middle of fight training,” I snap. “It’s going to take me an hour to get down there. You gotta go over there, Doc. You gotta pull him out of there and—”
“No,” he says brusquely.
I blink, too shocked to register the words.
“Wait, what do you mean no?”
“I mean no, I am not going over there, and no, I’m not going to physically pull Viper out of her café, Ashton.”
Panic rises in my chest.
“But… Why the fuck—”
“She asked us to stay away from her,” he tells me, voice curt. “Remember? And she specifically told me not to come. She says it’s fine. He’s just sitting there, not bothering her. She only mentioned it to me so I would be aware.”
He’s not bothering her for now. Who the fuck knows how he’ll act five minutes from now?
But I’m too hung up on something else he said, my mind crashing to a stop.
“What do you mean she told you? Sydney called you?”
“Texted, but yes. She sent me a message a few minutes ago to let me know he was there. And telling me not to come.”
I take my phone away from my ear and touch the screen, navigating to my own messages. The conversation history with Sydney—saved as Babygirl in my phone—just shows my last six text messages to her.
All unanswered. All unread.
“She didn’t message me,” I say, numbly, into the phone.
“Because you are not giving her space,” Sebastian snaps. That fucking prick. “You really think she’s ready to open those floodgates by texting you?”
“I haven’t been back to the café! I’m giving her space!” It’s taken every ounce of my self-control, but I haven’t been back to see her, not since Alec told me that it would just be painting a target on her back, that I could be putting her in danger. Just like Viper is now.
“It’s not just being there in person.” Sebastian sighs in irritation. “All you do is message her, over and over. You’re not respecting what she asked of you. And if you keep it up, you’re going to push her away for good.”
He doesn’t even know the half of it. This is me restraining myself and giving her space, okay? Doesn’t anyone understand that? But he’s right about one thing. Obviously, I’m not giving her what she wants because…
She didn’t message me. She messaged him.
I’m squeezing the phone so hard in my hand I’m surprised it doesn’t snap into pieces.
Since when is he the one who knows how to deal with these situations? Since when is he the one she’s reaching out to for comfort? To save the day?
I could fucking kill him.
“Ashton?” Sebastian prompts through the phone. “You still there?”
“I fucking hate you,” I snarl.
Sebastian snorts. “Like I give a shit,” he says dismissively. “Listen, I’ll swing by if it’ll help calm you down. I won’t go in, but I’ll keep an eye on things, make sure Viper is behaving.”
My laugh is dry. “Yeah, sure, Doc. We all know how much you love to keep an eye on things.”
“Fucking asshole,” he mutters before hanging up.
Right back at you, prick.
Fuck, I’m a mess. Scheduling this fight was a terrible idea, with my mind all over the place and my heart definitely not in it, but…
There’s the tiniest, tiniest chance she’ll come next week, right? And that tiny, insignificant chance is looking more and more like all I have left.
I roll my shoulders and think: fuck it. Training is a bust for today, anyway, and I’m not in the mood to stick around and try to fit in another workout. I pack up my shit, and by the time I’ve showered and changed, there’s a text message on my phone from Alec, telling me to meet him at work.
I almost ignore him. My team can handle things just fine without me.
But it’s been a while since I’ve shown my face at the office, and since the alternative is to head home and eat an entire pint of ice cream all on my own, I suck it up and head downtown toward the Sterling Enterprises main building.
Before I can even fully open the door to Alec’s office, he’s already up and out of his chair, glowering at me from over his desk.
“We have a fucking problem,” he snaps, radiating fury.
Jesus, he looks terrible. The bags under his eyes are big enough to be considered luggage, and his dark stubble is uneven on one side, like he tried to shave and gave up before he finished.
Even his suit is a mess, wrinkled and unkempt, with the top button undone.
And with his temper set to 100, he’s a heart attack waiting to happen.
“What happened?” I ask, dropping into the chair in front of him.
“Someone hit our supplies shipment. Blew them to high hell. I’ve been dealing with our feds all morning, trying to keep this from escalating above their heads. Apparently, it’s not easy to keep a massive explosion from the public.” He slams his fist down on his desk with a snarl.
“Calm down,” I say, trying to pacify him. Bad idea, I realize, when his nostrils flare and he turns that fury on me. “Whatever you did obviously worked, right? Since this is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“That’s not the point,” he spits out. “It’s him, Ashton. It’s Dante. I don’t give a shit what Doc thinks. I know it’s him. He’s here, he’s fucking with my business, and he’s fucking with my girl.”
“Our girl,” I correct. A muscle in Alec’s jaw tics, and for a second, I honestly think his head might explode.
“If I had known he might still be alive, I never would have started expanding into Empire City.” He swears, running a hand over his dark hair. “Doc’s wrong. Dante isn’t just scouting. He’s ten steps ahead of where we thought he was.”
“Listen, losing one shipment isn’t going to ruin us. We have contingencies for this sort of shit. Which shipment was it?”
“The fucking guns we needed from Tony Delmano.” He pounds his fist into the table again.
“Let me handle it,” I say, taking pity on him. Jesus, I’ve never seen him look this bad before. “It’s one shipment. I’ll get in contact with everyone and let them know there will be a delay. Sure, we lost some money, but it’s negligible. We can’t fall apart over this.”
“I’m not falling apart. I am trying to manage this before it gets bigger.
Right now, it’s just one shipment. And it’s one liquor license that’s been revoked, threatening to delay our biggest opening yet.
And it’s seemingly only one guy gathering information on Sydney.
But we know what he’s capable of.” He’s pacing now, fists clenched at his sides.
“When we decided to take his territory, we didn’t have anything to lose. Now we do. And he knows it.”
That’s the real problem, isn’t it? It’s not the guns, not the money we’ll lose arranging another shipment. It’s her. Our girl.
“I’ll handle it,” I tell him, standing up and moving to the exit.
I pause at the door, my hand on the knob.
“By the way, not to drive you fully over the edge or anything, but that little talk you had with me about staying away from Syd?” I glance over my shoulder at him, watching a vein in his forehead pulse.
“You might need to have that same chat with Viper. Sooner rather than later.”
“FUCK!”
I step out, pulling the door shut behind me, just in time to hear something shatter as he tosses it against the wall. A startled intern passing by in the hallway shoots me a terrified look, eyebrows lifting at the sounds of swearing coming from Alec’s office.
“Mondays, am I right?” I say, shooting him a grin.
He scurries away, face pale, and I wait until he’s disappeared down a bend in the hallway before I head to my own office and shut the door.
I don’t come here a lot. Honestly, the whole department probably runs better without me. But it’s nice to have a place where I can be alone. Where I won’t be overheard.
If Dante’s really back, really here sniffing around our girl, we need to know why. Need to know what his plan is, what he wants with her.
And there is someone who might know. Someone who might even be willing to help us. She tried to warn us, didn’t she? When she showed up on that security footage, when she let us catch a glimpse of her, that was a warning, right? Or a sign, or something.
Fuck, my brothers are going to kill me if I’m wrong about this. I fish my phone out of my pocket and dial her number, hoping like hell I’m not making the biggest mistake of my life.
It rings. And rings. And rings. When the call finally goes to voicemail, there’s no cheery message, no robot telling me who I called isn’t available. Just a simple click, to let me know it’s recording.
“Uh, hey,” I say awkwardly, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. “It’s me. Ash. Long time no see, right?” I give a hollow laugh. “Listen… I just want to talk. I just…”
Just what? I don’t even know.
I take a breath. Let it out. “Just call me, okay?”
She won’t, though.
I hang up and stare at my phone, guilt settling into my stomach.
“I miss you, sis,” I murmur.