14. Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Forty-eight hours locked away in an emotionally charged apartment—even one as big as the penthouse—took its toll. There was only so much doomscrolling I could do. Only so many shows we could agree on.
As the hours lurched and plodded along, I ended up fielding Mal and Sonia’s bickering sibling fights more than actually watching the screen. Food was prepared, or delivered (after Asher thoroughly vetted it). We tried to sleep, and sometimes succeeded.
Asher was our constant companion, while Grayson came and went as he checked in with the new rent-a-cops down in the lobby, or did whatever it was personal security people did when an unhinged woman was running loose out there trying to murder your client.
It was a lot, but something about Asher’s dry sense of humor balanced Grayson’s militant rigidity, and the whole setup lulled me into a sense of dull, bored security.
I still felt the tension in the air—someone out there wanted us dead, after all—but after the first day, then the second, my brain adjusted, and I just felt restless.
I’d even logged into my work laptop and caught up on patient notes and administrative paperwork, desperate for something to do other than watch Sonnie eye-fuck Asher from across the room.
We were all slumped on the couch while Asher scrolled through his phone when the piercing screech of a fire alarm shattered the quiet, lazy evening. Sonia screamed, jumping to her feet at the same time Mal jerked, lunging for me. We all looked around wildly as the high-pitched alarm blared through the apartment. My heart thundered, the wailing sharpening the cold edge of fear my brain had conveniently begun to muffle.
Asher was the only calm one, standing to place a steady hand on Sonia’s back. She looked like she was ready to jump out of her skin.
“Grab your shoes,” he instructed, hand cupping around his earpiece like someone was talking into it. We didn’t have to be told twice. I pulled on my sneakers with shaking hands, cringing as the alarms seemed to get louder. Mal knelt to slip the leash on a yelping Siggy, before scooping him up.
“Is this for real?” Sonia shouted, pointing at the flashing alarm. Asher nodded.
“As far as we can tell. Won’t know till the fire trucks get here, but I’m not taking any chances.”
“We’re leaving?” Mal sounded as incredulous as I felt. The walls around us felt safe. Contained. Leaving seemed like taking a big dangerous step in the wrong direction. At least, that’s what the anxiety yelling at me louder than the alarms was telling me.
“I can defend a stairwell as easily as this apartment. Better, even. Bonus.” His familiar crooked smile seemed out of place when every cell in my body was screaming at me to run or hide or hit something. He winked at Sonia when he pulled open the door to the emergency stairwell.
The sound of feet echoed up the floors below, bouncing off the concrete walls like thunder. More noise, more fear. I jumped about a foot in the air as Mal stepped up behind me and Siggy’s trembling nose brushed my arm.
“Here’s the drill.” If the echoes from the stairwell were thunder, Asher’s voice was the roar of the ocean, steady and calm. Rising and falling in a predictable cadence that made it easier, somehow, to focus on what he was saying. “I go first. We’ll wait for the floor below us to clear then move forward. No one’s coming down behind you. I’m the first one around every corner, got it?”
“Yes,” I whispered, my mouth Sahara dry as he took the first steps downward. Sonia followed him close enough that she almost stepped on the back of his shoe. Even though the alarm was slightly quieter in the stairwell, the blaring rhythm set my nerves jangling, slicing straight through whatever calm I’d managed to collect today.
“Hey, Hot Asher? I appreciate how cool you seem about all this, but what if this is all some big trap or something and she’s waiting for us down there?” Sonia made a decent attempt to sound normal, but her voice was shaking as hard as my knees were. As we made our way down the first flight of stairs, I clutched the handrail, so scared I could barely hold my own weight.
“You think this is our first day on the job? Gray’s talking my ear off right now, clearing the basement, then he’ll move on to the lobby, liaise with the emergency crews, and hopefully come hang with us for a bit. We’ll secure you in one of the police cars outside, if the cops play nice. You’ll watch the action, safe and sound, and then we’ll come back here when it turns out there was just a wiring issue or a drill or something.”
I bobbed my head, glancing back at Mal. His face was white, mouth bracketed in grim lines, but at least we were moving. We had a plan.
“Well, as long as you feel okay about it, because I’m about to pee myself.” Sonia stumbled down the last step of the next flight, nearly running into Asher’s back. His hand whipped out to catch her, and he looked down at her, their faces close.
“You been reading my kink journal, Beautiful Sonia?”
The laugh that cracked out of her mouth shattered some of the tension in my body. Over the alarms, I could hear Mal heave a sigh. Surely if we were in real trouble, Asher wouldn’t be making sex jokes.
“Hey, that’s my sister, man. Keep it clean while we’re all in a confined space, alright?”
“Confined spaces. Another item on my kink list. Y’all need to stop, or it’s going to get too hot in here.”
More laughter rippled around us, a few of my muscles unclenching. Still, though, I couldn’t help but notice while we swapped jokes and shuffled down the stairs, waiting for people to evacuate each floor before we moved forward, that Asher’s body moved in a fluid, practiced prowl. He wasn’t walking. He was stalking. Crouched, gun drawn, like he knew what to do with it. Even while he was putting us at ease, his body was bound by muscle memory to huddle close to the wall, padding on the balls of his feet.
I relaxed a little more every time we cleared another floor. Asher kept a constant running commentary, pulling our minds away from the fear and keeping us focused, even if it was on something ridiculous. He reported every floor we passed into his comms.
Around the fourth level, Grayson joined us, letting Asher melt silently to the back of our group to bring up the rear. Finally, the doors swung open to an empty lobby.
“Let’s get you over to the trucks. Looks like there was a small electrical fire on the East side of the building. They’ll have it out soon,” Grayson reported.
“If they run out of water in those hoses, Sonnie Sunshine over here can help.”
Sonnie whipped around to Asher so quickly, I nearly ran into her. “Shut up!” she shrieked.
I laughed so hard, I hardly paid attention as I crossed the courtyard and ducked into the police car. I was still laughing when it thudded shut, enclosing us in the safe, bulletproof vehicle.
***
“I’m telling Mom,” Mal warned, handing me a massive glass of wine before collapsing onto the couch. Further in the apartment, Asher and Grayson checked all the rooms and closets. The fire had been a brief and very ill-timed interval of drama. My nerves felt frayed, but we were safely ensconced in our apartment once more.
“You will not,” Sonia scoffed, sipping from her own glass and fixing a plate of hummus and crackers. Seemed like it was a girl dinner type of night. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to eat anything, but the appraising look Mal was giving me made me think he might force something down my throat.
“I’m just saying, you have an unreasonable amount of stories that end up with you in the back of a cop car.”
She really did, and she’d been regaling us with some of her best hits for the last hour while we hunched in the police cruiser, watching the fire and police people mill around, waiting for the all clear. I knew most of the stories, even though I’d only been present for some of them. It was times like this when my mother’s warnings about “that Dobrev girl” seemed to hold a bit more water.
Sonia shrugged. “They usually let me go. It’s not like I end up in jail or anything.”
“Except for that one time,” I murmured, taking another swig. The wine felt nice on my throat. My mouth had been dry since the fire alarms went off. The liquid almost bubbled out of my mouth when I giggled at Mal and Sonia’s twin reactions of horror.
“You traitor, that was a secret!”
“You went to jail? For what?! ”
“Oh, come on. Even I knew about that one.” Asher sauntered around the corner, snagging a carrot off Sonia’s plate. “Kitchen and pantry all clear.”
“Guest rooms and study clear, too. I’m going to head back down and try and corral the security. I swear, one distraction and they forget how to do their jobs.” Grayson’s usually stoic face twitched in a sneer as he looped Siggy’s leash around his wrist. “I’ll take this one for a walk before we all settle in for the night.”
Sonia waited until we heard the elevator chime and the doors close before she raised her eyebrows at Asher. “I didn’t think people would have the audacity to be incompetent around him.”
He shrugged, grabbing another carrot before making his way to the fridge to pour a glass of water. “My brother has very particular and very high expectations. It makes him good at his job.”
I whirled, the wine sloshing in my glass. “Grayson is your brother?”
“Sure is.”
As Asher turned, I could see it. The green eyes weren’t the exact same shade, but close. The blade of a nose, chocolate brown hair. Even with the similarities, I was caught off guard.
“He just seems so different from you,” Sonia voiced what I was thinking. Grayson was so serious and focused compared to flirty, nonchalant Asher. They were polar opposites.
Asher’s mouth opened to say something, but instead jerked in surprise. Then again.
Belatedly, my brain registered two cracks of a gun ringing through the apartment. A third.
Everything felt like it was underwater. I watched a cloud of blood spray out of Asher’s body and onto the pristine, white marble countertops. Sonia shrieked, reaching for him, but he shoved her away, hard, before crumbling to the ground. He was saying something, yelling, as he fell, but my brain wasn’t keeping up. It was fuzzy and slow and moving at warp speed at the same time.
“—go, Rija!” Suddenly, I was airborne, Mal hauling me over the back of the couch. Wine spilled in my hands, glass smashing on the floor. My vision blurred, narrowing to a pinpoint. “Run! Go!”
Bare feet scrambled to find traction on the wine-slick floor. Mal was pushing me, hauling me down the hall towards our bedroom. Like the snap of a rubber band, time sped back up again. We’d practiced this dozens of times over the last few days. If something were to happen, if she were to somehow get into the apartment… Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
She was in the apartment .
Another gunshot made me whirl to see Mal dragging Sonia into the hallway with him. In the living room, something crashed, blown apart by a stray bullet coming from the kitchen. How was she here? Where had she been hiding?
A sob burst from my throat, watching in horror, stumbling down the hall while Malachi dragged his sister after us.
She couldn’t get on her feet, still struggling, still reaching for Asher. I couldn’t hear him anymore.
“Mal? Baby, I’m here!” Christine’s voice was shrill, manic.
Mal pushed Sonia into me, face pale. “Run.”
It was a nightmare, a cruel twist of physics. I ran, but the hallway seemed endless, stretching feet into yards. Miles. My heart sped as seconds slowed. I grabbed Sonia’s arm, hurtling across the floor.
The door to our bedroom was in sight. Just there, just there…
I looked back for Malachi, right on our heels. Too late.
“Don’t move,” Christine snarled, standing at the top of the hallway, gun pointed right at us. We all careened to a stop together, freezing at her voice and the heart-stopping metallic click that accompanied it.
Inches away, our bedroom door was cracked open. I caught a flash of the open closet, Siggy’s empty crate, and a stray pair of shoes I hadn’t put away yet. We’d been so close.
“You’re with her ?” Christine demanded, wild blue eyes swinging from me to Mal and back again. She shook her head, matted, tangled hair tumbling around her. A stench filled the air. In the YouTube video, she’d looked so normal. Now, though, nothing about her seemed right. There was a vibrating, tangible energy of wrongness emanating off her. “You knew I was coming, baby. And you’re still with her? I came here for you!” She shouted, jerking her gun towards us. I cringed away, grabbing for Sonia.
“I’m right here, Christine. You came for me, you got me.” Mal spoke in a low, soothing voice, stepping slowly in front of me and his sister. His arms were raised in surrender. Every muscle in my body seized up in denial. “Let’s keep this between you and me, alright?”
“Christie,” she hissed, brows squeezing over her blown pupils. “You used to call me Christie. Don’t you remember?”
“Of course. Christie.” I could hear the strain in his voice. Mal took another step towards her. I wanted to grab at him, snatch him back to me and safety. I must have flinched or something. Christine swerved the gun in my direction.
“Don’t you fucking move, I said!” she shrieked, hands shaking. Her finger still pressed tightly on the trigger. I gulped, squeezing Sonia’s hand harder. My knees felt weak. My heart was pounding so hard, I felt dizzy.
“Hey, don’t worry about her. I’m right here. Let’s go, let’s get out of here. Just you and me,” Mal soothed, taking another step forward.
“You, too!” she screamed, the tip of her gun waving back and forth between the two of us. How much more pressure would she have to put on the trigger before a bullet came flying towards us? “I love you! I did all this for you and you’re still here with her ? I was never good enough for you, was I?”
“Christi—”
“She doesn’t know what we’ve been through,” she screeched, spit flying in the air between her and Mal. She glared daggers at him. “You said you’d take care of me. You promised! And you left me just like everyone else!”
“Christine,” Sonia’s voice trembled as she reached a hand out to her former friend. “Please.”
“ Shut. Up. You bitch! ” Christine screamed, aiming at Sonia. “If you would have just let us be together, none of this would have happened. He would be with me ! You’ve been standing in my way since the beginning, I know you have. I should have killed you the second I—”
Her finger tightened on the trigger. A crack split the air, and then she was falling, the gunshot going wide, embedding into the drywall next to Sonia’s head. I flinched back, blinking plaster dust out of my eyes to see Asher wrestling Christine to the ground. Malachi dove, scooping up the gun Asher had knocked free from her hand, stumbling to a stand to point it at her.
Christine was screaming, spitting and snarling, thrashing in Asher’s hold while he struggled to subdue her with one arm.
“You almost killed me, you absolute cunt!” Sonia shouted, rasping. “You’ve terrorized my brother for years.” She ripped herself out of my arms, storming down the hall.
“Sonia!” Asher jerked, raising his hand to keep her away, just as Sonia reared back to kick the other woman in the stomach. Christine used her new, prone position to her advantage, twisting to slide a gleaming knife from her boot. She swung wildly, writhing out of Asher’s hold to catch Sonia in the arm with the blade. Another spray of blood splashed across the floor.
Asher kicked out, knocking Christine back and grabbing her arms, crushing her hand underneath his shoe, forcing her to drop her weapon. Mal scooped that up, too, while Asher swung her body around like it was nothing but a doll. Her face made a sickening crunch when he slammed her into the floor. Christine struggled, legs kicking, her arm bending at an awkward angle while he squeezed her throat between his forearm and bicep. One second, two. And she was limp.
He kept hold of her for another second before lowering her drooping body to the ground. Grunting, he pulled out a handful of zip ties, cinching her wrists one-handed. His other arm hung limply beside his body. Blood ran sluggishly down his sleeve.
“Do not,” he glared at Sonia, who was huddled on the floor a few feet away, “approach an attacker before they are properly restrained. Yes?”
“Y-yes,” Sonnie stuttered, staring at Christine while Asher looped the ties around her ankles.
“Rija.” I looked at Mal, who had carefully placed the weapons to the side, out of Christine’s reach. Not that she’d be able to get them if she wanted them. She was unconscious and pliant while Asher hog-tied her.
“Mal.” We reached for each other at the same time. He wrapped his arm around me, burying his face in my neck. He smelled like sweat and stinging, metallic terror. I hugged him tighter as my heartbeat continued to pound in my ears, muffling everything else around us. Or maybe that was the echo of the gunshots still ringing in my head.
“Again, Sonia,” Asher ordered. I pulled away to crouch beside her, Mal kneeling, too, while Asher lectured. “You do not, under any circumstances, try to kick psychopaths until I have properly restrained them. Understood? Repeat it back, because I’m not ever doing that again with you, you hear me?”
“I won’t…I promise. Oh, my God, Asher.” She reached for him, but he was already there, gently cradling her outstretched arm with blunt, bloodstained fingers as he examined the nasty cut that sliced down her forearm.
“Call nine-one-one,” he muttered to Mal. “She’ll need stitches.” Mal ran to the living room to grab his phone.
“Me? Ash, you got shot three times. How are you still standing?” Sonia’s hands rushed over his vest. It was covered in blood. He wasn’t really standing, either. He’d sort of slumped down next to Sonia and didn’t seem like he was planning on moving anytime soon. I reached out to take a closer look at the bullet wound on his shoulder, my training taking over even as my hands shook.
“Bulletproof vest. Protected the important stuff. Hurts like a bitch, though,” Asher grunted when I applied pressure to the bullet hole in his shoulder. He was still cradling Sonia’s arm with one hand, looping his earpiece in with the other. He pressed a button on his vest. “Perp is down. Two wounded in the penthouse. Repeat, perp is down. Two wounded.”
“Fuck, I’m a nurse!” Sonia jerked her arm back, scrambling to undo the velcro and buckles of his vest, trying to help me put pressure on his wounds with one hand. Mal knelt beside me again, talking steadily to the emergency dispatch.
“Now you want to get my clothes off? I’m probably up for it, babe, but I might need an aspirin or something,” Asher mumbled. The effect of his teasing was demolished by the waxy pallor of his skin. His lips were pale, eyes glassy as they looked up at her.
“Hey,” she snapped, gently peeling back a panel of his vest. “You’ve been shot. No flirting while you have bullets in you.”
“That’s going to cramp my style more than you’d think.”
In the distance, sirens wailed. Somewhere in the apartment, a door slammed.
“Asher? Ash!” Grayson barreled in, skidding to a stop at the mouth of the hallway. Siggy skidded, too, taking the corner too fast before leaping at me and Mal.
“I’m good, I’m good,” Asher slurred, waving his hand. It fell, flopping into Sonia’s lap. “You good? You?” He asked her, then me and Mal. Malachi reached over, pulling me close and clasping Sonnie’s shoulder, dragging Siggy into his arms.
“We’re good,” he whispered, sliding sideways to sit down. “We’re good,” he repeated. Like me, maybe he needed the reassurance. I slid my hand into his, holding on tight while Sonnie and I put pressure on Asher’s wounds. We listened as the sirens came closer and closer.