30. Ash
Chapter 30
Ash
My eyes snapped open from the dream I was having, only to find the real-life version of the man who was in it sitting on the ground right inside my door. I instantly sat up, wrapping the blankets around myself. My head pounded with pain, and my face felt puffy.
“What happened last night?” Kane asked, not wasting a second.
Nothing that I would tell him about. Stabbing Jerek, finding my father, learning of Nan’s death, Davis, the wolf, the soldiers. It all came back to me. Kane would never believe that I took down two soldiers on my own unless I had some sort of ability. The third, though, that one wasn’t my fault. A chill raced over my skin at the thought of the white wolf that had been stalking me for far too long. It saved me last night, but was the soldier only a mistaken target ?
“What do you mean? I went to watch the fights… You were there. Don’t you remember?” My voice sounded as lifeless as I felt.
He glared at me. “You are not dumb; stop pretending to be,” he bit out.
Wait… How did I even get into bed? I was sure I collapsed on the floor under the window, like I always did. I stole a glance at the floor, only to find all my blankets had vanished.
“Why were you on the floor ?“ Kane asked, following my eyes.
“How did I get in the bed?” I argued.
Our eyes battled until he finally relented. “You were passed out on the floor last night when I came in. I figured you’d be more comfortable there.”
My energy must have been sapped if I didn’t even feel him pick me up and put me in bed. The thought of his hands on me, moving me to bed, made a blush rise in my cheeks.
“Are you going to answer any of my questions?” he rumbled.
“Probably not.” I pulled the covers off and threw my legs over the side of the bed, away from him. At least all my clothes from last night were still on. “Did you torture Ryan to get the key to come in, or is she making copies for everyone these days?” The anger that replaced all the numbness I felt simmered right under the surface.
He growled at me—literally made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded like a growl of displeasure.
“Tortured, then.” I stood and walked away from him toward the bathroom, but his footsteps fell in time right behind me. I reached for the bathroom doorknob and pulled, only to have him force it shut again, caging me between him and the door.
“Ash.”
The way he said my name brought me back to the first night I met him. The tortured way it rolled off his lips. I stared into his face, only to see the mask he wore had partially disappeared. His gray eyes looked so hurt and sad, and I didn’t know why. He appeared utterly exhausted, like the world was too much for him. His pointer finger reached out and ran down the inside of my wrist before I jerked my arm away. A fresh wave of arousal seared my body from the dream that involved him in all the wrong ways, but now that I was awake, I remembered the way he sat by with a bored expression while a blonde woman was beaten before him.
His mask snapped back into place, and he smirked. “What were you dreaming about, Blondie?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Could he read minds? Was that his ability? Every time he touched me, I swore he knew exactly what I felt. My face flushed again, and I looked him dead in the eyes. I summoned the most inappropriate thoughts about him into the forefront of my mind, making sure to keep any secrets out of my head. I reached my hand out until I ran a finger down the tattoo that swirled down his forearm. He didn’t move away, but as soon as my skin touched his, his nostrils flared, and his breath quickened. He leaned closer to me, and I could see his heart hammering in his throat. The heavy heartbeats matched my own.
I couldn’t tell for sure whether the thoughts racing through my mind caused his reaction or not, so I summoned something else that was sure to give him a reaction. If the idea of me and him turned him on, surely the idea of me with another man would turn him off. I pulled a memory from the back of my mind of the first time Diesel and I had been together.
Kane immediately blanched and yanked his arm away, turning around and stalking off.
My eyes widened, and I wasn’t sure what to do with the information I had discovered. He found me attractive? And …
He turned back toward me, and his gray eyes blazed with a fire I had never seen before.
“You—“ I stuttered.
He stepped closer. “What?” he snapped. “Tell me, Blondie. Tell me what you figured out that no one else has ever been able to.”
“You can…read minds?”
He snorted. “Something like that.”
My mouth hung open, and I wasn’t sure what to say. I had so many questions.
“Now, tell me what happened last night, or I’ll figure it out myself.” His hand flexed at his side like he would touch me against my will, but I couldn’t see him doing that. Even in the future, I couldn’t see it. He wouldn’t touch me like that. This man was an enigma that I couldn’t figure out. He tortured and killed blondes, he trained the King’s soldiers and worked for him…yet he didn’t make me shudder in fear like other men. Maybe it was the fact that I still couldn’t seem to feel anything but numbness. His threat should scare me, but there was no fear left inside of me. There was…nothing.
“You afraid of me now, Blondie?” he asked softly.
“Should I be?” Our eyes connected, and his dark brows above steel eyes drew down. His face was inches from mine.
“You should be very afraid,” he whispered.
I huffed a laugh, and he moved back slightly. “That would require me to feel something.” I shook my head. “When your worst fears become reality, there’s nothing left to fear.” I spoke the words quietly and instantly regretted them. I’d shown him too much. His brows drew down as he looked at me under long lashes. I sidestepped away, turning my back to him.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” he said. “You’re in pain. ”
I crossed my arms over my chest with my back to him. I felt violated by his single touch, like all of me had been laid bare for him to see.
“Ash, it’s not…I can’t read your every thought, but even a fool could see the tears on your pillow and the grief in your face.”
I shook my head. “I’ve been in pain since the day I came here, don’t start acting like you care now. I know who you really are Kane. I know the vile things that you do. I know that you watched a woman get beaten to a bloody pulp last night and did nothing. I know that you probably use this ability of yours to find the blonde’s abilities and that’s probably why you excel at it. You make me sick,” I spat and turned to look at him.
His nostrils flared and his breaths deepened. In a tiny moment of vulnerability, it appeared as if my words hit his very soul and that maybe even he hated himself. He closed his eyes for a second before they opened and he returned to his old self.
“What happened after you skewered Jerek?” he asked with a new hollowness to his voice that hadn’t been there before.
My mind was still stuck on the whole mind-reading thing, the fact that my inappropriate dream didn’t repulse him, and what I’d said. “I—um—“ The words were hard to come by and stumbled out of my mouth. Kane waited patiently for me to formulate real thoughts and string them into words. “I wanted to see the Pit. Someone offered to take me there, and I took a chance.”
“What did the person look like?” he asked.
I feigned rubbing my head. “I have a terrible headache. It was dark, and I can’t remember,” I lied. Well, not about the headache part.
He moved in front of me again with crossed arms, assessing everything. “Fine. Play dumb. What about the soldiers and Advisor Davis? Sam already told me his side of the story, and if you lie to me, I’ll know it.”
“Is he okay?” I blurted out. I shouldn’t have asked, but I wanted to know.
“Yes, he’s fine. Stop stalling.”
“If Sam already told you, then what do you need from me? You already know what happened.” I scoffed.
He was quickly losing patience with me. I could see it by the way his jaw ticked and his fingers curled into his biceps. I better think of something, and fast.
“We were on our way back to the mansion when Advisor Davis stopped us and wanted to take me. Sam wouldn’t let him, and when they started fighting, I ran.”
“Where?”
“Behind a building to hide.” Should we play a game of half truths mixed with lies? That was a game I was far too familiar with.
“Were there other soldiers with Advisor Davis?”
“Yes.” Truth.
“Did they chase you?”
I shrugged. “By the time I circled back around, Sam was in a heap on the ground, and I took his key and let myself in.” That was both true and avoiding the actual question.
“Did you leave him out there?”
“No, I dragged him inside. I couldn’t leave him out in the cold like that.” Truth. I scratched the back of my neck, reliving the decision I made to help him last night.
Kane gave me a slight nod of approval. “You didn’t see any of the soldiers or…anything else? ”
“No.” Lie. I tried hard to keep the inflection out of my voice so he couldn’t detect it. The only way he could truly know was if he touched me.
He narrowed his eyes. “My only problem with that is, I have three dead soldiers on my hands this morning. There are reports that a wolf has been on the grounds. They most certainly look like wolf attacks. But what doesn’t make sense is the stab wound and gunshot in the legs of two of the soldiers. You don’t know anything about that?”
I widened my eyes in feigned shock. “A wolf on the grounds? How would it even get in?”
He smirked but didn’t answer my question. “Answer.”
“You think I could take down three soldiers by myself?” I asked innocently.
He moved into my space again, and I could see the frustration in his eyes. I danced around the subject, giving him fake answers at every opportunity, as he had done to me. I had learned how to lie from the best.
“I’m afraid to say what you are capable of, Blondie.”
“I don’t know anything about those soldiers dying.” Truth? I wasn’t the one who killed them—only wounded them enough to escape. The wolf ended them, not me.
His eyes searched my face until finally he hummed a noise that wasn’t quite one of approval. He crossed his arms behind his back and strode out of the room.
“Take today off. I have things that need to be taken care of,” he muttered.
I threw curses at the slammed door and was left to simmer on the fact that he could read my thoughts through touch.