17. Asher
Asher
Right hook, left hook, jab, jab, uppercut, pivot, uppercut, lean-back jab, hook.
The middle of the bag bent with the weight behind my punches, the swaying back and forth giving me a moving target and making me adjust faster.
Part of my piss-poor mood was because I hadn’t been able to see Sutton since Thursday.
The sound of a hand slamming against the leather of a bag to my left had me taking a step back and looking over. Jaxson was next to me. We started our workout at the same time as we did most Saturday mornings.
Jaxson was clearly working out something since he was still going even though our timer had gone off.
Ripping off my other glove, I watched his deep concentration on the bag as he moved.
His footwork was better than mine, he was quicker on his feet, his punches just as hard.
After a few sips of water, I moved in and grabbed his bag to stop it from swaying as he landed another hard uppercut.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked as he took the opportunity to speed up now that he didn’t have to account for the sway.
“No.” He panted a few times, landing a few more punches. “Since when do you want to talk?” Jaxson had always been perceptive and hard to bullshit.
He’d gone to the University of Cambridge on a scholarship.
Dude was a fucking genius. Noah met him at a party, brought him to hang out with us, and that was that.
Jaxson never went home for holidays and didn’t talk to anyone in his family.
Noah had asked him about it one night when we’d had a lot of beer and he didn’t say much other than he would never go back to his hometown.
There were demons in his eyes. I should know; I saw them in my own mirror every morning. Jaxson was just better at hiding them from others. Better at burying them deeper than I did.
But on days like today, when he was hitting the bag like this, when he went quiet, I knew they were bothering him. I normally just let him be.
“I don’t. But I can listen.”
After one more heavy slam on the bag, he took a step back, his breaths coming in fast as he shook out his hands and rolled his shoulders. I let the bag drop and moved to start collecting my things. I wanted to be out of here before the women’s self-defense class started at seven a.m.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked as I grabbed my gloves. I looked over at him with a raised brow as he wiped his towel over his head. “Don’t think I didn’t notice how hard your own punches were today,” he said, his own eyebrow raised.
“No,” I grumbled as we both put our bags on our shoulders.
“Need me to find anything out about her?”
I ground my teeth together, tightening my fist. I knew this was his way of caring for his people, but I didn’t want anyone looking into her without her permission. “No.”
He shrugged, likely assuming I would turn him down. “I’m going to go home and shower before we meet at Knight and Quinn’s. Want to ride together?” he asked as we pushed outside.
“No, I want my car,” I grunted in reply. He turned to me for a moment, waiting to see if I’d tell him why. I didn’t.
“Alright, see you there.” He dipped his chin at me and then headed off in the direction of his apartment, both of us just a few blocks away.
As I walked, I grabbed my phone from my bag. The only notifications I had were from the group chat. I rolled out my shoulders and let out a sigh.
Quinn
Is everyone going to be on time?
Knight
I will be.
Will
Not exactly fair, you do live there.
Jaxson
Probably in bed next to her with how fast his reply was.
Knight
Don’t think about my fiancée in bed Jaxson. I’ll come for you.
Noah
I’ll probably be on time.
Quinn
*Eyeroll emoji*
Noah
Question!
Oli
We’re going to be together in like an hour, can you save it?
Noah
No.
Are crocs back in fashion enough that I can pull them off?
Will
…
Quinn
I have a pair for when I’m in the yard!
Noah
Right but like…can I wear them out?
Oli
Absolutely not.
Noah
They look crazy comfortable.
Jaxson
What are you going to do, ride your bike with crocs on?
Quinn
Noah Henry Hutchinson.
Will
Uh-oh, he got full named.
Quinn
You will not, under any circumstance, wear crocs on your bike!
If you do I will never speak to you again.
Noah
Hey! I didn’t say that. I was just asking about the shoes!
Oli
But it’s how you get around most of the time.
Quinn
Everyone be on time.
Noah. We will talk about this when you get here.
Jaxson
Someone’s in trouble…
Sitting in Quinn and Knight’s kitchen, I rolled my eyes at Will and took another pull of my beer. Oli was sitting beside me shaking his head, trying not to laugh. Thor was sitting happily on the floor, his gaze bouncing between me and Quinn.
“You can’t be serious.” Jaxson narrowed his eyes. He was tasked with cutting the veggies that Quinn was getting ready to go on the barbeque.
I’d gotten here at nine this morning, just in time to watch the Warriors FC game with everyone. We were now going to have an early dinner like we normally did together on Saturdays.
“I am fucking serious, man.” Will crossed his arms over his chest as I let out a sigh.
As much as I loved spending Saturdays here, my mind was somewhere else. Well, with someone else. I wanted to go to Sutton’s place and maybe squeeze in a couple of hours together but she hadn’t texted me back yet, and I was irritated.
“You want us to buy water beds for our exclusive high-end members-only club?” I asked again for clarity.
“Yeah, let’s do something different. Bring them back!
” Will said enthusiastically. I had no idea where he’d gotten the idea but he would not let it go.
Noah would normally be the one coming up with these left-field ideas but sometimes Will took his turn.
He would stick with it for a while even after realizing it was stupid or he was wrong.
Made him a good lawyer.
But this one was just plain stupid.
“No.”
“I’ll beat you in rock-paper-scissors for it,” Will challenged. Noah had started that stupid tradition in our group for when we couldn’t agree on something or just needed to add some lightness to our day.
Although it annoyed me, I was pretty fucking good at it.
“Quinn?” Oli finally called on her. Because one thing that was new to our group dynamic was that everyone asked Quinn to weigh in on a topic and whatever she decided usually stood. She didn’t even know the power she had over all of us.
Or maybe she did, but she was a natural at keeping us all in line.
“Water beds are a terrible idea, Will.” She smiled sweetly and patted his shoulder as she passed.
“Where’d Noah go? Bet he would agree with me,” Will grumbled.
“I forgot something and he ran out to grab it for me. Can you boys take these out to Theo on the patio?” Quinn asked.
I didn’t move as the rest of the guys did as she asked. I frowned, tilting my head as I watched Quinn.
“You’re hiding something.”
She moved around the kitchen, not meeting my eyes. Quinn and I were close, and I could read her well.
“Yeah, hiding the fact that I didn’t want to talk about Will and his water bed obsession anymore.” She tried to make a joke, but it fell flat.
“You’re a terrible liar,” I said as I took another sip of my beer. She still hadn’t looked at me. “Where’s Noah?”
She had her head in the fridge, pushing things around. “Huh?”
I rolled my eyes at her obvious avoidance. “What did Noah run out to grab?”
“We were low on beer.”
I knew that wasn’t true since I’d just grabbed a couple from the beer fridge downstairs.
Knight always had it stocked with an endless supply and he’d never run out on a Saturday, especially since at least one of us always brought a case.
We could survive the apocalypse with the amount of beer down there.
“Uh-huh.” I narrowed my eyes at her. We both knew I could get her to break.
“Can you take this to Theo?” She pushed the plate of meat over to me and before I could wear her down, Oli and Will came back in, still arguing about the water beds.
I stood up shaking my head as she shot me a mischievous smile over her shoulder. I stepped outside. Jaxson and Knight were at the grill, both with beers in hand.
“Your fiancée is hiding something,” I said as I leaned against the counter beside the grill.
“I know,” Knight replied with a smile as he took the plate from me. “She’s been avoiding me all day. Literally after those texts she jumped out of bed and hasn’t looked at me since.”
“Any idea what it is?”
“No clue.”
I’d known Knight for most of my life and the fact that he was smiling and not bothered that someone was hiding something from him was not only a testament to how far he’d come, but to how much he trusted Quinn.
“Have you decided who’s going to head up security at the private club?
” I asked Jaxson, changing topics. Jaxson had always run the security arm of our business and he was good at it.
We owned security technology companies, for-hire bodyguards, and then had our own internal security for our different venues and purposes.
“I just got signed paperwork from Lisa yesterday. She’s going to sit in on the interviews for the main guards with me in the coming weeks.”
“Things are coming together quickly,” Knight added with a nod.
“Yo, Jaxson!” Oli called from the door. “We’re on table-setting duty. Get your ass in here!”
Knowing the request was coming from Quinn, he left without complaint.
“Aren’t you supposed to head to London on Monday?” Knight asked, already knowing the answer. He and I hadn’t had a chance to connect but my guess was Shelly had told him I changed my plans.
“I’m having the paperwork sent over. The office is running fine.”
Knight grunted in reply. He and I were both fluent in grunts.
I’d taken over a bigger portion of traveling for business when he started getting serious with Quinn, but operations were running well in London and honestly the travel was wearing on me. I could go if there was a major issue but there were few of those that we couldn’t handle remotely.