Page 120 of Scars Run Deep

Asher’s glare faltered when he saw the look in Jonah’s eyes, a wounded puppy look.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Asher offered, surprising Jonah and the rest of us.

“Yeah?” he asked, his eyes lighting up.

“Yes.”

As Asher sucked in a breath and scrubbed his hand over his face, trying to calm his riled up state, he took a few moments, then looked at me. “You’re benched. The vote was two-to-one. It would’ve been unanimous if not for the Caleb issue Jonah is struggling with.”

I took a moment as well, so that I didn’t react in an emotional or perceived unhinged way.

“Look, I get what you’re doing, that this is coming from a good place. But I’m not useless and I don’t want to be made to feel that way.”

“You’re very skilled, that’s not in question. Your help has proven invaluable,” he told me.

“You can kick ass with the best of us,” Jonah said.

“And we wouldn’t even have had the locations of these dollhouses sites if it hadn’t been for you,” Killian said, reaching out and stroking my hair in that sweet way. It actually worked to soothe me and keep me in a calmed state.

“Thank you,” I told them. “What I saw in those hellholes did get under my skin, yes. I admit I lost control a couple of times. Not every time. And I was just attacked and I limited the damage I dealt out. Majorly.”

“I can’t risk it. Like I said, this operation needs to go off without a hitch. This is different because the Infidels are expecting this attack. It’s their last site, they’re going to defend it with all their might.”

“Exactly why you need me to be a part of it. We started this together, we finish it together.”

“There’s still more to do beyond the dollhouse aspect. This is us striking at their finances and resources, severing them from their major partners and discrediting them in the process. Weakening them. All leading up to us being able to strike at the Head Infidels directly.”

“Asher, you can’t just—”

“You. Are. Benched.”

I moved to speak again, to argue my case.

But he held up his hand and closed his fist. “Final word.”

I cursed under my breath.

I was right on the verge of losing my cool.

That would just give him more ammunition and reinforce his decision.

Son of a bitch!

He couldn’t do this to me.

He couldn’t cut me out.

We’d started this together.

My intel was what had brought us here, and now he was shoving me onto the sidelines?

Just from a couple of… hiccups?

It was bullshit.

Absolute bullshit.

With a snarl, I spun from them all, and stormed out of the room.

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