Page 41 of Scars Run Deep

While we still could.

“Okay, you handle the wine,” she said. “I’ll get the buns and the cheese.”

“Sounds good, Princess.”

She startled me as she stretched onto her tiptoes and planted a soft, chaste kiss on my cheek, before taking off to the other side of the grocery store.

That had been… unexpected.

Sweet, even.

Carefree too.

Carefree didn’t exactly suit Aurora.

While there was a balance that existed there, and she wasn’t as intense as Asher, she was still well on her way, not that far behind him. Happy-go-lucky was on a whole other planet compared to that, something not even reachable for the two of them.

Maybe she was just soaking up everything that she could of the calm-before-the-storm thing we were enjoying right now.

Yeah, that was a whole lot of wishful thinking.

More likely, she was overcompensating for all the twisted shit we were all caught up in, what was coming, as well as what had gone down that night in Strenwell. That battle that’d come out of nowhere from enemies we hadn’t even known existed, the bloodbath in that basement, the car crash, then her almost dying. That wasn’t exactly something you could just shake off. Especially when it hadn’t been the norm for her, like it had for the rest of us. Sure, she’d prepared herself in advance of taking on all of this, coming down here, and all that, but there was a difference between that and being thrown into the thick of it like what had happened that night. Hell, even before that with all the games and craziness. As well as she’d handled it, it had to have been wearing on her. It stood to reason that the whole Strenwell nightmare would’ve pushed her right to the edge.

If it had, she wasn’t showing it.

She wasn’t faltering in any way.

This overly relaxed and happy-go-lucky thing was the only sign that something was off, out of its usual place.

I blinked out of my thoughts.

Asher would’ve noticed if it was serious. If it was gonna impact our fight, and if she needed to sit it out as a result. He was on top of it. He always was.

And then there was Kill. With the way he felt about her now, he would’ve been freaking the fuck out and shouting it from the rooftops.

Jesus. I guess I was on edge about what was coming.

For him above all else.

For Asher.

Because, when it was all said and done, if we failed, it would be him who suffered the most. Carson wouldn’t settle for just our defeat. Nah, with his son coming at him, that sadistic bastard’s savagery would be out in full force, and he wouldn’t be satisfied until he broke Asher into unfixable pieces.

This whole situation really put a whole new meaning to there being no reward without risk.

Asher was literally gonna be risking it all by doing this.

Every. Fucking. Thing.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to find a text.

Asher: What time is dinner gonna be ready with your new helper thrown into the mix?

Jonah: Add on an extra hour.

Asher: Ok.

Jonah: You’re actually asking me instead of telling me, huh?

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