Page 65 of Scars Run Deep

~Killian~

As I slowed my speed as I rode down the private drive, I caught sight of Asher’s pimped out Beamer passing through the open gates of Hexwood House.

I followed suit and pulled into the courtyard just as he idled and Bryce got out of the front passenger seat. He gave Asher a chin lift, then made his way into the mansion, greeting one of his security team members before he passed on through the entrance doors. Asher then drove around to the big-ass garage, the motion sensors activating and making the doors open right in time for him to pull inside.

I rode down the slightly sloped tarmac and entered just after him.

As he was climbing out, I parked my bike a couple of spots over from him, hung my helmet off the handlebars, then dismounted.

“Good night?” I asked, as I approached him, shoving a hand through my hair to dispel that whole helmet-hair look I didn’t care for.

“Good ride?” he returned evenly.

Even when I wasn’t fishing for information as to what covert and likely nefarious shit he was up to, he always automatically thought I was. Paranoid bastard. It was nearly impossible to ever catch him off guard.

Well, I was actually fishing this time.

Of course I was, he’d just suddenly taken off out of town with his only explanation being that it was a personal errand. And he’d done it while all three of us had been distracted with our own shit.

Nothing suspicious there, right?

Given his usual stance and in spite of that promise he’d made to us about being more transparent, I was hella fucking surprised when he came to me and said in a hushed, conspiratorial tone, “Tell me what you think of this.”

I looked on as he reached into the inside pocket of his fitted leather jacket and then pulled out a ruby-red ring box.

“What the—”

He flipped it open and there, nestled in the velvety interior, was a very familiar looking ring.

The silver skull with a gold crown had the exact markings as the one myself, Asher, and Jonah wore. Even the inscription of Fratres Aeterni, meaning Eternal Brothers was there beneath the chin of the skull.

“Our skull ring,” I breathed. “Is this—”

“For her? Yes.”

“So, this is where you were? Picking this up from that specialist jeweler?”

He nodded. “I ordered it a few weeks ago.”

“Wow. This is… it’s a big-time gesture, Ash.”

“The timing is right, don’t you think?”

I smiled out at him. “Yeah, I do.”

“I need you to distract her before dinner so I can extricate Jonah and let him know, so the three of us can present it to her.”

“You want to do it tonight?”

“It feels appropriate with her preparing this thoughtful dinner for us. It will be the cherry on top of a special evening.”

As he stowed the ring away, I asked, “You know this is a commitment, right? That’s how it will be seen? Not just reconfirming to her that we view her as one of us?”

“I’m aware, of course.” He took in the surprise all over my face and, yeah, the hint of skepticism that it had been somewhat smooth sailing for him to get to this place with her. “Does this allay your concerns about me pushing Aurora away from us once I became emotionally involved?”

“Well, this does demonstrate the opposite.”

But those words of his when I’d confronted him the other morning were playing on my mind in the background, determined to be heard.

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