Page 31 of Burn It Down

Olivia watched curiously.

Time stretched on and on, making me more and more anxious with every passing second.

A lot was riding on his reaction.

While it was easier to go this route, to get him on board, and this way it wouldn’t destroy our relationship in the process, I wasn’t beyond going another route. If he left me no choice, I would do it. I’d break out of here and fucking track down Asher myself. I had to. I couldn’t stomach knowing what he was going through, what those assholes were doing to him, how they were hurting him. And then there was Killian and Jonah. While my dad had told me they were safe, that might not last. The Infidels could find them and come for them. And I knew Killian wouldn’t be handling my absence well. If he thought I was really gone, it would be all the worse. That would then leave Jonah struggling to reel him in and keep it together with Asher gone. It was a dire situation, one I couldn’t leave to stand. I couldn’t have them suffering.

And I absolutely couldn’t abandon the men I loved.

“Well, this is… really something,” my dad suddenly spoke, pulling my phone away. “The dirty talk could’ve warranted a warning, Aurora.”

I winced. “You might not have agreed to read then.”

“She’s in her twenties, Lan, not a little girl.” Olivia told me, “Because you’ve been apart, he hasn’t had time to come to terms with that.”

“I never will,” my dad told her. “I was hoping it would be a Queen Elizabeth I situation with my angel.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “Please.”

My dad rose to his feet, then pocketed my phone again.

“You see it?” I asked.

He worked his jaw.

“Dad?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “They have a softness with you.”

Hope sparked in me. “They really do.”

“They care about you. A great deal.” He rolled his eyes. “Killian is a puppy dog lapping at your heels.”

“Don’t describe him that way.”

Olivia chuckled.

My dad stepped up to me then and gestured at my left side. “That scar was caused by Asher?”

Oh shit. “You read that far back?”

“I needed the whole picture.”

“How do you know I have a scar here?”

Olivia stepped forward, telling me, “When Lan brought you back here, I made you comfortable, treated your cuts and bruises so you didn’t wake up in pain.”

“Confirm or deny, Aurora. Did Asher stab you?”

“Yes. It was part of his training.”

“For what purpose?”

He was actually asking questions about it? Not writing it off automatically as an utterly irredeemable act?

What was happening?

I recited what Asher had told me during our fight in the ring:

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