Page 66 of Burn It Down

“Well, seeing as though I already outed myself at the slaughterhouse, there’s no additional risk. We’re at maximum as it is. Plus, I’m a legend, Drew will recognize me through his brother’s work with me in the past, back when I was trying to get out from under the Infidels.”

“Killian will go too.”

“Me?” I asked Ash. I never got picked first for a mission.

He nodded. “We need a recognizable member of the Infidels to jolt Drew. Your volatility, especially when it comes to this estranged situation with Aurora, will ramp up the intensity, something actually conducive to the mission. And Aaron will be there to balance you out and provide backup.”

“What about me?” Caleb asked.

“I need you here.”

He stilled, then eyed Jonah.

A weird intensity passed between them, before Caleb returned his attention to his laptop.

What was that all about?

I didn’t get to ask as Caleb cracked his knuckles and said, “Let’s map out this nowhere town and get you guys geared up.”

Anticipation thrummed through me.

It was happening now.

It wouldn’t be much longer and Aurora would be back with us.

Right where she belonged.

Right where we needed her to be.

12

~Jonah~

Asher had come up with some out-there plans over the years.

Some highly-complicated plans.

Some high-stakes plans.

Some dangerous plans.

Through it all, that danger had been geared toward him.

Every. Fucking. Time.

He’d always been there to take the hit for Killian and me. If a sacrifice play had to be made, he’d offer himself up for the good of the mission, the plan, the strategy. So long as it didn’t touch us, Asher considered it a win. No matter what damage he sustained in the process.

Everybody thought he had the most inflated ego fucking ever. But the rest never looked close enough, never deep enough. Hell, he wouldn’t let them. But I’d seen it. And I’d been able to identify that other part of him that he usually hid so well—the fact that he didn’t hold his life in high regard. Years of torture and belittlement and abuse from his father would do that to anybody, wear away at their self-esteem down to the fucking bedrock.

Because Asher compartmentalized, he could normally bury that, and hold it off.

All people saw was the egotistical powerhouse, the man so confident and sure of himself, the king governing the kingdom with an iron fist, solid and unwavering.

Now, though, with the current state of him, I could see into that part of him again.

And here he was about to make a sacrifice play again.

He was gonna hurt himself so we could win this war, so he could lead us through it.

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