Page 52 of The Bait

The sound of sirens far off in the distance spurred Harry into action. He stood, pulled an equally stunned Asher back. “We need to leave. Grab the lantern.”

Asher nodded and collected their gear. Harry used Rozga’s shirt to wipe their fingerprints off the knife handle, then he wrapped the shirt around the handle and plunged the blade into Rozga’s heart.

“Let’s go,” Harry said, taking the lantern from Asher so he could lead the way. And they walked in silence into the darkness of the tunnel.

TEN

Asher was really fucking mad.

Mad at a lot of things. Mad at how this whole day had gone from bad to worse.

First, before the sun had even come up, he’d found out that Daris had lied to him, tried to fuck him over. Daris, the one person Asher had known the longest in his miserable fucking life, and he’d lied to him.

Then they go shoot a bunch of wannabe terrorists, and Harry almost got himself shot several times. Once by the trees, so Asher had to blow the gas tank on the cabin. Yes, it killed the assholes who’d shot at Harry, but it also risked exposing them. The fact that Asher’s aim had been off with the third vehicle… He hadn’t meant to hit the fuel tank, but he did. A rookie mistake, and that pissed Asher off too.

Then Harry almost got himself shot when he was down by the vehicles. Had he not even thought to check if any of those fascist fucks were still alive? No, he just ran in without thinking and got shot at.

Asher had to take that fucker out too.

And then when Harry ran into the far side of the trees, chasing the men trying to escape on foot, Asher didn’t have a clear line of sight. A fact Harry should have realised and didn’t.

Or didn’t care.

And that pissed Asher off too.

Three times. Three fucking times Asher had almost lost Harry in one day.

It was reckless and stupid.

And then . . .

And then they learned that Lucas is MI6.

Lucas, who had been by Yunho’s side for a decade. Married him, cared for him, helped him, understood him. Lucas, who Yunho trusted above all else.

Asher had trusted him too.

And it was all a lie.

Not to mention the fact that they had to crawl through that wretched tunnel for what felt like forever. They’d cleaned up in the river, washing off any splatters of blood and mud, then walked for goddamn miles around the freaking mountain onto the hiking trails, pretending to be happy-go-lucky hikers to any other hiking passers-by, back to where they’d parked the Jeep.

It’d taken hours.

But it had got them out. And by the time they got back to their hotel, Asher was really tired, really hungry, and really fucking mad.

Harry ordered some dinner to be delivered and Asher tried to shower and scrub away his filthy mood.

He came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel.

“There’s some pasta here,” Harry said. “Have some. I’m gonna have a few bites, then I’ll grab a shower. Weneed to see what we can find out about Lucas. Do we believe what he said? Do you think it could be true?”

Asher had thought he was hungry, but now facing food, he wasn’t sure. “Are we going to talk about how you almost got shot today? Three times, Harry. I almost lost you three times.”

Harry put his fork down with a sigh. “I didn’t almost get shot,” he muttered.

“You almost fucking died today and you don’t care,” Asher said. He was so wound-up, so upset, he could barely contain his tears. “And you don’t even care. You don’t care what it would do to me. You didn’t think about me at all. It would fucking kill me, Harry, and you don’t even give a shit.”

Harry stood up and collected him in a fierce hug. Asher tried to pull away, to fight him... Yes, a good fight would make him feel better. A fight that ends with fucking. Getting railed into the mattress would make him feel so much better, so he fought a little harder, trying to kick and thrash.

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