Page 143 of Ruthless Heir

“Harper, you don’t have to go anywhere.” Asher stares at me with pleading eyes, blood pouring from his nose and his face already swollen.

“I’ll figure this out,” I promise but I know he thinks I’ve chosen Josh instead of him. I haven’t.

Josh releases Asher and backs away. “Come with me now, Harper.”

My heart aches as I look at Asher, then I turn and head toward Josh.

I don’t look back. I can’t. If I do, I’ll fall apart.

Josh marches away and I follow, feeling Asher’s eyes burning into me, begging me not to go.

What a disaster.

Josh takes me to a hotel on the Upper West Side. When we walk into what’s supposed to be a suite, I can tell it’s been cheaply done up because of the budget secondhand store décor and the hint of Febreze in the air covering up the moldy smell. Maybe I’ve been in the Hamptons too long.

We drove here in silence. Not the kind of awkward silence you’d normally experience after a blowup like what happened back at Asher’s place, but the kind of silence that’s heavy with dark tension, doom and unexpected endings.

It’s the sort you experience when you have no idea what’s going to happen next.

It’s funny: I understand now why Asher suggested we take baby steps. It was because of this. He saw this coming, this situation where I’d be the one stuck in the middle.

I used to think that no one knew Josh as I did. I was wrong. Asher knew this would happen before it did because he knows my brother better than anyone. Even me.

“Your room is the last on the corridor.” Josh’s stern voice cuts through the thick layer of silence.

“Aren’t you even going to tell me how come you’re back early?”

“The sub had technical difficulties. We had to return to base to get it repaired. I head out again in four months.”

“So you’ll be back in New York?”

“For the moment. I’ll sort us out a place to stay by next week.”

“Ialready have a place to stay.” I steel my spine and level him a hard stare.

“You’re not going back to Asher.”

“Yes. I am.”

Josh’s face reddens with rage and he grits his teeth. “Harper, you don’t know what’s good for you.”

“This is ridiculous. You know that. You’re just freaking out and not listening to me. Asher is your best friend. How can you behave this way and beat him up?”

A pained look enters his eyes but it’s only there for a fleeting moment before it fades. At least my words seemed to have some effect on him.

“Asher gave me a hundred thousand dollars and saved me from whatever the hell might have happened to me.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about that loan?”

“Josh, you’re getting married. You have sacrificed a lot to take care of me. There comes a time in life when a person needs to figure out stuff for themselves.”

“Not if you have people who care about you.”

“Yes. Especially then. Especially when the same person is always saving you. And please, I know you didn’t have a hundred thousand to give me.”

“No, but we would have figured it out. You wouldn’t have had to go to him.”

I laugh without humor. “You are such a hypocrite. Youknowyou would have turned to Asher for help. He would have been the first person you would have thought of because we don’t know anyone else with that kind of money.”

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