Page 35 of Choose the Bears

“He attacked me in the car park,” I said and that had the guard surging forward. “Not Asher, Phil.”

“I fucking did not?—”

Phil wheezed that out when he was set down on his feet, but a twist of his shirt had his words choked off again.

“He was waiting by my car…”

That was the point when the shell of artificial calm cracked. My hands trembled and Jade noted every shake, my whole body following suit as adrenaline rushed in. Run, it told me, run. But there was nowhere to run to and that kept me pinned to the spot, because as everyone’s voices got louder and louder, I looked over their heads, catching the moment Phil’s gaze met mine and he smiled. Sly, insidious, feeling like a snake slithering across my skin, it was all the warning I got as he turned and bolted.

The Rottweiler analogy was an apt one because Asher lunged like one, ready to run him down, but Kyle and Lucas’ hands slapped down on his shoulders, hauling him back.

“Let the police handle this, mate.”

The far off sirens let us know the guard had put a call through, and sure enough, a police car turned up, two officers strolling over.

“So an assault was reported?” the first one asked.

We endedup at the police department giving a statement, but it was me they were focussed on. I was the victim and the primary witness.

“So how do you know Phil Jackson?” I was asked for the umpteenth time.

“I don’t,” I replied, studying the desk, not them. “Not really. He works with my ex.”

“And why would he be stalking and assaulting you and not your ex?”

I finally met the penetrating gaze of the detective interviewing me, seeing doubt there, and it exacerbated my own.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I don’t know. I don’t know why he’d be waiting for me in the car park. I don’t know why he grabbed me. He seemed really preoccupied with me being with the guys…” My eyes trailed across the busy police station floor, finding the three of them standing off to one side, talking more informally with a few officers. “But I don’t know why he would care.”

“Right, well, do you have anyone at home to keep an eye on you? This Phil, he’s not a good bloke. We’ll find him and bring him in, but… You need to take measures to stay safe.”

“We’ve got this.”

Asher appeared by my side, just like the angel I’d compared him to before, but this time he was the angry kind, the one that was ready to smite sinful humans. He held out a hand, and this time I didn’t question taking it.

“We need to get you out of here,” he told me as we walked between the desks towards the exit. “We need to take you back to headquarters.”

I wasn’t arguing now. The adrenaline in my blood still commanded that I run, and wherever this headquarters was, somehow I knew it’d be far, far away from anywhere Phil would be.

“Please,” I said in a small voice. “Please take me away from here.”

Chapter 19

Imogen

This wasn’t happening.

I wasn’t in the back seat of Asher’s car while he drove it like he stole it, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles went white. He didn’t race down streets, then wrench the wheel to take corners at speed, the tyres squealing in protest. Lucas wasn’t in my car, driving at a more sedate pace behind us. Kyle wasn’t sneaking sidelong looks at the backseat. No, at me, as we drove. I wasn’t being rushed into the city like I was having a heart attack or something, and I definitely wasn’t holding my injured wrist against my chest like a wounded bird. That feeling of unreality grew and grew as we pulled up out the front of here.

I was definitely not being taken into one of those big, grey bland-looking office buildings that ringed the central business district, the mirrored windows now reflecting the moon’s cool gaze back to us.

Asher did not bring the car to an abrupt stop in a park out the front, his breath coming in and out in noisy exhales. I didn’t watch him fight some unseen war with himself, his muscles trembling, right before he wrenched his door open.

“Gotta go.”

I didn’t watch him stride towards the front door, the glass panels sliding open to reveal an athletic looking woman who was obviously waiting for him.

“Asher…” Kyle shot me a sheepish look. “He takes this kind of thing hard. We usually see the aftermath of…” When his eyes dropped down, so did mine, taking in the now purpling bruise around my wrist. That didn’t happen. It didn’t. “Not an attack happening in real time.”

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