Page 15 of Jericho

"Tell me what you've got and what you think you need to do."

I spend the next twenty minutes explaining the situation, confessing to the emails, and giving him every damn piece of information leading up to her keeping her back to me today at the salon and going back inside. I want his help. I want the support of the team I know I have, because despite my and Aspen's history, I don't want her to be hurt. I don't wish her ill or think she deserves any form of abuse she's getting from Damien fucking Gaines.

"Give me a few days to see what we can find out on our end. Try not to do anything that will put you or Cerberus in the crosshairs of any criminal organization."

"I'll do my best," I say before hanging up. There are always situations when split-second decisions have to be made and it's impossible to evaluate all the fallout that might come later.

Chapter 8

Aspen

I blink at Roxanne, and all she does is stare right back at me. I'm in a position where I might need her help mere minutes after putting her in her place, and I don't like the way the contradiction makes me feel.

I pull my phone from my small handbag and consider calling Damien. It's what he would expect from me, but what in the world do I tell the man?

That a guy he is rumored to have killed, a man he has bragged to me numerous times told him that he hated me just before he died, called out my name in the alleyway.

I shake my head, rejecting the idea. It's in my head because I've been stupid enough to risk my life by sending those emails. It was a way to get shit off my chest because I have no one else to speak to about any of it. I've somehow let him deep into my psyche. He isn't real. Luke Gannon is dead, and he has been since the day I turned against him the first and only time our love was challenged.

I pull in a deep breath, but my hands are still shaking when I shove my phone back into my purse. Unlike when I first stepped outside, I angle up on the tips of my toes and use the peephole. The alleyway is clear, and I hiss a breath of relief as I lower down to my heels and press my head against the cool steel.

"Aspen?"

"Mrs. Gaines," I snap, correcting her, hating that someone is here to bear witness to me freaking out.

"Can I call someone to help you, Mrs. Gaines?" The tone of her voice tells me that she's less than impressed with the way I've spoken to her, but I'm in no position to correct her further right now.

"I'll be fine," I bark, once again lifting back up on the very tips of my toes to look out the peephole.

Much to my surprise and relief, Samuel is back outside waiting for me.

"Speak a word of this and you'll regret it," I say, looking over my shoulder at Roxanne, before opening the back door.

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about," she says just as I walk outside.

I bend down, looking at my driver through the passenger window, before opening the back door and climbing inside.

His eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror, and either I'm delusional or he's relieved that I'm in the car. I don't mention the bleeding cut on his head, and neither does he. He waits for me to get my seatbelt on before pulling out of the alleyway.

I stare out the window for the entire ride back to the house, my mind locked on memories from so many years ago.

I have to be going insane. There's no way Luke is alive, and even less of a chance that he'd come back for me.

My need to escape, to feel safe, is really messing with my head. Damien hitting me a couple of days ago had to have jiggled something loose in my mind for me to make up such a thing.

As we pause at the gate to gain entry to the property, I consider what might've happened if I had turned back and looked at the stranger in the car. If he was an enemy, he could've simply shot me in the back. I realize how crazed I am when I consider that maybe getting abducted by someone could endwith me having a better life than the one I have. That's pure insanity. Things like that don't really happen. If it was someone wanting to take me, they'd use me as a pawn against Damien, only they'd overestimate my value to him. I don't think Damien would be angry about me being taken other than the fact that someone had something of his. I don't see the man putting much value on my life these days. He's head of the organization after removing my father. I only exist to him as someone he can manipulate, abuse, and boss around. I serve no other purpose for him, other than whatever grace my presence gives him for the other crime families nearby. To most, family is everything. You don't even so much as breathe a bad word about them in public, despite what might be going on in private.

By the time Samuel makes it up the long driveway, I've determined that the truth is one of two things. There's a very slight chance that I'm losing my mind and making shit up, but that doesn't explain the injury to Samuel's head. I know better than to ask what happened, and keeping my mouth shut now may mean he keeps his mouth shut later. He may even lie about the injury rather than admit that something he did or didn't do put me at risk.

The second consideration is that Luke really is alive, and I'm not crazy after all. It wouldn't explain why he left and never came back for eight years. If that's the case, I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive him for the things I've endured in his absence. He was the strong one, years ago. I was weak and couldn't admit my love for him. That would've gotten us both killed, and I knew deep down, he wouldn't want that for me.

We both knew what a risk us being together was. He wanted to take it anyway.

Memories of what he told me all those years ago, when Damien caught us in my room together, cross my mind.

He was a federal agent. He was the enemy. All cops are, according to my father, even the ones on payroll because they're the ones who will turn on us the quickest to save themselves if they're faced with the decision.

"Miss?" Samuel says, bringing me back to the present, still sitting in the back of the car.

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