Page 94 of Deceit

Skyla: You, Ronan and a forever replenishing magic buffet. That way I could have my guys with me, and we would never run out of food. We could live fat and happy forever.

My smile grows as I read her text and type out my reply.

Me: Your guys, baby? I like that. I’d happily be stuck on an island with you for the rest of my life. Liam can come too, I guess.

As soon as I hit send my phone is snatched out of my hand. I go to grab it back as Asher holds it away from me, pressed up against his window as he begins reading the messages.

Oh fuck.

His eyes fly across the screen, scrolling up to the beginning of the chat where Liam announced that this was the official ‘Skyla’sboyfriends’ chat. Asher’s eyes are instantly wild and filled with fury.

“What the FUCK is this?!” he shouts, ripping the wheel in the middle of the street and heading in the opposite direction of the hotel. “You’re fucking shitting me, right? She got to you too?” Asher practically screams.

“Technically, he got to her first,” Liam provides, extremely unhelpfully. I liked it better when he was traumatized and silent.

Asher’s eyes fly to him in the rear view mirror as he lets out a hollow laugh.

“Un-fucking-believable. You know what, I could expect it from Liam, he will fuck anything that moves, but YOU!?” he snaps, his eyes colliding with mine, showing for just a second the betrayal deep within them.

He turns back to the road, shaking his head with a disparaging laugh.

“Out of all people, I never would have thought that you could do this to me.”

“What exactly have I done to you, Asher? You don’t care for Skyla. You can’t stand her. I’m sorry I fell in love with her, really. I am. How do you think I feel? I’m in love with a woman who I will never be able to fully have. I have this piece with her now, but she’s marrying my fucking nephew. I’ll lose her one day, we both will,” I say, as I glance back to Liam before continuing.

“How do you think we feel, knowing that we will have to stand there and watch you take the woman we love as your wife while we don’t get a goddamn say or choice in the matter?”

Asher fumes, as the car begins picking up speed.

“I don’t give a fuck! You could have had anyone but my fiancée. Do you know what will happen if my dad finds out? He’ll kill us all, your precious little fucking whore included.”

My jaw tenses immediately, and my fists clench.

“Don’t call her that, Asher. That’s your only warning.”

He scoffs and shakes his head.

“What would you call a woman dating two men at the same fucking time? Hell, I’m sure there are more. With you two out of town, I’m sure she has the next one on the roster warming her bed.”

“Fuck you,” Liam chimes in, with a shake of his head as he pulls out his phone, assumingly texting Skyla to give her a heads up that Asher knows.

“Where are you going?” I finally ask, as he weaves in and out of traffic.

“Salem. Should be there in a few hours. I need to have a little talk with myfiancée.”

We drive the rest of the way in heavy silence. Liam and I share a few worried glances here and there, as Asher seems to be a ticking fucking time bomb, but none of us say a word. When we get to campus, Asher doesn’t waste time with the parking lot. No, he drives straight up onto the sidewalk and down the walkway before parking literally in front of the Parris Dorm doors.

He’s out of the car in a flash and Liam and I are hot on his heels. We barely make it inside the elevator with him and when he gets to her door he holds out his hand, assumingly waiting for a keycard. I go to reach for my own when Liam passes one to him. I give him a sideways look to which he shakes his head.

I wish we could have warned her, given her a heads up that we would be ambushing her at two in the morning. Unfortunately, she’s no doubt asleep and any chance of a good night’s rest isofficially over when Asher swipes the card against the reader, forcing the lock to give free.

When we step inside, my brain takes a moment to understand what I’m looking at. Skyla is in her bed but she’s not alone. There is someone beneath her. A man. And she’s asleep on his chest.

“Oh fuck,” Liam whispers under his breath.

In the next moment, the man beneath Skyla grabs a gun from the bedside table and aims it at us. In a surprisingly quick draw, Asher has his own gun pulled and pointed at the man, a gun that is freshly worn in by now.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Liam says, as he steps around me, waking Skyla in the process.

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