Page 100 of Outside The Wire

I peeled my eyes open and frowned when I saw Asher in my room. My bedroom. “When did I get home?”

“About fifteen minutes ago.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t remember me bringing you home?” he asked, his lips twitching.

“Not really.” I thought about it harder, then shook my head. “No, not at all.”

“They gave you some good drugs for your face, but other than that, there was no reason for you to stay at the hospital.”

“My face?” I pressed my fingers against my cheek, but he quickly grabbed my hand, pulling it away from my face.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Doesn’t matter. I didn’t feel anything anyway,” I slurred, slumping over on the bed.

I felt him pulling at my body, but I was already drifting off to sleep.

“Hey, let’s get you in some pajamas and then you can sleep.”

“Jamas?”

“Yeah, jamas.”

I made a humming sound in my throat as he rolled me over and tugged at my pants. I vaguely recalled something similar…not the tugging, but the feeling of someone being on top of me and my eyes flew open. I jerked upright and my hand flew out, slamming into Asher’s face.

My heart raced as my breathing turned erratic. I didn’t know why I was acting like this. I was fine. Everything was normal, but…it wasn’t. And Asher…he was standing in front of me like I was some scared kitten.

“Baby, it’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

I frowned, wondering why he would say that. But then I remembered him throwing my attacker into the SUV. Not just throwing. Slamming. As if he weighed nothing.

“Who are you?”

The words slipped from my mouth without forethought and the confusion on his face was fully warranted.

“I’m Asher. You know me.”

“I mean…” Flustered, I shook my head, trying to get my jumbled mind to express what I actually wanted to say. “At the thing—the car—today…you threw that man. You attacked him.”

“He attacked you.”

“But you—I’ve never seen you like that.” My chest was still heaving, but this time for an entirely different reason. Because the man in front of me was someone I didn’t recognize. Something about him had changed, and even as I looked at him now, I saw it. There was a crack in him where before, all I saw was my perfect Asher. And I didn’t know what to make of that.

Something in his jaw ticked. Anger. Resentment. Devastation. I couldn’t be sure, but it was there. “I drove up to help you change a fucking tire and I found you on the ground and a man was beating you. He dragged you through a fucking window! What the fuck did you think I was going to do?”

My Asher also never swore that much. Not in one sentence. Not that I minded, but it was strange to hear.

He stood up and paced the room in front of me. I was still wobbly from the meds and was trying desperately to stay awake and focus on what was happening. We were talking about what happened, and I really didn’t want to miss out on this conversation because I wasn’t sure it would ever happen again.

“Holly, you have no fucking idea what it was like for me to find you like that. I would have killed that fucker if it wouldn’t have gotten me sent to prison. You’re the only reason I stopped.”

“Why?”

“Why what?” he asked, stopping to look at me.

I wasn’t even sure what I was asking. Why to anything, really. I had so many questions. At this point, I would take an answer to any of them. So, I started with the basics.

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