Page 98 of Outside The Wire

“I should have fucking killed him.”

“So, what stopped you?”

“Holly,” I muttered.

He nodded, not saying anything else.

“What are you doing here?”

“Like I said, you sounded like you were about to murder someone. I figured you might need someone around. Just in case…”

“In case what?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, Asher. Do you know another fucking person around here?”

“Yeah.”

He shot me a skeptical look. “That you speak to regularly? Like a friend, Asher. Not the person you see in the grocery store every week.”

Well, when he put it like that… “Shit, I need to call Holly’s parents.” I went to stand, but he put a hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down.

“Relax. I’ll talk to the nurses at the desk. I’m sure they would have contacted them already.”

I was fucking losing it. What I really wanted was to grab my gun and kill the son of a bitch who put his hands on Holly, but that was a past life—a different Asher. But he was begging to come out and play. Still…there was part of me that wanted to call Chase right now and tell him how much I needed him. He would know what to do and say right now. He would have my back and understand the need to kill someone and not ask me stupid questions—like if I had murdered someone.

“They already called her parents. You need to just relax. I’m sure she’s fine.”

I huffed out a laugh. Yeah, I was sure she was fucking fine. He didn’t see her face. He didn’t see her lying on the ground after that asshole dragged her through the window. I saw it. I was there just a few minutes too late. I should have been there.

“Hey, calm down, man.”

I brushed him off as he tried to comfort me and stalked away. I needed to get some fresh air and get my head on straight before I beat the shit out of someone because I was really fucking close to losing my shit right this second. I pushed open the doors and got to work the only way I knew how. I found the best security company in the area. It didn’t take long for me to get them set up. After all, I already knew all this shit like the back of my hand. I explained to them exactly what I needed, told them about my experience so they didn’t try to fuck me over, and made sure they headed out to Holly’s shop immediately to get that squared away. And while I was at it, I gave them Noelle’s information and made sure she was taken care of as well. I couldn’t stand the thought of her being alone and unprotected.

Was I going overboard? Perhaps. But better safe than sorry.

“Asher!”

I was just hanging up with the security company when Carol and Nicholas came running up. “Carol?—”

“Tell me my baby girl is okay.”

“They won’t let me back to see her.”

Her spine stiffened and her nostrils flared. “Well, I’ll fix that right now.”

She marched past me as Nicholas shook his head. “Bet they didn’t see her coming.” He glanced at me and then down at my hands. “Is he dead?”

“Not yet.”

“That’s a shame.”

“He’s in the ICU.”

His lips twitched slightly. “What did the police say? Are you gonna have problems?”

“They asked what happened. I said it was self-defense.”

This time, his face broke out into a full-blown grin. “Self-defense, huh?”

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