Page 47 of The Heart

“I’m sorry, Lu. It’s Asher.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SEBASTIAN

“Asher?” Leena asks. “As in, AsherCampbell?Your brother?” She turns to Luke, but he doesn’t look at her. He just… stands there.

I know what he’s feeling.

I wish that I didn’t.

“Luke?” I ask, my voice softer than I usually use with him around others, but I don’t fucking care. Luke must notice, because it pulls him out of his shock and he looks up at me.

I watch as despair quickly turns to anger.

“Fuck!” he shouts, standing to run a hand through his hair, the towel barely staying on his waist. “Are you sure?” he asks Colton.

“The intel was solid on this one. I’m sorry,” Colton says, and I know he genuinely means that.

“Doesn’t he know this is fucking suicide?! No one leaves the Deck except in a bodybag.Especiallywhen you’re goddamn leading it. How could he fucking do this to our family? Tous?” He waves a hand toward me. “We gave up the force getting him out of this mess the last time and now he pulls this shit?”

I watch as the man I care about falls apart. I need to do something.

Or maybe punch something.

Thankfully, Leena is better at this than me. She walks over and gently places a hand on his bare back. He turns into her, holding her as if she’s the one he lost, not his brother.

Because that’s just it. Asher is gone.

Luke squeezes his eyes shut, and I try to figure out a way to fix this entire situation. But there isn’t one.

I know there isn’t.

Luke holds Leena tighter as he slowly opens his sad eyes, his voice is barely above a whisper when he asks me, “How am I supposed to tell Ma? Dad? The girls?”

I clench my jaw. Because there’s no answer to that question.

I’ve been around Luke’s family for as long as I’ve known him. Holidays, birthdays, after school… I spent more time there than anywhere else, even before I was placed into the foster system. I know the Campbells better than my own family.

I know this news will break them.

“What do you want to do?” Colton asks, and Luke lets go of Leena, walking toward him.

“Right now I want to fucking drink. Give me the bottle.”

—

It was really hard to get drunk with all the water Leena kept bringing us, but we managed. I look over to where she fell asleep nearly an hour ago. She’s all curled up in the lounge chair behind us under a blanket, but we should probably get her inside soon.

I turn back to the guys. The three of us are sitting on the edge of the pool, our feet in the water, passing the bottle between us as we try to figure this shit out.

“I just–” Luke says, running a hand over his face for the hundredth time tonight. “I just don’t get it. I know I don’t talk to him as much as I should, I don’t stay in touch. But I really thought he was doing okay. I just wish he would have talked to me.” He takes another swig, then passes the bottle to Colton.

“Well, do you want to try and talk to him? Or… get involved?” I ask.

“No. We’re not getting involved, we’re not going there again. He made his choice, and now there’s nothing we can do. He can’t even get himself out of it now, so I don’t see the point in us trying to,” he says. “And I don’t care what war they’ve got going on, we’re staying out of it. We’re keeping Leena out of it.”

“Okay,” I agree immediately. If this would have happened two years ago, Luke would have wanted to go after his brother. Hell, I might have even talked him into it, but we have Leena now. We don’t want her mixed up in this shit again. Not when she’s finally out of it.

---