Page 50 of Trial of Deceit

Jediah looked at Ashari.“Finished eating?”he asked, and she nodded.“You’re coming with me.”

Ashari’s brow raised.“Where?”

“You’ll see when we get there,” he said and stood.

Ashari nodded, stuffing some strawberries into her mouth before following him outside.

“Will you let me be a gentleman?”Jediah asked as they dismounted the stairs.

“Don’t ask me foolishness,” Ashari said.She quickened her pace to the car that throttled by the steps and stood by the back door.She opened the door and gave him a victorious smirk.

Jediah released a long breath and shook his head.“Get in the front seat,” he said while moving to the driver’s door.“I’m not a chauffeur.”

Her brows crinkled as Jediah sat in the driver’s seat.Knowing nothing good ever came from Jediah driving her anywhere, she clenched her jaw and complied with his order.Silence accompanied them on the journey to a warehouse she wasn’t familiar with.It was full of men with guns and women packing drug baggies into fake seeds, then sealing them into avocados.Some of them gave her curious glances as she walked by Jediah’s side.

Guards stationed before a door nodded at Jediah before allowing him into a room all the way at the back of the warehouse.He laid his hand on the small of her back, motioning for her to enter first, when someone called for him.Ashari looked over her shoulder at Reine who was storming through the building while Cameron chased her.Dimitri strolled behind them.

Anger rushed to Jediah’s eyes.He moved his hand from Ashari’s back.“Why Reine don’ deh school, Cameron?”he hissed while looking at Reine.

“Mi need fi talk to yu!”Reine said.She stopped before them and crossed her arms.

Jediah’s jaw ticked before he looked at Ashari.He nodded his head toward the room.“I’ll be quick.”

Ashari nodded and entered the room.The door shut behind her, and she scanned the room full of the latest technology.Her eyes widened at the person sitting before a monitor, whose fingers hovered above the keyboard.

“Reka?”Ashari forced out.

“No way…” The light-skinned woman stood and approached Ashari, her high ponytail of pin-straight hair swaying behind her.She hesitantly reached a hand out and laid it on Ashari’s arm, then pulled back with a gasp.A slow smile spread on her face before she pulled Ashari into a tender hug.“Ash!”

Stunned, Ashari didn’t return the hug.Reka pulled back, her brows furrowing.

Ashari shook her head in disbelief while taking a step backward.“Why’re you here?”

“Why areyouhere?”Reka repeated.

“You don’t get to ask me that, Reka.You just disappeared a-and now you work forhim?”

Reka’s mouth opened, then snapped shut as the door opened.Ashari and Reka looked toward the door.A man, around nineteen-years-old or so, stood by the door with a stack of papers in his hand.A wireless headphone rested around his neck.His eyes darted from Reka to Ashari, then his brows furrowed.

“Come in and close the door, Tyre,” Reka ordered.

Tyre nodded and obeyed.He walked toward a corner of the room and loaded a printer with paper.After he finished, he sat on the chair beside the one Reka had sat on.He put his headphones on, his focus devoted to the computer screen.

Reka stepped closer to Ashari.That strong vanilla perfume she always wore enveloped Ashari.If she noticed that Ashari inhaled in a deep breath, she didn’t comment.Instead, she said in a harsh whisper, “Yes… but I didn’t have a choice.I was recruited during our training, and Jediah offered me more.”

“More?”Ashari repeated in disdain.“We were going to do great things and help civilians.”

Reka’s jaw clenched then relaxed as she returned to the chair and resumed what she was doing.Ashari’s jaw slackened as she watched Reka erase footage of what looked like a shooting.“Civilians wouldn’t help me to mourn my mother if she died because she couldn’t get her cancer treatment.”

Ashari couldn’t believe what she heard.She’d known Reka since she was sixteen.Reka was Tsai’s protégée until she’d disappeared one day, never to be heard from again.

Reka switched the screen to cameras at the estate before she looked at Ashari.“Don’t look at me like that, Ash,” she said and stood.“You are not righteous either.”

“I-I am…”

Reka stepped toward her.“With that ring around your finger?”

Ashari covered her hand with the next, suddenly feeling like the ring was melting into her skin.That was exactly how it’d burned as she’d signed the marriage license hours after Jediah placed it around her finger.“That’s different.I-I—”