CHAPTER 23
A quiet knock sounded on the door. Naomi had dozed off on the bed at some point, exhaustion and grief finally dragging her down into a deep sleep. She roused now, feeling both rested and yet utterly drained.
“Come in.”
Ironic to be granting Asher permission to enter when it was his bedroom, his house—his life—that she had intruded upon with all of her problems.
She sat up on the bed as the door swung open and he stepped inside accompanied by Sam, whose entire body wiggled in excitement as he trotted up to her looking as though he hadn’t seen her for a week.
“Hey, sweet boy,” she said, unable to resist ruffling his neck and stroking his floppy ears. Tongue lolling, he danced and whined in front of her, his blissful ignorance of the day’s many traumas somehow comforting to her now.
“How are you doing?” Asher asked, watching her pet and scratch the happy hound. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I was awake when you knocked. What time is it?”
“Just after five.”
She blinked, stunned. “You let me sleep all afternoon?”
Asher’s smile was hesitant. “You needed the rest.”
She had needed it, if only to escape the grief that was still clawing at her over losing Michael. But sleep was only temporary relief. Sooner or later, she had to wake up.
Just like sooner or later, she would have to deal with all of the arrangements and adjustments that would now need to be considered not only for her friend but for the kids who’d just lost their only port in a storm.
And then there was Asher and her.
Eventually, they would have to decide what things might look like for them moving forward from today too. Whether that meant together or on their own, she wasn’t ready to contemplate.
His brow was knit as he looked at her from where he stood, just inside the room. “I thought you might be hungry, so I made you something to eat.”
She didn’t know if she was hungry or not, but the fact that he had thought to take care of her warmed her when all she’d felt before was aching cold. “Thank you.”
She couldn’t look at him now the same way she had before. Cain’s revelation, and Asher’s own confession afterward, had cast him in a different light. As a man Asher was now less of a mystery than when she first met him, but even more complicated than she ever could have imagined.
Her feelings for him were complicated too.
Her love hadn’t dimmed, not even after Cain had given her more than enough reason to doubt Asher. To despise him, even. But she couldn’t stop loving him, not even before she knew the full truth from Asher himself.
Asher, she thought, her heart aching for everything he had endured.
As for his name, the epithet he’d kept all this time, she understood now that it wasn’t a badge of pride as Cain had assumed. Asher had kept his derogatory name for the same reason he kept the memories of all the Hunters he’d been forced to execute—as yet another reminder of his remorse, his penance.
Cain had totally misunderstood Asher.
So had Naomi, until today.
She glanced at the pile of splintered wood that lay on the floor of the bedroom. “What happened to your beautiful headboard?”
He shrugged, his mouth pressed in a flat line. “After you found Michael . . . feeling your pain and fear through your blood . . . knowing I was miles away and couldn’t do anything to help you if you needed me?” He abruptly stopped speaking and let out a low curse. “It tore me up, not being able to be there with you.”
“Oh, Asher.”
The hand-carved piece she’d seen him labor over for days and which had obviously been a project that he’d been perfecting for far longer than she knew was completely destroyed. The center of it looked as if it had been smashed with a sledgehammer.
Or a Breed male’s driving fist.
“It’s just a slab of wood,” he said. “Maybe I’ll make another one someday.”
Naomi got off the bed and walked up to him, laying her palm against his cheek. It astonished her, how much this man meant to her after only a few short days and nights together. How deeply would she tumble if they had forever?
She went up on her toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. She intended it to be only a small kiss, but she didn’t realize how much she’d been missing his contact until his strong arms wrapped around her, holding her close to him.
They kissed for a long moment, tenderly, apologetically. When Asher finally released her, his irises were glittering with flecks of amber light. He wanted her, but he was holding that need in check, if only barely. Naomi felt it too, the yearning to lose herself in something good after all of the bad they’d been through today.
But she couldn’t indulge in her own needs or desires.
Not when there were still things to be done back in the city.
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand. “Once you get something in your stomach it’ll be dark outside. We can head in to Vegas and start looking for Tyler and Penny and the rest of the kids.”
“Thank you.” She twined her fingers through his as they walked, grateful beyond words for the fact that he understood without her even saying so. “What did you make me to eat? It smells delicious.”
She stared in surprise—and amusement—when she saw the feast he’d prepared. Waiting for her on the table was a large bowl of canned chicken soup, cooked chicken breast on a plate of salad, a bowl of cereal and a cup of fresh fruit, plus the entire loaf of French bread they’d brought home from the grocery store the other night.
“I didn’t know how hungry you’d be,” he murmured. “So I made all of the things I know you like.”
She laughed in spite of the anguish that had ridden her all day. “It’s perfect. I think I know who to call the next time I need to feed an army of starving kids.”
She sat down and ate, amazed to find she did have an appetite after all.
Once she’d had her fill, she and Asher headed out from the ranch and made the drive in to Las Vegas to begin searching for the kids.
They started with the parks and shelters in and around the Strip. They’d found plenty of kids and young teens hanging around, but none of the group they were hoping to locate.
They had even driven past some of the seedy areas of the city, through industrial lots and freight depots, some of the places desperate kids tended to look for shelter when they had no better options.
As the night wore on, Naomi couldn’t hide her frustration. Or her fear.
“I hate knowing they’re out here somewhere and don’t know I’m looking for them. What if they run, Asher? What if we never find them?”
“We will,” he assured her, his deep voice determined. “We’ll search the whole damned state and more if we have to.”
She nodded and sat back, looking out the truck’s window at the flashing casino lights and soaring high-rise hotels. Casino Moda stood out like a tower made of diamonds, all the way up to the winking beacon lights on its rooftop helipad. Sleek, inviting. No hint at all of the monster who dwelled inside.
Asher cleared his throat. “Maybe we should drive past Michael’s house.”
She had deliberately avoided asking him to go there, not at all ready to revisit the place that would always be the source of her worst nightmares now. But Asher was right. They had to try everything.
At her nod, he turned on to the street that would take them into the residential area off the Strip. She reached over and grasped his hand as they turned on to Michael’s street. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until the truck approached the darkened house and Michael’s van still parked in the driveway. The air in her lungs leaked out of her on a ragged sob.
“It hurts so bad, Asher.”
“I know, sweetheart.” He brought her fingers up to his lips and kissed them.
“I can’t ever come back here again. Neither can any of the kids who lived here.”
He nodded, turning a solemn look on her. “You don’t have to. None of you do. There’s plenty of room for everyone out at the ranch.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. We’ll find a way to make it work.”
Her heart leapt inside her rib cage. She tried to reach him for a hug, but her seatbelt restrained her. “Shit.” Laughing in spite of her tears, she popped the buckle and threw her arms around him, peppering his face with grateful kisses.
He bent his head to hers, a smile playing at the edges of his sensual mouth. “Maybe I should pull over if you’re going to do that.”
She was so swept up in the moment that the sudden ringing of her phone in her back pocket took a second to register.
Michael’s ringtone again, only this time it hit her senses like a hammer on glass.
“Oh, my God.”
Asher’s face darkened even as his eyes lit up with fire. He veered over to the curb and put the truck in park. “If it’s Slater, let me handle it.”
But she already had the phone at her ear. “Hello.”
“You disappoint me, Narumi.” Slater’s voice sliced through her. “I would’ve thought my message today was clear enough. And yet you still haven’t brought my money.”
“I told you, I don’t have it. I have some, but—”
“All of it,” he cut in sharply. “That was my demand.”
Asher’s eyes blazed as he listened next to Naomi. If Slater were in arm’s reach, Naomi had no doubt that Asher would already have torn the man’s throat out with his bare hands.
“Why do you insist on making me hurt you, Narumi? Do you remember what I said? If you don’t give me back the money, I’ll be forced to take something else you care about.”
She didn’t want to guess what that might be. He’d already ripped out her heart today. What more could he do?
“I can give you what I have. Eighty-seven-thousand dollars. The rest of it—”
“Every. Fucking. Penny,” Slater said. Then he started to laugh. A maniacal sound that chilled her veins. “Every penny of mine in exchange for yours, Narumi.”
Her breath caught. “What?”
In the background, she heard commotion followed by a young girl sobbing hysterically.
“Bring her here,” Slater ordered.
The cries got louder as the girl came closer to the phone. She sniffled and choked on her tears. “N-Naomi?”
“Oh, my God.” Penny’s jagged, fear-filled sobs shredded her. “Penny, don’t worry. We’re not going to let anything happ—”
The sound of a hand striking a tender cheek split the air on the other end of the line. Penny shrieked, then started bawling, begging Naomi to help her.
“Bring the money. All of it,” Slater snarled. “Or sweet little Penny here is going to have a terrible accident too. Unless I decide to take my debt out of her flesh.”