CHAPTER 22: ASH
Snow was on the warpath.
Instead of waiting for me and Bae Bae, she led the charge toward my family’s two-faced security team. Jesus, how long had they hated us? They’d been playing us the entire time, so it must’ve been a while. Smith grinned when we stopped in front of them, and I saw red.
“Hey, I—”
Snow’s fist flew before I could blink. Smith stumbled back, blood dripping from the scratch on his cheek, now reopened. Good.
“What the hell?” he sputtered.
I kicked his traitorous ass in the stomach before he could say more.
“You hit her, I hit you,” I said.
Smith was shaking his head. “What are you talking about, man? She just hauled off and hit me!”
“Cut the bull, Smith. We know it was you.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” he said.
Snow looked like she wanted to hit him again. I knew I did. “How could you betray him like this?” Snow said. “You were behind everything. You were supposed to protect him.”
“Behind what? I didn’t do anything.”
Evers tried to help Smith up, but he shrugged him off. My father’s oldest friend stared back at me, a resigned look in his eyes. But Smith…he was too much of a coward to admit the truth. The music had cut off after the first punch. We’d drawn everyone’s attention by now. The guests in the gym had surrounded us—including my parents.
“What’s this about, Ash?” Dad said, coming to stand next to me.
I shook my head in disgust. “They did it, Dad. The threats, the kidnapping, all of it.”
“You’re crazy,” Smith laughed, pointing from me to Snow. “Your girlfriend here has been filling your head with lies from day one. And you just let her do it.”
“Point that finger at her again,” Bae Bae growled, “and I’ll rip it off.”
I had to admit. The guy was starting to grow on me.
“Snow-Soon, please explain,” her mom said. Not like she didn’t believe it, but like she wanted to hear Snow’s side of things. Her eyes never left Smith.
Snow nodded, and I watched as she visibly tamped down her anger. Her breathing slowed, her body relaxed. It was like she’d bottled it up, saving it for later. I wished I could do that.
“These agents are the ones who kidnapped us,” she said.
“That’s ridiculous,” Smith said, but my ninja girl just kept going.
“They’re also responsible for the threats delivered to Mr. Stryker.”
“Mrs. C, you’re not seriously listening to this crap?”
My mother’s eyes were hard, but she nodded. “Go ahead, Snow. Tell us why you think it was them.”
Ignoring Smith’s scoff, Snow said, “I recognized the injuries. When Ash and I were first taken, I knocked one of the men into a tree, and it split his cheek open along the bone.”
“Agent Smith?” Every eye in the place was now on Smith’s bloody cheek. Mom wasn’t the only one whose eyes had narrowed. “What happened to your face?”
“I can’t believe you’re taking her word over mine,” he said.
“Agent Smith?”
“I fell, alright? I was running on the treadmill, and I clipped my head on the track.”
Snow frowned. “And then, I saw that Agent Evers had a limp. I kicked out the right kneecap of the gunman when we escaped.”
“My brother was injured in the war.” Smith looked to Evers for support. “It acts up every now and then. Isn’t that right, Henry?”
Evers was silent as Smith laughed again.
“You call that proof?” he said and looked around. “That’s nothing.”
Snow titled her chin at Evers. “I also sliced up his arm pretty bad. The wound should be on the left forearm.”
“Henry?” My father looked like he was going to be sick.
Evers blinked. “Yes, sir.”
“Could you lift your left sleeve for us, please?”
It all happened in slow motion.
Agent Evers, my father’s number one security guard. Henry, my dad’s oldest friend, removed his jacket, unbuttoned his cuff, and rolled up his shirt like a man condemned. The bandage was large and tinged red. Snow hadn’t been lying. The cut must’ve been deep for there still to be that much blood. Even though the gun hadn’t come through for us, that injury was as good as a flashing guilty sign.
“He cut it last night while he was making dinner,” Smith all but yelled. “This is bullshit. Mr. Stryker, I can’t believe you’re going to just sit there and let her accuse us. Everything here can be explained. If we did all these things”—he held out his palms—”where’s the proof?”
“Right here,” Sadie said and propped open her laptop, hit a few keys and turned the screen toward us. “Watch it and weep, dirtbag.”
The video was actually a compilation. Sadie had put the important clips together so they ran one after the other: Agent Smith hand-delivering the written threats on different occasions, each dated and time stamped. By the tenth clip, Smith had gone pale.
“Where did you get this?” he breathed.
“From your computer,” she said.
“But the codes are encrypted. My system’s impenetrable.”
“Nearly.” Sadie smiled. “But not impossible to hack.”
Smith cursed under his breath, and my eyes went back to the screen.
Everyone watched as Evers set the rat on our doorstep then stepped inside like nothing had happened, minutes before Snow and Mrs. Lee walked up. My dad was shaking his head, a lost look on his face.
“But why, Henry?” he said. “I don’t understand.”
“Why?” Agent Evers’s face was always rigid, but as I watched, it shifted into something cold, harsh. “Why, Wes? You really have the audacity to ask me that?”
Dad looked shocked. Mom and I were speechless, too. I didn’t think we’d ever heard him talk like that. But Smith couldn’t stay silent.
“My brother saved your life,” he hissed. “Without him you wouldn’t even be here.”
“I know that,” Dad whispered.
“Then why’d you let us go? When you knew we needed the money, when you knew we were struggling, why’d you release us from our contract? Best friend, my ass.”
“Smith,” Evers said, but that didn’t stop him. The man was just getting started.
“Do you know,” he said, “how embarrassing it was to have a client, not just any client, but a family friend, release our company from one of its only high profile jobs? We worked our asses off for you people, and that’s how you repaid us.”
Mom shook her head. “But Wesley was getting out of the law business. We didn’t need your protection anymore.”
And that’s when it all fell into place.
“That’s why you made the letters,” I said. “To keep us scared, so we’d still need you.”
Smith stared at me a moment, and I saw a hatred there I’d never seen before. As much as he’d pretended to be my friend, I knew then it was never true. You couldn’t be friends with someone you saw as the enemy.
“You’re damn right,” he said, stepping closer. “And I’d do it again if that meant we got to feed ourselves every night.”
“And Evers?” I asked.
“Oh, he had no idea.” Smith patted his brother on the back, and Evers stayed silent. “The threats were all my idea. After all, that was why your dad brought us on in the first place, to keep all those hardened criminals off your doorstep. Henry didn’t know it was me—at first. But then, Mrs. C had to go off and hire someone else, and he caught me delivering the letters. When I had to up the number of threats per day, it got a little harder to hide the truth from him.”
I shook my head, looked at Evers. “Why’d you let it continue?”
And when Evers looked up his eyes looked haunted. “He’s my brother,” was all he said.
“And you took my son,” Mom said back.
“We always intended to release him.”
“Did you?” Her eyes went flat. “In what, a few weeks after you’d gotten more money?”
Evers flinched, and I knew what was coming.
“That was my idea as well.” Smith smirked, on a roll now that there was no way to pretend he was innocent. “Pretty clever, huh? It would’ve been like a constant payday, and you know that we would never really hurt Ash.” His smirk fell as his eyes went to Snow. “But then she had to go and ruin everything.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me for money?” Dad asked, speaking to Evers alone. “Good God, Henry, you know I would’ve given it to you in a heartbeat.”
“I’d never ask you for money,” he said.
“Why not? You’re my best friend.”
“Friends don’t turn their back on each other in their hour of need.”
“But they go along with their brother’s crazy schemes?”
Evers stared at Dad in that steady way of his. “I’ve protected you most of my life. As a soldier, as a friend, as a security guard, but you never did the same for me. When it came down to it, you paid all that loyalty back with betrayal.”
Dad shook his head.
“We haven’t been friends for a while,” he said.
“But—”
Evers turned away, and I watched my father’s face crumple.
“Well,” Mom said, “now that it’s all out there, I think it’s time you turned yourselves in.”
“What?” Smith said as Evers nodded. The rest of the agents looked ready for a fight, and I hoped, prayed, they tried to make a move. I was so ready.
“You heard me. I’m calling the police.”
Smith shook his head, went for his gun. “I’m not going to prison.”
And then all hell broke loose.
Jesus, it was magnificent. The scene was like something out of an action movie on crack: Min-Hee pulling on one of the agent’s hair as two other Elite members forced him to the ground; Bae Bae clothesline-ing another agent; me using the leg sweep I’d seen Snow use so many times on another; Snow flipping the same guy when he got back up and tried to run.
But the main attraction was the showdown between Mrs. Lee and Agent Smith.
I knew he didn’t stand a chance. He probably knew it, too. But like the idiot he was and always had been, Smith tried to fight her anyway. And Mrs. Lee went off on him like a stick of dynamite.
She caught his arm and twisted, disarming him like it was child’s play. Two quick elbows to the face, a jab to the throat, and when Smith was left standing there dazed and bleeding, she brought out the big guns. Without a sound, Mrs. Lee took a running start, scaled his taller frame, got her legs around his neck, swung around once—literally defying gravity—and flipped him to the ground in a move I’d only seen Black Widow do in The Avengers.
It was sweeeeet.
Evers didn’t even put up a fight, too smart to know when he’d been beaten. It took the cops about ten minutes to get there, but with all the Elite Academy members in attendance, we had no trouble keeping the five agents under control. I used that time to talk to my mom—then went off to find Snow.
“I saw your leg sweep,” Snow said as I came up to her. She was standing over by the snacks eating a bowl of what looked like marshmallow fluff. “We didn’t teach that move in self-defense. Where’d you learn it?”
“From watching you,” I said, scooping up a bit with my finger. My eyes followed the spoon to her lips, and like the pansy I was, I shivered. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Shoot.”
“Promise you won’t hurt me first.”
She cocked a brow. “I promise.”
Alright then…”Since we caught the bad guys, I don’t think I need a bodyguard anymore.”
“Oh really?” she said and set the bowl aside, crossed her arms.
“Yeah,” I said. “You see that, right? There’s no more danger. The threat has been dealt with and good. Did you see Smith and your mom? She was crazy.”
Snow smiled. “She was pretty amazing.”
“Hell yeah,” I said then cleared my throat. God, this was harder than I’d thought it would be, especially considering everything we’d gone through. “I think you’re pretty amazing, too.”
A pause then—”That was weak.”
“What?”
“My God, you should see your face right now,” she laughed, and I knew she was just teasing. Thank God. “What I meant was you’re usually much better with the one-liners.”
I took a deep breath.
“Ash, are you okay?”
“I just don’t want you to be upset.”
“Upset about what?” she asked. “You’re freaking me out here.”
“Snow,” I said and pressed a kiss to her cheek, grinning as she melted into me, “you’re fired.”
“What?!?”
She jumped away from me, and I shrugged. “You’re officially fired. You’re no longer my bodyguard.”
“But why?” Her voice sounded confused and sad, and all the things I didn’t want it to be. “Is it because I let them take you at the drive-in? Honestly, Ash, I tried to stop them.”
“God no,” I said, grabbing her hand, holding on even as she tried to pull back. “No, that’s not it at all.”
“Then why?”
“So I can do this.”
My lips swallowed her protests. Her lips burned beneath mine, and I wanted more. Wanted her to forget where we were. Wanted her to remember how hot this fire burned between us. Wanted her…God, I just wanted her.
This one kiss was everything, so I put all of me into it. The longing, the fire, the respect, the bone-deep desire. This didn’t happen every day. I had to convey to Snow how unique this thing between us was. How absolutely vital. When she kissed me back, I could’ve died right there and been a happy man. Except then, I’d never get to kiss Snow again—which would be a tragedy.
We pulled away at the same time, gasping for breath.
“Why couldn’t you just have said that before?” she asked. “Did you have to fire me first?”
“You were so stubborn,” I said and laughed as her eyes sparked with annoyance. “I didn’t think you’d let me do it until after.”
“You’re probably right.”
“But since it’s clear we both enjoyed that, I don’t—”
Before I knew it, I was down on the mats. Snow’d flipped me. Again.
“You were saying?” she asked.
I shook my head as she leaned over me.
“Guess you’ll need to take a few more self-defense classes.”
“I guess so,” I said, running my hand through her hair.
Snow dropped a kiss to my nose, and I grinned.
“You know,” I said, “even though you’re no longer my bodyguard you’ll always be my ninja girl.”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes and helped me up. “I hate that name.”
I looked at her. “Do you really?”
Snow took a second then said, “No. Not really—but if you tell anyone that I’ll kick your ass.”
And I kissed her again because I knew she could totally fulfill that promise.
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