Chapter Twenty-Five
Getting back into the garage was easier than I remembered. I just did exactly what Asher and I had done the first night we came. Of course.. it was a little harder to get my body through that window without his help.
I had to get back to the gym.
Oh, who was I kidding? I had to start going to the gym.
But once I finally got up and through the window getting down was easy and the truck was exactly where it was the night we’d first come. I pulled the tarp back forcefully and almost lost my composure at the sight of it.
It was in the same exact condition it had been before. Not one ounce of work had been done on it. I shook my head, stunned and confused. “But… that makes no sense,” I mumbled out loud. Why was it just sitting here for weeks? Unless whoever had put it here had wanted to make sure it didn’t get fixed so when the cops came looking they would have even more evidence against Trevor.
I grabbed my cell phone out of my pocket and started snapping pictures of every angle of the truck, closing in on the parts that had specs of paint on it. Now that I was zooming in on it something about it did look a little odd. Something about it was off. It looked almost too perfect.
I was just rubbing my fingers back and forth over the door handle when suddenly my phone was being snatched from my hand and I was being pulled backward by the lower part of my hair.
I yelped loudly, swinging toward the back of my body but only catching air.
Josh stood behind me red faced and rage filled. “You just couldn’t let it go, could you?” He dropped my phone onto the ground and stomped on it, cracking the screen. “You had to keep poking the fuck around.”
I pushed my body away, trying to steady myself back on my feet. “Josh? I… what are you doing here?” I tried to play dumb but I knew exactly what he was doing here. If he hadn’t crashed into my dad himself he certainly had something to do with the person who did.
“Oh, come on, don’t be a bitch, Bella. Please? Don’t play dumb, the whole thing is insulting to me.” He ran a hand over his face and kicked my phone away from him.
“You… you’re the one who hit my dad?” I gulped.
“Of course I fucking hit him. I would have gotten away with it too if you and your little husband hadn’t of been causing trouble all over town.” He cracked his head from side to side. “I mean this whole thing was Asher’s fault.”
Josh looked absolutely crazy. His hair was all messed up and his eyes were bloodshot and filled with anger. “Asher’s fault?” I moved a few steps away from him, desperate to put some distance between the two of us. “Why?” I took a few more steps. “What did Asher do?”
Josh closed the distance between us, catching on quick and pulling me even closer than before by my arm. “Because he ruined my fucking life! I had to drink that night because he was pissing me off! Just like he always does! And who was going to drive me home?”
“Josh!” I yelped, kicking my legs. “You’re hurting me!”
He tightened his grip, pulling my body closer to the truck and shoving me against it. “I can’t believe you went and pulled this shit.” He shook his head. “I tried to give you a chance, I tried to show you that file… but even then, even when fucking proof in your hand you still had to go around poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
I looked him up and down, trying to feel out the situation. The odds of me being able to overpower him weren’t in my favor since he was twice my size and all worked up. I did a quick survey of the room and decided my best chance was to try and make a run for it. If I was smaller than him I might be faster than him and might be able to make it out back and into the woods before he caught up with me.
Not that getting lost in the woods was the smartest plan but it was better than whatever the fuck this was. “You’re right,” I said slowly, trying to stroke his ego. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through.”
“You’re damn right you can’t,” he snapped.
“I know,” I lowered my voice seriously. “I do know that… I haven’t been fair to you and I’m not going to tell anyone about this.” I gestured toward the truck. “I’m going to pretend I never even saw it.”
“Right,” he laughed sarcastically. “Like you would ever keep something from your beloved Asher.” His face filled with a deeper redness at the sound of his name out loud.
“I’m not with Asher anymore,” I corrected him. “That’s over.”
“Oh? It’s over, huh? You really think I’m stupid, don’t you?”
“I swear!” I tried to reassure him again. “It’s over between the two of us and this… all of this isn’t going to get out. I’m gong to go back to Boston after my dad gets better and never look back! I need… I have a life to get back to.”
Josh threw his head back and sighed loudly. “Oh, poor Bella, you still don’t get it, do you?” He reached into his coat pocket and started to fumble around frantically. “I’m going to have to kill you.”
And a second later I was staring down the barrel of a gun.
I took a step away from him, trying to keep the growing panic that was moving through my body under control. “Josh… you don’t have to do this.” So much for running… I’d rather put up a fight then get shot in the back.
“Of course I have to do this!” He waved the gun around carelessly in the air. “I tried to give you a chance, Bella, I didn’t want it to end up with way.” He shook his head, deep in thought. “But people just keep giving me a reason to kill them, I swear it’s like they want to leave this world.”
His words sent a chill up and down my spine. He’d killed before. Who and why immediately stuck out in my mind but I knew better than to dwell on it in the moment. “Please,” I said softly, taking a new approach.
“As hot as it is to hear you beg,” he moved closer to me and ran the tip of the gun up and down the front of my shirt. “You really should have thought about that before.” He looked down my shirt and smirked. “Although…”
I closed my eyes and prayed like hell for a way out.
“Maybe before you go you can make good on that favor you owe me, huh?” He slipped one of his fingers inside of my shirt and sent a chill up and down my flesh. “I’ll show you things you never knew existed, Bella.”
Tears started to well up in my eyes, just like the first night I had been in town. Only this time Asher wasn’t here to save me, I was completely and totally on my own. I had told myself if something like that ever happened to me again I would be ready for it this time, I would know how to deal with it this time… I would know how to fight back harder this time. But now that it was actually happening I realized just how silly and naive those thoughts had been… you could never be ready for a situation like this because situations like this should never be happening. Not to me and not to anyone else.
“Josh…” I tried to steady my voice but it shook with fear anyway.
Josh smiled, liking the effect he was having on me. “What’s wrong, Bella?” He reached to the left of my shirt and grabbed my boob hard with his hand. “You aren’t scared, are you?”
I smacked his hand away off impulse. “Please don’t…”
His eyes grew deeper with satisfaction and then he grabbed me by the neck and pushed me so hard against the car that I felt like my throat was about to snap off of my body. “What? Asher didn’t show you what it’s like to take it deep, huh?” He leaned in closer and pressed his crotch against me. “I’m going to have to show you what a real man is packing, aren’t I?”
I felt like I couldn’t breathe… like if I had to look inside of his crazy eyes one more time I might never close my eyes and never wake up again. His hands were all over me, rubbing the parts of myself that I had reserved for no one but Asher but I felt frozen, paralyzed in place and unable to stop him.
His grin grew wider when I finally started to squirm and it wasn’t until I felt him shoving his hand between my legs that I realized what would happen if I didn’t find some way to fight, so I did the first thing that popped into my mind. I brought my knee back and kicked him in the balls as hard as I could.
Josh leaped away from me, protecting himself as he howled out in pain. “You stupid bitch!” His face had turned in a million different directions, eyes closed in torture at the sensation of his most private parts being violated.
Good, now he knew the feeling.
I took the tiny amount of time it gave me and made a run for it to the front of the garage but I didn’t even make it two feet before he was latching onto my hair and pulling me backward against his chest. He wrapped his hands around my neck and latched his teeth onto my ear, biting and sucking on it.
I tried to pry his hands off me but he overpowered me.
“I was going to just fuck you but now I’m going to tear you apart.” He pushed me forward and then grabbed me by the ankles, pushing my body down onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.
I yelped loudly as the pain absorbed into my body.
“Oh, come on,” he laughed. “Don’t cry already, way to take all of the fun out of it for me.” Then his hands were all over me again. “That’s it, I like it when you fight, Bella.”
“Get off me!” I was screaming now, panic mode completely taking over.
Josh reached down and started fumbling with his pants. “Come on, you know you want it.” He undid his belt and tore it out of the loops, tossing it across the hard floor.
“No! No!”
“Yes! Yes!” He reached down and ran his finger over my lips. “Those lips, baby, damn. I bet you can suck a good cock, can’t you?” He ran his tongue over his lips as the vision played out in his mind.
I opened my mouth and screamed as loud as I could, desperate while I latched onto the nonexistent chance that someone might hear me. I didn’t even realize how hard I was crying until I could feel the water soaking into my clothes and my vision growing more and more blurry.
And then, just as fast as it had happened before, Asher was there.
And josh was getting pulled off me and thrown across the room.
Asher looked down at me, pain and worry written across his features with a hint of absolute rage that told me he wanted to rip Josh’s head off. He looked me up and down slowly and once he met my eyes asked me silently if I was okay.
I nodded slowly.
I wasn’t really but I didn’t want Asher to get caught up in me when Josh was still crazy and carrying a gun around. Asher held my gaze for another second and then he turned around and took off across the room to where Josh was slowly getting back on his feet, confusion consuming him.
“Asher,” I whispered. “Be careful, he has a gun.”
Asher tensed just a fraction, something that would be missed by the naked eye but that I noticed right away. He didn’t let it stop him from moving closer to him though, slow and steady like a lion that was about to pounce. “Don’t… ever touch her again.”
The sound of Asher’s cold voice sent a chill up my spine.
Josh sighed like this whole charade was growing old to him. “Well, well, if it isn’t Asher Dawson to the rescue! What a shock, I never saw that one coming.” He laughed evilly at his own joke. “But if I’m being honest, I’m actually happy you’re here.” He pulled the gun further into Asher’s vision and started waving it up and down in the air. “I mean why kill one of you when I could kill two of you?”
Asher wasn’t stupid, he didn’t waste any time trying to reason with Josh the way I did. Instead, he glanced back at me and gave me one last deep look and then he charged toward him, yanking his body to the ground.
“Asher!” I screamed out after him in panic. “No! Don’t!”
What was he doing? He was crazy! Between man and gun, a gun would win every fucking time. I leaped up off the ground, wanting to help but he was on top of Josh and they were struggling on the cold concrete, going back and forth rapidly. I couldn’t see the gun and I feared if I got too close and tried to help Asher it would cause it to discharge.
It didn’t matter, though, because a second later the sound of a shot filled the garage and a slow stream of blood started to drip out between the two of them and land in a pool on the floor.
“Asher?” I gasped, terrified of not hearing an answer. “ASHER!”
Asher turned his head, his eyes wide and slowly rolled his body off of Josh’s. He was covered in blood, making it impossible for me to tell if the wound was from coming from him or had just transferred over from Josh’s body.
“Asher!” I gasped, rushing toward him.
He shook his head. “It’s okay, I’m not hit, I’m not hit.”
His words sank into my bones and I collapsed with relief onto the floor, full on sobbing now. I could feel my body shaking uncontrollably, shock taking over before I felt Asher’s arms around me a few seconds later, pulling me toward his chest and holding on to me for dear life.
“It’s okay,” he whispered over and over again into my hair. “It’s okay now, I’m here now, I’m here now.” He ran his lips and hands through my hair and reassured me over and over again until I stopped shaking.
And then we called the cops and told them we had just killed someone.