Bonus Chapter
Lil’ Ash
“Wrench,” Flame said from beside his bike. I took the wrench from the tool box and handed it to him. Flame didn’t look up. He didn’t speak, just kept working on his Harley. We’d worked on mine all morning, now we had moved onto Flame’s as the night came in. Most nights after school and most weekends we did this.
And I fucking loved it.
I loved just being with him. Loved being in his house. Loved eating with him and Madds. Loved sitting with him. I knew he’d never speak to me like AK did, but that was okay. He was Flame. And fuck, he tried harder with me day after day. I saw it.
Maddie’s smiles confirmed it.
“Asher? Flame?” Maddie’s voice called us in from Flame’s garage at the back of his house. “Dinner!” she said and Flame jumped to his feet. He threw the wrench in the tool box and I followed him through to the cabin.
Maddie placed the food on the table and we took a seat. “Did you get all your homework done, Asher?” Maddie asked.
“Yeah.” She smiled. When I looked up, I watched Flame watching Maddie. Whenever she smiled he always stared at her. His face never changed, but his eyes did. He fucking loved her. Anyone could see it.
“How is Zane liking his new school?” she asked just as I swallowed a fork full of food.
“He’s good. Sits with me at lunch and stuff. It’s just classes we don’t share.” AK had asked Zane if he wanted to attend the same private school as me—AK was paying. His aunt agreed and Zane was quickly enrolled. AK claimed it was for a better education, but everyone fucking knew it was to have him closer to him. Our school was close to the compound, small and discreet, never got involved in Hangmen shit. And Zane came back here every night to see his uncle, before AK drove him back to his aunt’s house.
AK couldn’t have been happier. He had Phebe and he had Zane. He was different these days. In a good way. Calmer. Less troubled. Just . . . happy.
“Good,” Maddie said. “Maybe one day Sapphira will get there too. When she has adjusted to the outside world more.”
The minute she said Sapphira’s name my stomach tightened and the room fucking skyrocketed in temperature. Sapphira. Only seen her once at AK’s lodge. Fuck, she was the prettiest bitch I’d ever seen. And she’d smiled at me. A fucking beautiful smile. She only stayed out a couple of hours before going back into the lodge. I never spoke to her. Had never spoken to her. But I still couldn’t get her dark eyes and blond hair from my head. She was there every time I closed my eyes. Hell, she was there every minute I was awake.
“Yeah,” I said and quickly ate the rest of my food. When I was done, I took my smokes from my back pocket. “Going for a smoke,” I said and pushed out of the back door. I lit up my smoke the minute I hit the fresh air. I took a long drag and walked toward the back woods. I crossed the boundary between Flame and AK’s cabins, just walking wherever my feet led me . . .
. . . then I fucking stopped dead in my tracks.
Sapphira.
Sapphira was stood only a few feet from me staring up at the stars. I swallowed, my heart fucking slamming against my ribs. She was dressed in a long black dress with long sleeves. Her hair was hanging down her back and, even just by seeing her from the back, I knew her face looked fucking perfect.
I rocked on my feet, fucking trying to pluck up the courage to speak, when suddenly my foot snapped a twig under my boot. Sapphira spun around in a flash. She jumped, making a small, frightened noise when she saw me stood behind her. I held up my hands, my smoke still burning between my fingers.
“Shit. Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you,” I said and watched her massive brown eyes widen. Her pink lips parted as she caught her breath. Even in the dark I could see her cheeks blaze with red, then her arms wrapped around her waist. She was breathing funny, real fearful. Then she spun on her heal and rushed toward the door of AK’s house.
Before I knew it, my mouth opened and I said, “You ain’t gotta be scared of me.” Sapphira stopped dead in her tracks, but she never turned around. My pulse raced when she stayed in the backyard, unnmoving. “I ain’t gonna hurt you.” She gave no reaction, so I tried something else. “I used to live here, with AK. And Phebe, your mama, for a bit. Now I live next door.”
I watched Sapphira’s head tip slightly to the side as she listened to me speak. I fucking held my breath as her shoulders tensed . . . then she began to turn. Her head stayed down and her eyes never looked up, but I didn’t fucking care. It meant I got to see some of her face again.
I took a step closer, watching her blond hair blow in the breeze. My stomach clenched again. She was so fucking beautiful. “You like living with AK?” I asked, trying to encourage her to speak. I wanted to hear her voice.
Sapphira nodded her head.
I smiled. “He’s the best,” I said.
I tried to think of something else to say. Something to keep her out here longer with me, but I couldn’t. I fucking fell apart around this bitch. Had no idea what the fuck I was doing.
Sapphira turned and started walking toward the door. I saw AK and Phebe through the kitchen window, sat at the table, and knew I was on borrowed time. As much as AK loved me, he was hella protective of Sapphira, like she was his own daughter, one no one fucked with or risk the wrath of his fist. And I was pretty sure he would threaten to cut off my dick if he knew how I felt about her. I knew she’d been put through hell like Madds had been in that cult and through Meister. I knew she was younger than me by two years, was damaged. But I’d thought about her pretty much everyday since the lodge, and I couldn’t fucking stop if I tried.
I had tried.
Nothing worked.
She was always there in my head.
“My name’s Lil’ Ash. Or Ash. I never got to tell you that at the lodge.”
I didn’t think she’d respond. I didn’t think she’d speak. But she looked up at me through her long lashes and, shocking the fuck out of me, whispered, “Ash.” I thought I saw her lip flick up at the side into a tiny smile. I thought I saw her blush.
Then she fucking smashed through any barriers I had left when she lifted her head, meeting my eyes and said softly, “I am Sapphira. . . or Saffy. . . or Saff.”
And I smiled. I smiled and flicked my smoke to the ground. I stepped forward, wondering if she’d run. She didn’t. So I stepped further forward, and forward again until I was stood right before her. She was short and slim and I towered over her. But I liked it. I liked that I could maybe protect her. That maybe she’d feel safe beside me too.
I heard her breathing increase. I saw her body start to shake in nerves. It fucking broke my heart.
Wiping my palm on my jeans, I held out my hand. “Nice to meet you . . . Saff.”
Saff tensed and stared at my offered hand. Just as I was about to lower it again, I watched as she slowly unfolded her arm and, with small shaking fingers, put her hand in mine. Her grip was nothing stronger than a feather, but it was warm. Then sucking in a stuttered breath, she whispered, “Nice to meet you too . . . Ash.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than she pulled back, lowered her head and scurried back into the cabin. But I didn’t move. I stayed rooted on the spot, trying to fucking breathe, trying to fucking do anything but follow after her, speak to her again . . . until AK came walking out of the door. “Ash? You here for me, kid? You good?”
“I’m good, AK,” I said, still feeling Saff’s warm, shaking hand in mine. Still seeing that blush on her cheeks and flicker of a smile on her lips. Letting a smile pull on my face, and a fucking warm feeling fill my veins, I said, “I’m real fucking good.”