Page 168 of Lau Ahi
“Don’t.”
I slid her to the ground immediately remembering myself but not taking my hands off her. Despite my fuck up being disconnected from her was a physical impossibility. “I’m sorry.”
“An apology from you?”
“I broke the rules, Mistress. How am I to be punished?”
Her face was filled with gratitude at my lack of anger at her reaction. Which only made me feel worse about my actions.
“No punishment. After what you did today…”
I brushed one of her curls from her face, “I failed you and needed to make it right.”
“Ori—”
I put my finger to her lips and shook my head. “No arguments. Are you ready to go to sleep?”
Today had been heavy for her and I still couldn’t grasp the weight of my failure. Someone being in this house and hurting her was enough to send me over the edge. This is what I wanted to avoid with responsibilities but I wouldn’t trade having her in my life for the world. And that realization was what I had to sit with.
With a nod she slid her hands in mine as I pulled my shorts back up my hips. As we walked by the robe she’d removed I picked it up and carried it over my arm. There was no need to put it back on her since I intended for us to sleep skin to skin tonight.
She climbed in the bed, and I tossed her robe on a nearby chair before removing my shorts. The floor to ceiling windows cast a glow from the moon through the sheers and I was too lazy to pull the blackout curtains closed.
“You never answered the question.”
“To what are you referring?” Asha looked up lazily from where she rested on my chest. My fingers danced along her skin the motions soothing me as much as her.
“The first person you ever killed, who was it?”
I was sure I was pushing her further than she wanted to go but there was no turning back. I had to know what led her to being the person she was. I was even willing to open up my own scars so she could see beneath the surface if that’s what it took.
A nearly soundless exhale that I felt on my chest was her response and I didn’t bother to look at her. Somehow I knewmy gaze on her would be more than she could handle right now. Instead, I kept my eyes on the intricately carved ceiling, noting the motifs giving her time to answer.
“He was someone who desperately needed killing.” Her tone was different than before. Softer. This one was the one that had hurt her. The one that made her feel powerless.
“And you just happened to be in the right place at the right time?”
“Something like that.”
She clammed up then and I knew that was as far as I was going to get. I only nodded letting the silence end the conversation. It didn’t bother me since my mind was pingponging from one thought to the next.
Asha Avery truly was a serial killer. One she’d confessed to, another I’d witnessed and another she was still hiding.
But unlike when I’d uttered those words to Xerxes all those months ago, I understood now why she’d done what she had.
I didn’t blame her. Hell, part of me wanted a rundown of the list of people that she’d murdered just so I could ensure she’d done a good job of covering her tracks. There was no way in hell I would let anyone take her away from me after we’d gone through this much together. Like Papa Pope said, I’d become the hell and the high-water toward anyone who threatened my fucking wife.
Half my genetics were people from the sea anyway so it was right up my alley.
There was too much I wanted to ask her. Pain that still lingered that I wanted to rid her of. But I wasn’t a fool. She gave me enough truth to get inside a part of her mind I was sure she never showed anyone. I could tell that whoever this man was that she’d killed was a sore subject. Her mind still being intact after interacting with him was a stunning feat. With the things I’d seen and the evidence I’d gathered during my tenure, I knewthe type of fate that awaited her if she didn’t get away from him when she did.
We lay in bed, her body wrapped around mine sleeping peacefully. I had questions for her and knew they would be answered in time. Asha had given me her burdens to carry and for a woman like her that was a monumental leap of faith. It was only right that I returned the favor when she asked.
CASE WRAP UP
ASHA
“What is it that I’m supposed to do?”
