Chapter 240: Penny
I don’t know how I’m breathing.
Maybe I’m not. Maybe it’s just muscle memory, like dancing through a routine I’ve done a thousand times. Step, turn, leap–inhale, exhale, pretend like nothing hurts.
But everything hurts.
Boomer pulls into Asher’s driveway, engine ticking softly after he shuts it off. He turns toward me slowly, eyes heavy with something I don’t want to name- something too gentle, too understanding.
“You ready?” he asks.
I nod, even though I’m not. Even though every nerve in my body feels like it’s caught fire.
The walk to the door is slow. I’m hyperaware of my heartbeat, of how my fingers twitch at my sides like they want something to hold on to. Boomer doesn’t speak, doesn’t push, just walks beside me like the shield he’s been all week.
He knocks once.
The door opens faster than it should’ve.
And there he is.
Asher.
My breath catches so hard it hurts.
He looks… different. Not in the obvious way–he’s still massive, still that same impossible blend of danger and beauty–but there’s something cracked open in his face. In his eyes. In the way his hand tightens on the edge of the door like he’s holding onto it to stay grounded.
“Hey,” Boomer says lightly, a neutral offer of peace.
“Thanks for bringing her,” Asher replies, his voice low and rough. His eyes never leave mine. “I’ve got it from here.”
Boomer hesitates.
I glance at him and nod. “It’s okay.”
He studies me for a second longer, then steps back with a short breath. “I’ll be around if you need anything.”
I manage a weak smile. “Thanks.”
And then he’s gone.
I don’t know what I expected when Asher opened the door.
Not the way his eyes lock on mine like he’s afraid I’ll vanish.
Not the tension in his jaw, the bruised, exhausted shadow under his eyes.
And definitely not the silence that settles like a fog the moment Boomer steps away and leaves us alone.
We don’t move at first. Not toward each other, not away.
Just breathing in the same space for the first time in days that felt like years.
He steps back and lets me in. The air inside his place is warm, filled with the clean, grounding smell of pinewood and soap. Something about it stings
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Chapter 240; Penny
behind my eyes.
He doesn’t sit. I don’t, either.
He just looks at me, and then
“I should’ve told you everything that night,” he says quietly, voice raw and steady. “I realized it about two seconds after you walked out the disor with Boenter.”
My heart clenches.
Asher runs a hand over his mouth, then through his hair, like the memory physically hurts. “But I was in fight mode. Fix mode. You were hurting, terrified, and all I could think was that I needed you safe. That was the only thing that mattered,”
I don’t say anything yet. I let him speak.
“I’m not in a gang, Penny,” he says, eyes sharp and clear. “I’ve never been. The Vultures… that was never my life. Never my choice. I didn’t grow up in that world. I didn’t want anything to do with it. But someone I cared about got dragged in.”
He pauses, breath stuttering.
“I was twenty. Just a kid in the Navy, home for a few weeks before a deployment. My best friend, Caf, got caught up with the wrong people. Gambling, debt, bad decisions. He owed the Vultures more money than he could ever pay.”
He steps toward me slowly, hands shoved in his pockets to keep them steady.
“They beat the hell out of him. Sent a message, like they always do. He called me from the floor of some alley, bleeding, broken. He didn’t know who else to call.”
My breath catches. My chest aches.
“And then they sent him a photo,” he says, voice tight and shaking now. “His little sister. Nine years old. Playing soccer. Pink cleats, blonde ponytail. That’s when I realized what kind of monsters we were dealing with.”
He finally looks at me, eyes hollow with memory.
“I didn’t know what else to do. So I went to them. I offered to pay off Cal’s debt, in full. I’d just gotten a re–up bonus from the Navy. It was supposed to go toward a new truck.”
He huffs a humorless breath.
“I didn’t tell anyone. Not my superiors. Not my family. Not Tyler, who was still living out of state. I made the deal in a dirty office behind a warehouse. Told them they’d never see Cal or his sister again. They took the money and agreed. Or so I thought.”
I move closer, heart pounding.
“Two months later, I was deployed. I didn’t come back for three years.” His jaw clenches. “I thought they’d moved on. Forgotten about us. But the second I saw their faces again at the bar, I knew they hadn’t.”
He rubs his chest absently, like the memory burns there.
“They remembered. They knew who I was. And they saw you.”
My mouth opens, but nothing comes out.
“I panicked, Penny. Not because I was guilty involved. Because I wasn’t. I just knew what they were capable of. I saw what they threatened Cal with, and 1
couldn’t risk that happening to you.”
His voice softens.
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Chapter 240, Penny
“So I made a choice, Get you as far away from them as possible. Keep you out of the fire while I dealt with the Alone
The wright of it all kinks into my bones. The young Asher, just twenty, marching into the lion’s den to save someone who didn’s love herë të sh The scars he’s hidden under discipline and silence.
And still, all I can think is
“You should’ve told me.”
“I should’ve told you everything that night,” he says quietly, voice raw and steady. “I realized it about two seconds after you walked out the doar with Boomer.”
I swallow hard.
He drags a hand down his face. “But I panicked. I knew what those men were capable of. I’d seen it. And I couldn’t… I couldn’t risk it. Not with you.
My heart twists painfully.
His jaw tightens. “I didn’t think. I didn’t plan. All I knew was that I needed you out of danger, even if it meant you’d hate me.”
“I could never hate you,” I whisper before I can stop myself.
He flinches like I hit him..
And then–for the first time in all the time I’ve known Asher–he looks unsure. Anxious. Like he’s standing on the edge of something and doesn’t know how to jump.
“I didn’t want to lie to you,” he says. “I wanted to tell you. All of it. But you were shaken. You couldn’t breathe. And if you knew they targeted kids, women
– His throat works. “You’d try to help somehow. You’d put yourself in danger for someone else. You always do.”
I close my eyes, because he’s right.
And I hate that he’s right.
He’s not looking at me anymore. He’s staring at the floor like the memory alone could break him.
“That night at the bar… I saw the way one of them looked at you. That was the first moment I knew they remembered. And that they were coming.”
I take a shaky step forward. “Asher…”
“I know you don’t like being lied to,” he says quietly. “I know it probably brought back all that pain from Tyler. I get it. I do. But I swear to you, I only kept you in the dark because I was terrified.”
“You’re not the type of man who gets terrified.”
He looks up at that. And his voice is nothing more than a whisper when he says, “Only when it comes to you.”
Silence stretches between us. Sharp and heavy and fragile.
And in the middle of it, my heart aches for him.
For the boy he was at twenty, standing between monsters and innocence.
For the man in front of me now, breaking apart just to keep me whole.
I wanted to forgive you the moment I left,” say. “But I didn’t want to teach myself that it’s okay when the people I love hide things from me.”
His face crumples, just a little. Not weakness. Just… pain.
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Chapter 240 Penny
I reach for him before I think it through: Before logic can catch up to met
He catches my hand in his, brings it to his chest, presses it over his heart like it’s the only thing keeping him Breathing
*I’m sorry, Penny,” he says, his voice rough. “I’m so goddamn sorry.”
My throat is tight. “I know.”
And then he does something I’ve never seen him do.
He closes his eyes and leans forward until our foreheads touch.
His breath ghosts over my cheek, and I feel his hands tremble as they settle on my waist. His chest is rising and falling too fast, too hard. Like he’s holding back something massive.
“I missed you,” he whispers.
My fingers curl into his shirt. “I missed you, too.”
And then we’re kissing.
It’s not soft. It’s not tentative. It’s a crash of everything we’ve felt, everything we lost, everything we almost didn’t come back from.
His lips claim mine like they’ve waited years.
His hands tighten at my waist, dragging me closer until I’m flush against him. My fingers tangle in his hair, desperate, aching. The kiss deepens–hot and intense, his tongue sweeping into my mouth like he needs to taste me, remember me, make me his again.
I gasp against him, and he groans like the sound shreds him.
His hands move, sliding up my back, over my spine, gripping like he doesn’t want to let go. And I don’t want him to.
His kiss is fire. Possession. Apology and promise and desperation all at once.
And just like that–I fall into him.
Again.
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