Chapter 120: Asher
I find her in the last place 1 check–tucked into a side room off the main hall it almost missed. The door’s half–closed, and I nudge it open with my shoe
There’s a couch. A pool table. Shelves fall of books lining the back wall. And her.
Shems at the sound of the dom, startled, and straightens up from where she was standing near the bookshelves. Her hands fidget at the hem of ber wweater, and her eyes–wide, glassy–meet mine for just a beat before the links away.
Shit
“Tenm
1 step in fully, shutting the door behind me. “What’s wrong?”
She opens her mouth but doesn’t speak. Just shakes her head.
“Is it your head?” I’m already crossing the room, eyes scanning her. “Are you dizzy? Did it come back? You need to lie down
“No,” she interrupts quickly, hand lifted like she needs to push the panic out of the air. “No, Asher. It’s not that.”
I slow, but I don’t back away. “Them what is it?
She swallows hard, then looks up at me, something unreadable behind her lashes. “That movie…
is your work like that?”
Ieshale through my nose. “Kind of,” I say “Snipers do recon Distance stuff. I’m more on the ground. Door kicking. Extraction. But yeah. Same world.”
She shakes her head slowly, like she’s trying to clear a thought. Or maybe stop one from taking over. Her bottom lip quivers.
1 step closer and take her chin between my fingers, forcing her to look at me. “Why do you ask?”
She blinks, and one tear slips out, trailing down her cheek.
“You must’ve been so scared,” she whispers, her voice breaking on the last word.
Fork
I don’t know what
hat hits me harder–that she’s crying, or that she’s crying for me.
“Most people don’t ask. They don’t want to know. Not really. They want stories, Cool details. The part where the villain des and the hero limps home.
But this girl? She’s worried I was scared.
“Hry” I wipe her tear with my thumb. “Hey, it’s okay/Don’t think about that stuff.”
“But it happened, right?” she says, voice fragile. “Not like the movie but close enough. People trying to kill you. Friends dying “
I guide her gently toward the couch. “Penny, don’t think about it. Sit down.”
She does.
It drop onto the cushion beside her, elbows on my knees, exhaling slow.
She tugs her sleeves over her hands and glances sideways. “Why’d you come looking for me?”
Chapter 120: Asher
“You didn’t come back,” I say “And any racuse’s a good one in get away from the parade of future failed Influencers in the ther
She chuckles softly. “How are we gonna last a whole werk?”
“Carefully,” Imutter. “Maybe by faking injuries. We could say you re–concussed younell”
She leans bark with a laugh. “Mister Hayes: That’s the second time you’ve cracked a joke anoood me
And fuck.
She can’t say things like that, Not in that voice. Not with her cheeks still pink and her legs ruled under her and her hair falling like silk across her shoulder.
I look away, jas tight. Silence well between us.
Then she says, “Pick a color.”
frown. “What the hell are you going to do?”
She giggles. “Just pick.”
…Blue.
“Okay, now a number between one and three hundred.”
I give her a look. “Why do I feel like this is a trap?”
“Because it might be,” she teases.
She nods like I passed some test and stands, walking to the bookshell. I can’t help it- watch her. The way she tilts her head. The way her fingers dance along the spines like she’s searching for something familiar.
After a minute, the says, “Hey, come help me.”
I stand and cross over.
“I need that one,” she says, pointing toward the top shelf. “The only blue one.”
С
I put my hands around her waist and lift her–like she weighs nothing. Which she almost doesn’t. Her hands brace the shelf and she grabs the book.
When I lower her down, her hair brushes my cheek. My hands linger for a second longer than they should.
“So what kind of sick game is this?” Task.
ugs. “You open the book to the page number you said, and whatever the first sentence is describes your future.”
She shrugs
I raise a chio,
She opens the book, flips to page seventy–nine, and reads the first line aloud:
“It wasn’t the fire that ruined me. It was that I waited for someone to pull me from the flames, instead of walking out myself”
We both go quiet
scan it again, like maybe she’s trying to make sense of it. Or maybe she already has.
25
Chapter 120: Asher
I clear my throat. “Your turn
She looks at me, curious. “What?”
“Pick a color ”
She blinks. “Oh. Um… brown
I find a deep brown leather bound book near the bottom. “And your number?”
She thinks for a second. “One hundred and twelve.”
1 lip through the pages, find it, and read:
“The hen laid two eggs and forgot which one was hers, so she sat on a pinecone.”
Penny blinks. Then she bursts out laughing–head thrown back, eyes shining, actual tears.
I can’t stop the grin that pulls at my lips.
She wipes her eyes. “That’s… that tells me absolutely nothing, but i take it.”
I rock the book under my arm and say, “You’re ridiculous.”
She nudges my side. “You love it.”
I don’t say anything.
But God help me,
she’s not wrong.
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