Getting Over the Bully-Sh*t: Chosen Book 22

by J. D. Light

  I nodded, frowning. "He won't give us any information yet, but we have someone coming in who is actually really good at interrogating, so we're pretty sure we'll have more information when he gets here."

  "Like how?" Kendrick asked, drawing my attention, and I almost smiled at the genuinely curious question, knowing he didn't realize that I was basically talking about torturing the man, because Kendrick was hilariously innocent when it came to most of that stuff.

  I reached out, patting my friend on the arm. "You don't want to know."

  "Did you say Tabitha?" Warren asked, turning his body slightly to face me.

  "Yeah, you remember her?"

  "Yeah," he said, pushing his plate away. "She was chained to me for a couple days, but they moved her, because she kept trying to give me some of her food.”

  The mention of him not getting to eat again made my gorilla so mad, I could actually feel the shift move over my face slightly, and Warren's eyes widened. "Which one?"

  It took a moment for him to register I was talking to him as he watched my face with a fascination that calmed me slightly.

  He shook his head, blinking. "All of them. It wasn't until the crazy alpha started coming around that they fed me. He was a fucking nut bag, but he wasn't cruel to us. They saw us as cattle. He seemed to think of us as something to be cherished."

  "Uncle Vance used to be one of the best men I knew," Turner said sadly. "Unfortunately, he cracked under the pressure."

  I'd heard all the stuff that Turner had gone through with his uncle leading up to the arrest, and I hated that he'd had to deal with something like that, especially given how respected the man had been before it all went down.

  "So, you think someone else picked Tabitha up for the same reason we were picked up in the first place?" he asked, frowning. "For our mark?"

  "Yeah." I met his eyes, wishing I had better news to tell him, but the truth was, I didn’t think the danger was over for him, or any of the other chosen that were there that night and not already mated. "And I think it was someone with access to the list and the hotel they put you guys up in that first night, because as far as I can tell, nobody has heard from her since."

  "Right there where we all were," he whispered, his eyes going wide. "That night. It could have been any of us. I never even checked on her. I never even thought to check on any of them. She's been gone this whole time."

  He scooted from the table quickly, his face looking almost panicked. He didn't say a word as he turned and dashed out the back door.

  "Warren!" I took off after him, but not to overtake him.

  I didn't want to scare him, because I honestly didn't know where his mind was at in that moment, but I knew that I needed to be there, just in case he needed me.

  I could hear Turner calling Kendrick off, telling him that I needed to be the one to talk to him, or Warren was never going to learn to trust me, and he was right. I needed to be there for my mate and help him as much as I could, so he could learn to trust me again. Like he had all those years ago.

  When he made it to the edge of the yard, he stopped, reaching up to drop his face in his hands. He looked completely devastated and I wanted so bad just to make it all better.

  "I'm sorry, Warren," I said, coming up behind him slowly, knowing I needed to be careful. "I shouldn't have told you all that. Sometimes I forget to sugarcoat things."

  "Stop," he said, his voice stern, but quiet. "I'm a fucking grown-up, Asher. I don't want to be babied." He spun, nailing me to the spot with his green eyes as he shook his head. "I'm just so pissed at myself. I should have thought about them. I should have… called someone."

  "It wouldn't have changed anything." I stepped closer, closing the distance to less than three feet, wishing he would let me take him in my arms, but knowing better than to even ask. "They didn't even know she was actually missing until the other day when I called and told them her parents hadn't heard from her."

  I shook my head. "You guys were free to leave after they questioned you. There were several of you that left that night. There is absolutely no way you could have known anything about it."

  And I hated that. I knew the FBI had a job to do, and I completely respected it, but someone should have been checking on all the victims’ mental states, and that wasn't Warren's job.

  "I think I just want to go home," he whispered, looking up at the sky, his face a mask of misery as he struggled not to cry.

  "Do you mind if I walk you?" I asked, stepping a bit closer as he brought his head down, so that he was looking at me again.

  He nodded, and we started walking. The silence wasn't uncomfortable. I could almost imagine we were on a date and I was walking him to his door. The goodnight kiss would be nice, but I wasn't stupid. I'd seen the outline through his T-shirt of his gun sitting benignly in its holster when he got up to go to the restroom earlier. I wasn't completely confident he wouldn't use that thing on me.

  "Should I be worried, Asher?" he asked quietly, for the first time showing even an ounce of emotion.

  He'd been so dry or cold about the whole situation, like he was completely unaffected, but Kendrick had made it very clear that he'd been struggling with everything that had happened to him, and given the way he seemed to crave control of his surroundings, I was beginning to worry that he was trying to shut down completely.

  No emotions meant ultimate control of how you felt.

  Or it could also mean giving up.

  There was a brief moment where I considered telling him everything would be okay, but I didn't want to lie to him, and in truth, I wasn't sure what was going to happen.

  "A little, yes," I said finally. "I know this doesn't probably make you feel better, because it's me, but I'm gonna be here the whole time. I'll do everything I can to make sure nothing happens to you."

  We stopped at the end of his porch and I was surprised when he actually turned to faced me, looking directly into my eyes. "Thanks for being honest with me. Turner tells me the truth, but if it was up to Kendrick, he'd probably lie his ass off."

  I smirked. "And he'd do it horribly, so you'd have your answer anyway."

  He gave a small snort of laughter, shaking his head. "True."

  My chest swelled, and I once again tried to contain my excitement. I'd made my mate laugh. That had to be a step in the right direction, right?

  Stepping back, I gave him a quick nod and a small, dorky wave that he raised an eyebrow at, looking slightly amused. "Goodnight, War."

  "Goodnight, Asher," he said quietly, before turning and walking up the steps and into his house.

  I only felt marginally shameful for watching his ass the entire way. He was my mate, and it was honestly to be expected even. He might have lost some weight from the pictures I'd drooled over on Facebook, but he was by no means skin and bone, and he had a beautiful ass.

  I didn't move away from the steps until the locks on the door all clicked into place. And it might have been wishful thinking, but I could have sworn I felt his stare on me as I headed back to Turner and Kendrick's.

  Chapter Three

  I couldn't stop looking at it, running my finger over the little face again and again. The implications blowing my mind a little.

  The wooden figurine of a gorilla that I had no doubt was the handiwork of Enid Daniels, one of the men who'd been trapped in that bunker with me, had been sitting on the wooden porch rail that morning when I walked outside.

  I'd almost overlooked it at first, but as soon as I was able to make out just what it was I was looking at, my stomach had flipped completely and I'd nearly dropped my coffee.

  It took me back to a time that I sometimes forgot had a few good memories to go with the bad. To a school hallway where I'd open my locker on occasions and come face to face with a gorilla replica of some sort, and smile, because even at sixteen gorillas were my favorite animal at the zoo when my mother would drag us there for our annual zoo trip. And, because I was hopeful.

  I'd always hoped it was Ashe
r. As unlikely as I'd known that probably was back then, I'd always hoped Asher was leaving me gifts in my locker. Even then I didn't actually believe it, but it was one of my biggest hopes, before the dog shit fiasco, that someday he'd admit it was him and tell me it was, because he liked me.

  It had been a long time since I'd thought about those little gifts. I still had them in a box in the closet somewhere at my mom's. Even after everything that had happened at that school, I'd kept them, because whoever had given them to me had actually liked me enough to give me something, and was probably one of the only people in that school who were sad to see me leave.

  Was it a coincidence? Had my brother mentioned to Enid that I like gorillas and the man had just made me a figurine, and because he was just as weird about being around people as I was, decided to just leave it on my porch instead of knocking on the door and giving it to me?

  I knew I shouldn't sit there and speculate, play the what ifs over and over inside my head until I drove myself crazy. I should just call Enid and ask him who commissioned it, but I couldn't help feeling nervous about it. If Asher really had been the person leaving those gifts for me so long ago, why would he write me a note, shove me down and have his friends pour shit on me. That just didn't seem like the same person at all who would give me a nonsensical cute gift just for the fun of it.

  Sighing, I put the figurine down on the kitchen table and walked over to the window, needing to distance myself from the strong implications of what that fucking gorilla might mean, but that, of course, put me face to face with a swing… purchased just for me.

  It had been weird the day before and it was still weird. I could understand Asher wanting to make nice with his friend and partner's brother, but remembering stuff he somehow learned about me from six or seven years before seemed a bit more personal than, please don't hate me for your brother.

  Had Ellory told him all of those things? We'd been pretty close, and I was sure I would have told her most of that stuff. That had to be it, right? But, what about the gorilla?

  Something just didn't add up about the whole thing. There was definitely something I was missing.

  Something moved toward the back of the yard and my eyes automatically tracked in that direction.

  Nothing. Stillness. Except the lone branch that was swaying just a bit too fast to have been sent moving by wind like the other branches that were swaying. I could feel the weight of my gun on my lower back, and I felt a slight sense of security from it.

  Shooting that man a few days ago had been horrible and terrifying, and up until that moment, when I realized it was the same guy who'd been following me around, I hadn't been sure I'd even have the ability to pull the trigger if it came down to it. Taking a life, was just so final. There was no coming back from that. I'd gone to gun safety courses and spent hours and hours at the shooting range, but I'd still been pretty sure I'd freeze up somehow, or forget something.

  I had surprised myself when I'd squeezed the trigger that first time. I hadn't even realized I'd pulled my gun out until the thing was recoiling in my hand. It had almost been second nature, which was what I'd been hoping for when I started going. The second one hadn't been as automatic, but it had been even more of a scared for my life response.

  Watching a man basically Terminator the bullet, had been just as terrifying as I'd been in the first movie when the metal skeleton had just kept coming. The guy on my porch had basically just stepped back a couple of steps from the impact of the bullet, looked down at his ruined shirt and frowned.

  I would have unloaded that gun on him if he hadn't stumbled back that second time and actually tripped at the top of the stairs, falling and hitting his head on the railing of the steps. Thankfully, shifters got knocked out too.

  I watched the bushes around the edge of the main yard, my body still and my breathing slow and quiet. It might have been a dog. There was a real possibility that it was, but I was on high alert lately and I couldn't seem to stop. The tree line had gone back to everything swaying gently and in sync in the wind, which how I managed to see the eyes looking back at me… from the head of a wolf.

  I gasped and froze, my body going hot, then cold, and my skin crawling with awareness. The wolf continued to watch me, and I stepped back from the window, preparing to run. He eased lower, his attention clearly on me through the glass and recognizing that his prey was about to flee. As soon as he sprang forward, I yelled and took off for my phone that I'd left on the coffee table in the living room. The doors were locked, but that wouldn't keep a shifter out for long.

  I swiped the phone on the way to my room and immediately dialed Turner, slamming my bedroom door when I was on the other side of it, and leaning against the wood while I looked around the room for somewhere to hide that would possibly give me a good enough vantage point to unload my magazine on him.

  I yelled out again when there was a loud thud against the front door, and I sent up a prayer of thanks that the reinforced locks Turner and I had installed when I first moved in, held as I grabbed the tiny bag Grayson had given me off the dresser and slid easily into my closet as far toward the back as I could go. Hiding behind clothes, I immediately started rubbing the pouch full of delphinium all over myself, even though it was supposed to work on everything within several feet.

  I could suddenly hear Turner yelling into the phone, and I blinked in surprise looking down to find that our call had been connected for several seconds. I opened my mouth to tell Turner what was going on, and nearly screamed when the screen went dark, letting me know I'd forgotten to charge my phone again and I'd just watched it die.

  Please let Turner realize something is wrong!

  There was a loud yelp outside followed by a few moments of growling and I pulled my gun out from behind me, pointing the barrel at the door to my closet.

  I heard the front door open easily, and I frowned, wondering if whoever it was had been watching the house long enough to know that Turner kept an extra key in the plant outside the door.

  I heard a deep grunt in the hallway outside my room and I tried not to make a sound, breathing as slowly as possible so as not to draw attention to the heavy sawing sound of my breath going in and out of my closing throat.

  I wanted to close my eyes and not be there like I did when I was little and someone forgot to leave the hall light on for me, so the shadows in the corner looked like they were creeping across the ceiling ready to fall on me. But I knew if I closed my eyes, I wouldn't be able to see when someone opened my closet door… or aim at them.

  "Warren?" I heard my brother say, just before he snapped, "Why the hell are you naked, Turner?"

  I gasped, so damn glad to hear my brother's voice. I clicked the gun back on safety, because I was a responsible gun owner and quickly climbed to my knees so I could put it back in its holster.

  "I had to shift to use the extra key, or King Kong would have broken my door down," Turner snapped back, just as the closet door opened while I was scrambling to my feet.

  I should have been shocked by the sight of the giant silverback gorilla that was standing there, shoulders too wide for the door jamb, but instead I flew at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his abdomen.

  He grunted at the impact, but caught me like it was nothing as I pressed my face to the fur at his shoulder, my entire body a shivering mess.

  The oddest part was that the whole time I knew it was Asher. I knew he was the gorilla holding me, but I didn't care. At that moment, those were the arms I knew I'd feel the safest in, and though I didn't understand it, considering just the day before, I would have never even thought someone would get me in the same room with the man, but something was telling me that was where I needed to be, and it felt right.

  I felt him shift beneath me, his girth receding and the fur disappearing to leave smooth skin beneath my cheek, but I didn't even think about letting go as he asked my brother to get him some pants and moved over to sit on the edge of my bed with me still wrapped ar
ound him.

  "Okay, I'm going to be completely honest with you, right now, right?" He asked softly, and I nodded, hoping he didn't tell me he wanted me to get up, because I really wasn't sure that was even a possibility. "So, you're definitely in my lap, right now."

  I snorted, not really able to form an actual response, but I thought all the words that sounded a lot like duh and no shit.

  "Right. What I mean is… uh." He paused, swallowing. "With you and I having the type of relationship we do right now, you might… hmm. This is hard to explain."

  "Do you want me to get off?" He had one arm wrapped securely around my back while the other rubbed soothing circles, so it seemed like he was okay with me on his lap, but something was making him uncomfortable enough to stumble over his words.

  He gave a small laugh, shaking his head. "Ah shit. My brain is not in a wholesome place right now," he said, squeezing me just a bit tighter.

  "This is actually painful to watch," Turner said dryly, and I lifted my head slightly to watch him drop a pair of sweats on the bed behind Asher, wondering what he knew that I didn't.

  "Thanks," Asher grumbled, reaching back and snagging them.

  I was thankful when he didn't try to make me get up just then, instead he pulled the sweats next to him on the bed and resumed rubbing slow circles on my back.

  "Did you have anything to do with the gorilla on my porch this morning?" I asked after a few minutes of peaceful silence.

  If someone had told me the day before that I would be straddling Asher's lap and hanging on to him like he was my lifeline, I would have thought they were nuts, but there I was wrapped around him like a damn baby gorilla.

  And becoming increasingly aware that our chests were pressed together and that if I shifted my hips slightly, our dicks would be too.

  Oh shit. Don't think about it. You cannot get turned on sitting in Asher Douglas's lap.

  His hand froze on my back for a moment which was probably good considering it was doing nothing for my suddenly interested dick, except making the situation worse… and then he sighed and went right back to rubbing. "I did."