by Riley Storm
Wasn’t it?
Asher drank, the first beer disappearing quickly. By the time it was gone, he still didn’t have an answer.
Nor could he explain the spike of anger he’d felt upon seeing the two men, knowing they had put Emma in danger.
He finished the second beer, still remembering the way his heart had thundered in his chest when he’d thought Emma was in trouble in the vault.
What does it all mean?
Asher was going to need more beer.
Chapter Thirteen
Emma
Her eyes flickered as she blinked rapidly.
Reaching over, she hit the button that sent the driver’s window down. Fresh air billowed into her car, swirling around, tugging at her hair, causing her eyes to narrow slightly against its bite. It was the middle of summer, but the higher she got up into the mountains, the cooler the air became, especially while she was driving.
“Why are you doing this, Emma? This is crazy, you know that, right?”
She didn’t normally talk to herself, but the closer she got to her destination, the flimsier the reasoning she’d given herself that morning seemed to get. It had seemed rock solid when she’d called into work, begging off the day, saying she was sick. The boss hadn’t been impressed, but he’d told her to take the extra day, but that she’d better be in tomorrow.
Emma hadn’t thought quite that far ahead yet. Right now, her only thoughts were on what she was off to do. She reached into the cupholder in the center console, her fingers finding the hard bit of round metal, rolling it between her fingers.
There were so many questions she wanted to ask. Questions that she needed answers to. After being freed from the vault, her only concern had been leaving. The freedom itself. Emma had been so intent on getting as far away from the vault as possible, she’d not thought to stop and question Asher. To find out just what the hell was actually going on.
“Like how the heck you got out of that vault,” she muttered, still irritated at herself for letting him give such a vague answer. The man knew far more about what was going on than he was willing to admit, and it was high time he brought her in on the loop. Emma was no idiot; she could smell a coverup. She just didn’t know what he was hiding.
More than that, though, she just wanted to sleep. To close her eyes and pass out. Yet she’d been unable to upon returning home. Being alone, in the dark, it had set her pulse racing as she’d gripped the covers tighter.
Emma hadn’t been able to sleep, and she blamed Asher. He’d made her afraid of the dark by leaving her alone in the vault, and so now he was going to make it right. Somehow. Even if it meant standing by her while she slept, so that her brain felt safe.
Though she was having a hard time understanding why she would ever feel safe around him. This was all his fault in the first place!
That wasn’t the hardest thing for her to ignore though. Those questions she could write off. Mostly.
But she couldn’t forget the way he had kissed her. It was burned into her memory, seared into her nerves, and deep down, buried beneath layers of denial and confusion, Emma knew she secretly longed to feel it again. Just for a moment. A second more.
It was strange how so quickly her life had begun to revolve around this mystery man. Everything pulling her into orbit around him, despite many of her best efforts to stop it.
Asher. Asher Aterna. That was about all she knew of him. His name. Like everyone else in Five Peaks, Emma was familiar with the name. Mount Aterna was the name of the very mountain she was now climbing, her car taking the winding roads as she went higher and higher toward her destination.
The five families that lived on the mountains were all mysteries to the inhabitants of the town in every way except for their names. Nobody knew a thing about them, because they never seemed to come into town, preferring to live in their homes up in the sky.
Well, Emma was going to change that today. She was going to find out some more about him. Somehow. Hopefully.
She finally came in sight of the house. Though looking at the high stone walls surrounding it, from what she could see, perhaps mansion would be a better name. Compound? Emma didn’t know, it didn’t matter. There was nobody else that it could belong to besides the Aterna family.
Pulling up to the front gate, she sat there and waited, wondering what to do now.
“Go away.”
She jumped as the voice spoke from the ground. Looking out her window, she saw a little box set into the ground next to the driveway.
“Um. Hi,” she said, trying to sound friendly.
“No solicitors. We don’t want it.”
Emma frowned. “Excuse me? Do I look like I’m trying to sell you something?” She glanced around. “Seriously how often do you actually get door to door salesmen up here? I find that hard to believe.”
There was silence from the buzzer.
“I’m looking for Asher. Asher Aterna. Is he here? I’d like to talk to him if so.”
The silence continued. They weren’t going to let her in, she realized. They valued their privacy a little too much that they wouldn’t even let her in when she’d met him. Unless he was lying and he wasn’t actually a member of the family?
Unnoticed to her while she was lost in her thoughts, dreaming up all sorts of wild scenarios where Asher had pretended to be someone he wasn’t, the gate slid open silently.
“Are you here to see Asher or not?” the voice asked impatiently.
Emma looked up to see that not only could she drive into the compound, but two figures were waiting for her outside the house.
“Oh. Um. Thank you!” she yelped at the box and then drove inside, bringing the car to a halt and getting out to face the two men who were giving her long looks.
“You’re here to see Asher?” one of them said without preamble.
Emma nodded, focusing her attention on this one. There was something almost familiar about his rugged looks and the shape of his face.
“Yes,” she answered him slowly, trying to piece together what her brain was telling her about him. “Is he here? I promise I won’t intrude for long. I know you don’t like visitors here, so I don’t want to bother you much. I wouldn’t have at all if he’d answered his cell phone. But I think he might be ignoring me.”
“Who are you?” the man asked. The question was direct and blunt, but his voice was soft. He was curious, not challenging.
“Um, Emma. Emma Starling,” she said, unsure if she should stick out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You’re the one suing us?” the second dragon blurted out.
Emma cursed under her breath, feeling incredibly stupid. Of course, the other members of his family would know about the lawsuit, and her name.
“Um,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “Yes, I guess. So, um, is Asher here?”
She wanted to run back to her car now, to leave.
“No,” the first one said, laying a hand on the other, who looked more irate than anything now. “Go inside, Pace. We’re fine.”
“But Logan,” Pace protested.
Logan fixed him a glare, and the other man left without saying a word.
“Don’t mind him. He’s young. Doesn’t know much about manners,” Logan said with a smile, extending his hand. “Logan Aterna. Nice to meet you. Am I safe to assume you’re the one who sent Asher home covered in lipstick?”
Emma coughed. He knew about her and Asher kissing? If she’d wanted to die from embarrassment before, the feeling was magnified tenfold now.
“I guess so,” she said. “Yeah.”
“Nice to meet you, Emma,” Logan said with a sly smile. Like he knew something that she didn’t. “But no, unfortunately, Asher isn’t here right now.”
“Oh.” Emma felt silly now, for driving all the way up to the mountain, only to find that he wasn’t home. If only he would answer his phone! “Where is he, if I may ask?”
“Said something about going into town for an appointment,” Logan said
with a shrug. “Not sure really. He was a little upset when he got back. Was that your doing too?”
“I don’t think so,” she said, figuring he was asking about the missing treasure. “Do you happen to know where I can find him? I need to talk to him. It’s, um, urgent.”
It wasn’t, in the strictest sense, but Emma couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to see Asher sooner rather than later. It wasn’t doom she felt, but just a pressing need that wouldn’t go away no matter how hard she tried to shake it.
“You want me to invade my brother’s privacy just to tell you where he is?” Logan asked with all sincerity.
His brother! That’s where she saw the resemblance, the thing about his features that had been tickling her brain, but she hadn’t been able to place. This must be one of Asher’s older brothers.
“Um. Would you mind?” she asked, not sure how to answer the question.
“Not one bit!” Logan said happily, pulling out his phone with a big smile. “I’d be more than pleased to help you.”
Yup. Definitely a brother.
He punched a few buttons, then showed her a map of Five Peaks with a red dot. “He’s right there. Or at least, his phone is. Parked behind the dry cleaners and bakers. Know the place?”
“Yeah, definitely,” she said, picturing the street front in her mind. “Thank you so much Logan. I really appreciate that.”
He waved at her with that same cryptic, knowing smile. “It’s nothing. He’s my brother. What is family for, right?”
She chuckled, knowing full well that Logan was doing this to give his brother a hard time, not help him, but that Logan also didn’t care. “Thanks,” she repeated, getting in her car and heading back down the mountain.
Emma was on her way to see Asher now, just like she’d wanted all along. But now she couldn’t get the image of his brother’s knowing smile out of her head.
What did he know that she didn’t?
Chapter Fourteen
Asher
Waiting sucked.
There was no other way to put it, but it did. He wanted the appointed to be there already, but despite all his frustrated wishing, time continued to tick by at the same slow pace it always did.
His impatience was born of a desire to get his treasure back, knowing that every hour that passed meant his chances of retrieving it all were diminished. Humans were notoriously impatient, the irony of which, given his current mood, was not lost on Asher.
Glancing at the dash, he nodded. Any minute now and they should be there. With the names and the phone numbers, Asher had paid a discrete visit to the local police department to talk to the Sheriff. That had confirmed his suspicions that his first point of contact, Mr. Wilson was indeed an element of Five Peaks’ limited criminal organization.
An offer to buy some illegal drugs, and the deal had been set up. Asher knew that his quarry would come with backup, which is why he’d chosen the mostly unused alleyway as the meetup location. The bakery had closed a few months back, and traffic back here was limited. It was perfect, including the lack of windows in nearby buildings.
There would be no witnesses if he was forced to…use force, to get the information he wanted.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to relax, to let some of his simmering anger dissipate. If he wanted to do things the easy way, he was going to have to play it calm, convince Wilson that he was, in fact, on his side, an up and up drug smuggler looking to make a quick buck.
Then he could hopefully get some more information from the man. Information that might lead him to his treasure, and whoever Lars was. That was his real target, the man behind the entire scheme.
With his window down, he heard the car approaching before he saw the gleam of headlights reflecting off the walls up at the alleyway entrance.
“Go time,” he muttered to himself, undoing his seatbelt when he looked up. “Oh shit, what the hell?”
The car coming down the alleyway wasn’t Wilson’s. Not unless he’d been a fool this entire time, and Emma was coordinating the entire thing.
For a brief moment in time, he contemplated this fact, that perhaps he’d been hoodwinked from the very start. Then he thrust the topic out of his mind. It just didn’t feel right, and Asher had long ago learned to listen to his gut on things like that.
“What are you doing here?” he snapped, rushing over to her car, blocking the door before she could get out. “You need to go. Now.”
“Huh? What are you talking about, Asher?” she tried to open her door, but he blocked it. “Let me out.”
“No. You gotta go. Now. Turn around, leave. Please.” He glanced back up the alleyway, knowing it wouldn’t be long at all. “Emma, you have to go.”
How the hell had she found him? He’d been ignoring her on purpose. He would answer her later, once he’d finished dealing with Wilson. That had been the plan at least, a plan that had been blown to hell now that she’d shown up.
“I have questions, Asher. I need to talk to you,” Emma protested, still pulling on her door handle.
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll talk, I’ll answer. But later. Please, you have to go now,” he all but yelped, getting more nervous by the second.
“Asher what’s wrong? What is going on with you? Why are you treating me like this?” Emma asked, sounding hurt.
“Just go,” he pleaded. “I’ll talk to you in a bit. But I need you to turn around and leave now, before it’s too…” he trailed off as another car entered the little open area at the end of the laneway with him and Emma.
Behind it he could see the headlights of another car.
“Late,” he finished unhappily. “Shit.”
Emma glanced over her shoulder, noting the two new arrivals. Then she looked back at Asher. Then around at their location. He knew what she was going to ask before it even left her mouth.
“Asher,” she said slowly. “Why does this reek of something bad. Like some sort of drug deal or something?”
His case wasn’t helped when two men in all black got out of the front car. Asher saw the bulges in their light jackets. Guns. He nearly lost his temper right then and there, lashing out at them with his dragon powers in an attempt to protect Emma.
Only at the last second did he clamp down, stopping his dragon side from doing something they would all regret later. The other half of him raged, wanting to destroy those that would threaten Emma with their weapons, to burn them to cinders, but Asher was, thankfully, in complete control of his more volatile self.
“It’s not what you think it is,” he said, frantically working to come up with some sort of explanation that made sense.
Considering it was exactly what it looked like.
His attention was pulled back up from Emma as he heard another car door opening. The other car then. More goons, he wondered, or has Mr. Wilson come out to play?
An older man, in a powder-blue dress shirt and khaki shorts strolled forward, flanked by a second pair of goons. These ones had sunglasses on as well, as if it made them more menacing or something.
“You are Asher?” he asked, waiting with his goons.
Asher nodded, holding up a hand through the car window, hoping Emma would get the hint to stay quiet. “Yeah,” he said. “I am. Are you Wilson?”
“Who else would I be?” the man snapped in irritation. “Now, are you interested in purchasing, or no?”
Great. Five Peaks’ local crime lord has an ego. Perfect.
“Of course,” Asher growled, returning the anger. “Why would I call you up just to waste my time?”
Wilson seethed in frustration, and the goons shifted restlessly at his side.
“If you have the money, then I have the product,” the man said, snapping at one of his goons, who reached into the first car and pulled out a hard-shell case.
Asher sighed silently. This guy would get eaten alive in the big city, being so trusting. But out here, where there were no real competitors and he was such a small fish, well, apparently that bred a trusting sor
t.
Or he’s got a deal in place with the local law enforcement.
Asher didn’t care about any of that, however. He didn’t care who Wilson was, or what he did. All he wanted was his treasure back, which meant getting to Lars. Nothing else mattered. Nothing.
“You are a criminal!” Emma exclaimed, rolling up her window before he could get another word in. She glared at him from inside, and then put her car into reverse.
Two of the goons stepped forward to block her path. Asher snarled at them as they reached for their guns, waving them down. They stood still, protecting their boss, but much to his relief neither of them pulled out their weapons.
He still had a chance to pull this off.
Inside, his dragon bellowed its anger. It wanted him to tear the men limb from limb. To end each one of them with as much pain as possible, before snapping their necks. How dare they threaten her!
Asher fought the bloodthirsty desires back, still unsure of what was causing them. While he was never one to back down from a fight, he wasn’t usually so prone to wanting to kill people.
Get a hold of yourself, man. Calm it down.
He needed more information first.
Taking a deep breath, and ignoring the questioning looks that Wilson was giving him, he walked up to Emma’s car and tapped on the window.
She crossed her arms and shook her head.
Rubbing his face, he held up a single finger to the others. “One moment.”
Asher knew he needed to solve this and solve it quick.
Chapter Fifteen
Asher
He knocked on her window a little harder this time. It would be simpler to just smash it in, or rip the door off its frame, but that would bring up more questions that he really did not feel like answering.
After his third try, Emma finally lowered it.
“What do you want, criminal?” she spat.