Chester 124
Chapter 124
Asher
The air in the room was thick, weighed down by the chilling stence. 1 ext on the edge of the couch, my elbows resting on my knees, my head buried in my hants. My thoughts were still all over the place I couldn’t think straight.
let out a slow breath, but it did nothing to race the tightness in my chest. My fingers curled into my hair, gripping it as if I could pull myself out of the drowning thoughts in my head, I raked my fingers through the thick mess of hair on my head.
hadn’t slept much, not that sleep could ever be an escape. Closing my eyes only made the thoughts louder, I only heard her voice in my head. Wy’s, crying, begging…
dragged a hand down my face, forcing myself to sit up, to shake off the crippling thoughts clinging to me. But they stayed. They always did.
wy was out there. Somewhere. Alone. Terrified. Maybe worse.
And Taylor, she was in charge. She had made that pretty clear. No amount of begging would be enough, nothing would be enough to touch her black heart. She held all the power now.
Even after I agreed to her ultimatum, to go away with her, to leave everything behind to save Ivy, she still didn’t believe me. I hadn’t heard a damn thing from her in days. Nothing but silence, like she was playing some sick game, seeing how far she could push me before I snapped.
Across from me, Janine sat on the armrest, staring off into space, lost in her own thoughts. Luca leaned against the wall, arms crossed. None of us had spoken in a while.
We were stuck. Out of ideas. Waiting for something, anything, to change.
Then my phone started vibrating.
1 jerked upright, my pulse spiking. My phone. Where the hell was my phone?
I shot up from the couch, scanning the coffee table, the floor, the couch cushions. My hands flew to my pockets, empty.
The vibration continued, rattling against something.
“Where is it?” I muttered, frantic now. My head was so scrambled, I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw it.
“Dude, answer it,” Luca said, straightening.
“I’m trying” I snapped.
Janine reached between the couch cushions, then tossed it at me. “Here.”
1 barely caught it, fumbling to see the screen. Marcus.
My stomach twisted in anger. I didn’t hesitate. I hit answer and pressed the phone to my ear.
“Marcus?”
“I know where Ivy is,” he said, his voice steady, clear. Then, after a beat, “So what’s it gonna be?”
My breath caught. “What?”
Janine and Luca rushed to my side. She took my hand in hers, searching my face.
“You heard me.”
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Chapter 124
For a moment, I just stood there, heart hammering in my chest. I’d spent days drowning in uncertainty, losing sleep, feeling helpless, and now, just like that, Marcus had an answer?
I thought he had left me to handle my problems on my own. I had private investigators scouring every corner looking for lvy, and no one had been able to come up with anything, but just like that, he had found her?
“You,” I swallowed hard. “You found her?”
“I said I know where she is,” he corrected. “Now get moving.”
The line went dead.
I lowered the phone, my breath shaky. My pulse was still racing, my body stuck somewhere between relief and disbelief.
Janine and Luca stared at me, waiting.
“Well?” Janine asked, her voice tight with anticipation.
I exhaled sharply. “Marcus knows where Ivy is.”
Janine’s lips parted slightly in surprise; there was a flash of hope and then slight hesitation in her eyes. “How?” her voice was barely audible.
“For real?” Luca asked.
I nodded.
“Then what the hell are we waiting for?” Luca said, already heading toward the door.
Janine stood, but I shook my head. “Stay here.”
Her expression hardened. “What? No. I should go.”
“You shouldn’t.”
She hesitated, her jaw tightening. She wanted to argue. I could see it. But there was no time.
I turned to Luca, who was already halfway out the door.
He patted his jacket pocket, then smirked. “Just so we’re clear, I’m loaded. And I don’t mean in the rich guy way.”
I looked up at him. “Enough for me?”
He chuckled, with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “I brought enough to start a small war.”
Janine looked between the both of us. “This is crazy. The two of you can’t just go charging into a place you don’t know. It could be a trap!” she cried out. “You don’t know how many men she has waiting for you on the other end! They could be armed to the teeth. We have to call-”
I gripped her shoulders to steady her. “Janine! You heard Taylor. She would kill…” I trailed off, unable to say the words out loud. “If she found out people were coming after her.” I sighed. “I don’t know what Marcus found or knows, but this has to be stealth. We have to be as quiet as possible.”
“None of you are trained for-”
“It’s Ivy!” I cut in. That was all the explaining I needed to do. I let out a huge sigh and massaged my temples. “My heart is out there, Janine…”
The look in her eyes told me she understood, but there was something else, a look I had seen one too many times in her eyes. Defiance. I didn’t have the time to try to convince my sister.
From past experiences, convincing Janing to do anything was a harder task than convincing my father that he was a strict man. I squeezed her shoulders and turned around.
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Chapter 124
“Stay put, Janine!” Lues instructed.
kps then and their that she wouldn’t.
Without another word, we headed for the chi
We met Marcus in a dimly lit alley. His SUV was parked between a dumpster and a graffiti–covered brick wall.
The second Luca and I stepped out of the car, he got to work, unloading an arsenal from the trunk and moving it into Marcus’s vehicle, guns, ammo, extra clips.
Marcus raised a brow but didn’t say anything.
Once everything was transferred, we got in. Marcus drove.
The silence stretched, tense but not uncomfortable. I kept glancing at my brother, trying to read him.
Then, out of nowhere, he spoke.
“Asher, you remember how terrible you were at target practice?”
(blinked. “What?”
Marcus’s lips curled slightly, but his eyes stayed on the road. “Target practice. Back when Dad still made us do it. You were awful. Couldn’t hit a damn thing.”
1 huffed a small, humorless laugh. “Yeah. I remember. You were better at everything.” I wondered where he was going with this.
Marcus gave a slow nod. “Is that what you think?”
I frowned.
He shifted his grip on the wheel. “You were better at other things, too.”
I waited, unsure where this was going.
Marcus didn’t glance over, but his voice softened. “You were better at talking to Mom. I could never get through to her the way you did.” He exhaled. “You were better at giving birthday gifts. I always thought money was enough, but you… you always picked something meaningful.”
I swallowed hard.
“You were better at being friends with Janine,” Marcus continued. “Better at consoling her when she was down. I was never good at that.”
I stared at him.
For so long, I had thought Marcus had it all figured out. That he had the perfect life. That he was always ahead, always better, always untouchable. He made everything seem effortless, like he knew exactly what to do in every situation, like nothing could shake him.
I had spent years watching him, comparing myself to him, wondering how he managed to stay so in control while I always felt like I was scrambling to keep up.
But now…
Now I wasn’t so sure.
There was something in his eyes tonight, something raw, something I wasn’t used to seeing. Doubt. Exhaustion. Maybe even vulnerability. It hit me like a punch to the gut. Marcus, my older brother, my anchor, wasn’t as invincible as I had believed.
He had struggles too. Just different ones. Ones he didn’t talk about. Ones he carried alone.
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Chapter 124
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And for the first time, I wondered how heavy that weight had been on him all this time. Had I been blind to it? Too caught up in my own failures, my own chaos, to notice that he wasn’t as untouchable as I’d made him out to be?
Maybe I had never really known him at all.
I turned my head, staring out the window as the city lights blunted past. The weight on my chest didn’t feel as suffocating anymore.
For the first time in days, I took a full breath.
We pulled up outside a run–down building. Three stories. Windows either shattered or boarded up. It looked abandoned, but I knew better.
Marcus killed the engine.
“Alright,” he said. “Here’s the deal, Luca, you take the side entrance. I’ll cover the front. Asher, you’re with me.”
I nodded.
Luca double–checked his gear, then smirked. “Let’s go save Ivy.”
My jaw clenched. Ivy. We were finally here.
It wasn’t over yet. But it was close.
Marcus glanced at me. “Are you ready?”
I nodded. I was ready.
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