Deceit (Gallows Hill #1)

42. Chapter Forty One

Chapter Forty One

Asher

I move through campus briskly, not paying attention to anyone or anything. I’m heading to my dorm building but only going one floor up to Andrew Hutchinson’s room. His dad owns the largest tech security company on the east coast and his son is his little protégé. I know how to lift fingerprints, we’re taught basic things like that in our training, but I don’t have the time, patience or energy for that. I’ll leave it to the geek.

My fist pounds on the door, some scrambling sounds coming from inside before Andrew peeks his head out. He seems to almost relax when he sees that it’s me, which is usually not the reaction that I get. Most people around here fear me just as much as they fear my father. He tells me it’s a good thing. I’ve just never really known any different.

“Hey, Asher. What’s up?”

“I need you to lift some prints for me and run them. No one has touched it but me with my glove on so whoever comes up, I want the name. Got it?”

“Sure. No problem,” he says as his eyes begin scanning over the paper.”

“I said lift it, don’t fucking read it,” I snap, causing himself to straighten up and push his door open.

“Come in, set it right there,” he says, pointing to a blank desk with a myriad of tools and tech gadgets. I won’t even begin to guess what they do.

Three expensive looking cameras sit on the shelf above as well as several photographs hung up on the walls. They are landscape photos like the forest, the beach and stuff like that. They are clearly amateur but not half bad.

“How long?” I ask as I turn to face him as he begins collecting his supplies.

“Uh, half an hour? Maybe more?” he says.

“Make it less,” I say as I move past him, shutting his door behind me as I turn towards the elevators.

I don’t feel like waiting around, hovering over his shoulder so I decide to head up to my room. It isn’t where I really want to be right now, but where I really want to be isn’t an option for me. Not now, not ever.

I don’t know when it happened. I’m not sure if it happened slowly or seemingly overnight. All I know is that for longer than I’d care to admit, things have been feeling…different. And I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know how to shut my mind off, to not think about her, to not want her.

Sure, she’s always been a smoke show. I knew that from the moment my father handed me her file, with a ‘meet your future wife’ speech. I was so pissed off that my time as a bachelor was getting cut short. As the most powerful man on campus, I wasn’t even included in the decision of who would be my wife.

I was so furious and angry that this woman was getting thrust upon me, and I took it out on her. For weeks, I thought of idea after idea on how to make her life hell. How to force her to call this thing off herself. I knew there was no way it could come from my side, but I had hoped maybe she had more say in this than me. I should have known better.

One moment spent with her and her father, and I knew that the man had more disdain for her than my father did for me, I really didn’t think that was possible. Two moments spent with her after she witnessed my father’s rage firsthand and treated me with kindness I didn’t deserve, and I knew that I had so wrongly misjudged her. Three moments of seeing her mostly naked and wanting, watching her beg and whine and moan around Liam’s cock while being desperate for my touch, and I knew I was fucking done for.

As I step inside my room, I kick the door shut, burying my fingers into my hair as I pull hard.

FUCK!

This wasn’t the plan. I wasn’t supposed to fall for her. Even when I decided hating her would be futile, I thought we could be amicable. Have a friendship of sorts and I was even willing to allow her to see the guys, even if saying the words out loud tasted like ash on my tongue. The truth is, I think realization hit me at that very moment. The one where a small voice in my head jumped out and asked, ‘What if you could be enough? What if having you and you having her was all you two needed?’

I squashed that inner voice to dust, because we both know that’s not how that would go down. I want to be selfish. I want to steal her away from all of them, keep her tucked away and safe. It’s obvious that currently, there isn’t any room in her heart for me. There’s no room left.

If I ban her from ever seeing them again, if I kept her locked away in a cage, she would only hate me, not love them less. As much of a monster as I’m sometimes portrayed to be, I’m not completely heartless. I know me being selfish would hurt Ronan and Liam…I don’t really give a fuck about Vincent to be honest, but most of all I’d be hurting her. I’ve already hurt her enough. I don’t want to inflict more pain. She doesn’t deserve it.

So, I’ll be the one that suffers. Once we’re married, she will be able to live at least, for the most part, happily ever after with her boyfriends. I’ll go out, get black out drunk and lose myself in whatever wet and willing hole is up for the taking that night. It won’t really matter in the end, none of them will be her, so none of them will be worth a fucking damn.

My phone buzzes in my hand, and despite it only being ten minutes I had hoped it was Hutchinson. Unfortunately, it’s the devil incarnate himself.

“Hello, father,” I greet.

“Asher, how are things coming along?”

“Things are going well. How about with you?”

“All good here. You staying out of trouble?” he asks, a heavy warning lacing his words. I’m actually thankful that I’m able to be honest at the moment. Lying to him is always a tossup, he is too well versed at bullshitting. It only works maybe forty percent of the time.

“Actually, I am. Skyla and I have been spending more time together. She’s actually pretty great, I see why you selected her for me.”

“Really?” he says, surprise evident in his tone. “Well, isn’t that delightful to hear. She’s such a good girl, isn’t she? So pretty and polite. Just watch that you conceal that fire. Her mother had it, just the same and look how that ended for her.”

I nod, hating that Skyla has revealed that side of herself to him already. He sees her as a threat. Not outright, but a potential wild card which is almost worse.

“Whatever Henry did seems to have stuck, she’s extremely obedient once you break her down a little. Like a wild mustang,” I compare, my stomach turning at the bullshit comment.

My father barks out a laugh.

“Aren’t they all.”

“I’ve been wanting to ask, why are we moving up the ceremony? I can make my assumptions, but why hold off on the actual wedding itself? Isn’t the ceremony usually held in conjunction with the wedding?”

The phone goes silent. It extends for so long I almost think we lost connection when he speaks. There’s no humor in his voice, no emotion. Just careful calculation.

“Because, I deemed it so.”

I struggle to come up with just the right response when he continues.

“Who the hell do you think you are? If I tell you to slit that girl’s pretty little neck in the middle of the courtyard, you’ll do it with a goddamn smile on your face!” he snarls. “I am your king! I am your god! If I command it, it is done. End of discussion.”

“Of course, father,” I concede quickly, doing my best to de-escalate the situation. “My apologies. I was merely curious.”

“It is not your job to be curious,” he continues. “Your job is to keep things in order at the university, staff and students included. Your job is to keep yourself and your fiancée out of trouble. Your job is to do as you’re fucking told! I’m gifting you a virgin bride, one of the finest you could ever dream of, before your actual wedding. All that should be coming out of your ungrateful mouth is ‘Thank you’.”

I hold my tongue, waiting for him to finish his tirade before he blows out a ragged breath.

“I thought I raised you better than this. Maybe I’ve given you too much power too soon. Maybe this is too great of a reward.”

“I apologize, father. I know, you only have myself and the Brethren’s best interests in mind.”

“Hmm,” he hums, like he isn’t sure if I’m bullshitting him or not.

Honestly, maybe it works fifty percent of the time because I think I’m getting better at it.

“Thank you,” I add on. “For Skyla. She really is better than I could have imagined.”

Shit. I definitely shouldn’t have included that last piece.

“Is she now?” my father asks, interest officially piqued.

Fuck.

“Yes, she is,” I say smoothly, despite my racing heart. “She’s stunning and has been quite cooperative as I establish the rules and protocols of our future relationship.”

He pauses like he doesn’t quite believe me but lets it slide.

“Well, that is certainly good to hear. I will pass on the good news to Henry as well. Talk soon,” he says, before abruptly hanging up.

I hold the phone in my hand for a moment or two, re-thinking every word that I said. I meant every one about her, the nice ones, at least. Something in my gut tells me that was the wrong move with my father.

As I begin pacing the room, I’m filled with more conflict, more panic, more frustration than I’ve felt in a long time. The only thing I can bring myself to focus on currently, is getting Hutchinson to hurry the fuck up with those fingerprints.