Shattered (Koa #5)

27. Asher

Chapter 27

Asher

R aven is surprisingly cooperative in directing us to the cabin. Though she protested our decision, she still led us straight to it without any hesitation.

I spend the remainder of the drive with panic firing through my entire body. I can’t help the sick feeling in my gut that we’re too late. I try so hard not to think about it, to pray that she’s still alive.

But the truth is, no matter how badly I need her to be alive, I’m not confident she will be.

It’s a sickening feeling.

I don’t know what I’ll do if I find her dead. Lila has somehow transformed from my enemy to someone I can’t see myself without, and I never saw it coming. Hell, I didn’t see it happen. Somewhere along the way, my fascination with destroying her turned into a fascination with watching her survive me. Little did I know, I really would destroy her. Just not directly.

I’ve seen my fair share of horror movies, and Lila is living one. If she survives this, what kind of life will she have? How will I get her through this?

“How many doors to the cabin?” Turner asks once we get close.

Bane peels the tape from her mouth to let her speak. “Two, one in the front, one in the back.”

“And do you have a key?”

“Of course not. I’ve only been there with them.”

Her snarky attitude makes me whip around. “Were you there while they tortured people? Did you know?”

She recoils, a wounded expression on her face. “It was a don’t ask, don’t tell situation, okay?”

“It’s fucking murder!” I snap.

“Yeah, and do you think I would’ve lived if I’d started poking my nose into that? I know Rocco seems like a peach, Asher, but he’s not a good husband. Why do you think I came to you?”

I turn back around, unable to look at her. “You could’ve gone to the police.”

“No, she couldn’t, Asher. You know that,” Bane says.

“How many innocent people had to die?” I growl.

“The people they usually take aren’t good people. It’s not like they’re killing children. They’re killing drug addicts who steal from them.”

“Yeah, and what do you call Lila!?”

“Collateral. You pissed them off. ”

“And you didn’t? They’re torturing Lila; what did they do to you?”

“I told them you forced yourself on me… If I hadn’t, I’d be dead!”

“So Lila gets to pay the price for your loose morals?”

“Asher, are you not fucking listening?” Raven growls. “I told them you raped me, and they didn’t do anything further than busting your leg. But the moment Jared walked into your shop, you started a war. How do you think that makes me feel? This isn’t about me. This is about money.”

“You’re pathetic.”

“Maybe. Ash, if they live, they’ll figure out I helped you. They’ll kill me.”

“Don’t worry. I promise they’re not walking away from this.”

After watching everything they did to Lila, I’m ready to watch them suffer and bleed. I’m tempted to burn them both alive with that fucking torch. But that’ll take time, and I don’t have that. Priority has to be getting Lila medical attention.

If she’s still alive.

My pulse pounds in my ears as we pull in. The cabin is deep in the woods off a dirt road, secluded from the world. We pull in behind the brothers’ vehicles, not bothering to hide.

Bane has secured Raven, so she can’t get out of the car by herself. She’s not going to cause a problem for us. The moment the wheels stop turning, I’m out of the car, racing as quickly as I can on my mangled leg, ignoring the overwhelming pain .

Bane joins me at the front, and Turner takes the back door. We wait a moment to give him time to run around the house. Bane joins me at the solid wood door, holding a large rock. There’s a window off the deck to the left, and he wastes no time. He peeks inside before smashing the rock through the window, breaking all the glass. Then he practically dives face-first through it. I hear some struggle on the other side before the door opens, and I charge inside.

At first, I don’t hear anything. We’re on an open lower level, and I watch as Turner emerges from the back. We freeze as the floorboards above us creak, and Turner quickly finds knives in the kitchen. He slides them across the floor towards us before hiding, and Bane rushes to grab them, handing one to me. It’s a bread knife. How fucking perfect.

My heart stalls as footsteps travel closer to us. Two legs suddenly travel the staircase to the right of the cabin, and before I see his head, I see the gun in his hand. The moment he stops at the bottom and lays eyes on Bane and me, he stops in his tracks, looking briefly furious before confusion settles on him. He’s still covered in her blood.

“Rocco,” I snarl.

“How the fuck are you two here?”

“You’re not very good at covering your tracks,” I say simply.

“Raven, huh? You broke into my house?”

“If you thought some locks would keep me from saving Lila, you might be the dumbest man alive.”

“It’s a wasted trip. Your girl’s already dead. Rooney’s disposing of her body now.”

No. She can’t be dead. We can’t be too late. We just can’t …

“She’s innocent.” When I open my mouth, I don’t recognize my voice.

“She’s human. None of us are innocent. But she was your penance.”

My penance… Penance for what? I fucked around with his wife, so Lila had to die a painful death? Jared came to me for a tattoo that he never would’ve gotten with the brothers, and so Lila had to die? She had to be raped and brutally tortured, torn apart, burned, and then drowned in a bathtub?

“Are those tears, Asher?”

I don’t feel them until he mentions them, and I realize they’re pouring from my eyes like a faucet. When they lock on his, he grins wickedly.

“In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you give the slightest fuck about a woman. But this is the one? She’s got fire, I’ll admit. And beautiful eyes, until the light left them.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Bane snaps.

“Nice cunt, too. At least, it was until Rooney used her all up. Did you hear her screams? He ruined her.”

Just as the rage in my heart boils over, movement grabs my attention, and Rocco screams out in pain, falling backward. Red splatters from his midsection, and a knife thrown at the speed of fucking light falls from his stomach.

Turner.

I dive face first for the gun, racing Rocco, who’s scrambling to reach for it. Bane drops for it beside me. Rocco manages to grab it, and I slide forward to punch him in the face, cracking his nose open like an egg, and he howls in pain. As the three of us struggle in a series of punches, hits, and flying knives, Bane cries out. Just as he does, Rocco is tackled away from us. Turner lands straight on top of him, straddling his stomach, and lands punch after furious punch to his head, and the fury and strength he puts behind them and Rocco’s resulting screams satisfy me.

There’s another knife on the ground, and I have an opportunity to brutalize this fuck. I don’t hesitate to take it.

I crawl up on my knees, ignoring the firing pain. I yank down his pants, finding his small flaccid dick. Without hesitation, I wrap my hand right around his penis and balls, yanking them hard, and he screams as he realizes what I’m doing. In one swipe of the surprisingly sharp knife, they’re removed from his body in an explosion of blood. Wherever the fuck he’s going from here, he’s going neutered.

The screams from him pierce me to the core as I move up beside Turner to his head, nudging him to stop his onslaught of punches. His face is already half caved in and soaked in blood. I pry his jaw open with little struggle and stuff all of it in his mouth, closing his jaw on it, and he screams.

“That’s for Lila, you sick fuck!”

“Jesus christ,” Turner says in awe as we watch the motherfucker take his last breaths, choking on his own dick. He deserved so much worse than this.

When he falls still, and the room goes quiet, I hear Bane’s heavy breaths. I turn around to find him against a wall, his hand wrapping around a knife handle embedded in his abdomen. His eyes meet mine, pained.

“Bane! DON’T PULL IT OUT! ”

I slide across the floor to him with Turner right on my heels, but we’re too late as Bane yanks the knife out, showering blood. Turner reaches him half a second before me and presses his hand on the wound, stopping the blood.

“Bane, are you okay?” I ask in terror.

“I’m fine,” he says breathlessly. “Go find Lila.”

When I hesitate, Turner nods at me. “I’ve got this. Take the gun and find Lila; watch out for the other guy.”

Right, Rooney.

At that moment, I hear a slight knock on the floor above us, and we all lift our heads. A moment later, Turner nudges me. “Go!”

I grab the gun off the floor and cross the room to the stairs, with pain exploding through my leg. I push it down, my adrenaline fueling me, even though I know I’ll pay for it later.

The stairs round a bend, and when I turn to ascend the last few, I briefly freeze, spotting a dead body on the floor.

My heart stops as I tumble up the last few steps, preparing to take in the scene. The body is lifeless.

It’s Rooney, and he is deader than dead. He’s covered in fresh blood pooling around him. He’s been stabbed in the neck, the stomach, and the dick. His eyes are closed.

Not closed. Gone.

Did Lila do this? If she did, she did a fucking good job.

As I admire her work, I spot something behind Rooney and walk a few more steps to see over. That’s when I let out an inhuman cry as all the air leaves my lungs, and tears instantly burn my eyes.

It’s her .

She’s on her stomach, her head turned away from me. Her broken, naked body is absolutely painted in blood, even her blonde hair. She’s not moving.

As my world comes crashing down, I fall to my knees, not feeling the collision. I slide around her, finding her eyes shut, a few good slices on her face with old, dried blood. I can’t stop shaking to tell if she’s breathing, but when I reach down to touch her arm… it’s cold.

“No… Please…” I cry.

My entire body trembles like mad as I manage to pull her into my lap, cradling her with my back against the wall. She’s so tiny in my arms, and when I move her, she’s lifeless. Deadweight.

She’s gone.

Her body is so cold, and her face is red, like a horrid sunburn. It’s from the water. Seeing the rest of the wounds I’ve already seen and feeling her cold body in my arms makes me shudder. I rest my head against hers and let out a wail of a sob.

“Sunshine… Lila… Please come back to me…”

She’s so broken, so brutalized. And I can’t help the tears of pure grief that fall from my eyes like a faucet. Tears of rage, but also tears of loss. It’s a gut-wrenching loss that makes even my stupid leg seem unimportant.

With a knot in my throat, I hold back my sobs like a dam and press my lips to each of her eyelids and then hard on her forehead, clenching my eyes shut.

“Please, Lila… Don’t leave me here alone.”

When I feel her forehead shift and crease, I pull away, feeling the slightest glimmer of hope. Please, please don’t be my imagination. Please, God… If you’re out there somewhere, please don’t take her from me. I don’t see the point of being here without her.

I hold my breath as I watch her eyelids slowly part, and something deep inside me breaks as those big, sad, broken eyes peek open, slowly coming into focus on my face. A small, broken, bloody hand drifts up, pressing against my cheek. It’s sticky and smells like iron, but I put mine over it, enveloping her cold hand in heat.

“Lila, I’ve got you,” I cry, bringing my lips to her forehead. Her hand reaches up and rests on my bicep, and I see the blood still slowly oozing from her fingernails.

“You found me…” she whispers, her eyes fluttering shut as the slightest smile slips across her lips.

“I’ve been with you this whole time. I never left. God, I’m so, so sorry.”

“Rocco?” she asks, choking as her fear spikes, and I remedy it immediately.

“Dead. Turner beat the fuck out of him, and I cut off his dick and shoved it down his throat.”

Some of the tension lifts from her body, and her little smile returns as she realizes both her demons are gone.

“Did you kill Rooney?”

She nods tiredly.

“Incredible job. Let’s get you out of here.”

She gives me a weak nod. “Did you say Turner’s here?”

“And Bane. We were so sure you were dead, I was terrified.”

Feeling her shift in my arms, I can breathe easier. She’s alive.

A creak in the floorboards grabs our attention, and Turner approaches cautiously. He pulls off his shirt and drapes it over her in my arms as he sits on the floor beside us. His brows are deeply creased as she reaches for his hand, and he takes it, tenderly stroking the palm of her hand with his thumb.

“We’re gonna get you out of here,” he says softly, a tone I’ve yet to hear from him.

She nods so slightly, resting in my arms. As I relax a little easier, Turner’s eyes meet mine, filling with tears.

“Asher…” his voice seizes up.

My chest tightens. “No…”

Turner nods. “He bled out. There was nothing I could do. I’m so sorry.”

The world drops from my body again as sadness fills me, the same that makes Lila’s split lip quiver.