Page 123 of Guitars and Cages

“You can say that again.”

He looked over at Conner, and then something flickered in his eyes as he looked between us. “Surprised to see you out so late, Conner. Alexia is upstairs if you’re looking for her. You know where to go.”

Frowning, I cocked my head, looking at Conner. “You hang out with Alexia?”

“Yeah, I do, ever since you were in the hospital. We had a lot of time to talk after you had us both banned from your hospital room.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I did. Maybe you weren’t listening. How do you think I knew she was upset about the way Cole was treating her? Or that you rarely came by to hang out with her anymore?”

“I... I don’t know.”

He shook his head. “I’ve been trying to be a friend to her. She needs one right now.”

“Just a friend?” I asked, before I could stop myself. His eyes narrowed, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t happy with that little comment.

“Yeah, okay? Do you have a problem with that?”

I felt like an ass for having said it. “No, I guess not.”

“Good,” Morgan threw in, “’cause you and Cole have hurt her enough. I’m not gonna stand back and let you boys cause any more harm.”

“I haven’t done anything to her, Morgan. Dammit, I’ve tried to—”

He cut me off, slamming his hand down on the counter. “To do what, Asher? What have you tried to do? Call when Cole’s passed out so he doesn’t catch you talking to her? Hang up on her as soon as Cole walks into the room? Never come around? What exactly are you trying to do, because it seems less like a brother trying to spend time with a sister, and more like a lover sneaking around behind someone’s back.”

“I’m sure you had plenty of practice with that with my mom,” I shot back. When the hell will I learn to self-censor?

“Yeah, maybe I did, and maybe that’s why it bothers me to see you act like you have something to be ashamed of whenever you talk to Alexia.”

“I’m not taking sides, Morgan. I don’t want to be in it at all.”

“Of course you don’t, because you’re too afraid of Cole finding out about you. You haven’t changed, have you, Asher? After Gage’s death and the fact that you actually went home and faced up to what you did, I was hoping you’d grown, that you could see how hurtful turning your back on someone truly was, but you haven’t learned a thing, have you?”

I froze when he brought up Gage, my thoughts flashing back to the tubes and wires, his half-shaved head, the sound of his voice as he’d rasped out his last words. It was hard to breathe, and in my head I could hear the beep turn to a whine and feel his hand going limp in mine.

“That’s enough!” Conner yelled, startling both me and Morgan.

I blinked, trying to figure out why Conner was yelling.

“You weren’t there. You didn’t see how devastated he was when he came out of that hospital room. He knows he made a mistake in running away and not going back home, but would you rather he’d gotten beaten, too?”

If only they knew. But I never told, and I was never gonna.

“I would rather he learn to stand up when something’s wrong than tuck tail and take the easy way out.”

“Asher doesn’t take the easy way, and if you can’t see that, then maybe you’re not looking hard enough. How can you think it’s easy to run away from the home you love and never go back, even when all you want is to go home? How is it easy to stand in a cage and let someone beat the hell out of you because you’re too proud to tell someone you need help, because you’re afraid they might think less of you?”

I looked at Conner, quick and sharp. How the hell had he known that’s why I never asked?

“Do you think it’s easy to pay someone with your body just to survive?”

I went cold. Holy shit, there was no way he’d told Morgan that, but he was still talking, even while my brain was trying to deny what he’d said.

“That money he got to help save your bar, he didn’t just fight for that. It wasn’t simple. It wasn’t easy. He had to pay by letting some creepy asshole put his hands all over him, handcuff him, and run his mouth about the things he wanted to do to him. So lay off him already, Morgan. He gets that you’re pissed at him and don’t want him around no more. Hell, anyone else would probably have told you to go to hell when you needed help, if that’s the way you were treating him, but he didn’t. You should have left it at ‘thank you.’”

My heart was slamming in my chest so hard I was struggling to breathe. I couldn’t look at Morgan’s face. I tried to look at Conner, but red fury was warring with the cold I felt, and the room was suddenly suffocating. I bolted, whirling around and crashing through the door, blindly fleeing the bar.