Page 115 of A Lesson in Obedience

“Hello?”

“River?” she asked, her voice wary.

“Uh, no this is his brother.”

“Oh, umm Asher, right?”

I nodded and then realized she couldn’t see me, so I answered.

“Maybe you can help me figure out why my daughter hasn’t answered me. She likes me to think she has a lot of things handled, but I’m allowed to be worried. I’m over here pacing and all I would like is some confirmation that she’s alive and well. Not from her friends, but from her.”

I looked up at the ceiling, not having the patience for this and my brother’s dilemma, but I took in a breath through my nose. I would be the same way about River if I was in her shoes, so I couldn’t fault her. I also didn’t know how to answer her. The good part was Riley was alive but the bad part was I hadn’t no fucking idea where she was.

“I understand, Miss Monroe. Give me a minute, okay?”

I stepped out of the room, clutching River’s phone between my shoulder and my ear. I pulled out my own phone and started to send a text to Grayson, but then I saw him. He was getting closer as he walked down the hallway. He looked nervous and I hated it.

I tucked my phone away, putting Riley’s mom on mute before meeting Grayson halfway. “Where the hell have you been?” I searched around him. “Where’s Riley?”

“Don’t yell at me,” he scolded, walking towards one of the walls and leaning back against it.

“I’m not yelling at you. Icouldyell at you. Would youlikeme to yell at you, Grayson?” I got closer to him, clutching my brother’s phone in my hand.

He put his hands up to stop me. “No, not right now. When I tell you something, that’s when I need you to not yell at me.”

I gave him a confused look. Grayson let a heavy sigh leave his lips. “She’s with Chancellor Fowler.”

I couldn’t stop myself before I grabbed a handful of his shirt with one hand and pulled him forward, just to throw him back against the wall. “What the fuck did you just say?”

“Asher, wait!”

“You did this again?! Fuck, I told her to try to let your stupid ass back in and fucking forgive you, but you go and do this!” I shoved him back against the wall again. “You are so lucky we are in a hospital because I could fucking kill you right now.”

Grayson’s shadows came out and put pressure on my chest, shoving me back hard enough so that I hit the other wall. One of thenurses looked over her desk, eyeing both of us and we lifted our hand, trying to look innocent.

“It wasn’t me. Riley wanted to go.”

I blew out a breath, almost laughing. “That sounds ridiculous. You really think I’m believing that.”

He shrugged. “She begged me and I didn’t know what she planned to do, but I wasn’t going to let her go off and find, I don’t know, a more dangerous way to find him so I took her.”

I looked down at River’s phone, seeing Miss Monroe still holding on the other line. “Okay, so she’s with him, when do you go get her? Are we going to have to barge in there together?”

Grayson’s eyes dropped to the floor. “We don’t. We don’t do anything. She made the decision to stay for us, for everyone.” He looked towards where River’s room was. “I don’t like it and again, I promise you I didn’t know. I think she has her own plan, Asher.”

I turned around and ball my empty hand into a fist and punched the wall. “I can’t fucking deal with this right now.”

“She told me to not do anything. To wait.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “She wants us to trust her.”

“She wants us to—” I ran my hand through my hair, nearly forgetting how to breathe and letting out a very long breath. “She’s so agitating, fuck.”

“I have a feeling her stuff will be gone from the house when we get back and probably so will Beau. Chancellor Fowler, in a weird way, doesn’t want to upend her life, but he does want to be the person she constantly comes back to. We can be a part of her world, but can’t interfere with, you know…”

“Yeah, I get it. My father wanted me to choose between River or Riley and Riley ended up just choosing for me anyway.”

“Maybe we follow Riley’s lead, as painful as it may be. And she’ll let us know when she needs us.”

I brought the phone up to Grayson’s face. “And what am I supposed to tell her, huh? The man she ran away from finally has what he wants.”