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15

TRUCE

DIYA

W hat did he just tell me? It was such a roller-coaster, trying to decipher this man.

He was insane, and I loved it. I loved outsmarting him, I loved touching him.

I bit his finger hard, making him curse.

“Let me get this straight. You want me to be your fuck toy until you decide the debt’s been paid off?”

One moment, he looked at me like he wanted to lock me up in a coffin, and then the next, he wanted to fuck me?

“It’s a hard life. Living inside this place, day in and day out, and you… you made it harder when you offered me a taste of you. I want it, more of it. So fucking bad.”

I could only stare.

“And one more thing. When you’re paying off your debt, you’ll only be mine, Little Psycho.”

“That means no to any rendezvous with Sheriff Bricks?” I asked. His eyes darkened and his hand tangled in my hair. I yelped when he tugged me closer. “Handle with fucking care, bastard.”

“Sorry,” he said, sounding not sorry at all. His eyes gleamed in satisfaction as he kissed my throat, trailing a finger down my aching breast. “No. You won’t kiss Vincent Bricks. You won’t go to dinner with him. You won’t fuck him. I’ll be the only one who gets to fuck you.”

“Until you say so?”

“Until I say so.”

“What if…” He stopped me with a kiss. When he pulled back, his eyes were dark as storm clouds.

“If you let Vincent Bricks touch you, I’ll break his hand. You’re mine as long as I want you to be, Diya Sharma. And I’ll be yours . No other man gets to touch you like this…” His right hand went to my breast. He palmed it with a groan. “Like this.” He ran his fingers down until they pressed against my clit. “Taste you like this.” His fingers, slick with my cum, went to his lips. He sucked it in with a long moan, and then shook his head, delirious. “No one.”

“Do you hear yourself?”

He pressed a finger against my lips, still sticky with my cum. “I do. These are the rules, Sharma, take it or leave it. If you leave it… you’ll always be in my debt.”

“You think you hold all the power here? Did you forget the videos I have of you?”

Eyes unwavering, he nodded. “You have the videos, but as long as you’re alive, I know I’m safe. I won’t kill you, and you’ll help me. That part of the transaction was made before this. Now this… this is to make you debt free.”

“You’re a fucking asshole,” I groaned. Of course, I wanted this, but the way he was talking about me, like he wanted to possess me, to own me…

Fuck no.

That was power, and I’d never give any man that.

“I’ll fuck you, I’ll let you fuck me, but it won’t be exclusive,” I said with a straight face. His eyes narrowed, and his lips formed a straight line. He gritted his teeth, pressing me against the wall.

His eyes said it all.

He wouldn’t share.

“No. You’re the one who wanted to pay off what you owed. I won’t share what belongs to me with others. I was never good at sharing.” He shrugged, and his muscles flexed with that movement. The bastard was distracting without the shirt. If I wasn’t so cold, I would have given his shirt back to him.

“I don’t fucking belong to you, Ash,” I snapped and stopped when he sank his teeth into my shoulder.

He was fucking marking me.

“You do. Or you’ll forever be in debt,” he said. “Do you want that?”

“You’re impossible.”

He grinned. “Now that we have agreed to it, let me take you back.”

“What time is it now?” I asked, staring at the skies through the windows.

“Five in the morning.”

“Great, two hours to get ready,” I groaned, suddenly remembering everything that was aching in my body. “All I want is to crawl back into bed and never go out.”

“Take today off.”

“Yeah? Maybe I could have, if you hadn’t killed Doctor T,” I muttered, grimacing as he opened the door, reminding me of the reality of my situation.

Now that he found me, Declan wouldn’t stop. When the time came, I had to run again.

Mixing Asher into this weird concoction was a very bad decision, but I didn’t care anymore. I was tired of denying myself the things I wanted.

“You and the man who tried to kill you…”

“Declan Hart. Dex.”

“Was he only angry at you because you killed his friend?”

I whirled around, and Asher stumbled back. “We’re working together, but we’re not friends, Asher Elias Maddox.”

“Ah,” he said. “We’ll be fucking, too, or did you forget that part already?”

“Yes, but we aren’t lovers.”

“I know. Lovers would mean we are equal. We are NOT. I own you. Your body’s the collateral, and...”

This was a train wreck waiting to happen.

“Oh, shut up, you impudent piece of shit.”

“You sound grumpy,” he said, bending down. “Hop on.”

“You’re giving me a fucking piggyback ride?”

“Do you want to hobble to your cottage?” he asked.

Sighing, I wrapped my arms around his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist as he hitched me up with a grunt.

“Giddy up,” I said, pressing my face to his bare shoulder, taking in his scent. It was warm, addictive, and comforting. “Hey…”

“Yes?”

“Did you learn anything from Hannigan?” I asked after a few seconds of silence.

“Not much. This man knew Hannigan’s secret and used it to blackmail him. Hannigan was only an insignificant part. He gave me another name. The man who brought the girls out of the asylum. Rip. Hannigan’s job was to drop them at Duskwood Park,” Asher said, his voice tight.

“Do you know the park?” I asked.

“Yes. Just outside Hollow Heights. It recently became a protected area.”

“We need to go there,” I said.

“You know what protected means, don’t you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. That’s probably the most legal thing we’d be doing, Ash.”

“I’ll go, Diya. You don’t have to. With Declan Hart out there…”

“I’m coming with you. It’ll be impossible to go there at night and find anything,” I said with a frown. “I want to go.”

“How do you suppose I sneak out in the morning?” he asked.

“You don’t have to sneak out. I’ll take care of the details, don’t you worry your pretty little head over it, Pussycat,” I said, rubbing his head.

“There’s no way I can talk you out of it, is there?”

“Correct,” I said with a nod as he continued to move. “Do you think Riley is the only one?” I asked after a while.

He stiffened under me. “No, I don’t,” he growled, his voice trembling with barely restrained anger. “But Hannigan said he never saw anyone. The girls were in masks. And Riley was tortured for a long time before she killed herself. It wasn’t… like one and done.”

This didn’t sound like some random psychopath on a killing spree.

He was forming a sick, twisted bond with these girls. A warped connection with his victims. Through rape and torture and abuse.

“I went through Doctor T’s file on Riley, but the reports were missing.”

He nodded. “I took some of them, but there were a lot of pages missing even before I took them.”

“I need the ones you have,” I said with a sigh. “Someone’s covering their tracks after Doctor T’s death, or it was Doctor T himself,” I muttered, a knot forming in my stomach.

Asher’s body went stiff. “If that’s true, they might be here,” he whispered. “Do you still want to do this with me?”

“Yes,” I said. “I might not trust you completely, Asher, but I respect you for this. A man who’s willing to walk such a dark path for someone else—for a friend… I believe a part of you is good.”

“I don’t feel like I am. I’m starting to enjoy it and that feels wrong, but I also feel like Riley won’t rest until I put the ones who hurt her down.”

“Girls like Riley… we deserve our justice,” I said with a sigh. The kind of justice that was so often denied to us, buried beneath the weight of fear and silence. “The world’s not kind to us , Asher. It pushes us to grow up before we are ready. It tears us apart from the root, and steals our childhood,” I whispered when he kicked the door to my cottage open and placed me on the couch.

“It’s cruel. Unfair.” His voice broke as he sat down next to me, his hand on my back.

“It is. So fucking unfair. All we want is a safe place. To not fear the shadows, to not so violently fight every day to live. To just live. We don’t want to choose the bear either. We want to choose men. Our fathers, brothers, friends, but…” I blinked, pressing my nose to his shoulder, inhaling his scent, willing the tears to stop.

He stilled. I had a feeling he understood what I just admitted.

“Diya?”

He wanted to know, but I wasn’t ready to give him more. Some truths took too much out of us. This was something like that.

“It’s nothing. I need a hot shower,” I whispered, and he nodded.

“Wait right here,” he said. “I’ll get your bath ready.”

“I don’t have time for…”

“I said sit,” he ordered. “You have time to take care of yourself.”

He walked to the bathroom, and after a few minutes, he came out, looking satisfied. “I got your bath ready. Got any pain meds?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Where?” he asked, his eyes lingering on my bruises.

“Kitchen cabinet. Second one from the right.”

He went back and came with a glass of water and Tylenol and handed me two pills.

After taking the pills, I stood up and groaned.

“Wait,” he said, lifting me in his arms. I snuggled closer against him with a sigh, my fingers brushing his back.

“You tried to kill me yesterday.”

The irony of this situation was laughable.

He muttered something under his breath.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked, his brows furrowed as he carefully put me down.

“Yes.”

I pulled his shirt off and handed it to him.

“Thank you for the shirt.”

His breath hitched as he stared at me, before running his fingers along the twisting snake on my shoulder.

“When did you get it?”

“When I turned twenty-one.”

Layne, Trina, and I all got different tattoos when Trina turned nineteen.

“It’s beautifully poisonous, just like you.”

“Ouch,” I hissed as I stepped into the bathtub. The hot water was like a spray of salt on my bruised skin.

Fucking Dex.

It had already been a long day, and the morning had barely even started.

After a few minutes, the pill kicked in, and the pain began to fade.

Asher leaned against the door,his eyes focused on mine as if we had been doing this all our fucking life.

“Are you not leaving?” I asked.

“I’m keeping an eye on you. What if you fainted?”

“I won’t.”

“You broke his heart, didn’t you?” Asher’s voice was softer, gentler. “You destroyed him. That Declan…”

“He didn’t have a heart,” I said with a frown as warm water sloshed against my body. “That’s why he became a heart surgeon. He was looking to see if he was the only one.”

“No. You took his heart. I could see it. He wasn’t pushed only by anger. He was hurt too. He was—”

“I’m done with the bath,” I said, cutting him off.

Asher hummed. “Want towels?”

I nodded, and he walked away, looking comfortable in my home.

What the hell was I doing here? Playing house with Asher?

This is insanity.

He walked back in, towels slung over his shoulder. He pushed a hand forward, and I took it. He lifted me out of the water and wrapped a towel around my body before handing the second one to me.

“You should go. They’ll be checking the rooms about now, right?”

“Will you be okay?” he asked. “You should go see a doctor just in case. The hospital can survive a day without you.”

“I’m fine. Go,” I said with a wave. He stared at me for a second, brows knitted.

“Okay, but…” He stopped and shrugged. “I’ll see you then, Doc.”

It took a lot to finish my breakfast, but I had to. Once I was done, I took another Tylenol, and applied ointment along my bruised skin. I chose a silk scarf to hide the faded marks, before strolling toward Hollowhaven.

When I was finally in my office, I video-called Layne.

“Shit. What happened to you? Did Asher…”

I shook my head. “Declan found me.”

She gasped, eyes wide. “Fuck, babe, no. Shit. This is a disaster. I’m coming there.”

“No, I’m alright. Asher saved me.”

She gasped again, letting out a string of curses. “He helped you? What the hell’s going on, Dee? Didn’t he try to kill you? Wait, I need to sit down for this. My head’s spinning.”

I sighed. “I’m fine. Dex is not going to leave. Damn, Lay, I don’t want to kill Dex. He is… Dex.” I rubbed the heel of my palm against my eye.

“That bastard deserves to die,” Layne snarled.

I wiped my face with a long sigh. “I don’t know… he almost killed me, Layne,” I said, tugging at my hair. “But when Asher shot him, all I could think was… please, don’t be dead.”

“Do you like him? Still?”

“No.”

“No?”

“I don’t like him. He’s…”

“No way in hell am I staying here after this. Trina is busy, but I’m heading over as soon as the exhibit is over.”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m in Florence. Give me a day or two.”

It didn’t surprise me at all to hear that Layne was in Italy. She had always been the type to chase new experiences, and nothing thrilled her more than combining her love for travel with her macabre art.

I was surprised they still hadn’t connected her murders from Delhi to Dallas—after all, her signature was unique, and it wasn’t like she was hiding her MO and keeping it subtle.

“You don’t need to be here,” I said, tapping a finger against the keyboard. “Just take care of yourself.”

She nodded. “But I want to take care of you. If I don’t, who will?”

I laughed.

“Bye now. I’ll call you later. Stay safe until I get there.”

Nodding, I hung up and stared at the empty screen with a frown. Now that Asher was not here to distract me, and short-circuit my brain, I could properly think about my situation and Declan.

Declan was not one to give up, and when he promised something, he kept it. He had brought dying patients back to life and sent living ones to hell—he was that good, and now he was hell-bent on sending me along with the Grim Reaper. Fun.

My phone rang. Blocked number, but I already knew who it was.

“Hello, Dex. You’re still alive.”

“Who is he? Another one of your victims?”

“Him? Oh, he’s no victim,” I said with a sigh. “So, what do you want now? Are you going to keep up with this?”

“Your life, Dee. Your pain. Your heart so that I can break it into pieces just as you’ve done to me,” Declan said.

“Eloquent,” I said with a snort. “But you and I both know I’m not that easy to kill. You tried twice, and I… I don’t think you want to kill me.”

He laughed. “Oh, trust me. I dream about gutting you, I dream about hanging you up to dry.”

“That sounds so messy, but anyway, can we just talk without trying to kill each other? For old-time’s sake. After all—”

“Talk?” His voice hitched. “No. I only want one thing from you now, Diya. To permanently stop you from talking. Bye then. Until next time.”