Page 10 of Ashes

“Let me give you some water,” he said gently.

A straw poked at my lips and I sucked. The cool water soaked my parched throat and felt like the best thing I’d ever had.

I opened my eyes again and looked at my father’spartner and friend through blurry eyes. I tried to remember why he was here, and then, a flood of memories assaulted me.

The flames. Dad running. Mom right behind.

I looked behind Noah and around the room, but they didn’t seem to be there.

“Where’s Mama and Baba?” I asked, panicked.

I moved to sit but instantly collapsed, wincing in pain. My head fell back on the pillow.

“Don’t move,” he said sternly.

“Why are they not here?” I asked again.

“Jamal.” His voice trailed off, but the look on his face told me everything I needed to know.

They were gone.

I stretched my back, my shirt suddenly feeling heavier against my skin.

On. Off. On. Off. On. Off.

The increased speed of my flicks matched my escalating heartbeats.

“Boss.” Dania’s voice cut through the thudding in my ears. “What do you think?”

I blinked away the unwanted memories before they swarmed in and clicked my Zippo’s lid shut. The room came back into focus and I glanced up to find a room full of anxious and expectant expressions on our team’s faces.

“I’ll take this information to Kai to make the final decision,” I announced, my eyes flicking to Dania, who looked like she was gearing herself for me to chew her head off.

“Mr. Gao is already up to speed on the client,” she said hesitantly.

Then why the fuck am I here?

I checked my watch and noticed that it was almost time for another one of my meetings. I pushed my irritation down and turned my attention back on Dania.

I lifted a brow and muttered, “Any material that can be held against him?”

“Already sent to your inbox, sir,” Dania answered, her knuckles almost turning white with how tightly she was gripping the notebook she was holding in her hands.

“Send the contract over to Mr. Williams and make sure that he understands what it means to sign with us.”

“Yes, Mr. Brown,” I heard her say as I left the conference to retreat to my own office for the rest of the evening.

Although I’d changed my last name a long time ago, I still felt a pang in my chest anytime someone called me by Noah’s surname instead of my father’s.

While I was stuck in a hospital bed for months, hooked to multiple machines and healing from the burns marring the entirety of my back, Noah had kept working on the case, trying to find legitimate proof to bring down whoever they were after since the lead he and my father had been working on had been shot dead immediately after his passing.

However, after weeks of unsuccessful raids, the bureau had removed him from the case because they deemed him unfit to remain objective on the matter. That’s when we’dmoved to Blackwell where Noah had been offered a training position at the academy.

On top of the relentless hours of self-defense and martial arts training, I’d never fully understood his insistence on changing my last name and staying hidden. He’d always just say, “in case you find yourself in a bad situation.”

That belief only remained until I left for college and learned the real reason why.

The ding of the elevator doors opening pulled me from my thoughts. I didn’t even remember working for the past few hours or even leaving my office.