Page 18 of Branded Souls (Ember Hollow Romance #3)

The mere mention of that shared history had my breaths coming harder. I looked away for a moment, collecting my fractured thoughts.

Back when Skye had first left Ember Hollow, I knew things were hard for Ash at home with his dad. From what I’d gathered from Skye, Ash never got it as bad as she did, but I’d still worried about him.

And part of me didn’t want to lose what felt like a connection to her.

For a while, I tried to look after him. When I could, I picked him up for school or gave him a ride home. I never entered the house, but checked in from afar now and then.

I never thought it would lead me to a life I’d never wanted for myself.

Clearing my throat, I forced my gaze back to Ash. The past was the past, and that wasn’t important right now. “I want to know where your father is.”

Ash stilled. His expression sharpened. “I don’t know where he is.”

I took a quick pull of my beer. It was nothing great, a basic domestic that tasted more like water than beer. “Have you talked to Skye today?”

“What’s wrong with Skye?” His tone was alert as concern flashed in his eyes. “Is she okay?”

“She’s okay,” I said. He obviously hadn’t spoken with her since the issue with her computer. “But I’m worried about her.”

He tensed. “Why? What’s going on?”

I quickly explained the concerns I had about the targeting of her computer, and how it might be connected to the cases she was looking into, both the Shadow Stalker documentary and the Jane Doe.

Ash pressed his mouth into a tight line. He glanced down at his beer for a few moments, and then he took a long gulp, setting the bottle back down a little too hard. “What does my father have to do with all this?”

“Maybe nothing.” I shrugged. “But as far as I’ve heard, you were the last person to see him.”

I pinned him with my stare, but Ash didn’t look up. Pushing my beer off to the side, I planted my elbows on the table and leaned toward him. “What happened when he went missing, Ash?”

He glanced up at me then. Pain pinched his features. “Who told you that?”

“You know who my brothers are,” I said. Everyone in town knew about Hearthstone Security. “Reid can find out almost anything about anyone.”

The muscle in his jaw ticced. “I’m not proud of my last words to him. He wasn’t a good man, but—” His voice cracked and he scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “He was my dad, you know?”

I wasn’t sure I did understand, but I nodded anyway. “What happened that night?”

Ash glanced back down at the table, like he was looking for answers there.

“Look.” He took a breath. “Things were getting…rough in the house.” A muscle in his jaw flexed.

“I was tired of him. Sick of all his shit. And I was older, a grown man.” His eyes met mine; raw pain reflected back at me…

and rage. “I knew how to defend myself. When I eventually grew the balls to push back against him, I think he realized I wasn’t the little scrawny kid I used to be. ”

“Did you fight with him?”

He adjusted himself in his seat, swallowing hard.

“We had…an argument, not a fight. He was so drunk that night, I had no idea how he was still standing.” Ash shook his head in disgust. “When I made it clear I was done with his shit, I think he realized that I was capable of hurting him—really hurting him.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” I cut in, “why were you still living with him? If things were that bad, why did you stay?”

A strange expression crossed his face, like a combination of hurt and resentment.

“At first, it was because I didn’t have a job. He let me stay there for free.” He raised his shoulders. “But he had some lingering injuries from work. When he was forced to retire, they got worse and he needed help around the house. So, I stayed.”

I tried to hide my shock. “Valiant of you to stay with a man like that.”

Ash’s jaw hardened. “He could be a monster when he wanted.” He let out a sharp breath, his body sagging with it.

“But, not everything he did was awful. I think there was a part of him that truly thought we needed to be protected from the world. He never considered that the one we needed protection from was him.”

I studied him. For a moment, I saw the boy I used to know. The one who always seemed a little bit lost. The one who found meaning in fighting until his knuckles were raw and bloody and his bones were breaking.

His voice was low, but powerful when he continued, “The last few years before he disappeared, things got worse than ever. He was becoming obsessive and I didn’t want anything to do with him anymore.”

“What was he obsessive about? ”

He looked away, but not before I caught a glimpse of something in his eye. Guilt.

“I don’t know.”

“I think you do.”

The bridge of his nose wrinkled; his gaze slowly came to meet mine. He looked miserable as he softly admitted, “Skye.”

I froze. My mind started to whirr. “Skye?” I repeated.

Ash looked back down at the table and took another gulp of his beer.

“She might have physically left his house, but she never left his mind. He was always keeping tabs on her in some way or another. Watched every episode of her show. He was talking about going to the city to see her, but that’s where I put my foot down.

I couldn’t let him do that. I told him it was time that he left her the hell alone, and he wasn’t happy about it. ”

I gaped at him. “And that was the last conversation you had with him before he went missing?”

He nodded solemnly. “Yeah. We had it out, and then I left for the bar. When I came home the next day, he was gone. He seemed to take some of his things with him, like his suitcase and some clothes. I thought he’d come back, but when he didn’t, I got worried and filed a missing persons report. I never heard from him again.”

I stared at Ash, heart pounding at the information I’d learned.

Her father had never really let her go, even after all that time. My stomach soured. There was a possibility that Charles Adler was really gone for good.

But there was also a chance, no matter how small, that he was still out there waiting…and watching.