Page 46 of The Consequence of You (Heathley Academy #2)
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CALLIE
I hear the commotion before I see the wreck. People are shouting and running and pushing. I shove my way through the throng of spectators as smoke billows from the engine of the crushed car in front of me. Asher’s crushed car.
My world tilts as I take in the mangled mess and shattered glass. The smell of burned rubber is thick in the air but all I can focus on is him .
Please, no. Not again.
I stumble forward and someone grabs my arm, pulling me back. Someone else is shouting at everyone to stay back but I don’t care. I need to see. I need to get to him.
My chest feels like it’s being squeezed in a metal vice.
Just like that night four years ago, when I didn’t get to say goodbye to Mama, it’s happening all over again .
I’m going to lose him. Before I ever got the chance to really have him.
Screaming pierces my ears until Luca steps in front of me. It’s only then I realise it’s my own voice.
“Callie. Please, stop.” He holds me tightly as I struggle against him, trying to get closer to Asher.
“Please Luca, we need to help him!”
“People are helping him, Callie. Let them do their work.” A guy in a mask like Asher’s, is pulling at the door of his car. When it doesn’t budge, he smashes the window with his elbow. My knees buckle as Luca holds me up.
Minutes tick by but then the masked man is pulling Asher from the wreck. Luca loosens his grip, and I duck under his arm, racing towards them.
The guy who pulled Asher out is dragging him to the side of the road, away from the car.
I can’t bear to look, afraid to see how bad it is, but unable to tear myself away. Except when I reach them, I see my favourite sight in the world, the man has removed Asher’s mask and his beautiful green eyes are staring back at me.
A grin splits his face when I approach and he struggles to sit up, but the guy who pulled him to safety, urges him to stay down.
“Mate, you need to take a minute. You could have a spinal injury.”
“I appreciate your help, but I got a boner the minute I saw my girl, so I’ve got no concerns.” To prove his point, Asher shakes all his limbs. The man shakes his head in disbelief as he stands and brushes himself down.
“Fuck, they said you were a lucky bastard, but you just dodged a fucking bullet.”
“It’s not the first, and it probably won’t be the last.” Asher coughs and winces. I launch forward, not even thinking, I just need to touch him, to check he’s real.
Dropping down onto my knees next to him, I grab his face in my hands and press my forehead to him. Our breaths are shaky and shallow.
“I thought-” I choke out, my voice strained. “I thought I’d lost you. I didn’t get a chance to tell you-” He cuts me off, his fingers curling around mine.
“You didn’t lose me.”
At his words, I’m no longer drowning and I don’t want to waste a single second more.
“I love you, Asher.”
“I know,” he says smugly, smiling before pressing his lips to mine. “I know you do.”
“I’m sorry for fighting it. I spoke to Luca and Papa. They don’t blame me for my mother’s death. They don’t hate me.”
“Of course they don’t.” He beams at me as if he somehow already knew what I was going to say.
“I wish I’d spoken to them years ago. I wasted the last few years overthinking everything. Every single thing.” I hold Asher’s gaze. “I think maybe you were right when you said I need to take more risks.”
Asher chuckles.
“Here’s me thinking I should take less risks.”
A shadow falls over us as Luca’s voice cuts in. He stands above us, his brow cocked.
“Or… maybe you both need to meet in the middle?”
Asher groans next to me.
“Smart guy, your brother.”
Asher refuses to let anyone call an ambulance, and as the race was illegal, no one fights him on it. He agrees to let Luca drive him to hospital at my insistence.
When we arrive, we’re told there is at least a twelve hour wait to be seen by a doctor.
Asher goes through an initial triage, and when the nurse recognises his name, she offers to see if she can bump him up the queue.
He politely declines, but he does take her up on the offer of a private room so at least we have somewhere comfortable to wait.
Despite Asher insisting this was a waste of everyone’s time as he was uninjured, several X-rays later, the doctor confirms he has two broken ribs, and several fractures in his wrist and hand.
Not to mention he has extensive bruising and needs a couple of stitches where a piece of glass had embedded in his shoulder.
The doctor gives Asher some co-codamol to keep him comfortable while we wait for the technician to cast his arm, and within minutes he’s asleep.
My brother stays with us the entire evening, fetching coffee and snacks, and I have to say, I like our newfound closeness and his calming presence. We’ve been waiting a couple of hours when the door to Asher’s room swings open, crashing into the wall.
Luca leaps out of his seat and has the man by the throat before I’ve even registered it’s not a member of the medical staff.
“Who the fuck are you?” Luca snarls in his face. I rush over and pull my brother back, recognising it to be Asher’s older brother, Sebastian.
He’s the last person I was expecting to see here.
“Luca. It’s Sebastian. You remember from the academy? Asher’s brother.”
Luca loosens his grip but doesn’t fully let go.
He rears back enough to look him up and down a few times.
Sebastian’s tall and blond like Asher, and dresses in the same style that screams rich aristocrat.
After an eternity, Luca releases him and Sebastian steps away, but the two of them remain in a strange, silent stand-off.
Eventually, Asher’s brother breaks the silence.
“It’s been a long time, Luca.”
Luca doesn’t reply. Instead, he runs his tongue over his teeth and the air in the room seems to drop a couple of degrees.
I have no idea what is happening right now.
The two men are similar age, and almost certainly would have known each other from high school.
I swallow nervously, and as I’m wondering what to do about the two of them, there’s a small cough behind me.
All three of us swivel towards Asher, as he reaches for a sip of water. He can’t have been awake very long, but he’s looking between our brothers in much the same way I was merely seconds ago.
“Seb. What are you doing here? I thought you were still in Paris.” Sebastian walks to the side of Asher’s bed.
“One of the nurses called our parents, given they’re your next of kin. The Duke and Duchess still had some sightseeing to do, so they wired the hospital board members a tidy sum of money and told them to make sure none of the staff talked to the press.” Asher sighs.
“Sounds about right. So, again what are you doing here?”
Sebastian shrugs and brushes an invisible piece of lint off his shirt sleeve.
“Figured you might need a lift home…” Asher shoots him a cynical look. “Or something…” Sebastian’s voice trails off.
I don’t know Asher’s brother at all, but he seems embarrassed to admit he wanted to be here for his younger sibling.
“How did you get here so fast?” Sebastian shrugs again and clenches his jaw. “Fuck off. You used the helicopter, didn’t you?”
Asher shakes his head and laughs but it quickly turns into a pained grunt. Sebastian and I both rush to his side but Sebastian beats me to it, and he grips Asher’s hand before I can.
“You scared me, dickhead,” he mutters, and I don’t miss the fleeting way Asher’s eyes brighten at his brother’s words.
The next half an hour is a flurry of activity as the technician and pharmacist both turn up together, and Asher finally gets the all clear to go home.
Unfortunately, it seems either someone at the race or maybe a staff member who didn’t get the privacy memo, has tipped off the paparazzi that the Pennington brothers are here, and there’s a crowd waiting in the hospital car park for a glimpse of them.
Luckily, Luca arranges for us to leave out of a staff exit and manages to get us to his car without getting photographed.
The short trip back to the Pennington’s estate is made in awkward silence, and as soon as we get to the top of their long driveway, Sebastian is out of the car and into the house within seconds.
I catch Luca smirking in the rear-view mirror, and I make a mental note to ask what the hell all that is about when Asher pipes up,
“Luca, how do you know where I live?”
“Let’s say the Messinas always do their homework. Wouldn’t trust you with my sister if I wasn’t sure of exactly who you are first. I had my people check you out weeks ago. ”
“ Your people? Great, so now half the mafi-” Luca holds his hand up, cutting him off.
“Can’t say I’m too impressed with what I found in the gossip pages, but the last couple of years you seem to have grown up.”
“Why thank you, sir.” Asher doffs a fake cap at my brother’s thinly veiled compliment.
My heart contracts seeing the banter exchanged between the two of them, and for the first time in my life, I see a future I can look forward to.