Burned Duet: Asher & Elodie: Fast Burn & Deep Burn (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 4)

by Abigail Davies

  I pretended I was anywhere but in the place my brain wanted to take me back to. Maybe it was my body’s way of protecting me, or maybe it was because I was scared. Scared to remember what had happened. Scared to think maybe I’d let my guard down. Was it my fault? Had I gotten too lax? Had I thought I’d put all the bad behind me so I could live in the happiness I’d tried to create?

  No. I’d kept my wits about me. I’d kept my feet planted firmly on the floor. It wasn’t my fault Knox did what he did. It wasn’t me who’d pushed him to it. It was his own decision. He’d chosen to break into the tattoo shop. He’d taken the steps into my apartment. He’d been violent. He’d—

  I hadn’t fought.

  My breath left me in a whoosh. I hadn’t fought hard enough. Maybe if I’d have kicked harder, screamed louder. Maybe if I’d have hit him back more.

  I had a constant reel of maybes, but did it really matter? It was in the past. It had happened, and now all I had to do was—

  My skin crawled, my ears picking up the sound of a car halting outside the house. I hadn’t moved from Asher’s bed. It had been days since I’d last seen him, last heard his voice. Lola had come in and told me he was getting out today, but I wasn’t sure whether I was nervous or afraid to see him. I’d stayed here because Asher made me feel safe, but now…now I wasn’t sure about anything.

  The front door opened, and voices murmured from below. I couldn’t make any of them out, but my gut told me I knew who they were. Asher was here. I could sense it. Something happened to me when he was around. My palms got sweaty, my heart raced faster. Only he made me feel that way. Only he tied my stomach up in knots.

  Footsteps echoed on the stairs and my pulse thrummed quicker. He was coming to me. He was—

  The door handle turned, and I drew in what felt like the first breath I had in days. There was no mistaking the cologne that drifted into the room. I’d already known it was him, but this…this confirmed it. The door squeaked as he opened it up more, and a stream of light from the hallway basked onto the back wall. I concentrated on it, making out his shadow which got bigger with each step inside the room he took closer to me.

  “Elodie?” His voice was soft and rough. A weird combination that had me both on edge and relaxing all at the same time. “Sweetheart?”

  I placed my palm on my chest, trying to calm the erratic beat of my heart. I wanted to turn and face him. I wanted to give him a smile, one which said I was fine. But I couldn’t get my body to move. I couldn’t get my muscles to adhere to the commands my brain made.

  The door squeaked again, only this time the light disappeared, but I knew he was still in the room with me. I heard it—felt it.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, his voice breaking on the last word. “I should have…I shouldn’t have…I…fuck.”

  I held my breath, waiting for what else he was going to say, but when silence rained down on us, I finally listened to my brain for the first time in days and slowly rolled over. I couldn’t make him out, couldn’t look him dead in the eyes, but the movement was enough for him to shoot forward. “Asher.”

  His hand connected with the side of my face, soft and gentle. His rough but smooth palm had a sob working its way up my throat. I couldn’t hold it back, couldn’t push it down, not now that he was here. Not now that I felt safe again.

  “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” His words were choked, his emotions seeping through his voice, but I still couldn’t see him. And I was glad because it meant he couldn’t see me either. The darkness hid everything I didn’t want anyone to see.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered, trying to tell him I was all good. It was a lie. A lie I knew he didn’t believe from the way his fingers gripped me that little bit harder.

  “It’s not.” His hand left my face and I heard rustling, and then a second later the comforter lifted. “But it will be.” The bed dipped, and I sighed as his arms wrapped around me. “I promise it’ll all be over soon.”

  I swallowed, not sure what to say. I needed the images in my head to evaporate. I needed to pretend it didn’t happen. But the ache in my muscles and pain in my heart weren’t listening. They were bleeding, looking for refuge to be fixed. And that was what Asher was. He was the fix to all my pain. He was the only way I could see myself getting out of this darkness and back into the light.

  “I’m sorry,” I murmured, pushing my face into his chest. His pounding heart beat in my ear, and the sound settled me. He’d been gone for days, locked up somewhere he never should have been, and it was all because of me. I was the reason he’d been arrested. I was the reason he’d have this on his record for the rest of his life. If I’d never have met him. Never had—

  “You have nothing to be sorry for, Elodie.” His fingers pushed through my hair. “You hear me?” He tilted my head back, and I was finally able to make out the shape of his face in the darkness. “Not a single thing.” He moved closer to me, his forehead connecting with mine, and I drew in a deep breath. “What happened was not your fault.” His voice was low, but the roughness told me he was being serious. “This isn’t on you, sweetheart.”

  “I know, but—”

  “No buts.” He held me tighter, and I winced. I didn’t want him to know I was in physical pain too, not right then. All I wanted was to be in his arms and to feel secure. “We’re gonna get through this together. You and me.”

  I sighed and closed my eyes, feeling the tiredness taking over. “You and me,” I repeated.

  He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead. “You and me.”

  I let my body sink into his. Let him take some of the pain away. Let him just…be there. And it was all I needed in that moment—Asher’s arms wrapped around me, his promises echoing in my brain. He was all I needed.

  ASHER

  I wasn’t sure how much sleep I’d gotten, but it was more than I’d had over the last few days in county jail. I didn’t have to worry about the other inmates who would walk around the pod. I didn’t have to be on alert because of the weapons they’d bragged about making. All I had to be concerned about was the girl I held in my arms.

  At some point, the sun came up and let streams of light into the room, and for the first time since I’d walked into my childhood bedroom, I could see the bruises on her face—purple and green mixed in with her light skin tone—and I winced at the sight of them. I wasn’t sure what I was going to see when I looked at her, but now I was even more apprehensive about what I couldn’t see. I desperately wanted to ask her how she was feeling, but I knew she’d say she was okay. Elodie had a strength about her, one she’d learned over the years. She didn’t want to appear weak, but how was I meant to explain to her that relying on me wasn’t weakness?

  There was a strength in admitting when you weren’t okay. A strength in asking for help. But I wasn’t sure she knew that. I wasn’t sure she would be willing to—

  “Asher?”

  I pulled my lips into a smile and stared down at her as her eyes fluttered open. “Morning.” Her navy-blue eyes spoke of innocence, of freedom, of happiness, but it only took seconds for all of it to dim and pain to barge its way through. “Hey.” I placed my hand on the side of her face, frowning at her. “Don’t let it take over.” She knew what I was talking about without me having to explain. She felt it, lived it. I just didn’t want it to consume every part of her.

  Her eyes turned glassy, and I wondered how many times she’d cried since that night. How many times she’d let herself go. How many times she’d let herself feel everything. “It’ll always be there,” she choked out. “He will always be there.”

  I shook my head and sat up, determined to push my point home. “No. He won’t.” I stared down at her, not willing to look away. “I won’t let him take over.” I pushed some hair off her face, revealing more of the bruising. “It’s what he wants. He wants you to be broken. He wants you to be scared. He wants to control you.”

  “You don’t get it.” She huffed out a breath and tried to roll over, but
I kept my grasp on her firm. I wouldn’t let her run away from this. I wouldn’t let her escape into her own head.

  “No.” I inhaled a breath, trying to keep my anger at bay. It wasn’t her I was angry with, but him. He knew what this would cause. He knew how she would react. He knew his presence would be felt far longer than the few minutes where he’d ripped everything away from her.

  “Let go of me,” she ground out. Her gaze connected with mine, fire burning deep within her eyes, and I immediately let go. She needed to know she had a say. She needed to know I wasn’t him. She needed to know she had control of her own mind and body.

  “Elodie—”

  “No.” She rolled out of the other side of the bed and moved backward until her back hit the wall next to the window. One of my old T-shirts covered her body and came to her knees, but even that didn’t cover the bruises on her shins and scrapes on her knees. “You don’t get to demand how I deal with this.”

  “I know—”

  “You don’t know!” She threw her hands up in the air, tears streaming down her face. I wanted nothing more than to go to her, to hold her, to tell her it would all be okay, but I wasn’t sure it would be. Would she be able to work through this? Was I the right person to try and help her?

  “Sweetheart…” I stood slowly, making sure my movements weren’t too fast to freak her out. Her eyes were focused on me, but I wasn’t sure her attention was. She was somewhere else. Not here. Not with me. She was back there, with him. “Elodie, look at me.”

  “I am,” she gritted out as she wrapped her arms around her waist.

  “No, you’re not.” I moved around the bed. “You’re back there.” I tried to swallow past the lump forming in my throat, but the longer I witnessed the pain etched into her features, the bigger it became. “Don’t let him drag you back there. Be here. Be with me.” I held my hand out and halted a few feet away from her. “Let me help you, Elodie. Let me be there for you.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she choked out, shaking her head. “You’ll walk away from me.” She blew out a breath and looked down at the floor. “Everyone always walks away from me.”

  “Not true.” I took another step toward her. “I haven’t walked away from you yet, and I have no intention of doing so.” My stomach churned as I waited for her to look up at me, waited for her to really hear what I was saying. “Sweetheart, please look at me.”

  “I can’t,” she choked out. “I…I don’t want you to see me.”

  “Too late.” My lips quirked on one side. “I see you, Elodie. I see all of you. The good, the bad, the crazy, the happy, the sad.” I paused, waiting for her, then finally she lifted her head. “I see you, and I’m still standing here, waiting for you to take my hand and let me be the one person you want to lean on.”

  She flicked her gaze to my hand, and I watched as her chest moved up and down. “But what if you change your mind? What if you—”

  “What-ifs are just that: ifs. No one knows what the future will hold, sweetheart, but what I know is that I want to be by your side. I want to be the one who holds your hand when we’re watching a movie. I want to be the one who holds you while you sleep. I want to be the one who wipes your tears away as you cry.” I stepped forward. “I want all of that, Elodie.” I paused and stared into her eyes. “But what do you want?”

  Her gaze flickered over my face and finally settled on my eyes. “You,” she whispered. “I want you, Asher.”

  “Then take my hand.” She lifted her arm, her shaking fingers reaching for me. “Take my hand and I’ll never let go.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.” Her fingers met mine, and I grasped them, tighter than was needed, but I had to make her understand I meant every word of what I’d said. I needed her to get that they weren’t just words. They were what I would live by for as long as she would have me. She stood there, staring at me, letting me see into the windows of her soul, and I felt the pain, felt the sorrow, felt everything she let me. And I knew then what we had to do.

  “We need to leave,” I blurted out.

  Her eyes widened. “Leave?”

  “Yeah.” I stepped closer to her and wrapped my arms around her waist. “Just for a little while. My dad has a lake house. It’s a couple of hours from here, but it’ll give you the chance to heal. It’ll let us just…be together.”

  “But I have school and—”

  “We’ll figure it out.” I placed my forehead against hers. “Right now, you need to heal, physically and mentally, and the lake house is the perfect place for that.”

  “But what about the tattoo shop? What about…” Her fingers bit into my biceps, and I knew what she was remembering that night.

  “The guys can cover.” I rocked us back and forth. “I’ll head over there and pack up some of your stuff today, and then we can get out of here.”

  I didn’t know what I expected her to say. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react to my idea. It had come out of nowhere, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was what we both needed. We had to get away from here, even if it was only for a few weeks. We needed to heal. We needed to be together. We needed to start over somewhere where the memories wouldn’t haunt us.

  “Okay,” she whispered, and my body jerked from her voice.

  “Okay?”

  “Yeah.” She tilted her head back and looked up at me. “Maybe getting away from here will help?” She sighed, and I wondered if she truly believed what she was saying. “I need to…” She moved her gaze off of me and stared over my shoulder. “I need to shower first.”

  “Do you…do you want me…” I grasped the back of my neck as nerves flowed through me. I’d been so confident in what I was saying, but now I wasn’t sure what she needed. I wasn’t sure whether she’d ask for help when she needed it, or whether she’d try to push through. “I…do you need help?”

  Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and I could see the anxiety swirling in her eyes. I hadn’t thought twice about touching her since I walked into this room, but now I was wondering if I should have asked her. Should I have checked it was okay? Should I have—

  “I can do it,” she said, and her voice sounded more sure than I’d heard it since I’d walked into the room last night. She was determined, that much was clear. I was here whenever she needed me, but she was independent. It was what drew me to her even more. But she didn’t have to do it alone. She could lean on me. I’d already told her as much.

  “I can help if you need me to.”

  “I’ll be fine.” She stood on her tiptoes, placed a kiss on my cheek, and reverted back to the Elodie I’d first met. The one with fire in her eyes. The one with a determination like no one else I’d ever met. “You go and get everything else sorted out. The quicker you do that, the sooner we can leave."

  I nodded, not looking away from her. I wasn’t sure whether we were running away from our problems, or trying to heal, but either way, we’d be together, and right then, that was all that mattered.

  “I’ll go sort everything out and be back in a couple of hours.” I flicked my gaze down to her lips, wanting to place a kiss there, but it was too soon. For her and for me. We needed to take things slow, no matter how much I craved to wash away all the memories with my touch. Once we were away from here, we could start over, even if it was only for a fixed amount of time. “I’ll let my mom know.”

  “Okay.”

  I stepped back, hating that I was letting her go, but it wasn’t like I could take her with me. I was about to walk back into the shop where this nightmare had happened, and she didn’t need to be anywhere near it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  ELODIE

  I didn’t take my attention off him as he walked out of the bedroom. I didn’t move my gaze off the door as I heard his footsteps echo down the stairs. And I didn’t move an inch as I listened to the murmurs below me. I waited. Waited until the roar of an engine left the driveway. Waited as I heard more footsteps coming toward me.
Waited with bated breath as a knock reverberated on the bedroom door. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. I’d told Asher I’d be fine, but it wasn’t the truth. I’d done what I always did: pulled the mask over my face and portrayed a lie.

  But I had to do this on my own. I had to face the marks on my body. I had to look into my own eyes and push the pain away.

  “I’ve turned the shower on for you, Elodie.” Lola’s soft voice soothed part of me but also had me even more on edge. She’d seen me at my worst in the hospital, and I was afraid to look her in the eyes again. She’d let me stay here, and she hadn’t pushed. She’d just been there if I needed her. Yet all I wanted to do was hide away.

  “And I put some fresh towels on the towel heater too.” There was a beat of silence and then, “I’ll be in my bedroom, so if you need help, just shout and I can come in, okay?”

  “O-okay.” I gripped my hands in front of me, trying to keep myself calm, but it wasn’t working. The bite of my fingernails in my palm wasn’t giving me any relief. If anything, it was making my anxiety worse. I opened my mouth and croaked out, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” I counted to five, waiting for her to move away from the door, and when her footsteps echoed, I finally ventured to the bedroom door. The only time I’d come out of this room was to use the bathroom, but even then, I was in a daze, not really taking note of things around me. This room had become my safe haven, the one place where nothing could get me, but as soon as I opened the door and walked out into the hallway, I wouldn’t feel that any longer.

  Maybe I should have been honest with Asher. Maybe I should have asked him to stay—told him I did need his help.

  I shook my head. No. I had to do this. I had to do this on my own. I’d never relied on anyone. I’d always fought my way through everything. I’d taken everything the world had thrown at me and I hadn’t given up yet, so I refused to fall at this hurdle. All I had to do was push my shoulders back and get through this.