Page 86 of The Desperate Warrior

He motioned at the platter. “You can eat the rest later.”

“I will,” she assured him.

They chatted for another ten or fifteen minutes. Mostly, it was Asher talking about the cooking class and her listening. The conversation drifted to a funny story about Dr. Caldwell and how he once lost his temper on the golf course and then tossed his bag of clubs into a nearby lake.

She wasn’t sure when something shifted, only that something was off.

A few minutes later, dizziness swam before her eyes, and a fog settled over her brain.

“I’m not feeling so great,” she said, blinking. Her limbs felt heavy all of a sudden.

He eyed her in sympathy. “You’ve been through a lot. Maybe you’re just tired.”

“Yeah … probably.” Even as she spoke, her voice sounded distant—like it was coming from the bottom of a swimming pool.

He sat back in his seat, thoughtful. “I’ve been thinking about what Mindy said at your party.”

“What was that?” She took in a long breath, trying to clear away the fog from her brain. The oxygen helped her to feel a little better. Relief swept over her. Maybe Asher was right. She was tired—emotionally and physically—from everything that she’dbeen through. And it had been grueling to see Brock go. She needed to get some rest. That would help tremendously.

“Alyssa’s death hit me hard.” His voice was low and ponderous. “Particularly hard.”

Jules tried to sit up straighter, but her arms felt like they were filled with sand. “I didn’t realize that the two of you were close.” She tried to stave off the quiet panic seeping through her.

“Oh, yes. Very close.” He paused. “In fact, she was carrying my child.”

Jules gasped as alarm bells screamed in her mind. Asher’s impromptu visit, the baklava, the dizziness, her foggy brain. It was all connected.

His face morphed into something hard. “You took her and the baby from me.”

The walls started closing in. “You were the boyfriend,” she uttered hoarsely. She looked at the baklava, the horror of the situation overtaking her. “You drugged me.”

“Midazolam,” he answered smoothly. “I wasn’t sure if two bites would be enough to have an effect. But since you haven’t been taking any sedatives or narcotics recently, you don’t have as much tolerance. And the sugar from the baklava and ice cream helped amplify the drug.”

Groaning, she reached for her phone, but he leaned forward and slid it out of her reach.

The dizziness worsened, followed by nausea. This was an eerie repeat of what happened with Steve Randall. Except this time, Brock and Luke weren’t waiting outside to save her.

She was alone.

She tried to rise, but her body refused. “Why?” she croaked. Her throat closed. She coughed and gulped in a scoop of air, hoping it would help to clear her head. “Why are you doing this?” It was getting harder to breathe. A suffocating panic covered her as a prayer went through her mind.Please. Help me.

Resentment darkened his handsome face. “I loved her.” His voice broke. “I would’ve given Alyssa everything. But she left … because of you.”

Tears pricked at Jules’s eyes as she fought against the weariness pressing around her. “Alyssa said she met someone through a dating app.”

He grunted. “It was Alyssa’s idea to keep our relationship on the down low. Not mine. She was afraid that everyone at the clinic would think less of her if they knew we were together.”

“You broke off your engagement with Claire for Alyssa. That’s why Claire was so devastated.”

Her phone buzzed. If only she could get to it.

In a quick movement, he pressed the side button to silence it. Then he rushed on with his accusation as if the phone hadn’t even rung. “And then you ripped her away.” His voice took on a ragged edge. “Alyssa and I had an argument the night before. I called her early the next morning as I was getting ready for work, but she said it was over and that she was leaving.” A smug smile tilted his lips. “I put a tracking device on her phone so I could tell where she was going.”

Jules looked at Asher through the haziness of her brain. Behind his good looks and polished demeanor lurked a monster. Brock was right. There was something off about Asher Winslow. Why had she not listened?

“I followed Alyssa … tried to flag her down.” He choked out a sob. “She went off the ravine trying to get away from me.”

Jules’s heart twisted. “You killed her.”

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