Page 80 of The Consequence of You
“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 rearsback 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.
