Asher was definitely going to vomit. His instincts screamed for him to flee, to run away and hide, but he wouldn’t do that. He wasn’t a kid anymore, and he didn’t have to be afraid.
“You just left,” Kyle explained, still creeping forward. “You vanished. You left me there, and just fucking vanished.” Close enough to touch, he reached out and grabbed Asher’s wrist, squeezing it in a bruising grasp. “I guess everything worked out for you, though. I mean, look at this place. Must be nice.”
“Let go of me.” He tried to jerk his hand away, but Kyle’s grip tightened into a steel band, not letting him budge an inch. “Get your hands off me and get out of my house.”
“Or what?” Kyle taunted, his cracked lips stretching wider. “You’ll call the police? Have me arrested? I don’t think you want to do that. It would be a shame for everyone to find out who you really are. How many people do you think want to read books written by a whore?”
Asher’s heart jackhammered up into his throat, and his stomach twisted into tight, painful knots. “You have secrets, too.”
Kyle laughed darkly. “I do. How much do you think people will pay to hear those secrets?” He scanned Asher’s face with bloodshot eyes. “How much wouldyoupay, Ash?”
The icy tendrils of defeat spread through Asher’s veins, leaving him cold and shaking. “So that’s it? That’s what you want? Money.”
“I think sixteen million should be enough to keep me quiet.” Releasing Asher, Kyle extracted a crumpled piece of yellow paper from the pocket of his jeans and tossed itonto the countertop. “One million for every year since you left me rotting in that shithole.”
“I was a fucking kid.” Asher had been just as much of a victim as Kyle. Back then, he couldn’t even help himself, let alone help anyone else.
“So was I!” Kyle exploded.
“Asher, is everything okay?” Standing just inside the kitchen, arms folded over her pink blouse, Natalie glared daggers at Kyle.
“Everything is fine,” Asher answered, standing up a little straighter. “Kyle was just leaving.”
Kyle extend a hand to her. “Kyle Anders, and you are?”
Natalie stared at his hand as if he’d offered her a dead slug, arms still crossed over her chest. Her gaze snapped back to his, and those sky blue eyes sparked with protective ferocity. “Natalie Stone. How do you know Asher, Mr. Anders?”
Kyle laughed. “Oh, we go way back, don’t we, Ash?”
Forcing himself to move, Asher stepped in front of Natalie, placing himself between her and Kyle. He hoped the guy wouldn’t be stupid enough to put his hands on her, but Asher wasn’t willing to take the chance.
Kyle paid him no attention other than a fleeting glance. He watched Natalie intently, his head cocked to the side. “You look familiar.”
Relaxing her defensive posture, Natalie tried to push past Asher, but he held his arm out across her chest, holding her back.
Kyle snorted. “He thinks he needs to protect you.”
Asher refused to rise to the bait. “You need to leave. Now.”
“You heard him,” Natalie said when Kyle didn’t move. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
She was fire and ice, calm and wrath, and Asher didn’t doubt she would go to battle with this stranger to protect him.
Tucking his hands into his pockets, the picture of ease, Kyle backed away. “It was nice to meet you, Miss Stone.”
“I can’t say the same,” she quipped back.
Kyle flinched, but recovered quickly. “You have my number,” he told Asher. Dipping his head, he nodded toward the yellow piece of paper on the island. “Don’t take too long to think about it.”
Watching his retreating back as he strolled out of the kitchen, Asher let out a long, shaky breath. The questions would come now, questions he didn’t know how to answer. Questions he didn’twantto answer. He should have known better than to think he could outrun his past.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Asher shook his head.
“Okay.” Taking his still-outstretched arm, Natalie steered him toward the nearest island barstool. “Do you want me to set Maddie on him?”
Despite his racing heart and trembling limbs, Asher chuckled. “She is a little terrifying.”