Page 5 of Off Limits
"Medical condition," Asher repeated skeptically. "That's your explanation? That's why you're sweating like you ran a marathon and shaking like you're going through withdrawal?"
"It's complicated?—"
"So uncomplicate it!" The frustration was building in Asher's chest, familiar and acidic. Always secrets, always things he wasn't allowed to know. "What is it? Some kind of mental health thing? PTSD? You’re hiding during the full moon like some kind of?—"
He cut himself off, but his mind finished the thought anyway.Like some kind of werewolf.Which was insane. Completely insane.
There weren’t any of those up here. They had their own lands, their own territories. Asher had seen a few in the city, coming and going from their own business, but never at home.
"No," Asher said, crossing his arms. He was being a brat, and he knew it. Fuck it. After everything he’d been through, he was allowed. "I'm not going anywhere until you explain why you're on my property, looking like you're about to have some kind of breakdown?—"
"For once in your life, just do as you're told!"
The words cracked through the air like a whip, and suddenly Asher was seventeen again, standing in this same spot while his father shouted about responsibility and disappointment and everything Asher would never be.
It was exactly the wrong thing to say.
"Fuck you," Asher spat, stepping closer until only a few feet separated them. "You don't get to show up here and give me orders. You're not my father—thank fucking god for that."
Gabriel flinched like Asher had hit him. His breathing had gone ragged, harsh, and when he gripped the doorframe, Asher heard the wood creak under the pressure. But then he squeezed his eyes shut, visibly gathering himself. When he opened them again and met Asher's gaze directly, there was something different there—not the desperation from before, but something steadier. Man to man.
"Tomorrow," Gabriel said, his voice low and controlled despite the tremor in his hands. "Give me until tomorrow. I'll explain everything, I promise. Just... not tonight. I can't tonight."
The directness of it, the way Gabriel was looking at him—not like Ray's disappointing kid but like an equal—threw Asher completely off balance. He'd been ready for more orders, more condescension. Not this.
"Fine," Asher said curtly, not knowing what else to say. "Tomorrow. But if you're not here with actual answers, I'm calling the sheriff."
Relief washed over Gabriel's face, so profound it was almost painful to witness. "Thank you," he said, with such genuine gratitude that Asher felt a twinge of guilt for his hostility. "Tomorrow. I promise."
Asher nodded stiffly, turning to head back to the cabin. He'd made it only a few steps when Gabriel called after him.
"Asher?"
He paused, glancing back over his shoulder.
Gabriel stood silhouetted in the doorway, his expression unreadable in the shadows. But when he spoke, his voice carried a warmth that made something flutter in Asher's chest.
"It's good to see you," he said softly. "Despite everything. You've grown up."
Something warm and unwelcome fluttered in Asher's chest at those words—at being seen, at being noticed as more than just Ray Sutter's disappointment of a son.
He squelched it ruthlessly, refusing to acknowledge the complicated mix of emotions Gabriel's presence stirred in him.
"Yeah, well. Three years will do that," he replied, forcing a casual shrug. "Even to disappointments like me."
Gabriel's face did something complicated that Asher couldn't read in the shadows.
"You're not a disappointment," he said quietly.
Asher's next step faltered, his foot catching on nothing as the words registered. He couldn't—wouldn't—turn around. Couldn't let Gabriel see what those words did to him, how desperately he'd needed to hear them from someone who'd known both him and Ray. His throat felt tight, and he had to swallow twice before he could get his feet moving again.
By the time he reached the cabin door, his armor was back in place, sarcasm and indifference wrapped around him like a shield. But his hands shook as he turned the key in the lock.
Inside, with the door locked behind him, Asher leaned against the solid wood and let out a shaky breath. His heart was racing, though whether from anger, confusion, or something else entirely, he couldn't say.
Gabriel Stone. Here. On his property. With some mysterious "condition" that necessitated isolation in a building his father had kept off-limits for as long as Asher could remember.
What the fuck.
