Page 101 of Sentinel's Kiss

Chapter 25

Ashley sat on the edge of her bed, staring balefully at the frilly pink comforter that her mother refused to get rid of, even after all these years. Ashley’s bags were packed. Her story about her ordeal was filed. She had been able to give closure to Sarah’s murder and let her readers know justice had been done. And if she left out a few important details, in the long run it didn’t matter.

Summer was over. Her journey that began two years ago with a young mother-to-be being murdered ended when the divers declared Stan’s body lost. Ashley hoped the police never found him, so they wouldn’t have to explain the bullet in his head.

There were no more reasons to hang out in the Hamptons or the rest of Long Island. It was time to go back to Manhattan and enjoy the all-night deliveries and the exciting nightlife. She should be ecstatic, but her stupid heart was still broken. Not to mention she couldn’t close her eyes at night without fantasizing about Josh—the stupid jerk.

He had kept his promise and come to see her the day after her ordeal. Josh had roared up on Ryder’s Harley, dressed like a thug and looking for trouble. He found it. Her father nearly had another heart attack. The only way she could calm him down was by assuring him they wouldn’t leave the property. So they went down to the gazebo overlooking the water and had tea and finger sandwiches. It was all very civilized and cordial, and completely lacking in passion.

To his credit, Josh told her everything. He didn’t leave a thing out. He killed people on the orders of a person named “the Judge.” Travis Munson was right. The SOBs were the vigilantes he couldn’t prove they were. Sentinel had shot up the Poconos Hunting Club after finding out the owner had been involved in covering for the murderer of the three women, Kelly, Mira, and Alison, which Ashley had been originally investigating as being connected to Sarah. He wasn’t sure how the fire got started, but Josh told her Ryder was piecing it together and the evidence was leaning toward the nurse/hooker Dina Kenner.

Sentinel killed their victim turned vigilante, Lewis Jones. Sentinel failed to see the irony in that. Lewis had been seeking revenge and it had destroyed him and three innocent women and their unborn children.

Ashley felt a twinge, but thoughts of Dawn didn’t overwhelm her anymore. Not after she almost got her wish after twelve years to join Dawn and Brett in the afterlife. If her time in the trunk had taught her anything, it was that she was finally ready to live her life.

Warden, of course, had killed Stan and dumped his body off the dock that night. She couldn’t find it within her to feel badly about his death. Should he have gone to trial? Maybe. But there was a certain savage justice to how he met his end.

Ethically it was a mess, but Ashley didn’t have the strength in her to care. She also didn’t know how their relationship was going to move forward after Josh told her about the SOBs.

“You’re going to get caught,” she had said. “No one is that infallible. When you make that mistake, you’re going to go to jail.”

“No. I’ll eat a bullet first,” he had told her.

She couldn’t deal with that right now. Not in the matter-of-fact way he said it. As if his life wasn’t important and it wouldn’t shred her into a thousand pieces.

“I lost the love of my life when I was sixteen,” she had said. “I can’t go through that loss again.”

He had kissed her on the cheek and left.

Ashley rubbed her stomach and thought of Brett, smiling, crazy Brett. Part of her fell into the gorge with him when his bungee cord snapped. And when Dawn came prematurely and joined her father, Ashley’s life had been over. She lived on the edge, taking risk after risk. Hoping that the newest crazy stunt would let her join her child and lover.

But she lived. And she got older. She never got wiser, but she grew accustomed to the thrill and danger. Only lately did she see the mark it left on the people who loved her. Who knows if her and Brett’s relationship would have survived over the years? Maybe they would have grown to hate each other. Maybe they would have left each other as friends. Or maybe they would have stayed together because of Dawn. It was like she was robbed of the life she should have had. And now that she thought she had found another one with Josh, he took that all away with his quest for justice. But just as she couldn’t stop Brett from bungee jumping off bridges, she knew she couldn’t stop Josh from leaving every night at two a.m. to kill a bad guy.

However, neither could she lie in bed and wait for the phone call to say that his luck had run out.

So it was back to Manhattan.

“Ashley,” her mother said, knocking lightly on the door. She looked as crisp and coiffed as ever, even in this humidity. If Ashley ever tried wearing that white tennis dress, it would be stained or ripped in seconds. “There’s a person here to see you.”

Raising an eyebrow at the slight pause her mother made before the word person, Ashley followed her mother down the stairs to the foyer to see what sort of reprobate had dared to ring the Carvers’ doorbell. It couldn’t be Josh. She would have heard the commotion long before her mother came to get her.

Ryder leaned against one of the columns and smirked at her.

“Mom, this is Senator Brooks’s daughter, Ryder.” Ashley took great pleasure in the quick scowl that Ryder hid and her mother’s appalled expression, which vanished just as fast.

“Won’t you come in and sit down, dear?” her mother said with horrified grace.

“No thank you, ma’am. Ashley and I are going for a ride.”

“We are?” Ashley said. Now it was her turn to scowl.

“Doesn’t that sound lovely?” her mother said.

“I don’t have a helmet,” Ashley said.

“Why would you need a helmet?” Her mother looked from Ryder to Ashley, before her gaze narrowed on the leather vest that Ryder wore with the Sentinels of Babylon patch.

“I’ve got one on the bike,” Ryder said, and turned without waiting to see if Ashley would follow.