Page 62 of Asher

Evelyn.

And myself.

Because I should have hired the best private investigators to find her and paid no matter how much it would cost to get it all done before I dared to let this beautiful woman anywhere near me.

I knew she felt me coming because her head jerked up, and her eyes hit mine; I almost had to take a step back at the torment that blazed in those sage green eyes of hers I adored.

In the next instant, she was using the wall for support, standing up, rising to her full height.

“Tell me,” she demanded as tears trailed down her cheeks.

“Doll Baby, please, don’t do this.” I pleaded with her.

Hoping beyond hope that she wouldn’t walk away from me over this.

But the longer I denied her request to tell her who that woman was, the more I knew.

I knew that she would go.

And then I would lose my reason for breathing.

The reason I got up in the morning.

My very own redemption after a life of pure and utter hell.

“Tell. Me. Who. That. Woman. Is.” Gritting out each word through her teeth while those tears flowed down her cheeks almost had me going to my knees.

I thought about lying to her.

Thought about telling her a white lie.

But I knew that she would see through it.

She knew me better than I knew myself.

So, with everything to lose, knowing this would gut her, yet unable to force a lie through my vocal cords, I said the two words that were going to end us before we even had a chance to really begin, “My wife.”

That was when I watched the strongest woman I have ever met hit her knees and sob.

Broken, painful sobs poured out of her.

And the sight of it wrenched my heart right out of my chest.

Because I was the dumb motherfucker that had caused it all.

At the sounds she was making, I heard boots thundering through the clubhouse, headed in our direction.

But I never took my eyes off Chloe.

My arms moved of their own accord, my hands skimming her skin, wanting, needing to haul her in my arms, bury my face in her hair, and apologize.

But just as she felt the contact of my hands on her, she flinched.

She. Fucking. Flinched.

That was when I heard Priest rumble, “What the fuck?”

Rome grumbled out, “She okay?”