Page 30 of Forever Found

As Asher got us off of the property after dealing with security, I felt able to relax a little more and breathing became a little easier. I could still feel Hilton looming over me from the flashback, still smell his cigar scented breath around me, and hear those words Kane had said too.You’re mine.

I loved Kane, and I knew when he had said that, that he hadn’t meant it in the same way Hilton had. I wasn’t a possession to Kane and deep down I knew that, but his words had shaken me, especially when he said them with so much anger. Hispossessiveness and need for control were becoming crazy and I just couldn’t handle it any more.

Add to that how hard Adam had been working to avoid me, and how little he had spoken with me since he came back home, and I was hurting. That first day I had seen him at the hospital, he’d held me so tightly and we’d slept together in that tiny bed for hours, me wrapped safely in his arms. He kissed me before I left him later that day and told me he loved me, which I’d emotionally returned, because I did love him so much. But since then there’d been no contact. No kisses. No hugs. He hadn’t so much as tapped me on the shoulder. He was staying away from me and every single time he did that, it broke another part inside of me. That terrified me, because I knew I was running desperately short on pieces of myself that were still intact enough to break.

“Try and rest, shortcake,” Eli whispered as he pulled me into his side and eased my head down so it lay on his shoulder. “The drive will take some time and you look so pale and exhausted. Please just try and close your eyes.”

“Don’t tell them where we are,” I whispered as I looked from Eli, up front to Asher.

“We won’t, sweetie. Just rest. It’s just the three of us for now,” Eli promised.

Asher nodded his agreement, so I allowed the reprieve of closing my eyes. I was so exhausted - physically and emotionally - that even my fears of nightmares couldn’t keep me from trying to sleep right then. I felt safe with Asher and Eli and I hoped that would be enough to keep away my demons for the time being.

CHAPTER 11

ASHER

“Is she still shaking?” I asked Eli quietly as I looked in the rearview mirror once again. I had barely had my eyes on the road since we set off from the house, too worried about Addy not to keep checking on her. She had been distraught, shaking, and crying, her words making little sense as she forced them out.

It had been a culmination, I was sure, of all of the stress and upset Addy had been dealing with and hiding from all of us since the kidnapping. Kane and Adam weren’t helping her either with the way they had both been behaving. I was most pissed with Adam, since he seemed to have cut all of us off in favor of internalizing his unfounded guilt and raging anger about what had happened the day Eli and Addy were taken. He refused to speak to any of us when we tried to engage him past polite conversation and he seemed to have been completely avoiding Addy as much as humanly possible.

Jordan was terrified his brother was using drugs again, and while I’d reassured him that couldn’t possibly be the case, I wasn’t completely convinced I was right. Adam had been leaving the house more and more often this last week, and he came back late at night, storming off up to his room before I could even try to speak with him. I hoped to fuck I was wrong, but I had to admit I was beginning to worry myself, and that worry wasoverriding my belief that Adam would never break his sobriety and go back to drugs.

“No, but it’s less now, and she finally relaxed against me, so I think she’s calmer,” Eli replied.

“Do you know what happened? Why did she want to get away before Kane got back?”

“I don’t know. She said something about him suffocating her and her needing to breathe. She was hardly making sense to be honest,” Eli sighed. “I don’t know what Kane did, but he definitely upset her.”

“He and Adam are both being complete dicks with her lately. It’s really starting to piss me off. She’s dealing with so much, she doesn’t need the two of them throwing their own issues at her,” I growled.

“She’s not handling what happened well, Ash. We need to do something to help her. Kane and Adam are so far up their own asses, I don’t even think they realize how much she’s struggling, and Jordan is trying, but he’s so busy with the center. We need to step in and at least get her to open up to us.”

“I know. I’ve been thinking the same thing for the last week at least. Longer if I’m honest. I’m just wary of pushing her too hard though. I feel like she’s barely holding on and I don’t want to be the one who pushes her to give up.”

“I know. I get it, brother, but we have to do something. We can’t all just keep sitting back and allow her to suffer like this.”

Silence descended once again as I took in what Eli had said. He was right. We had allowed Addy to hide the truth from us for too long, knowing that with each false smile or feigned moment of happiness she gave us, she was suffering inside. I had hoped theguys – the men who professed to love her – would do something to help her, but instead it seemed they had only made things worse until Addy had just crumbled earlier that day. Eli was right. We couldn’t wait and hope any longer. We needed to do something because it was hurting both of us to see her trying to hide her fear and pain.

A couple of very thought filled hours later, we were about halfway to the cabin that we had visited often as young boys. Our mother, who had inherited the place from her father, used to drive us out there for the day in rare times that she would be having a ‘good’ day. They didn’t happen often, our mother often drowned by her own depression and unable to even leave her bed most days, but when they did, they were the only time Eli and I ever just got to be kids for a little while.

After our mother died we never visited the cabin again. Our father would never allow it, and until the old bastard died I had assumed he had sold the property and the prime lakeside land off. It was only after his death and the reading of his will, that we realized we were the ones who owned out childhood sanctuary, which our mom had left to us in her will. I had considered heading out there a few times since, but the opportunity had never arisen. Now it felt good to be driving there, even if I was pretty sure we’d find the cabin crumbling down around us when we arrived.

My cell started to ring over the hand’s free in the car, and when I looked to the screen on the dash board, I saw Kane’s name there.

“Don’t tell him where we’re headed, Ash. She needs time,” Eli sighed.

“I know,” I nodded as I pulled the car over to the side of the road and grabbed my phone from the cup holder. “I’ll take it outsideso I don’t wake her,” I explained as I took off my seat belt and jumped out.

“Ash!” Kane barked the second I picked up the call. “Please tell me Addy is with you?”

“Jesus Kane, dial it back a bit,” I hissed. He was yelling down the phone at me. “She’s with me. She’s fine.”

“Where the fuck are you and why isn’t she answering her phone?” he snapped. “Jesus! I’m head of your fucking security, Asher! I need to know where the hell you’re going when you leave the house, especially with my girl in your damn car! She was supposed to stay home! What was she even thinking?” Kane ranted, barely taking in breath between his ire.

“Kane!” I barked. “Calm the hell down. You’re my head of security, not my damned keeper! And Addy is an adult. She’s allowed to leave the house without asking your permission. You think I’m going to let you treat my sister like she can’t make her own decisions, you’re very fucking mistaken, you controlling asshole!”

“I’m trying to protect her, or did you forget she was kidnapped just a few weeks ago?”