Chapter 48: Chapter 48

JACE ‘JR’ ASHER/ TRIGGER

‘I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE COMING AND WHO’S THIS?’

Misha’s outstretched hands that were ready for a hug darted from me to the woman behind me.

At her late fifties, she barely looked like she’d aged let alone had passed the ‘I’m forty years old’ mark. With hazel nut eyes, auburn hair that was somewhere near Cassie’s and a few grey hairs in between, she was still a sight for sore eyes and as nosy as any mother was when you brought a woman home.

Lucia came forward tugging the seams of her sweater, pushing back a couple of stray dark locks from her face before she stretched out her hand to a curious Misha.

“I’m Lucia Amato, Jace’s friend. Your son has told me a lot about you and quite honestly it’s finally nice to meet the woman who raised this man”

Misha’s brow lifted even higher, hand on her left hip, a sauce covered ladle in her hand, she glanced at me then back at Lucia.

“You can tell me the truth honey. Did he do something to you? Did he pay you to show up here with him?”

I sighed, giving Misha the look of ‘it’s not what she thought’.

My days of introducing different women to my foster parents just so they could get off my fucking back were over.

Perhaps Lucia was the kind of woman who didn’t entertain lies let alone getting paid to be a pretend girlfriend to anyone’s parents.

“Oh no”, Lucia chuckled nervously,” He’s been nice, he took care of me given the circumstances I was under and I’m grateful that he brought me here when he shouldn’t have in the first place”

And just to smooth over things, I cleared my throat adding,

“Her father died; protocol dictates she be under witness protection but she’s safer here with us”

The same story I had been feeding myself was the same story I was feeding to Misha even though she could see through me like he saw through Jason Bates’ shit for all these years.

“Oh, you poor thing, I apologize for everything. I tend to be a little high strung when it comes to him, you understand that right?”

“Of course, any parent would be alarmed if her son brought a woman with him home”

Misha laughed and I fucking knew the words that would escape her mouth wouldn’t be anything near subtle.

“Not just any woman, a woman he hasn’t slept with and isn’t dating”

The silence that followed was damn palpable before she glanced between both of us and asked an even worse question,

“You guys haven’t slept together, have you?”

“No!” Lucia squealed before I did, her cheeks redder than their usual tint.

I growled for the most part of the night knowing for a bloody fact that I would be visiting the local dentist due to how hard my molars ground together.

“Good because you are too beautiful to settle for him. Come, come I’ll show you around”

Misha had already started walking, Lucia’s dark orbs met mine, a hint of horror and approval streaking them.

“Go with her, I’ll catch you later”, I said passing her a tentative smile.

Apprehensive at first, she followed Misha across the foyer and disappeared to the living room.

I walked outside glancing past the field that had been hidden by the forage down south and the darkness. On the lawn was an ATV parked and that told me Jason wasn’t out scouring the fields or hiking like we used to do when I was young.

I stepped off the porch walking past the driveway to the empty open stable where we all used to go horse riding.

Everything looked the same and except for Misha’s coldness towards me, it felt like home all over again.

The home I had left to find my place in the world, to find if the military, if B&A was the right calling for me.

I can’t say I regrated my past decisions but again at the same time I couldn’t say leaving without having the courtesy of telling my parents I was, was the right thing either.

Jason understood. He had led this life together with my father. He understood I had to get the job for my own clarity, to feel like I was doing some justice against my parents’ murderers.

Misha on the other hand, well we talked over the phone most times but she’d been salty about the whole thing and I expected her to.

She treated me like her kid and I was the little piece of shit who didn’t think of her as anything.

I kicked some pebbles off the ground sauntering towards the ‘Wyoming classic’ red barn that held the other stables and possibly where Jason was.

He loved the horses far more than he fucking loved the farm…maybe more than he loved his wife but who was I to judge him.

I hadn’t made it past the door when the smell of horse shit and old grannies wafted through the air. I recoiled though I still walked on.

The only horse that was still awake was the white menace breying as soon as it saw me.

“I missed you too, Lulu”

I touched the space between its eyes, it moved away for a minute before it sniffed me recognition etched in its eyes.

“It’s me”, I continued, it breyed.

Cassie’s Lucifer. Her horse. Her best friend.

She had been inseparable with this horse since I taught her how to ride it and since on Lulu let no one ride her except Cassie.

I remember how fucking shocked Misha was when Cassie named her horse ‘Lucifer’. Apparently she had picked up the devil’s name from church and had liked it no matter what her mother said.

‘It’s a devil just like me, momma’

‘People call me the devil all the time because of my red hair momma and since my name is not devil, my horse will be the devil’

Misha had rolled in her bed for weeks since Cassie started calling her horse that. eventually Lucifer was short formed to Lulu.

“Easy girl. Easy. I saw her and she’s fine and when she’s ready she’ll come home”, I petted Lulu, she stayed calm for a bit before she retreated to the edge of her stable calling it a night.

I strode down even further, spotting the stable of my gallant horse Zeus.

Older but still stronger than most of the other horses, he still looked like a stallion.

The stallion that got me half through the shit that was my life after my parents died.

“He’s missed you, you know”, Jason’s voice came from behind, I smiled for the fuck of it turning around.

Draped in the usual jeans, cowboy hat, a flannel shirt and boots, my old man was well—growing old with the grey stubble on his face stuck like barnacles on the Titanic.

“That’s not the message I got from Misha”

I knew she missed me but I was being a dick about it.

No words said between us, we lunged at each other for a bro hug and he whispered,

“Welcome home, kiddo”

And I reciprocated the hug because this man meant the fucking world to me blood related or not.

“It’s good to be home”

We parted from our hug, the first question Jason shot me with was,

“How deep are you with the missus?”

He knew about Lucia, of course he did.

“She’s a client”, I stated the obvious.

Saying client meant she was off limits to me and that was my hope that Jason understood that even if he read me better than Misha did sometimes.

“Sure. Help me with this horse shit, why don’ yah?”

Ten minutes later, I had a whole bunch of horse shit tainting my new kicks…some pretty hardcore leather boots I had bought with almost half my fucking salary and now they were—destroyed by fucking shit.

“This client, Lucia Amato—”

“I haven’t nor am I fucking her”, I elucidated before he brought her up with the assumption I had brought her here away from fucking civilization to fuck her.

“The fact that you are putting words in my mouth tells me what I need to know Jr. How much trouble are we talking about when it comes to her?”

He and Aunt Nance were the only people who stuck by the name ‘Jr’ and quite honestly every time they called me that a piece of me might have been drawn back to the past where the demons lurked.

“I’m surprised you haven’t done a background check on her already”, I joked, he picked another spoonful of the shit tossing it to the side.

“Mish made sure I did the minute Flames called me about my boy having a damn crush on a client”

Fuck Flames.

“The background check can only reveal so much. Do I need to up the ammo while she’s here? Bulletproof windows? Kevlar vests? The usual shit?”

“No. Everything’s handled. Callum Pallis doesn’t look like a threat but if he does, I got everything covered, I’ll protect her”

He flickered his eyes at me, I scooped another large shovel of shit stopping at his scrutiny.

“What?”

“Misha and I have been worried to death about Cassie but maybe we are barking at the wrong tree here. We should be more worried about you”

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN FINE ON MY OWN.

I wanted to say but instead I said,

“I can take care of myself, Jason. Always have, always will”

“Yeah I don’t doubt that but let’s just say I’m seeing a pattern between you and your father. Callan fell for your mother but he left out some details like her father being dead from her and that prompted her shacking up with that asshole Lucas.

You like this Italian girl. This Lucia Amato and by the look on your face, it’s more than a baseless crush. If it’s serious and you fancy this broad, you should start by spilling the truth before it’s too late.

Flames talked me through what went on. You weren’t there for her or to be her bodyguard, you were there to take down her father and when shit went sideways the plan was to let her be, leave her with Markovich and scram from there but you didn’t and she deserves to know you cared that much for her you abandoned direct orders from your commander”

I had been listening to every damn word he said so much that I hadn’t caught the other sounds in the barn because before I fucking spoke, the silhouette of a woman against the flimsy lights in the barn appeared in front of us.

“Misha, she—she says dinner’s ready”, Lucia said, her eyes withholding a shitload of tears.

Fuck me.