My Personal Hell - D. Richardson (read with me .txt) 📗

I got about halfway up the stairs when I felt a gentle hand on my arm. I turned to stare right into Sadler’s eyes.

“Ailith, look, I’m sorry. I didn’t want…,” I cut him off with a small smile.

“It’s fine, I understand. You were just doing what you had to do.” He returned my smile and gave my arm a gentle squeeze, before turning around and leaving the house. Leaving me feeling very alone as I laid down on my bed.

I wasn’t alone for very long. Asher tapped on the slightly open door about five minutes later. I hadn’t even bothered to change my clothes so I just waived him in. He stepped inside, knowing not to close the door, and sat down on the edge of my bed. I moved up to the headboard and pulled my knees up to my chest.

“Can I ask you something?” his voice was soft, as though he were afraid of making me angry. At my nod he spoke again. “Why are you so determined to work when you don’t have to?” I took a deep breath and watched him pick at my blanket for a moment.

“I don’t really expect you to understand.” His eyes snapped to mine, barely concealing a small bit of anger. Though it was gone almost immediately it had definitely been there.

“I’m sure I can keep up,” to his credit he hid that anger very well.

“You’ve lived a good life, Asher. You’ve had supportive parents, who say they care about you and mean it. You’ve had the freedom to come and go as you please. To see whoever you want, do whatever you want within reason. With the knowledge that no matter what you do your family will still care about you. I’ve had my life scheduled and timed down to the minute for almost eight years. Where the consequences weren’t worth the deviation. My life has been dictated for me for a long time.

“I don’t want to feel like having a normal life is a privilege. Given to me by someone else. I can’t live a life where all of the good things in it are only mine because someone else has allowed it to me. I need to be free to make my own choices. To make my life my own.” He kept my gaze for several moments, until finally he went back to picking at my blanket.

“And Jacob, is he your choice as well?” I gazed at him in confusion.

“Jacob is a good person. A good friend, for as short a time as I’ve known him.” His eyes met mine again.

“How good of a friend is he?”

“I’m not sure what you’re asking, Asher.” The intensity in his gaze had me swallowing hard, and breathing started to get difficult.

Then I realize that he had somehow moved closer without my noticing. Until he was so close that our breath mingled. The only thing separating us were my legs that were still pressed to my chest. His eyes stayed glued to mine as his hand traveled up my arm, settling where my shoulder met my neck. His hands were big enough that I felt his thumb caress my cheek. All that was left was just a few inches.

Until finally, his lips met mine. I don’t know what possessed me to let him kiss me. I barely knew him really. But then I was kissing him back. My hands made their own way up to his shoulders, and into his hair. He was warm and intense, and by the time we pulled apart our breathing was ragged. He caressed my cheek one last time as I pulled my hands back to rest on my pillows.

“I guess I have my answer,” he mumbled before standing and making his way to my door. He gave me a small smile, as he left me to sit alone on my bed, not even remotely sure about what had just happened. Or what it meant.

Chapter 17

Asher

 

 

 

 

I closed the door, making sure not to close it completely, before my smile could get any bigger. She just sat there staring at me, not saying a word. I was hoping to knock her off balance, and it would seem that I succeeded.

Now I only had to keep her off balance. She would get used to being taken care of. All I had to do was keep showering her with kisses and whispering in her ear. Eventually she’ll quite that job and toss Wilt to the curb. She still had a lot to learn about pack etiquette. I almost looked forward to teaching her.

I didn’t miss her little exchange with Sadler though. He may prove to be a problem, which wouldn’t be unusual. I had known that they had grown close during her time locked in her room. But I didn’t think it would come to a point that he would apologize for following orders. Or that she would be understanding when he had ratted her out.

I can only hope that he continues to stay out of her life. He hadn’t even come by to say high to her since before the trial. I wasn’t too worried though. She would be too preoccupied with me, and he knew whose territory he was on.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t accounted for her lack of time. She kept working and staying after school. I barely saw her except for the rare occasion that she had a morning off. But then I only had a few hours to spend with her before she was off doing something else.

 

 

 

 

Ailith

 

 

 

 

Three days. It’s been three days since that kiss, and I haven’t had a chance to ask him about it. Every time I got the chance to see him we usually just sat around talking. And it wasn’t even about anything important.

We didn’t talk about my past, neither one of us wanting to bring it up. It was mostly just about everyday life. Since I didn’t have to hide working, I was able to tell a few funny stories about this customer or that. Of course, I didn’t tell him that I made nearly three hundred dollars a night. Partly from my actual paycheck, but mostly from the drunk customers who were primarily men.

Dance practice didn’t change, we still worked on the regular routines. But I did learn just how bad the cheerleader and dance team rivalry was. Most of the girls on the dance team were human, so the few of us that weren’t had superior control. Making the stunts that much more important.

We performed during basketball games while the cheerleaders performed during football. It seemed like a good arrangement. We get the floor, they get the field. But it turned out that they wanted both. They had apparently petitioned the school board to get rid of the dance team a few times. But the team had gone to state too many times for it to go through.

And guess who the captain of the cheerleading squad was. Christine Wilt. Jacob’s twin sister and Asher’s most recent ex. She started targeting me just as avidly as she targeted Stacey. The captain of the dance team. But I wasn’t as quick to rise to the occasion as Stacey was. She was a little put out because I sat with Jake and the rest of his friends at lunch instead of the team. But since I was one of their strongest she didn’t complain too much.

But all of that aside, including Asher, I was having some issues. Mostly in my combat lessons. Bastion was the head trainer. I was told that he was the best, and he was who was conducting my private lessons. By lessons I mean he knocked me on my ass repeatedly while I didn’t even raise my fists. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Every time he would come at me I would freeze. Bracing for the blow instead of fighting back.

It was bad enough that he said tonight was my last lesson if I couldn’t get past whatever was hindering me. He had already told Drake as much. So when I walked into the gym with my empty envelope addressed to Bastion in Drake’s handwriting, my hands were shaking. The envelope was my excuse for being there. If anyone asked I was to tell them that I was delivering orders. Apparently, that wasn’t too uncommon.

That is until I literally bumped into Sadler. I walked right into his back because I was watching the floor instead of where I was going. He spun around only to freeze when he saw me.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” he asked, a slight amount of concern in his tone, if not in his expression. I waived the envelope a little.

“Delivering a letter for Drake.” His brows rose, but he only nodded as he moved out of my way. I didn’t bother saying anything. The less I said the less anyone else had to go on. Instead I made my way back to the private training room.

Bastion stood in the middle of the floor, his impossibly wide shoulders were pulled back, his arms thicker than my thighs, and crossed over his chest. His hair was a dark brown with speckles of grey scattered throughout. His icy grey eyes held a penetrating look as though he could run you through with a simple look.

A scar ran from the corner of his eye all the down to his chin. He was a pretty scary looking guy, with his strength and demeanor, it was no wonder why he was Drake’s second in command. And trained every male in the pack that chose to be an enforcer.

“Are you ready?” his deep baritone vibrated through the room. It wasn’t as big as the gym downstairs. That was the main training room, where everyone was trained. This one was chosen for me because there were no windows and the door could be locked. I stepped up in front of him, squaring my shoulders, and gave him a nod. He seemed to like that I wasn’t that talkative.

But instead of squaring off with me, like he usually did, six men walked in through the back door, that led to an old office. They were all dressed identically, wife beaters and cargo pants. I also knew all of them. They were Drake’s closest enforcers and all of them had brought me a meal at one time or another during my incarceration.

Alexander, Dalton, Justin, Jacob, Macon, and Nevin, every last one of them were at least twice my size. And all of them surrounded me. I looked back to Bastion, his eyes met mine with cold indifference. My breathing picked up, dread made my stomach tighten. The hair on the back of my neck was standing on end, and for the first time in my life I wanted to run.

I hoped that he might give me an explanation. But all he did was look directly into my eyes and bark two words. “Break her.” I didn’t even have time to brace myself.

I took a kick to the stomach, and dropped to the floor. Fists connected with every part of my body that they could reach. I did what I could to protect my head and stomach, kneeling in the fetal position. But