Chapter 18: Asher

I finished wrapping my hands and squared up facing the punching bag in front of me. We normally went to the gym by our office, but none of us wanted to leave Zoey home alone and I had to do something to work off this rage. I started working the bag as my mind went over everything. The squalor of Zoey's apartment. The sheer emptiness of it. My precious mate owned barely anything. Very few clothes and they were all worn and threadbare. Thin blankets to serve as a bed. I gritted my teeth as I could only imagine how hard her life had been, being without the simple basic necessities that most people never gave a second thought about. 

The abuse she suffered at the hands of her old pack. HOW?! How could they be so cruel to someone so sweet? How could they make someone so beautiful believe she's ugly? I saw the scars on her legs this morning while she was cooking and dancing. I wasn't sure if Deke or Jer had noticed. Those scars were from knife cuts, and I seriously doubted Zoey was the cutting type. Which means someone had to have restrained her and did that to her.

I punched the bag hard and sent it swinging wildly as I thought about Wilmington and the pain he'd caused her. The bruising and the cuts. The fear. His threats of rape and more. I recalled the shock and panic in Wilmington Sr.'s voice when I called this morning and pulled all our contracts with them. He knew that once it got out that we had canceled our contracts, and why, all the other businesses that used them would pull their contracts as well. Which meant he was going to go bankrupt. And I didn't feel bad about that at all.

I slammed my fist into the bag and the chain broke and the bag slammed into the wall.

"Damn, Ash."

I flipped my sweaty hair back out of my face and looked at Deke and Jer standing in the doorway. Jer was looking at the bag, but Deke was staring right at me. My chest was heaving as I started pacing.

"Fuck! I just… that fucking note. I just know it's Wilmington."

Jer nodded. "Yeah, that asshole has a death wish for sure."

"He's going to be more trouble than we originally thought. He's fixated on her. I think it's because she turned him down. He seems the type used to having woman fall for him and Zoey is a challenge for him because she told him no."

I nodded at Deke. "Yeah, I was thinking the same. But I'm worried about her safety. That note… he's having her followed and we didn't even notice. How the fuck did we not notice!? Not to mention every time I think about leaving her here at the house my wolf goes fucking nuts on me."

"Same. But we can't work from home forever, Ash."

"I know that Jer. I just needed to work out some of this anger so I can start thinking straight again. I know I can come up with a plan that lets us keep working and take care of our mate at the same time."

I watched as Deke went over to the bag and picked it up and rehung it with the now shorter chain.

"I put some calls out to my contacts. If someone was hired to do anything to hurt her, I'll know soon enough. Also, I put out that she was ours so that will help deter almost everyone from messing with her. There are only a few people that would dare risk pissing me off. And those few know better than to come between a wolf and his mate."

"I've hired more security from the company we've used for our more sensitive jobs, Silver Securities. We know they are all vetted and won't talk to anyone about their assignments. I've also got their top tech coming here to look over our security system and hook up some new gadgets that will let us monitor everything from our phones or office. Their best tail is coming with him. I'm gonna introduce him to Zoey and go over his job so she can feel safer going out, knowing someone is looking out for her. Also, he knows to watch for other people that could be watching her."

"Thanks, Jer. I'm sure this situation has Jonas in an uproar considering what his daughter went through about five years ago."

His daughter Deena had been bothered by a stalker that they hadn't taken seriously until she'd been kidnapped. By the time Jonas had found her she had been tortured, repeatedly gang raped, and broken. She still couldn't be around men other than her dad and her two brothers and never left their house. I didn't think she would ever be able to get over what happened.

"Yeah. He flipped his fucking lid. Hell, I had to insist on paying him. I'm wondering if Wilmington somehow had something to do with what happened to Deena and he just couldn't prove it. Jonas was very quick to offer to work for free to 'put that little bastard on ice,' his words."

"Damn. Yeah, that's a pretty good assumption. Which means Wilmington is usually very careful not to get caught. I wonder what it is about Zoey that's making him careless." Deke looked thoughtful.

I grabbed my water bottle and drank before dumping some over my face. Wiping the water and sweat off, I gave Deke a look.

"It's because to him she's just a little whore nobody who dared to refuse someone who is so perfect and God's gift to women. And if Jer heard her right, she said he had a small dick and wasn't worth her time. And he thinks WE are nobodies too. Dumb shit obviously doesn't pay attention to his dad's company which is now going bankrupt. I heard six other companies have canceled contracts with him since I pulled ours this morning. Word gets around quickly in our industry. And once Junior there realizes that his lifestyle is about to change… he is gonna blame her. She was the whore that ruined him. He's gonna want revenge and he is too much of a coward to attack us directly, so he's gonna go after her."

Jer cursed. "Fuck me. I didn't even think about how he'd blame her for their company closing. Shit…. this is worse. So much worse."

Jer went pale as I nodded.

"Yeah. He isn't going to let her go. This is going to be so much more than his fixation on her. She'll become a fucking obsession to him and he's gonna be desperate to get to her and make her pay for what happened. Even if the little shit brought it on himself."