TOO LATE : CHAPTER 21 – 30
Chapter 25
Jon nods. “Special occasion?”
“Yep. Got engaged . Make it classy. None of the cheap sht.” I head toward the front door and I hear Jon laugh. When I turn around, the fker is still smiling. “Something funny?” I ask, walking back into the kitchen.
He shakes his head. “Is there anything not funny about you getting married, Asa?”
I laugh. And then I fk up the left side of his face.
Fking excess.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 21 – 30
CARTER-POV
I make it to my car in the parking lot. Somehow. I grip the steering wheel and lean my head back.
I have no idea where the line is drawn now, it’s so fucking blurred. I’m trying to do the job I’m here to do, but at the same time Sloan is making me question whether this is really the life I want at all. I have no idea if I was Carter just now or if that was all Luke. Luke is becoming Carter.
I’m pulling too much of myself into this job, but I have no idea how to not be myself when I’m with her. All the things I want to say to her. The things I wish I could do to her. The truth I wish I could tell her.
If I told her the truth about who I am and what I’m here to do, though, I’d be risking everything. My life. Ryan’s life. Possibly her life. The less she knows, the better.
I press my forehead against the steering wheel and try to foresee the inevitable shitstorm that’s coming our way.
I want to be with her. I want to be with her as Luke. But that can’t happen until we have enough on Asa to put him away for good. And we won’t be able to put him away for good until he slips up. He’s careful right now. He’s smarter than I initially thought.
But the more time it takes to get where we need to be in this investigation, the more danger Sloan is in. And knowing what I know now about Asa, leaving him is the worst thing she could do. There’s no way he’d let her leave peacefully. He’d hurt her. And I wouldn’t put it past him that he’d hurt her brother, too.
She’s stuck until he’s gone, and that could be months.
I lean back in my seat again and pick up my phone. As if I’m being punked, I have two texts from Asa.
Asa: Where are you?
Asa: Meet me for lunch at noon. Peralta’s. I’m hungry.
I stare at the texts for several seconds. This is out of character for him. He doesn’t text on his regular phone when it has to do with a job, so…he literally just wants lunch?
Me: Be there in ten.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 21 – 30
***
Twelve minutes later I’m weaving my way through the restaurant to where Asa is seated. He’s staring down at his phone when I take my seat.
“Hey,” he says, not even glancing up. He finishes the text and then sets his phone aside. “You busy tonight?” he asks.
I shake my head and pick up the menu. “Nope. Why?”
I look over the menu, but I don’t have to make eye contact to see that he’s smiling. He reaches behind him and then sets something on the table. I lower the menu and my eyes land on a box.
A jewelry box.
What?
He opens it and holds it out for me to take. I stare down at the ring, the dread making my skin itch. He’s proposing?
I try not to laugh. He’s fucking delusional if he thinks she’s going to agree to this. He also doesn’t know Sloan as well as he thinks he does, because this ring is nothing like Sloan. This ring is gaudy and showy. She’ll hate it.
“You’re proposing?” I hand him back the box and pick up my menu again like I’m not really interested.
“No, I did that already. Tonight’s the celebration.”
My eyes flick away from the menu and straight to his. “She said yes?” I had no idea nods could be cocky until just now. I force myself to smile. “Congrats, man. She seems like a keeper.”
Why did she not mention this to me this morning? Did she think I’d be mad? She should know that I’d understand why she would have said yes. She can’t very well say no to Asa with the position she’s in. Agreeing to it was the safe thing to do.
I just don’t know why she didn’t warn me.
He puts the box back in his coat pocket. “She is a keeper. She’s heroin.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Heroin?”
He shakes off my question and calls over the waiter. “I want a beer. Whatever you have on tap. And a cheeseburger, all the way.”
The waiter looks at me. “Same,” I say.
We hand over the menus and I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. It’s probably Dalton. I texted him on the way here to let him know I was having lunch with Asa.
I have no idea what this lunch is about, but I want to make sure the team knows where I am. Especially after Sloan said my name in her sleep. I half expected my agreeing to this lunch was a su!cide mission.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 21 – 30
*******
take a sip of the water already sitting on the table. “So when’s the big day?”
Asa shrugs. “No idea. Soon. I want to get her out of that fking house before she gets hurt. I don’t trust a single gddmn person around her.”
How thoughtful of him. He’s about a day late, though, but I’m sure Jon failed to tell him that.
“I figured she liked it there,” I lie. “Don’t you guys have some kind of open relationship? How does that work?”
Asa’s eyes narrow. “No, we don’t have an open relationship. Why would you think that?”
I laugh and casually bring up all the reasons why someone in my position should think that, even though I know better. “Jess? The chick you fked in your bedroom last week? The girl in the pool two nights ago?”
Asa laughs. “You have a lot to learn about relationships, Carter.”
I lean back in my seat. I try to keep this conversation going without seeming too interested, but I want to know every detail about why he’s wasting Sloan’s time.
“Maybe so. I assumed most relationships were between two people, but I guess I’m wrong. Relationships confuse me. As does yours.”
“As does yours?” he repeats. “Who the fuck talks like that?”
We’re interrupted by the waiter delivering our beers. We both take drinks and then he pushes his beer aside and leans forward, tapping his index finger against the table. “Let me teach you about relationships, Carter. In case you ever find yourself in one.”
This should be interesting.
“Is your father alive?” Asa asks.
“Nope. Died when I was two.” That’s a lie. He died three years ago.
“Well that’s your first problem. You were raised by a woman.”
“That’s a problem?”
He nods. “You learned about life from a woman. Lots of men do, it’s fine. But that’s what’s wrong with most men. Men need to learn from men. We work differently than society leads women to believe.”
I don’t respond. I wait for him to continue this rare display of charitable “genius.”
“Men weren’t designed by nature to be monogamous. It’s engrained in us to spread our seed. To keep the population going. We’re breeders by default, and no matter what society tries to force upon us, we’ll be breeders until we kll ourselves off. That’s why we’re so fking ho.rny all the time.”
I glance to my left, at two older women whose mouths are hung open, eavesdropping on Asa’s definition of the male species.
“Women are the ones who give birth,” I point out. “Are they not also considered breeders? Would it not also be in their chemical makeup to populate the world?”
He shakes his head. “They’re nurturers. It’s their duty to keep the species alive. Not to create it. Besides, women aren’t into sx like men are.”
I wish I were recording this. “They aren’t?”
“Fk no. They crave the expression of thoughts…emotions…feelings. They want to form a bond…a lifelong connection. That’s why they push for marriage, because it’s in their biological makeup to crave a protector. A provider. They need stability, a home, a place to raise their children. Women don’t have physical cravings like we do. So it’s only fair that we create the families for the women, but we also need an outlet to partake in our natural urges. When men fk around, it’s different than when the women fk around.”
I nod my head like I’m understanding his philosophy, but it’s making me ill for Sloan. “So in your opinion, women don’t have a biological excuse to sleep with more than one man. But men do?”
He nods. “Exactly. When a man cheats, it’s purely physical. We’re attracted to a woman’s hips, to her legs, to her a$s, to her t!ts. It’s all about the sxual act. Dk in, dk out. When a woman cheats, it’s purely mental. They’re turned on by emotions. By their feelings. If a woman fks a man, it’s not because she’s horny. It’s because she wants him to love her. That’s why I fk around on Sloan. And that’s why Sloan is not allowed to fk around on me. Cheating for a man is different than cheating for a woman, and that’s a fact, proven by mother nature herself.”
Fk. People like this actually exist. God help us.
“And Sloan is okay with this?”
Asa laughs. “That’s the thing, Carter. Women don’t understand because they aren’t made like us. That’s why men were also given the distinct ability to lie so well.”
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 21 – 30
*******
I smile, when all I’d really like to do is reach across the table and put an end to his ability to breed-an end to his ability to create life that might turn out like him.
“So what role do the mistresses play in all this?” I ask.
He smiles sickeningly. “That’s why God made the whores, Carter.”
I force a smile. He’s right about one thing-I can definitely lie well. “So the whores are for nature and the wives are for nurture,” I say.
Asa smiles proudly, like he actually taught me something. He lifts his beer. “Cheers to that,” he says. We clink our beers together and he takes a sip. “My father used to say something similar to that.”
“Is he still alive?”
Asa nods, but I notice the sudden tightness in his jaw. “Yeah. Somewhere.”
Our food arrives, but I’m not sure I feel like eating after that twisted lecture on Darwinism.
I definitely don’t feel like eating now that I know I’ll be seeing Sloan tonight. At her fking engagement party.
“You should give a toast tonight.”
I pause, mid chew. “Excuse me?”
Asa takes a sip of his beer. “Tonight,” he says, setting it back down on the table. “At the party. You should give a toast after I announce the engagement. You can string a sentence together better than any other fker that’ll be there. Make me look good. Sloan will eat that shit up.”
I force the food down my throat. “I’d be honored.”
*
*
*
Author note: Only two updates today, guys. Sorry. Blame Anna Todd, she’s making me actually leave the hotel and go to dinner with her. We’ll be on a train to Rome tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll get some more written on our way there.
Next up: Engagement party! Who’s excited?
Definitely not Carter.
Maybe if he finally gets to kss Sloan, it’ll give him something to smile about…
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 21 – 30
SLOAN-POV
I waste as much time as I can before coming home every day. The less I’m here, the better. After classes were finished up today, I went to the gym, then the library. It was after seven when I finally walked through my front door. Jon was sitting on the couch, glaring at me.
I rushed to the stairs and up to my room as fast as I could, but not before noticing his face.
I don’t know what happened after I walked away from him and Carter last night, but it’s apparent Carter wasn’t finished with him, because both sides of his face are black and blue now.
I make sure and lock my bedroom door. I don’t know if Asa is here or not, but I’m never chancing being alone with Jon again.
Once I’m safe in the room, I toss my backpack on the floor. My eyes instantly fall on the dresser. Specifically on the jewelry box sitting on the dresser.
He bought me a ring. He makes promises almost daily and never keeps them. The one time I want him to forget is the one time he actually remembers.
Just my luck.
I walk over to the dresser and open the box. I don’t even pick it up; I just push it open with my fingers, not really wanting to see it.
I immediately wince. Of course he would buy me this one; it was probably the biggest one in the jewelry store. Three huge diamonds make up the majority of the platinum ring, each diamond encased by smaller ones.
It’s seriously ugly as sht. Am I actually going to have to wear this thing?
There’s no hiding this. I knew I should have told Carter earlier today.
I just didn’t know how to tell the guy I’m developing feelings for that I just got engaged to someone else. To someone he loathes. Even if that engagement means very little to me.
I hear laughter outside, so I make my way to the bedroom window. There are coolers set up everywhere and Dalton is standing at the grill, flipping burgers.
Several people are lounging and standing around. Maybe twenty. Asa must have heated the pool. It’s like 65 degrees out and the water would be too cold to swim, but there are a few people in the pool already.
Asa only heats the pool for big parties.
Sht.
I spin around at the knock on the bedroom door. “Sloan!”
I rush to the door and unlock it, letting Asa inside. He’s smiling before he even makes eye contact with me. “Hey, future wife.”
Funny how what he deems a term of endearment can feel like an insult to me.
“Hey…future husband.”
He wraps his arm around me and ksses my neck. “I hope you got a lot of sleep last night, cuz you aren’t getting any tonight.” His lips drag up my neck and stop at the corner of my mouth. “Do you want your ring now or later?”
I fail to tell him I already looked at it, and that the ring just serves as further proof that he doesn’t know me at all. I tell him I want it now, because if I say later, that means he’ll make a big production out of it. That’s the last thing I want.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 21 – 30
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