TOO LATE : CHAPTER 41 – 50
Chapter 46
Asa is watching me, waiting for my reaction. I try to control it-to hide my fear, my heartache, my own agony. But knowing we’re both at the hands of Asa right now leaves little strength for pretending.
Don’t react. Don’t react. Don’t react.
I repeat these words in my head while Luke speaks the same silent words to me with his eyes.
That’s what Asa wants. A reaction. I do whatever I can to not give him the one he expects.
He’s standing now, so I look up at him with the most innocent expression I’m capable of right now. “Asa, what are you talking about? Why is Carter handcuffed?”
He stares down at me like he’s disappointed. Like he expected me to come out and say I knew Luke was undercover, or in the least, that I’m sleeping with him. He smirks. “You still think I’m stupid, Sloan?” His eyes slowly slide over to Luke.
“So I guess it’s okay if I do this then, huh?” He lifts his gun and strides toward him, just like he did in the second before he shot the guy upstairs.
I immediately jump up, grab his arm and scream, “No! Asa, No!”
He doesn’t shoot him.
Instead, the hand that’s holding his gvn swings around and h!ts me so hard, I fly back onto the bed.
He didn’t even need me to admit what was happening between me and Luke. My reaction just gave it away.
He’s on top of me now, gripping my wrists, pressing his forehead to the side of my head. “Sloan, no,” he says, his voice instantly strained. “No, no, baby.” He pulls back and his eyes are full of hurt. “He was inside you? You let him inside you?”
I’m crying too hard to admit it. I’m crying too hard to deny it.
His entire face pulls into a grimace, as if he thinks this is the absolute worst thing that could possibly be happening right now.
He just shot a guy upstairs, and he’s more upset that I might have cheated on him?
I turn my head to the side and squeeze my eyes shut.
This is it.
This is how I’m going to die.
Asa buries his head in the crevice of my neck and shoulder and mutters, “I can’t rememberer if I locked the door.”
When he crawls off me, I try to process what he just said, but it was so random and my pulse is racing too fast to process thoughts, I don’t even know what to think.
As he’s walking toward the door, I turn my head to find Luke. His hands are cuffed behind his back around the desk chair.
But he quickly stands, slipping his arms up and over the back of the chair, and then he sits down again, this time with his arms directly behind his back without the barrier of the chair.
It all happens so fast, it takes me a second to realize that he’s not even cuffed to the chair.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 41 – 50
Asa must not realize this or he’d never turn his back to him.
My eyes flick to the door and Asa is locking it. My eyes flick back to Luke’s and he’s shaking his head, warning me to stay calm.
He can’t bring his thumb to his lip, but he’s biting it, running his teeth across it.
I tug at a strand of my hair, just as Asa rests his back against the bedroom door.
He places his gvn flat against his cheek and looks straight at Luke. “I already told you about the first time I fked her,” he says. “It’s your turn.”
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 41 – 50
Asa-POV
SEVERAL YEARS EARLIER
Asa
My Dad is standing at the window, watching for the men.
He watches for them all the time. He tells me if they find out where we live, they’ll shoot him. Then they’ll shoot my mom and then they’ll shoot me.
He says after they shoot us, the men probably won’t even tell the police.
They’ll leave us all here and our bodies will rot inside this house and the mice and roaches will eat them.
“Asa!” he yells from the window, pointing at the front door. “Check the door again!”
I already checked it for him two times, but he never believes me that it’s locked. He says, “Check the door again,” every time he looks out the window.
I don’t know why some days he thinks the men are coming for him and some days he doesn’t care. I slide off the couch and crawl to the door.
My legs work, so I could walk to the door just fine, but sometimes I’m scared if the men show up, they’ll shoot me, so I crawl when I pass the big window.
I check the door. “It’s locked.”
My Daddy looks at me and smiles. “Thank you, son.”
I hate it when he calls me son. The only time he calls me son is when he’s scared of the men who are going to shoot him and then my mom and then me.
When he’s scared, he’s really nice to me and makes me help him do things, like push the couch against the door and unplug all the things that have electricity.
I’ve been helping him a lot today and he keeps calling me son.
I like it better when he doesn’t call me anything and he just sits in his chair all day.
I crawl back to the couch, but before I make it there, I feel my dad squeeze my arm. “They’re here, Asa!” he whispers. He pulls me to my feet and says, “You have to go hide!”
My heart beats real fast inside my chest and I nod.
My dad is scared of the men a lot, but they’ve never actually shown up before.
I look out the big window while he pulls me across the living room, but I don’t see anyone. I don’t see the men.
My dad pulls me out the back door and down the steps. He kneels down and grabs my shoulders. “Asa, hide under the house and stay there until I come get you.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want to.” It’s dark under there and once I saw a scorpion.
“You don’t have a choice!” he whispers real loud. “Don’t come out until I come for you or they’ll kll all of us!”
He pushes me toward the opening that leads under the house. I fall to my knees and my hands sink into the mud. I don’t look behind me. I crawl as far as I can so the men don’t see me.
I pull my knees up to my chest and I try to be quiet when I cry so the men don’t hear me.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 41 – 50
***
I got really cold and hungry and cried until the sun came back up. But my daddy said not to move, so I didn’t. I still haven’t moved.
I hope he doesn’t get mad, but I peed on myself while I was sleeping. I haven’t peed on myself while I was asleep since before my last birthday.
If the men haven’t klled him yet, he’s going to be so mad at me for what happened.
I can hear them walking around inside the house. I don’t know if they klled my Dad.
My Mom was in the bedroom where she stays most of the time, so they might have even klled her, too, if they found her.
But they didn’t kll me, because I did exactly what my dad said. I stayed here and I’m not moving until he comes for me.
Or until the men are gone.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 41 – 50
***
I got really cold and hungry and cried until the sun went down again. But I still didn’t move.
My daddy said not to, so I didn’t. But my legs don’t feel like they’re a part of my body anymore. My eyes keep closing.
I’m not so thirsty anymore because there was a little water coming out of a pipe next to me and I put my mouth on it and drank some of it.
I think the men klled my mom and dad, because it’s real quiet in my house now. I haven’t heard the men walk around since the sun came up, so maybe they left.
I know my dad said not to move, but if my dad were still alive, he would have been back to get me.
But he never came back.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 41 – 50
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