Fighting Shadows (On the Ropes #2)(71)

“Oh God,” I breathed, stumbling back several steps, almost falling to the ground before getting my crutches back under myself.

The empty spot where her book had once lain gutted me.

She’s gone.



“You need to calm the f*ck down,” Till barked as I threw the malfunctioning coffee maker against the floor.

It had been two hours since I’d realized that Ash had taken off, and just like all the years before, I was waffling between despair and anger. For the first hour and a half, I drove around looking for her. But with every passing minute, hope of finding her faded further out of my reach.

Out of sheer desperation, I’d called Till, who had, in turn, called Leo.

The search for Ash Mabie was on all over again.

“No, what I f*cking need is a goddamn cup of coffee and a woman who doesn’t run away every chance she gets.”

“Well, I happen to agree with you, but right this very second, you have a broken coffee maker and a woman who may or may not be missing. So let’s calm the hell down and try to figure this out.”

Eliza stopped pacing around my couch long enough to ask, “Do you want me to make a coffee run?”

“No, I don’t want you to make a goddamn coffee run,” I snapped at her.

Till quickly corrected me. “Hey! Watch your mouth. She was trying to help.”

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and dropping my chin to my chest.

This was not happening.

Not again.

Not when I’d just gotten her back.

“Chill out. We’re going to find her. Just like we did last time,” Till assured.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “When? In three years, like last time? Just to keep her for forty-eight hours before she runs again? I can’t spend my life trapped inside that vicious cycle!” I yelled without lifting my head.

The problem was that I couldn’t step out of the cycle, either. Not as long as she was part of it.

Till squeezed my shoulder. “What are you saying? You want me to call Leo off?”

“No! I just want someone to f*cking find her and make her love me the way I love her. I want her to want to stay with me.” I scrubbed a hand through my hair, completely defeated.

Suddenly, Leo’s voice joined the conversation. “Well, now, you just sound like a *.”

My head snapped up to find him and Slate standing behind Till.

Leo took a step forward. “Get yourself together and stop acting like a bitch. Your woman will be here in ten minutes. She was with Liv at a thrift store across town.”

My eyes flashed between him and Slate as I attempted to get my emotional breakdown under control.

Only I couldn’t do that at all.

The sudden rush of relief left me shaky. Leo was right; I had never looked like a bitch more in my life. But I was completely okay with that.

She’s on her way home.

I blew out a loud breath and walked over to the couch, flopping down to hide the effects the adrenaline was having on my already weak legs.

“Awww, she was shopping,” Eliza cooed, joining me on the couch.

I cleared the lump from my throat before announcing, “I’m gonna kill her.”

Till chuckled. “It’s probably easier to buy her a cell phone.”

“How the hell did she end up with Liv?” I asked Leo.

“She called Q this morning and got her number. I’ll be honest. It was just luck that I found her so quickly. I was looking for my keys to come over here when Sarah told me Liv had taken the car to go shopping. Called Liv to tell her to get her ass back home and she told me she was with Ash.” He shrugged. “I’m still billing you though. And just so you know, Sundays are time and a half.” He laughed.

I didn’t. I was fuming.

I was pissed at myself for having overreacted and assumed the worst, but also at Ash for not at least leaving a note to let me know where she had gone.

But mainly at myself.

“All right. Thanks for coming over, but if she’s on her way back, I need all of you to get the f*ck out.”





“Where the f*ck have you been?” Flint growled from the couch the second I walked though the door.

I set my bags down on the ground and ran my fingers through my freshly trimmed hair. “I’m starting to sense a pattern forming here. Is that the way you’re planning to greet me every time you see me? Because I have to be honest. It’s not working for me.”

“It is when I’ve spent half the day thinking you took off again.”

“What?” I asked, surprised. “Why would you think that? I just went to run some errands.”

“You couldn’t leave a note?” he asked rudely.

I swayed my head from side to side, pretending to consider it. “I guess I could. I just didn’t think about it.” I shrugged. “Hey, guess what?”

He didn’t ask the obligatory, “What?” He just blinked at me in disbelief.

Finally, I asked, “What?”

“I spent the entire morning worried about you. I destroyed my coffee maker and was about twelve seconds away from a nervous breakdown. And you want me to ‘guess what’?” He threw up some very angry air quotes.

“Well I’m sorry to hear that, but it’s a really good ‘guess what.’” I waggled my eyebrows then repeated, “Guess what?”