Southern Secrets by Natasha Madison

Chapter 33

Asher

I pullinto the barn parking lot and let out the biggest sigh. I wrap my arms around the steering wheel and place my head on it. Walking away from her for the second time destroyed me. I didn’t think I could do it. I wanted to beg and plead for her to take me back. I wanted to promise never to lie to her again. I wanted to do all of that, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew I couldn’t drag her into this mess with Liam. Until we know where he is, I am staying clear of her.

Pushing off, I head toward the barn. It’s where I’ve been staying the past couple of days. Beau fought with me and so did Jacob and Ethan, but I couldn’t take them up on their offer. I also didn’t want Amelia to feel like they chose me over her.

I open the door to step into the barn, turning to turn the alarm off. I stop dead in my tracks when I see the alarm is already off. I turn around, looking into the dark barn, and the only light is coming in from the open door. "Hello?" I say, flipping the switch and seeing that none of the lights turn on. I take two steps into the barn, and I know someone is here. "Hello?" I call out again and walk a couple of steps in. The light from the top window gives a little light in the middle of the barn. Bales of hay are all around me. I stand in the middle of the room, looking in each corner, when I see a shadow on the right. I watch him walk toward me, the hair on the back of my neck sticks up when I see him finally in the light. "Who are you?" I ask the man who stands there wearing a linen suit. His black hair pushed back with the front strands falling onto his forehead.

"Well, well, well," he says once he’s close enough. "If it isn’t the son I never knew about," he says. I feel physically ill when he gets close enough, and I smell the aftershave he wears. "Got to say …" He shakes his head. "I did good with you."

"I am not your son," I say, my hands balled into fists at my sides.

He laughs, and everything from my blood to my bones goes cold. "With that attitude, you definitely are my son." I stand where I am, hoping I’m not here alone. Hoping someone is out there with me. "Your mother …" he starts. "I met her when I was on my way home." He looks up and puts his hands on his hips. "She was so hard to get into bed." I want to throat punch him, but instead, I let him talk. "But when I did, fuck, did she light up."

I swallow the bile that comes up my throat. "I would come home and go back for her. That is how good she was. When she told me she was pregnant, I laughed at her. Like I would take her word that I was the father. From what I saw, she gave it away to everyone." He shakes his head. "She wasn’t stupid, that is for sure. One night, the bitch followed me home. She rang my doorbell and pounded on the door, ranting and yelling that she was pregnant with my child. My mother took her in, and the next morning, my father dropped her off. She took five thousand dollars from them and told them she would get rid of you." He shakes his head.

"Guess she lied about that," I say. "I’m standing right in front of you."

"I should have made sure she went to the doctor. But by then, I was working my way into Savannah’s bed." He mentions Ethan’s mother.

"Your father paid off that situation also, didn’t he?" I look at him.

"My father was always so fucking charitable." The tone coming out of him is as if his father was so stupid.

"Not that charitable." I finally find the words. "Considering that in a month, I’ll be getting all of his money, and you’ll be stuck with nothing." The color leaves his face. I clap my hands and laugh. "Imagine that, the son of a bitch is getting everything." I take a step toward him. "And you are getting nothing," I hiss.

"That fucking money is mine!" he roars out. "It’s all mine. It was me who had to swallow all the shit he threw at me. I had to swallow my tongue every fucking time just to please him. Even when he fucked my wife," he says between clenched teeth. "But no more. I am not going to take anything anymore. And I’m not going to have you step between me and what I deserve."

"Is that why you burned down the barn?" I ask, and his eyes shine as if he is proud of it.

"You aren’t as stupid as I thought you were," he says, a smile filling his face. "Burning the barn was for two reasons. One was a warning for you to leave." He smirks. "Two was because I could."

"What were you going to achieve by burning down the barn?" I ask him. "It wasn’t even mine. I wasn’t even there."

"Exactly, but you’re here," he says. "I knew the minute I told that fine piece of ass that I was in town, you would be out on your ass and no one would be protecting you." He sneers at me. "I thought for sure when I hired that fucker to knock her out, you would have left. But did you leave? No, not my son. Why do I have to have sons who protect their women?" I lunge forward, surprising him, and grab the collar of his jacket, yanking him to me so his face is right in front of mine.

“If you fucking touch her,” I hiss in his face, my nose almost touching his, "I’ll kill you with my bare hands."

"Asher." I hear Jacob walk into the barn taking in the scene. "Don’t do it."

"Oh, look who it is," Liam says, and I let him go. He steps back, smoothing down the front of his jacket. "The other shmuck who got stuck raising my kid."

"You’re a fucking waste," I say. "Your father was right about you." I look at him. "What was it that he put in the letter he gave me?” I take a second to remember it. "You’re pathetic and a swine, nothing like a real man should be." I know the words hit right in the chest. "Nothing like he was. Nothing like he raised you to be. Instead, you were the pussy of the family." I shake my head. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah." Jacob nods his head.

"Get what?" Liam asks, his hair falling more and more in his face.

"Your confession," I say. "You were so eager to tell me how you planned to fuck me over." I shake my head. "Forget that you were stupid enough to light the match to burn down the barn and then smoke a cigarette, leaving your DNA at the scene." I laugh at how pathetic he is. "And the fact we found the money wire from you to the man you hired to take out Amelia. The fact that you cut the wires to the alarm system at this barn. Oh, and let’s not forget the motel room you’ve been renting out for the last month." He looks like he’s seen a ghost. "Little did you know that we’ve been on to you for the last three days. You see what you did wrong there, dear old Dad?" I say. "You showed your hand too soon. Thought your three of a kind would win. What you didn’t know was I had the full fucking house." I open my arms to my sides and laugh at him. "You did all that, and in the end, I. Still. Fucking. Win." I look him straight in the eye when I say the next line, the sound of sirens off in the distance. "And. You. Fucking. Lose." He reaches behind his back, and I see the gun come out as he aims it at me.

"Asher!" I hear yelled right before the sound of the shot rings out.