Wrong person 281

Chapter 281 

“Two months later, I was deployed. I didn’t come back for three years.” Ilis jaw clenches. “I thought they’d moved on. Forgotten about us. But the second I saw their faces again at the bar, I knew they hadn’t.” 

He rubs his chest absently, like the memory burns there. 

“They remembered. They knew who I was. And they saw you.” 

My mouth opens, but nothing comes out. 

“I panicked, Penny. Not because I was guilty or involved. Because I wasn’t. I just knew what they were capable of. I saw what they threatened Cal with, and I 

couldn’t risk that happening to you.” 

His voice softens. 

“So I made a choice. Get you as far away from them as possible. Keep you out of the fire while I dealt with the mess. Alone.” 

The weight of it all sinks into my bones. The young Asher, just twenty, marching into the lion’s den to save someone who didn’t know how to save himself. 

The scars he’s hidden under discipline and silence. 

And still, all I can think is- 

“You should’ve told me.” 

“I should’ve told you everything that night,” he says quietly, voice raw and steady. “I realized it about two seconds after you walked out the door with 

Boomer.” 

I swallow hard. 

He drags a hand down his face. “But I panicked. I knew what those men were capable of. I’d seen it. And I couldn’t… I couldn’t risk it. Not with you.” 

My heart twists painfully. 

His jaw tightens. “I didn’t think. I didn’t plan. All I knew was that I needed you out of danger, even if it meant you’d hate me.” 

“I could never hate you,” I whisper before I can stop myself. 

He flinches like I hit him. 

And then-for the first time in all the time I’ve known Asher-he looks unsure. Anxious. Like he’s standing on the edge of something and doesn’t know how to jump. 

“I didn’t want to lie to you,” he says. “I wanted to tell you. All of it. But you were shaken. You couldn’t breathe. And if you knew they targeted kids, women -“His throat works. “You’d try to help somehow. You’d put yourself in danger for someone else. You always do.” 

I close my eyes, because he’s right. 

And I hate that he’s right. 

Chapter 281 

He’s not looking at me anymore. He’s staring at the floor like the memory alone could break him. 

“That night at the bar… I saw the way one of them looked at you. That was the first moment I knew they remembered. And that they were coming.” 

I take a shaky step forward. “Asher…” 

“I know you don’t like being lied to,” he says quietly. “I know it probably brought back all that pain from Tyler. I get it. I do. But I swear to you, I only kept you in the dark because I was terrified.” 

“You’re not the type of man who gets terrified.” 

He looks up at that. And his voice is nothing more than a whisper when he says, “Only when it comes to you.” 

Silence stretches between us. Sharp and heavy and fragile. 

And in the middle of it, my heart aches for him. 

For the boy he was at twenty, standing between monsters and innocence. 

For the man in front of me now, breaking apart just to keep me whole. 

“I wanted to forgive you the moment I left,” I say. “But I didn’t want to teach myself that it’s okay when the people I love hide things from me.” 

His face crumples, just a little. Not weakness. Just… pain. 

I reach for him before I think it through. Before logic can catch up to instinct. 

He catches my hand in his, brings it to his chest, presses it over his heart like it’s the only thing keeping him breathing. 

“I’m sorry, Penny,” he says, his voice rough. “I’m so goddamn sorry.” 

My throat is tight. “I know.” 

And then he does something I’ve never seen him do. 

He closes his eyes and leans forward until our foreheads touch. 

His breath ghosts over my cheek, and I feel his hands tremble as they settle on my waist. His chest is rising and falling too fast, too hard. Like he’s holding 

back something massive. 

“I missed you,” he whispers. 

My fingers curl into his shirt. “I missed you, too.” 

And then we’re kissing. 

It’s not soft. It’s not tentative. It’s a crash of everything we’ve felt, everything we lost, everything we almost didn’t come back from. 

His lips claim mine like they’ve waited years. 

His hands tighten at my waist, dragging me closer until I’m flush against him. My fingers tangle in his hair, desperate, aching. The kiss deepens-hot and 

Chapter 281 

intense, his tongue sweeping into my mouth like he needs to taste me, remember me, make me his again. 

I gasp against him, and he groans like the sound shreds him. 

His hands move, sliding up my back, over my spine, gripping like he doesn’t want to let go. And I don’t want him to. 

His kiss is fire. Possession. Apology and promise and desperation all at once. 

And just like that-I fall into him. 

Again.