Page 24 of Wicked Heat

“He’s tied in with this somehow,” she says.

I shake my head. “No. No, I know him. He would never do that. Anne’s his little sister.”

Ari cocks her head and gives me her you know nothing, Jon Snow stare.

“Sister,” I repeat. “Sweet little girl. He adores her. He would never.”

“And let’s review the timeline, shall we?” She taps her index finger to the corner of her mouth. “Back when you and Anne were kidnapped, Damien knew all about his secret son and things were all snips and snails and puppy dog tails between them.”

She cocks her head as I scowl. “Oh, wait,” she continues. “That’s not quite right. Damien didn’t have a freaking clue. And as for your boyfriend⁠—”

“Dammit, he is not⁠—”

“—he was off working to become another Master of the Universe, with his primary motivation being to make enough money so that he could basically flip Damien and his entire family the bird by jamming that middle finger down into Stark’s life and totally nuking that family’s happy little existence.”

She’s not wrong. Over-the-top, but not wrong.

“In other words,” Aria continues, “he wasn’t exactly feeling warm and fuzzy to the Stark family. Was he?”

When I continue to say nothing, she takes a step toward me. “Was he?”

“If you ever decide to settle on a career, you should really look into being one of those scary professors you always see in movies.”

“He hated Damien,” she continues, completely ignoring my snark. “Like hated hated. Damien may have been clueless about Ash, but Ash knew all about Damien. He grew up watching this man—this freaking billionaire—live his amazing life with his kids and his beautiful wife. I mean, resentful much?”

Again, she’s not wrong. But—as I very reasonably point out—they mended fences. Ash knows why Damien never knew he existed. “They’re good now,” I say. “They’re a family now. He wouldn’t do that to them.”

“Maybe not now. But back when you were taken…”

I shiver. “No. It’s just not possible.”

“You’re being naive,” she says.

“You don’t know them,” I tell Aria. She’s only ever talked to any of them in passing. “You have to take my word on it. Ash isn’t someone who could⁠—”

I cut myself off with a shiver. No way did Ash have a hand in what happened to me and Anne. No way at all.

Are you sure?

The snarky voice in my head is my own.

Aren’t you forgetting Rory? You trusted him, too. You would have made this same speech for him, wouldn’t you? But he took you and Anne. He locked you up. And you’re only now learning what else he did.

“Bree?”

I snap my head up. “What?”

Her eyes are wide and a little scared. “I don’t know. You zoned on me.”

“I’m fine.” I shake off the memory. “Ash isn’t Rory. He wouldn’t do it.” I say the words firmly, but this time I’m not sure if I’m trying to convince Aria or myself.

For a moment, she stays perfectly still. Then she nods. Shrugs a little. “Okay, you say you’re sure. I won’t argue. We’ll assume that he didn’t have anything to do with the kidnapping. But that doesn’t mean he’s not involved now.”

I settle into the corner of the couch and rub my temples, fighting a building headache. “Why are you so determined to think that Ash is part of this?”

“You really believe it’s a coincidence that he was at the coffee shop?”

“Yes,” I say. But I have to admit there’s a tiny, tiny part of me that wonders.