Four Brothers and a Bride-Chapter 165

ASHER

"Put it on loud speaker." I tell Ashton. The house falls silent as he takes the call.

"Where is he?" He asks coldly the second he takes the call.

"You know I can’t tell you that." Demi replies.

I ball my fists and grit my teeth. That bitch! It sucks to be right about her in this very situation. My brother is on the brink of death right now because we were all foolish enough to let Demi go. My heart breaks for Ashal when I recall him trying to free Demi just hours ago. He was actually concerned about her despite everything we’ve learnt about her past. How could she do something like that to the one brother that treated her right?

"Demi, please, let him go. I told you the truth. I AM THE ONE WHO KILLED YOUR FOLKS. If you need someone to blame or to take out your anger on, I won’t resist but please..." Ashton’s voice wavers with emotion. "Don’t hurt anyone else."

There’s a slight noise in the background before Demi responds. "If you want your family spared, I think you know what to do."

I nod to Duncan and sure enough, he is trying to track the call.

"I’ll hold a press conference and admit my guilt if that’s what you want. I’ll do anything you want but please, let me speak to Ashal just once. I need proof of life."

"Why? Because you need this call to last long enough for you to track it? I’m not stupid, Ashton. Even if you tried and discerned my location..." she hesitates, then adds, "Ashal will be dead the second your men invade this place. Is that what your family would prefer? Would you like to find his corpse instead?"

Mother closes a hand over her mouth to stifle her anguish.

"What can I do to have my brother back alive? Just say it!"

"Your birthday’s coming up soon, right? I need you to throw the biggest party your family has ever thrown. You’re going to invite everyone who matters in this country, from media personnel to A-list celebrities to politicians. I need the mansion jammed with the crème de la crème of society. That’s where you’ll make your big confession."

Of course, she’s going for the dramatic. I truly underestimated that wench.

"And how soon can I get Ashal back?" Ashton inquires.

"As soon as the confession is covered on national TV. If you try anything funny to foil this plan or to rescue your brother before I willingly release him, his lifeless body will be found in a gutter on the street."

"Demi...what if people don’t honor our invitation? You know the situation we’re in right now. What if we can’t get all the people you want to see at the party on such short notice? Our birthday is just in a few days."

"Do you have to ask? Ashal will die obviously. That’s what if. So, I suggest you find a way to get them there at all cost. Bribe them if you must but make sure the mansion is crawling with the elite or your brother will breathe his last on his birthday."

"But Demi..."

"One last thing, Ashton." Another pause. "I’ll be your date to the party. So, look your best."

"What?" She hangs up before he can get another word in.

What sick twisted game is Demi playing? I silently wonder.

Mother dries her eyes and walks up to Ashton. "Don’t blame yourself. No one here blames you. I was with her before she left today and I couldn’t discern her evil intentions. I thought I got through to her. I’m sure everyone here feels fooled by her. It’s not on you."

I swallow my need to vent and concur with mother. The last thing we need right now is to point fingers at each other. We have to band together to bring Ashal home in one piece.

"Duncan?" Father calls.

"We weren’t able to track it. The duration of the call was too short."

I go over to Ashton. "Mother’s right. Demi fooled us all. Don’t be hard on yourself. She even got me to doubt my doubts about her along the way. That’s how manipulative she is. Don’t worry, we’ll bring Ashal home."

"How can we trust her not to go back on her words? What if we do everything she asks and she still kills..." Ashley sinks into a sofa and covers his face with his palms, trembling. "What if she actually kills Ashal?"

"Then she won’t get away with it." Mother declares defiantly. "I’ll make sure she doesn’t, whatever that requires."

Ashton doesn’t appear comforted by our encouraging words. He turns on his heel and heads for the door. I run after him.

"Ash, where are you going?"

"I need to...I need some air."

"Hey, look at me." I force him to stare at me. "We can’t afford to be separated from each other right now. Who knows how she abducted Ashal. Can you take a walk around the mansion? Please? I don’t want to worry about you too."

Ashton drops my hands from his face. "She wants me to play her sick revenge game. I’m sure she won’t try to harm me, not until the D-day at least."

"Can you at least have a guard accompany..."

"NO." He belts out with red eyes, a warning to the men in suits ready to tail him. "I need to clear my head. Please, one hour."

"Let him go, Asher. He needs to process all this." Father echoes.

I frisk myself and chuck a car key at Ashton. "At least take one of your sport cars. That should be faster than the minivan." Although he doesn’t say it, I can feel the gratitude in his eyes. He gets into his orange colored McLaren and zooms out after a powerful engine roar.

Seeing him struggle not to break down in front of us hurts. I know he blames no one but himself. Not only was he directly connected to the death of Demi’s parents, he was also the one who married her into the family. Like that wasn’t enough, his blind love for her kept him from accepting the truth of my words. Now that everything has led us to this point where Ashal’s life is hanging in the balance, Ashton is going away to let off some steam aka cry his heart out for failing his loved ones.

Ashley comes to stand next to me. "I should go with him. He’s not going to self-harm, is he?"

I nod quietly. "He’ll likely return with a few cuts but nothing fatal." I turn to him. "He’ll be fine. We have to trust him to not act selfishly by causing us even more pain."

I return to father. "Are we just going to do nothing until our birthday? We can’t trust Demi to keep her word. She could hurt Ashal even more before then."

"Of course we won’t." He looks reassuringly at mother. "I know exactly where she is."

***

I knew I couldn’t keep her here as long as I wanted. Sooner or later, someone was going to feel bad and try to set her free. After she slid my phone off me, I knew she was up to no good. I had her phone tapped and also put a tracker on it so I could monitor her moves for a while. Now, not only do we know where she is and hopefully, where she’s holding Ashal, Duncan also has a record of the call she just made to Ashton."

"That’s really smart, father. Why didn’t you say anything before Ashton left? It would have helped him feel a bit better."

"He needs the time to sort through his feelings. I didn’t want to disrupt that."

"Where is my son?" Mother interjects. "Where is Demi keeping Ashal?"

Duncan clears his throat. "We’ve located the address. It’s a property that was bought by Liam Spellman five years ago."

"They’re still working together and she lied about it?" Mother rubs away a nasty ache in her temple.

"What are we going to do now?" I ask father.

"I’ll have the place monitored to see who goes in and out for the next four days before your birthday. Duncan will keep track of Demi’s calls and messages. If she plans to hurt Ashal at any point, our men will swoop in. I already have people ready to pay off Liam’s neighbors in that area so they can monitor the place up close."

I tacitly inform father that those measures won’t be enough for me and he nods in understanding. We’ll have to meet up privately and discuss other measures. I encourage mother to be strong.

"We’ll have him back. Don’t worry too much."

"I actually told her that there was a limit to her brutality." Mother sniffles. "I boasted about knowing what she was capable of. Do you think she took that as a challenge and had your brother thrashed like that?"

"Stop it, mother. Thoughts like that won’t help you right now. Asher’s condition has nothing to do with what you said or didn’t say to Demi. It’s always been her plan to hurt our family and nothing you could have said or done would have influenced her decision. She’s cold-hearted and manipulative. She tried so hard to sell us the idea that she was done working with Liam. She’s been lying to our face this whole time." I tighten my fists to rein in my temper.

"I’ll see you soon, mother." I kiss her hair. "I won’t be long."

I immediately drive to see Anna. At this point, I am certain she’s working with her friend. There’s no way she wouldn’t know what Demi is up to and for her to still be in support of this makes them just as callous as they accuse my family of being.

She appears shocked to see pull up at her house. She’s already in her night clothes.

"Asher? What are you doing here this late?"

"Are you proud of yourself? Are you happy with what your best friend is doing?" I shush her interrupting questions, ignore her puzzled expression and shove my phone in her face. "Look what your best friend did to my brother. I bet you two have had a good laugh over it."

"Oh my God, Asher. Is he okay? Is that Ashton?"

"Why? Did you and Demi plan to target Ashton first?"

"What the hell are you in about? We didn’t plan anything and I am sure there has to be some explanation as to why this video came from my friend’s phone. I know Demi. She would never..."

"YOU’RE LYING!" I yell, startling her into taking a few steps back. "That’s all you’ve been doing since we met. You’ve been lying to my face to stay loyal to your friend. I can’t believe you’d still support her even after seeing this."

"The same way you supported your family through everything they did?" She lashes back at me. "Demi is MY family too. She’s got no one here but me. I can tell you for a fact that she isn’t responsible for what happened to your brother. If she were that evil, I would know and we wouldn’t be friends." She snatches the phone.

"This must have been sent by Liam through her phone. She had gone to see him earlier today because he wouldn’t stop threatening her since she backed away from his revenge plot. He’s been blackmailing her ever since, threatening to pin the entire blame on her once he was done making your family pay."

"Yeah, right. Nice talk."

"Look, why is there no audio in this?" She continues defending Demi. "If Demi did this and was stupid enough to send the message through her phone, why wouldn’t she show her face once? I bet she wasn’t okay with whatever was happening here so the audio was removed. This has Liam written all over it."

"And how do you explain the phone call she made to Ashton right after, threatening him with Ashal’s life, huh?" Anna doesn’t flinch, nor does her defiant trust in her friend waver. "We all heard her over the phone and it didn’t sound like anyone was holding a gun to her head. I can’t believe how much she’s warped the minds of those around her to see her as a saint and not the devil she truly is."

"Watch your mouth, Asher. Nobody from your household has the prerogative to call anyone a devil."

If she was a man, I’d have punched her blind. If she was any other woman, I’d have slapped her but I find myself holding back not necessarily because I believed she was right about what she said, but because I’m starting to assess my actions before I take them. With the whole country perceiving my family as a bunch of heartless monsters, the last thing I want is to fuel that belief.

But with Anna, I probably still won’t hit her even if I could get away with it. I don’t know why I’m tolerating her.

"I don’t suppose you’re willing to help me stop your friend from killing my brother."

Her face softens. She takes my hand. "You have to believe me. Demi isn’t the one behind this. It’s Liam. He’s using her. Stop Liam and you’ll save your brother. Right now, I have to go find my friend. Who knows what condition she must be in if Liam manipulated her like this. I have to..." She trails off. "Demi?"

I turn around and sure enough, Demi is standing next to my car with her back to the fading light of dusk. My blood hums in my throat.

"There you are." I mutter before advancing towards her.