When The Gang Leader's Son Hates You

Chapter 25

Asher was kissing down my neck as he held me around my waist, the front of his body nuzzling into my back. He pulled my hair to the side and leaned his face down into my neck. I immediately stopped moving, tilting my head to the side to give him full access. 

The sound of the birds chirping and the water splashing from the waterfall faded into the background as I lost myself in Asher. Which was a miraculous feat given everything that was going on.

We weren't able to book into visiting my father in the prison until tomorrow afternoon so we decided to spend the afternoon at the waterfall. Asher suggested that we took a break from it all for the night and spend some time together. 

I couldn't say no to that and I suspected he knew that was exactly what I needed. The stress of it all was wearing me down and I was frazzled from everything that we had been finding out and my families involvement in such criminal matters. I needed the distraction. And Asher was a perfect distraction.

He suddenly pulled me down so I lost my balance and fell back onto him as we landed onto the soft grass.

Asher was lying on his back with me on his chest as he pulled me closer into him and tucked his head into my neck.

"What was that for?" I asked as I turned around on his chest to face him. He just smiled up at me with his striking blue gaze, shrugging with a half smile.

"I like startling you." He chuckled, with a gleam of amusement in his eyes.

"That's mean." I punched his arm and he laughed. The sight of his gorgeous smile gave me a burst of joy in my chest. I only started seeing him smile that broadly with true happiness in his eyes a few weeks ago. Now I understood why he was always so grim and angry all the time, he had been through so much in his short life. I wanted to know more about how he joined Neil's gang. I placed my hand onto his chest and looking up into his eyes.

"What happened after your Mom died? How did you end up living with your father?" I asked, curiously but hesitantly. I knew talking about this part of his life was a major trigger for Asher.

Asher dropped his head back into the grass and ran his hand over his forehead. I instantly was filled with guilt and moved off him, sitting to his side.

"I'm sorry, I ruined your good mood." I hung my head, hating the way his body had tensed up. Asher sat up and grabbed my thigh, pulling me back towards him.

"No, it's fine. I want you to know." His eyes were sincere and his features were calm, there was none of the hate that used to be there when he spoke about his mother around me.

"I didn't know what to do after my Mom died. I had lost my home, my mother and everything I cared about," Asher started, his voice even but held a croak that made me know this was hard for him. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

"I was sixteen and tried to get a job. I hadn't been to school for a few months anyway. I managed to get a job at the local fast food shop and started working there full time. I was under eighteen and not a legal adult yet but I refused to go into the system so it was hard to find a house to rent where they didn't ask for my details or age. I managed to find a place but it was pretty rough, there were a lot of drugs around and I eventually started dealing as well," Asher explained with pursed lips and gritted teeth like it was hard for him to remember that time. 

I swallowed the lump in my throat from hearing everything that he had been through and what his circumstances turned him into. I didn't know that he had started drug dealing too.

"I stayed there for six months before Martha reached out to me. I had never met her before that, she said she was an old friend of my mother's and had just moved back into the country, that is why she had only just heard about my mother's death at that point. They had fallen out a few years after I was born but she heard about my mother's death and worried what happened to me. I met up with her and she offered to take me into her home and provide money for me to live but I declined. I didn't know who she was and I already had a lot of enemies that I didn't want to bring into her life."