Deep Burn (Burned Duet 2)

“Elodie?” Someone touched my arm, and I jerked, my heart pounding in my chest. “Sorry,” the small female voice said. I turned my head and recognized her as the girl who hung around with Knox. I waited, knowing whatever she was going to say wasn’t going to be good. If there was one person who didn’t believe me, it would have been her. “I…” She glanced around at her friends, all of them having wide eyes and mouths open in shock. “I believe you.”

“You…what?” I reeled back, not having expected that from her.

“I believe you.” She looked down, shuffled closer, then stared back at me. “I know he hurt you. I…I saw him hitting you once. I just wanted to say…erm…I wanted to say…if you need anything…” She trailed off.

“I…” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to react to what she had said, so I simply responded, “Thanks.”

She nodded, her fully made-up face pale. I wondered if he’d ever hurt her, and for the first time, I realized I may not have been the only person Knox had done this to. I’d been on the outside looking in, making judgements about the people surrounding Knox, but what if he’d led me to believe something that wasn’t there.

I inhaled a sharp breath as realization set in. He’d fooled me, just like he’d fooled everyone else. The truth had been set free now though, and there was nothing more powerful than that.

ASHER

My leg bounced up and down as I waited outside my lawyer’s office. Soft music played throughout the floor mixed in with murmurs and heels clacking on the marble floors. I didn’t know where to look as people milled about, moving from office to office in their pristine pressed suits. I was on edge, unsure what would come from this meeting. The last I’d heard from Mr. Bennet was when Elodie and I were back at the lake house, but that had been a couple of months ago. I was holding out hope that it was a good sign it had taken this long for my lawyer to call me into his office, but my gut told me it wasn’t. I only had three months until my court date, and if something wasn’t worked out by then, I’d be going to trial. A trial where the evidence was stacked against me.

But I didn’t regret what I did. Not even for a single second.

My gaze slid to the large dark wood double doors and to the woman sitting behind a desk beside them. She clacked away at her keyboard, her attention solely focused on her computer screen. She paused, tilted her head to the side, and pressed on the device attached to her ear. Her gaze snapped to me, her lips in a straight line as she said, “You can go in now.”

“Thanks,” I murmured as I stood. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to wear smart clothes to this meeting or not, but I’d figured it wouldn’t hurt, so although I was in a pair of black jeans, I had a shirt and tie on just in case. It was the first time I was seeing my lawyer face-to-face, and I needed him to know what happened that night wasn’t who I was. I’d worked damn hard my entire life to become a person I was proud of. I’d trained longer hours than anyone else I knew. I was top of my class, I’d risen through the military ranks, and I’d put my all into growing my own business, but I was afraid one act would define the rest of my life.

My body was stiff as I stepped toward the doors. I took a couple of breaths to try and calm myself down, then pulled them open. A man in a suit stood from behind his desk, a smile on his face. “Asher, so nice to finally meet you.”

I closed the door behind me and shook his hand, not knowing what to say other than, “You too, Mr. Bennet.”

“Take a seat.” He pointed at one of the chairs around a small round table in the corner of his office. His huge desk sat in the middle of the room surrounded by boxes marked with names and numbers, and his twentieth-floor office windows looked out on the rest of the city. “Let me grab your file.” He moved back to his desk as I sat down. He shuffled several files and finally produced one that he held up in the air as he walked back over to me. “I’ve been in touch with the DA,” he started, flipping the file open. He read over something, then glanced up at me. “Are you still sure we can’t get a statement from your girlfriend?”

I gritted my teeth and clenched my hands on my thighs. I hadn’t expected him to start out like that, but I supposed there was no way around it. Maybe he’d thought time would have changed my mind, but he was wrong. “No. She’s not making a statement.”

Mr. Bennet leaned back in his seat, keeping his attention solely on me. “I have to tell you, Asher, without her statement, there’s not much I can do.” He huffed out a breath, looking both tired and frustrated. “I have the statements from the arresting officers, the statement from the victim—”

I huffed out a laugh. “That piece of shit isn’t a victim.” I needed to keep my cool. It wasn’t my lawyer’s fault, but fuck, just hearing him calling Knox a victim was making my blood boil.

“In the eyes of the law, Asher, he is.” He raised a brow. “It doesn’t matter what he did for you to have…done what you did. Regarding your case, without the statement from your girlfriend, all we have is the evidence that you assaulted this man and put him in the hospital.” He shuffled the papers again, producing what looked like medical bills. “I have the itemized treatments and expenses here.”

I picked it up and rolled my eyes. I didn’t give a shit how many stitches he had or that he was in a medically induced coma for a few days. He deserved it, and more.

I pushed the paper back over to him. “So, what happens now?”

Mr. Bennet looked at me for a beat, but when all I did was stare back, he finally told me, “The DA has offered you a plea deal.” He inhaled a breath and leaned forward on the table. “Twenty years with the possibility of parole after eighteen.”

“Twenty years?” My chest felt heavy, each of my breaths harder to come by. Twenty years. I’d be gone for twenty years. I’d be in my fifties before I was a free man again, and Elodie…Elodie would be nearly forty. My fingers started to tingle, a sure sign I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. “I can’t do twenty years,” I croaked out.

“They wanted thirty, but I got them down to twenty,” Mr. Bennet said, tilting his head to the side. “But if we had your girlfriend’s statement.” He paused. “They’d have no choice but to lower the charges, which would mean there would be a real possibility of no prison time.”

I didn’t even have to think about it. It wasn’t a choice. “No.” I shook my head and pushed my chair back. “I’m not putting her through that.”

“Asher—”

“You heard what I said.” I stood, feeling like I was trapped inside a tiny room. I needed to get out of here. I needed to escape all of this. “She’s got her own trial to go through. I won’t make her do it twice.” I swallowed. “I won’t make her relive it over and over again.”

“She won’t necessarily have to get on the stand—”

“Can you guarantee that?” I whipped out, my nostrils flared as I glared at him.

“I can’t,” he said, his voice low. “We need her statement though, Asher. Without it, you’re…”

“Fucked?” I laughed and took a step toward the wooden doors. “If it means she’s protected from the interrogation that would happen on the stand, then I’ll do the twenty years. I’d stay locked inside a room for the rest of my life if it meant she was okay.”