Asher Kane's Arc

Chapter 12 of 6

The jeweler's mark pointed at Dante's crew, but not at one man. Asher left Kylie's house with the moonstone necklace in his fist. He needed the watcher's name before Kylie locked Sammy away for good. So he went back to the one place the crew gathered. He stopped at his own home first, the black manor quiet and cold, and stood in the dark hall until his hands stopped shaking. Then he drove to the garage. A figure waited by the bay door. Not Dante. His older brother. Vergil Sparda stood with his coat open, white hair flat under the single bulb. A red line ran down his cheek like an old scar. Asher had seen him at every festival, always off to the side, always watching. He had never once competed. He had only watched. "You followed us," Asher said. "The dock. The necklace." Vergil didn't move. "You left her something you made with your hands. Cheap leather." He tipped his head at Asher's wrist, where the spiked bracelet showed under his sleeve. "I left her something real. To see what you'd do." "To see." Asher stepped closer. "That's it?" "My brother vouches for you. Clears rooms for you." Vergil's voice stayed flat. "I wanted to know what he's protecting. Now I know." His red eyes fixed on Asher. "A boy who hides a girl from her mother. Weak." Asher's fists tightened. The old urge rose in him, the need to win, to put this man on the ground. He almost swung. Then he thought of Sammy locked in that house. A fight wouldn't buy her freedom. It would only feed this man what he came for. "You want to measure yourself against Dante," Asher said. "Fine. But you used Sammy to do it. Her mother thinks a stranger has a key now. She'll cage her daughter over your message." Vergil studied him. "Then that's your problem." "No." Asher held out the moonstone necklace. "You're going to fix it. You tell Kylie the truth. A man left it as a dare, not a threat. No key. No stalker in her house. Or I tell Dante his brother's been circling his crew to score points off him." Something shifted in Vergil's face. Not fear. Interest. "You'd use Dante against me." "I'd use anything," Asher said. "For her." Vergil took the necklace. He turned it once, the way Asher had. "You chose her over the fight." He almost smiled. "Maybe my brother sees something after all." He pocketed the necklace. "I'll speak to the mother. Once." He walked into the dark and was gone. Asher stood alone in the empty bay. He had a name now. He had Vergil's word. But Vergil would tell Kylie there was no intruder. And the moment Kylie stopped fearing a stranger, she'd start asking again why Sammy had that necklace at all.