"Am I a prisoner?" Ashley asked, arms crossed as she stood in the kitchen doorway of the White God's sprawling ranch house located on the compound containing his headquarters. She was weak and tired but healed. She recalled nothing about what happened from the time she began getting her ass kicked until she woke up in a quiet guest bedroom in a place she didn't want to be the next day.

"Can you cook?" asked the athletic blond man at the stove.

She snorted. "No." Dusty was at the top of the food chain, someone she'd met because of Xander's importance but never spent time with.

"Then I guess not," was his cool, surly response. "No one else in this fucking house can make a decent paella. Gotta do it myself."

Ashley gazed at him quizzically.

"You hungry?" he asked.

She nodded and sat at the breakfast bar. "You're Jonny's sister's husband, right?"

"I am. I'm also Damian's ops officer. I recruit, train and manage the Guardians in the Western Hemisphere." Dusty scooped out paella and poured it into a bowl with rice. He set it on the counter in front of her before returning to the stove.

Ashley said nothing, suspecting she knew why he was the one talking to her this morning. She stirred the paella to help it cool.

"I hear you've developed your skill pretty well," he added when she was quiet.

"Yeah."

"You interested in joining up?"

"Not really."

"Let me rephrase. How hard will you fight being conscripted?" he asked and sat down two seats from her at the breakfast bar.

She gave him a sidelong glance, suspecting the lean man knew more about her than he was letting on. "Pretty hard," she admitted. "I like being a college student and doing my own thing."

"That shit's not an option."

"Why not?"

"Because you fucked with Jonny. Whether or not you wanted to pick a side, you're stuck choosing now."

She took a bite of food. "This is good," she said after swallowing. "I hate Jonny and he …" She drifted off. He didn't hate her but neither was he really interested beyond the physical relief she provided.

"He saved your life. Brought you here to Bianca."

"I'm sure he had a reason," she said.

"It's the first time he's ever asked us for anything."

Ashley's heartbeat quickened. She didn't have the energy for the emotions starting to boil. "Oh, god," she said and dropped the spoon. "Brandon!"

"We're helping on that front," Dusty said.

"You know where he is?"

"No but we're going to work with Jonny to find him." He met her gaze. "Like I said. He's never willingly asked us for anything before. There's something more going on than you being mauled by vamps if he's willing to approach us for help, I think."




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