Chapter 208 I Will Make Sure He Never Returns

Chapter 208 I Will Make Sure He Never Returns

Asher's POV

Ember dropped her words and turned to leave. I lay on the bed without moving.

She sighed and reached over to pull me up, but I grabbed her wrist and yanked her toward me instead. She let out a startled cry and tumbled right on top of me.

"What are you doing?" Before she could finish, I flipped us over and pinned her firmly beneath me on the bed.

"What exactly did I do to upset you?"

"Everything." Ember glared at me.

"Would saying sorry help?" I looked into her eyes.

She let out a cold laugh. "No."

"Then what would it take to calm you down?"

Ember shoved at me hard. "Drop dead."

"You really want me dead? If I die, who's going to satisfy you, you little minx?" My hand slid mischievously downward, slipping under the hem of her pencil skirt, fingers working their way past her underwear and into her warm, soft heat.

"Asher, I have work soon!" Ember's face flushed red with panic.

I dipped my head and kissed her, murmuring against her lips. "It'll be quick."

Half an hour later, we lay side by side on the bed, both catching our breath. Ember's cheeks were flushed as she straightened her rumpled clothes and went back to her room to change into a fresh pair of underwear. She glanced at her phone and saw she was already over ten minutes late. She turned and shot me an annoyed look. "This is your fault. Now I'm late."

I was in a great mood, so I took the blame without a second thought. "My bad. I'll drive you."

"I don't want you driving me. You'll probably lose control again in the car."

That made me laugh. "Is that really the impression you have of me?"

Ember nodded without hesitation.

"Don't worry. I promise I'll behave today. Just driving you to work, nothing else." I raised my hand as a pledge.

She looked skeptical, but she got in the car anyway. I drove her all the way to the Hart Group building. When she pulled the door open to get out, I quickly grabbed her hand.

"Aren't you going to get me a gift too?" I put on a look of deliberate grievance and kept my eyes on her. "You got Evan a pen, and I get nothing. Does that seem fair to you?"

"Evan gave me something first. Returning the gesture is just basic courtesy."

"What did he give you?"

"A bag."

"What kind?"

"Hermès," she said.

My expression darkened. My voice dropped. "And you actually kept it?"

"It was a welcome gift from a business partner. It would've been weird to refuse it on the spot." Ember almost laughed at my reaction. "Asher, can you be reasonable for once?"

I pressed on stubbornly. "You have to get me something too."

"What do you want?"

"Anything. As long as it's from you, I don't care what it is."

With me hovering over her like that, her heartbeat seemed to falter a little. She turned her head away, forcing a cool tone. "Get up first. I'll go find something."

I sat up immediately, like a dog that just heard its owner say dinner's ready. Ember went back to the bedroom and rummaged around for a while, eventually coming out with a deep navy tie — real silk, with subtle embroidered patterns woven into the fabric.

"Here." She held it out to me. "Happy now?"

I took it right away and turned it over in my hands, studying it carefully. The corners of my mouth kept curling up, the smile impossible to hold back.

When I got to Blackwood Group that day, I made a point of wearing the tie Ember had given me. I ran into Jasper, a business associate, at the entrance to the conference hall. He greeted me with a grin. "Alpha, you're looking sharp today."

I reached up and adjusted the tie at my collar, keeping my tone casual. "Oh, this? It's just a tie my Luna got me. I threw it on."

Jasper blinked, looking a little lost. "You have a Luna?"

"How did you know this tie was bought by my Luna?" I raised an eyebrow, completely dodging his question.

"I didn't say that," Jasper said, more confused than ever.

"My Luna picked this out herself." I smoothed the tie again, as if it were an afterthought, and looked at him. "Good taste, right?"

Jasper's mouth twitched. "Didn't you just say that?"

"Did I? Then let me say it again — my Luna got me this tie."

Jasper was completely at a loss. A mutual friend standing nearby had been watching long enough and finally stepped in, pulling Jasper aside and muttering under his breath. "Don't mind him. His ex-Mate bought him a tie, and he's been showing it off to everyone since the parking lot. You're the eighth person he's told."

"Ex-Mate?" Jasper caught the key word immediately.

The friend nodded. "Yeah. Ex."

My expression stiffened for a split second. Then I straightened up and shot back without missing a beat. "We're getting back together. She'll always be my Luna."

I leaned into the word Luna on purpose. The other two exchanged a glance and tried to hide their laughter behind their hands.

"Well, congratulations in advance, Alpha."

"When you two make it official, you have to send us an invitation. We'd love to come celebrate."

I didn't turn them down. "Sure. You're all invited."

By the end of that day, the news that I'd been bragging to everyone about Ember buying me a tie had spread through the entire business circle.

---

Zane's POV

The ridiculous rumor that Ember was getting back together with Asher reached me while I was sitting alone in my office at Sawyer Group, staring out the window.

My fingers were absently running along the old pen Ember had given me years ago.

My assistant came in carefully and relayed everything he'd overheard outside — every detail about the supposed reconciliation between Blackwood Group and Hart Group. I sat at my desk listening, and the pen in my hand slowly bent out of shape under my grip.

Getting back together? They were actually going to get back together?

I slammed the pen down on the desk in a surge of anger. The metal barrel rolled twice and dropped to the floor, the sharp crack echoing through the empty room. Ember wanted to go back to Asher. What did that make me?

I wasn't going to let this happen.

My assistant stood frozen in place, too scared to breathe, trembling at the cold radiating off me.

I spun around. My eyes were dark and unsettling. I gave the order in a low, flat voice. "Go find out if there are any rare gemstones coming up for auction — somewhere in international waters or along the border. The kind you'd use for an engagement ring. The rarer the better."

If Asher was going to propose to Ember, he'd need a ring. This was the trap I was setting for him. If he was reckless enough to go into that kind of lawless territory for her, I had ways to make sure he never came back.

My assistant hesitated, clearly baffled. "Mr. Sawyer, why do you need that?"

"I told you to go look into it!" I snapped, my voice cracking through the room. He turned and bolted.

He was back not long after, holding a freshly printed encrypted document. "Mr. Sawyer, I found something. There's a pigeon blood ruby that just surfaced on the black market near the border. A private auction is coming up soon."

I took the file and flipped through it. My fingertip traced the photo of the deep red stone, and a cold smile pulled at the corner of my mouth.

"Good." I looked up at my assistant and kept my voice low. "Leak the auction details directly to Asher's personal assistant. When Asher has the stone and is on his way back, I want you to arrange something on the road. Make sure he never makes it home."

My assistant went pale. "Mr. Sawyer, that's — legally speaking, that's murder—"

"I want him dead." I cut him off without blinking, my eyes completely empty. "Asher has to be gone for good. That's the only way Ember comes back to me."

He swallowed hard, still hesitant. "Mr. Sawyer, even if we put the information out there — do you really think Blackwood will take the bait?"

"He'll go." I dropped the lighter onto the desk with a sharp thud and said it with complete certainty. "Asher wants to propose to Ember. Knowing him, he'll want to give her the best thing in the world. He won't be able to walk away from that stone."

My assistant accepted the order and left without another word.

After he was gone, I sat alone in the dim office. The curtains were drawn tight, and the only light came from the small lamp on my desk. In one way, Asher and I were exactly the same — we were both willing to pay any price, no matter how insane, to have Ember.

But this time, I wasn't going to let Asher walk away alive and keep standing between us.