Love Her Wilde

Brothers' Bond: Asher

"Can we... take a break or something?" I groaned, sinking back into my sofa and rubbing my eyes until I saw spots. "I feel like my head's going to explode."

"Do you wanna figure out who attacked your girlfriend or not?" Ace stated, not looking up from the piles of paper in front of him.

"Of course, I do," I answered, "but you're asking me the same fucking shit the cops did. I don't know anything else, Ace. I really don't."

Ace sighed and laid down his pen, setting back into the recliner he occupied and rolling his neck, a hard crack almost bouncing off my empty walls. "There's got to be something we're missing," he stated with another sigh. "I just don't know where."

"Me either."

"Do you have access to her page?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. She used my laptop for a while, so the login might be saved but it's not like I asked for her passwords or something."

"We need to get in there. We need to see her messages. I'm still not confident it wasn't some psycho fan."

"I think the police took my laptop anyway."

"Great," Ace nearly growled. "I'm sure that'll be a treat to get to."

"I mean, I should be able to get my laptop back at some point..."

"Not likely until the case goes to trial, and I won't be informed of any actual evidence until a DA takes over and they actually press charges."

"You mean against me?"

Ace shrugged. "Seems like they really want to."

I swallowed the lump of fear that had formed in my throat. "I didn't do this, Ace."

"I know that," Ace stated with a firm nod and a reassuring smile. "I know you had nothing to do with this, Ash." He sighed again and shook his head. "Honestly, the best thing to hope for right now is that when they wake Dylan up, she remembers something."

"If she wakes up," I mumbled, staring at the gray rug beneath my feet.

"You can't think like that, man. The doctors put her in a coma to help her body and her brain heal. Once they see some progress, they'll wean her off the drugs."

I gulped and shook my head. "Can we please talk about something else? This is too fucking much. I need a break."

Ace scoffed a bit and picked up the beer he'd been nursing for nearly an hour. "What would you like to talk about?"

"How's Summer? Is she okay with you being here?"

I watched a cloud fall over my brother's face. "Why wouldn't she be? I'm helping my brother," he stated, his voice suddenly dry and monotone.

"Okay..." I stated, arching an eyebrow at him. "Is something wrong?"

I saw Ace's tongue run over his bottom teeth under his lip. "Nothing's wrong."

I let out a little chuckle. "You're being really weird right now, dude."

Ace took a long swallow, draining the bottle in his hand. "We're separated."

My eyes widened in shock. Ace had been with Summer for almost his entire life, definitely as long as I remembered. She'd basically grown up alongside us. Hell, after my mom was gone, Ace and Summer were pretty much my parents. They were the relationship I'd always wanted. Supportive, loving, together through everything. My heart broke a bit thinking that was changing. "What happened?"

Ace swallowed, his chin jutting out as he clenched his jaw. He worked it back and forth a moment, his eyes focusing on the label he'd started peeling from the bottle. "Apparently I'm more like Dad than I was willing to admit."