Because if Acheron screwed this up, he wouldn't be alone in his suffering.
The entire world would be destroyed.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ash knocked on Tory's front door. He heard the women giggling like girls in the living room before Kim snatched the door open and gave him a devilish grin that made him nervous.
"You like black, don't you, Ash?"
Not sure if he should answer, he frowned. "It's okay."
"But what's your favorite color?" she asked, stepping back so that he could enter the house.
He walked in and wondered if maybe he shouldn't be running in the other direction. What were they up to? "I've never thought about it."
Pam cleared her throat. "But if you had to pick one, what would it be?"
He flexed his hand on the strap of his backpack. "Anything not white." That was Artemis's favorite color and the thought of it made him sick to his stomach.
Tory huffed at his evasive answer. "Could you narrow that down a bit?"
Pam tsked. "She's not going to let you have peace until you answer."
Still apprehensive over what they had planned, he shrugged. "Uh, okay. Red I guess. Why?"
Something came flying at his head. Without flinching Ash caught it and it squeaked. Scowling, he opened his hand to find a small red demon duck that had black horns . . . it strangely reminded him of Simi in her demon form.
He scowled at the women. "Uh . . . thank you?"
They burst out laughing.
Ash glanced around at them as Kim moved to sit beside Pam. "You ever feel like you've just walked into the middle of a movie and they forgot to tell you what it's about?"
Kim waved her hand in dismissal. "Happens to me all the time at work. I just go with it."
Pam laughed. "Which is really bad when you consider she's a labor and delivery nurse."
"Oh shush," Kim said, playfully hitting at her friend on the arm.
Pam and Kim grabbed their jackets from the couch. Pam shrugged hers on. "Well since Ash is back, we'll leave the two of you alone. Ash, if she throws another hammer at you, let us know and we'll take her to task for you."
Baffled, he didn't move or speak again until after they'd left. "You have interesting friends."
Tory locked the door as she smiled in pride. "No, I have the best friends in the world. I don't know what I'd do without them."
Ash felt his heart sink as he thought of Nick. "Yeah I had one of those once."
She turned to him with a frown. "What happened?"
He slept with Simi and I killed him for it. Well, not in actuality. He'd only cursed Nick to die which was the same thing as having pulled the trigger that ended Nick's life. "We don't talk anymore."
They only fought and tried to kill each other. And it was all his fault. In one fit of anger, Ash had destroyed their friendship.
She placed a comforting hand on his arm. He was sure she thought nothing of it and yet it touched him deep inside that she would even bother to reach out to him at all. "I'm so sorry, Ash. I can't imagine what I'd do without my girls. It's so comforting to know that I can call on them anytime of day or night and they'd be here as soon as they could. Everyone should have friends like that."
"Yes, they should."
Tory picked up the pizza remains as she remembered Ash telling her that he had no family either. "So who do you call whenever you're down?"
He shrugged off his backpack. "I don't."
She paused. "You don't ever get down or you don't call anyone?"
He looked around the room. "So am I sleeping on the couch?"
She didn't miss the fact he was changing the subject away from the personal topic. "No, I have a spare bedroom upstairs. You can even leave your backpack there and have no fear that I'll touch it."
He nodded slowly.
The silence was a bit awkward as she tossed the pizza boxes in a garbage can. "We finally got everything the burglars screwed up put back in place. OCD reigns supreme once again."
"Good. Did you figure out what was missing?"
She ground her teeth at the innocent question. "Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Obviously they were looking for something that wasn't here—like you and the police thought. Which makes me wonder when they'll come back."
"You want to go to a hotel to sleep then? I'd offer you my place, but I only have a one-bedroom efficiency. At four hundred square feet, there's not a lot of room for two people."
Wow, that was a small place to call home and it told her a lot about his solitary nature. "Do a lot of entertaining, do you?"
He smiled. "I told you, I like to be alone. But I do have some friends we could crash with if that would make you feel more comfortable. Their places are huge and you'd have plenty of room to get away from me. I'm sure some of them even have toolboxes should you need them."
She patted his arm again as she laughed at his gentle jibe. "If it makes you feel any better, I missed you on purpose with the hammer. I'm a championship hatchet and ax thrower. Believe me, if I'd really wanted to hurt you, I would have."