Chapter Ten
EZEKIEL
I curse Aurelia George’s name once more while fighting a yawn.
It’s because of her that I’m up before the sun.
It’s because of her that my brothers are so blind and obsessed.
It’s because of her that I can’t seem to keep my thoughts straight. It doesn’t matter if I’m near her or not. I can’t stop fucking thinking about her.
“Zeke, goddamn it. Will you take the fucking shot already?” Thorin whispers from where he’s lying next to me behind a fallen tree.
Forced out of my head, I watch the grazing doe through the sight of the rifle pointed downwind, but I can’t bring myself to pull the trigger. Not when my mind is still overrun with thoughts of her.
Spitting out a curse, I lower the rifle. “What the fuck for? It’s not like we need the food. We’re out here because of her. What’s the point in pretending otherwise.”
Thorin cuts his gaze at me, and I feel the violence rolling off him before he shakes his head and stands with a growl. “Fuck this. I can’t deal with your shit right now. I’m going to go take a piss.”
Thorin vaults over the log, scaring off the doe and any chance at the game as he prowls away.
“Fuck you too,” I grumble. Turning, I rest my back against the tree and set the rifle down.
All right, so maybe he has a point, I admit after ten minutes roll around and then twenty and Thorin still doesn’t return.
Maybe it isn’t fair of me to sabotage their twisted little romance when they gave up so much for me.
It’s not even that I have a bad feeling about Aurelia.
But that’s exactly why I don’t trust what I am feeling.
Isaac and Tatum’s betrayal took me completely by surprise, so I obviously can’t trust my judgment. I used to believe there wasn’t a purer soul on this earth than Tatum, and yet every time I look at Aurelia, I see a halo of gold around her head.
I sure as shit never saw one around Tatum.
It doesn’t make any sense. Tatum was cold, but she was polite, agreeable, soft-spoken, and never taunted anyone.
Aurelia, on the other hand, is the complete opposite.
She is spoiled, combative, temperamental, vain, and can stare right through like you aren’t even there.
And yet her presence—hell, the mere thought of her—fills me with a warmth that lingers even when she isn’t around.
That part of myself begs me to believe she would never do what Tatum did.
That she would die before turning on Khalil and Thorin. Turning on Seth.
Turning on me.
And while I might have been wrong about a lot of people, I’ve never been wrong about my brothers. If Thorin and Khalil can trust her, put everything on the line for her, maybe I can too. It won’t be easy, but I owe it to them to at least start trying.
I’m getting ready to stand and hunt Thorin down to apologize when the two-way radio he has tucked in his pack buzzes to life. At first, I ignore the static until a high-pitched whine follows that tells me someone is trying to use our frequency.
It’s a public channel, so it’s not impossible, but in the decade we’ve been here, it’s never happened before.
“Sheriff?” a voice calls over the channel.
The sound is muffled but unmistakably female.
“Sheriff, are you there? Hello?” It crackles and hisses when the woman on the other end releases the receiver to wait for a response.
Could she be hurt? She didn’t sound in distress, but there was something familiar about the voice that was making my skin prickle with awareness.
Whoever it was has to be close if we’re picking up the signal.
And Thorin and I aren’t far from the cabin…
Cursing when realization dawns, I snatch up Thorin’s pack.
Did something happen? Was Aurelia hurt? Was Khalil?
My heart is pounding as I search Thorin’s pack for the radio. It feels like forever before I find it and yank it free. I’m getting ready to press on the receiver and ask her what’s wrong when the sheriff’s voice comes through loud and clear.
“Sheriff here,” Kelly speaks gruffly. “You’re early. Is there a problem?”
I’m frowning when the channel crackles again, and then it clears a moment later when Aurelia responds. “Not really,” she says dryly like she’d rather not be talking at all. “Just sticking to our agreement.”
“Our agreement was for the end of the day,” the sheriff returns.
“Yeah, well, I can’t really control when I’m at the cabin and when I’m not, so you’re getting this call at the start of the day.”
“Aurelia,” the sheriff begins with a sigh like this is an argument they’ve had before. I never realized she and the lawman were so close. “This is for your own good. I just want to make sure you’re safe.”
“I’m safe with them,” she snaps. “I told you that.”
“Yes. Well, you’ve told me many stories, but none of them are adding up. Until they do, our deal stands. You are to check in with me every day. If you’re late even once or miss a single day, I’ll lock those boys up and throw away the key. Am I clear?”
“Crystal,” she responds coldly. I feel goose bumps on my arm and fight the need to shiver.
“Good,” the sheriff says as if he’s unaware of her dark mood. “And, Aurelia?”
“What?”
“I still expect a call this evening before I leave the station. Is that understood?”
Aurelia doesn’t answer, and it takes both the sheriff and me a while to realize she isn’t going to. The amiable sheriff volleys a surprising string of curses sharp enough to make a pirate blush and then the channel goes dead.
Aurelia, I’m learning, tends to have that effect on people.
I’m not aware of my own rage building until I’m already moving. The radio flies from my hand and crashes into the tree before raining down to the ground in broken pieces.
Fooled yet a-fucking-gain.
I’m still sitting in the same spot when Thorin finally returns.
His expression is relaxed until he sees the broken radio and my foul mood.
“What the hell happened?” He quickly dismisses the radio and crouches in front of me.
His blue eyes are filled with concern as he watches me.
“Talk to me. What’s wrong? What can I do, Zeke? ”
I could tell him.
I could tell him everything I overheard between the sheriff and Aurelia and finally make him see the truth, but would he believe me? If he doesn’t, it would shatter everything.
My trust in him and his trust in me.
And then there’s the hurt.
The pain it would unleash on him to know it was all a lie.
It’s been more than a decade, and I still remember it.
God, I don’t think I could ever forget. Could I really do that to Thor and Khalil?
Could I really take it all away just because I can’t let go?
And what about Aurelia? Khalil, Thorin, and Seth are the ones who kidnapped her.
She should have a way out if she needs it.
She’s done nothing wrong, I realize with a depressing twist of the knife in my back.
“Nothing,” I whisper, sticking to my original plan. I reach for the hollowness inside my chest that is crying out for someone to fill it. “There’s nothing you can do. It’s what I have to do.”
Thorin cocks his head. “And what’s that?”
I look past him at the shattered pieces of the radio that could easily be my insides and exhale. “Try. I have to try.”