Chapter Twenty
Zane
I don’t know how things got so fucked up. One minute everything was amazing, and the next we were arguing and Dani stormed out of the home I had worked so hard to find for us.
I followed her all the way to the club since she seemed to want to get away from me pretty fast.
When I tried to follow her, Robyn stopped me and asked me what happened.
I told her everything, but I barely understood it myself. I don’t know how everything changed so fast.
“She’s scared. She may act tough most of the time, but she never has really let anyone in. The only people she has ever let close to her are Zeke, Olivia, and Katy. Trust me, those three tried like hell to get Dani to break down her walls, and it took a good year before it actually happened in any of the situations. They never gave up though. I always waited for the day that they would give up. I’m so glad they didn’t. My girl is something special. I was glad other people could see that too, and that she would give other people the opportunity to see that,” she says with a sigh.
“I love her. If it’s too soon to move in, or if she doesn’t like the house, then we will wait or pick something else,” I say.
“Oh honey. It’s not the house. Trust me, once she gets a good look at it; she will love it. She is just realising how much she loves you and is worried she could lose you now that everything is getting more serious,” Robyn says.
“I hope you are right. I don’t know what I would do without her,” I admit.
“How touching,” a voice sneers.
I still at the familiar voice and look over to see Lydia with a gun in her hand, pointed right at me.
That’s not the only thing though. Krista, the other club whore who hit on me at a party a few months ago, is there too.
She has my mother with a knife to her throat. Fuck, I don’t know how they came in here and got a hold of my mother without anyone killing them first.
Terror shoots through me thinking of her harming my mother in any way.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, putting my hands up in a surrender motion.
As much as we would love to take these ladies out, we have to make sure that they don’t harm my mother first.
“You should have left her when you had the chance. You are mine, and she took you from me,” Lydia says. Her voice is borderline hysterical.
“Let’s talk this out,” I say calmly.
“I tried to talk to you! You just wouldn’t listen when I told you that you were mine!” she screams.
“Do you think that threatening me with a gun, and holding my mother hostage, will end the way you want it to?” I ask while raising an eyebrow at her.
She laughs maniacally. “It’s going to end the way I want. I already know that I won’t walk out of here alive. I have accepted my end.”
“What the fuck? You said you had a plan!” Krista shouts, loosening her hold on my mother.
“I do,” Lydia says in an eerily calm tone.
“What’s your plan here, Lydia?” I ask, not taking my eyes off of her.
A sense of dread fills me when a look of peace comes over her eyes.
“I’ve decided that if I can’t have you, nobody can,” she says calmly before she fires the gun.
The sound is loud and is followed by another.
I wait for the pain to hit me, but all I feel is weight being pushed into me as I fall back.
There is a bunch of shouts in the club, but I feel something wet hit my fingers as I look at who pushed me.
I see my brother’s face staring at me with pain in his eyes.
“Zeke! Fuck man!” I shout, pushing him off me so I can see the damage.
“The ambulance is on their way,” a voice says, but I can’t focus on anyone else but my brother.
“Zeke. Hang on, brother,” I choke out.
He gets more pale as the seconds pass on. I feel Dani rush beside me.
“Zeke! Oh my god! What happened?” she cries out.
“Lydia tried to shoot me, and he jumped in front of the bullet,” I tell her with my voice cracking.
“What the fuck? Where is she?” Dani says with anger in her tone.
“I’d do anything for my brother,” Zeke says with a weak voice.
The ambulance EMTs rush in, and I’m pulled out of the way. As much as I don’t want to let my brother go, I know he needs to be taken care of.
“He has to be okay,” Dani says with a sob.
“He will be,” I say, but I don’t voice the doubt I feel.
I just got my brother back. I can’t lose him.
I don’t know what I would do if I did. It’s a possibility I don’t even want to think about.
Dani
I can’t stop crying. Throughout the ride to the hospital, followed by sitting in the waiting room, I haven’t stopped crying.
Zeke is my best friend. He’s practically a brother to me. There is no way I would be able to handle losing him.
Seeing both Zane and Zeke covered in blood is something I won’t be able to erase from my mind.
I didn’t get to find out what happened to Lydia or Krista before the ambulance arrived, but their bodies weren’t there when they arrived.
I’m sure I will find out later. Right now, all I can think about is Zeke.
The waiting room is packed. Everyone is here waiting on news. I feel like we have been waiting forever, but it has probably only been a couple hours.
I think we will be waiting for a few more.
“I got a call. I’m here for Zeke Lewis,” a man’s voice states, sounding panicked.
Of course, at the sound of Zeke’s name, we all look at the person who was here for him and called.
Who does he have as an emergency contact? I thought I knew.
“Who is that?” Zane whispers in my ear.
“I have no idea. I’ve never seen him before in my life,” I whisper back.
“He’s still in surgery. You can join the others waiting for him in the waiting room,” the nurse says, gesturing where we were sitting.
He turns around and stills when he sees all of us in the room. Swallowing hard, he slowly walks towards us.
“Who are you?” Zane asks, which brings the man’s eyes to my man.
“Holy fuck, you look just like him,” he whispers.
“I’ll ask again. Who are you?” Zane asks, losing patience.
“My name is Dante Lewis,” he says quietly.
“Lewis? Zeke’s only brother is Zane. How do I not know of you?” Dani asks, standing up and stepping closer to him.
“I’m not his brother. I’m his husband,” he states.
The room gets so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
What the fuck? My brother is married and no one knew?
“Shut the fuck up. You are not,” Dani says with a gasp, but I can see the excited look in her eyes.
The man nods his head. “Yeah, that’s why he was trying to get a hold of you, but then you told him that you found his family.”
“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me. It has been months,” she whispers with hurt in her voice.
“Well, he wasn’t sure how you would take the news that he was married, or the news that the person he was married to was a guy. He came back to pack up and told me he would tell you soon. He just kept putting it off. I think he was worried what everyone would think since he just found his family,” Dante says.
“Where have you been staying?” she asks, pulling him into a chair beside her. Everyone else is forgotten.
“Just at a cheap apartment. I was in a motel but, when I realised it could take forever for him to pluck up the courage to tell you, I got a cheap apartment,” he says.
“Why wouldn’t he tell us he liked men?” my mother asks while sitting next to me with a pout on her face.
“It took him years to admit it to himself. He hasn’t fully come out to me yet, but I always knew. He was never good at keeping secrets. Until you, I mean,” Dani says, looking at Dante.
“I knew I would meet you if I came down here but, when they told me he was hurt and needing surgery, I couldn’t think of anything else but getting to him,” Dante explains.
“He’s been in there for hours. He was shot,” Dani says.
Dante’s face pales at the words.
“Shot? What, how?” Dante whispers in horror.
Zane explains everything that went down while I was in the office with my dad. I didn’t know the whole story until now, but I feel so much anger at Lydia for pulling the shit she did.
We all know what she planned to do. She wanted to make Zane pay by taking him away. She had every intention of killing him. My stomach turns when I think about it. I could easily have lost him, and now my best friend is lying in an operating room fighting for his life because of Lydia’s ludicrous plan.
I lean into Zane more, and he pulls me tighter to his side as he talks.
Dante doesn’t say much when he hears what happened. He still looks pale, but I don’t think anything will make that disappear until we find out how Zeke is.
I just hope we hear good news.
“We need to talk about earlier,” I whisper to Zane when everyone goes back to their conversations.
“We will. Let’s just focus on my brother right now,” he says calmly.
I hate having to wait, but he’s right. We need to focus on Zeke.
I let out a sigh and sit back as we wait.
Hours pass before the doctor comes and gives us the news.
“The shot pierced his left lung. With some time and rest, he will recover. He lost a lot of blood and had to be given a blood transfusion. He is still unconscious. I’m only going to allow one person at a time to see him. I would like him to get enough rest that he will wake up soon,” the doctor says.
“Dante, you can go first,” I say before anyone can get up.
“Oh no, honey, you’re his best friend, and his family should go first too,” he says quietly.
I shake my head. “You are his husband, and that alone tells me how important you guys are to each other. I can wait.”
He looks unsure and reluctant to go, but I shoo him until he eventually goes.
“I’ll wait with Dani. You guys go ahead,” Zane says, wrapping his arm around me.
We sit back and wait for our turn to visit, and I feel like I can finally breathe now that I know Zeke will be okay.
“I can’t wait to give my brother shit for not telling us about Dante,” Zane whispers. I laugh and nod my head in agreement.
Zeke is going to get an earful when he wakes up. That was for sure.