4. Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Ezra wanted to shove his friends out of the way and race after Magnolia, but took a deep breath. “Listen—”
“Are we gonna talk about the fact that the teenager who just walked out of here looks exactly like you?” Tiago asked, leaning against the dusty, box-covered desk, a bag of organic banana chips in hand. Where the hell had he even gotten those?
“Oh, thank god, I was hoping you’d say something.” Adalyn snagged a banana chip from him, crunched away.
“Wait, what?” Rowan looked between Adalyn and Tiago. “What kid?”
“The one in the hallway with the brunette smoke show,” Adalyn said.
“You’re the only smoke show I see.”
Ezra scrubbed his hands over his face, resisting the urge to run his head through the nearest wall. If he didn’t stop them, they’d simply keep going. “You guys! That kid didn’t look like me. She got married after we broke up.” He’d gotten the wedding invitation, a nasty shove of a knife deep in his chest. Though she hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring today, something he hated that he’d noticed. But screw it, if he was in the same vicinity as Magnolia Lavigne, he couldn’t help but drink in everything about her.
She was even more gorgeous than he remembered and that should be impossible. Illegal. It was like the universe just wanted to kick him in the balls by showing him what he’d once had .
Adalyn and Tiago snorted in unison. “That kid is very likely seventeen, maybe eighteen. And he had your eyes,” Adalyn added.
Ezra blinked. “He couldn’t be eighteen…” But he could be sixteen or seventeen. No. Just, no. She’d have told him. Right? At one time he’d assumed she would have, then she’d coldly cut him out of her life as if what they’d shared had been nothing.
Which shouldn’t have been a surprise really. Her family was one of the wealthiest in New Orleans, probably in the state and beyond. They’d been heavy into real estate, and whatever her father touched seemed to turn to gold. That, combined with her mother’s family money—Abigail and Arnold Lavigne had been a power couple years ago. But he hadn’t cared about any of that.
He’d just fallen for the dark-haired girl who blushed whenever he looked at her. God, she’d been so sweet and kind and nothing he’d ever thought he wanted. Or deserved. But…damn it, he wished he’d paid more attention to her son. He’d just been so entranced by her after all these years.
“That was Magnolia, right? The Magnolia,” Tiago pressed.
“Wait, what! That was her ? The one you used to mumble about in your sleep?” Rowan demanded.
Oh, he absolutely wasn’t going to do this right now. “The only thing I want to talk about is the fact that someone definitely took a shot at her. That was not some random drive-by. That person was aiming for her. I’ll meet you all back at the office.” Because screw waiting for Detective Flores to come get him.
He slid past them out into the hallway, ignoring their footsteps behind him. Bypassing the elevators, he headed for the stairs and raced up them until he reached the right floor.
As he stepped out, he found Detective Flores waiting by the bank of elevators. “Detective.”
She turned to him in surprise. “Mr. Hunt.”
“Ezra is fine.” Something he’d told her more than once. Since setting up shop here (and giving her a huge win by taking down a weapons- and drug-running asshole) he and his crew had worked with her on more than one occasion over the last year.
She was friendly with Adalyn and Tiago specifically, but was mostly just polite with the rest of them. Though she did like Rowan too—because everyone liked the man.
She simply murmured something noncommittal, then said, “I was just coming to find you. I can’t thank you enough for what you did. If you hadn’t been there…” Shaking her head, she let out a frustrated sigh.
“Where is Magnolia?”
The detective gave him a look he wasn’t sure he could define, maybe surprise that he’d called Magnolia by her first name. “She and her son left.” She blinked now as she stared hard at Ezra.
“Is that safe?”
“They’re being escorted home by one of our officers and she’s taking all necessary precautions. I was coming downstairs to let you know that you’re free to go and thank you for your statement. If I have any follow-up questions, I’ll reach out. I’ve got your number.” She was still giving him a strange look.
He wanted to argue, but what was he going to say? Nothing at this point. And she wasn’t the person he wanted to talk to anyway. Nope, that was Magnolia.
He slid his Bluetooth in as he headed out of the building, ignoring Adalyn as she called out to him. As he stepped out into the sunlight, he slid on his sunglasses and called Berlin, the newest addition to their misfit crew. None of them were ever going to fit into regular nine-to-five jobs or even normal professions.
“Heya,” she said, her standard greeting.
“I need you to run someone’s information for me. And it’s personal. I want everything you have on her. Everything .” Was he violating Magnolia’s privacy? Yep. But if she’d had their son, he didn’t care. And screw it, he wanted to know everything about her anyway, always had.
For years he’d managed to compartmentalize his past, to lock up memories of their time together. The best damn year of his life. In his dreams was the only time he hadn’t been able to run from his past.
He was done running and was going to get some damn answers.
** *
“I printed everything off for you since you’re ancient.” Berlin slid over the little packet she’d created, a smug grin on her face before she stood, strode to the bank of windows that overlooked the Central Business District. They had a special tint on them so no one could see in—and their windows were bullet-resistant.
Ezra didn’t respond to the ancient comment because right about now he felt ancient. Instead, he hunched over the information on the conference room table and started reading.
“I’m just playing, man,” Berlin murmured after a moment.
“I know. I’m…processing a lot right now.” It was just the two of them at the office with the others back at the Victorian house in the Irish Channel district they used as a safe house of sorts.
This office was where everything was officially set up for taxes and all sorts of boring bullshit he didn’t bother himself with. Their place of business fit in on the exterior anyway. Inside was a different story.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I wasn’t trying to be insensitive. Of course you are if you just found out you had a kid.”
“I’m not the father of her son.” But as he looked through the paperwork, he realized maybe he was wrong.
“You sure about that?” Berlin’s tone was neutral enough.
He glanced up but she wasn’t even looking at him, just staring out the window at all the people below.
Refocusing, he zeroed in on at the date the kid had been born. Almost a Christmas baby. Then he did the math, sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m not sure of anything,” he muttered more to himself than to the younger woman who was a terrifying genius.
They were lucky she’d come on board with them and wanted to help people. Because if she chose, Berlin could burn down the world. She was smart in the same way that Gage and Hailey were. He was just glad she was on their side .
“What about her husband?” he asked, when he finished looking through everything. Or scanning mostly, because it was a lot of content. He probably should have been more specific. “Henri Fontenot,” he added when Berlin just frowned at him.
“She’s never been married.”
“No, she was. To a man named Henri Fontenot. I have no doubt.”
Berlin cocked a dark eyebrow at him, but sat down in front of the laptop she carried with her everywhere. “If she kept your kid from you, it’s seriously messed up, but objectively speaking, she’s an impressive woman. She owns three boutique hotels and works with two women’s shelters in the city and provides jobs to women transitioning out of abusive situations. And not shitty minimum wage jobs either. Really good stuff where they receive training for the future and are given retirement options. Not to mention the hotels they’re working at offer childcare options twenty-four seven for their staff. That’s incredibly rare. If she can’t find the right work option in one of her hotels, she still tries to find them work. She’s received so many awards in the last five years it’s ridiculous.”
Ezra couldn’t even pretend to be surprised. She’d been talking about all the changes she wanted to make within her dad’s companies even when she’d been seventeen. She’d had big plans even then. “Which is why it makes no sense that anyone wants to hurt her.” How could anyone want to hurt Magnolia?
Berlin snorted. “It could literally be any number of abusive exes of the women she’s helped over the years.”
Right . He hadn’t been thinking in broad terms, which wasn’t like him. But he wasn’t thinking clearly at all right now. Just consumed with the fact that Magnolia had a kid who might be his—probably was his—and that someone wanted to hurt her.
“Okay, Henri Fontenot. Oh woooow, he’s stupid handsome.” She let out a low whistle. “He’s got that whole old money thing going on too. Comes from a wealthy family—”
“Enough.” Ezra so didn’t want to hear about some asshole who was the exact opposite of him.
“Aaaand he’s also gay. Happily married with two kids—twins—to his, oh my god, adorable husband who looks like a teddy bear. Oh, and it looks like Magnolia was in their wedding so they’re definitely friends. But nope, they were never married.”
“I received a wedding invitation.”
“From her?”
He paused. It hadn’t had a return address, or if it had, he didn’t remember. He just remembered ripping open the letter, being surprised to get one at all, and having the invitation fall out.
He’d burned the thing, unable to read it more than twice. Or eighteen times. And he could still repeat every single word of it.
“I don’t know.”
Berlin just gave him a hard look. “I think you need to talk to this woman and clear the air.”
Yeah, that sounded like a really good idea. “I’ll get this stuff later, okay? Are you heading out or working for a bit?”
“I need to finish some stuff up, but I’ll be locking up soon.”
He nodded, knowing she’d be safe here by herself, considering the security they had. But still found himself saying, “Text once you leave so I know you’re good.”
“Okay, Da—” Her eyes widened and she cut herself off. She often called him and Tiago dad jokingly because they were a little overprotective of her safety. She was the youngest of all of them. “Sorry, jeez.”
But he laughed. “It’s fine, seriously. Don’t forget to text.” Now he had to face the woman who’d very likely had their son and hadn’t told him about it.
Too many emotions punched through him, but anger was winning. He might not have grown up like her, but keeping his son from him was bullshit.
And not something he would have ever expected from Magnolia.