Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
JADE
It’s not like Ezra to not answer his phone, especially since the last-minute fight a few nights ago. He’s been answering it immediately or returning my calls within two hours at the most, but for whatever reason, that’s not the case today.
I don’t know if something bad happened or not.
He was going to a fight that was supposed to be over at nine. It’s now midnight, and there’s still not a word from him.
With a deep breath, I dial his number again, waiting for him to answer until it goes to voicemail. “I don’t know what you’re doing, Ezra, but if you don’t let me know that you’re alive within the next hour, I’m going to call my brothers and send them after you.”
I end the call, but it’s not as satisfying as slamming down the phone and letting the other person know you’re pissed without a single word.
As I sit down, palms sweaty and heart racing, I wait for the phone to ring. Or beep. Anything to let me know that he got the message and Noah didn’t have him killed.
I need to know he’s alive.
The desperation keeps bubbling to the surface, and I don’t know what to do about it.
There’s not a single time in my life I’ve ever felt this way about anyone else, and it scares the hell out of me.
I have to know if he’s alive. He has to be alive.
I pick up the phone again, waiting for that damn ring and the horrible feeling of going to voicemail yet again. “I swear, if you’re not going to answer me soon, I’m going to lose my mind.”
What the hell am I doing?
I’m not the kind of girl who sits around, waiting for a man to call her. Instead, I should be hauling on my boots and going to hunt him down, but it would only make him upset.
Ezra would lose his mind if he knew I went out after what’s already happened with Noah.
Screw it. Ezra would go looking for me.
With my mind made up, I get up and go to the front closet, pulling out the gun Haven snuck over yesterday.
After checking the magazine, I tuck it into the back of my waistband and put on some sneakers.
Just as I’m reaching for the lock on the door, it twists and eases open, Ezra stepping inside.
Dried blood runs down his face in rivers, his shirt soaked, and his nose a little crooked.
I take a horrified step back before hauling him into a tight hug.
He hisses at the contact, not hugging me back.
It’s as I step back that I see the unnatural angle of his arm.
“What happened?” I ditch the gun and lock the door behind him.
Ezra leans on me as I help him over to the couch.
I nearly buckle under his weight as he sinks down onto the cushions.
He hisses as he leans back, stretching his legs out.
“You’re covered in blood.” I rush to the kitchen and wet a cloth, coming back to wipe some of the blood from his face. “What happened? You were just going to a fight, but you look like you’re barely alive.”
He squeezes his eyes shut. “Got jumped by some of Noah’s guys after the fight.”
I gingerly touch his arm. “This is broken. I’m going to call Ellie, and she can come over and set it.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“You need your nose set too.” I reach for my phone, sending Ellie a message. “She’s going to come over and get you fixed up, but until she gets here, we have to get you clean.”
Ezra scowls at me, his eye swelling. “I don’t need her help.”
“Well, you need someone’s help. I don’t know how much more of this you’ll be able to take before Noah finally has you killed.”
“He won’t. He needs me too much to kill me.” Ezra chuckles, but it turns into a horrible, hacking cough. “Think I might have a broken rib, too. Shit hurts like a bitch.”
I sigh and set the cloth to the side, getting some scissors from the kitchen and cutting his shirt away from his body.
My fingers trail over his ribs, gentle across the deep purple bruises and across the dried blood.
“They’re not broken, but they’re definitely bruised. And your arm is broken. How the hell are you going to fight like this?”
“Not broken. Just dislocated. He didn’t want them to break anything. I still have to be profitable.”
He winces and moves to the side.
I don’t know what’s hurting him, but I think it’d take longer for him to explain than it would to just assume everything is in pain.
I glower at the snarky little smile on his face. “You’re getting too much enjoyment out of this for someone who looks like ground beef.”
“New kink unlocked for you, I guess.”
There’s a knock at the door, saving him from the earful I plan on giving him. I haul open the door, and Ellie is standing on the other side with Sean hovering close beside her.
Ellie’s gaze rakes up and down me like she’s taking an inventory to make sure I’m okay. “Where is he?”
I step to the side, letting them in. “Thanks for coming. He’s in the living room. I had agreed to meet with Summer, but I’ll push that off.”
“No!” Ezra shouts from the other room.
I roll my eyes. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
He groans and within a couple of seconds, he’s standing in the hallway, his body swaying as he struggles to hold himself upright.
“You’re going out. If you want me to let Ellie deal with the arm and everything that needs stitches, you’re going to get cleaned up, and then you’re going out for drinks with Summer. ”
Looking at him for a moment, I nod and go to get changed. As soon as I’m cleaned up, I head out, needing a drink more than anything.
I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with a more stubborn man, which is impressive because Aiden has never been anything other than an asshole at the best of times.
The night air is cool against my skin, neon lights shining off the dewy ground from the rain a couple of hours ago.
I step into the bar, dodging the bodies dancing, and head for the table in the back Summer is sitting at.
She looks up from her drink with a smile. “I didn’t know if you were going to be here or not. You’re late.”
“Sorry. Ezra came home looking like he’s been put through a meat grinder. I can’t stay long. He refused to be treated unless I left, but he didn’t say I had to be gone a long time.”
Summer pushes her cocktail over to me. “You look like you need this more than I do.”
“Yeah.” I down the rest of the cocktail. “Sorry I can’t stay for much longer. He’s going to be giving Ellie hell, and you know Sean isn’t going to put up with it.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Meet me for brunch tomorrow, and we can catch up then.”
“Done.” I get up and hug her tight, but it feels like I’m falling apart inside.
As I head back to the apartment, riding up in the elevator and trying to sort through the millions of thoughts in my head, all I can really focus on is what’s going to happen to Ezra if Noah doesn’t call off his men the next time.
Things have just started getting good between the two of us. The last thing I want is for him to end up dead.
The doors slide open, and I head to our door, stepping inside to find blood trailing from the hallway to the living room. I follow it, heart plummeting to my feet, trying to prepare myself for the worst.
Sean has Ezra pinned to the ground, and Ellie is covered in blood, looking like she’s ready to go home and never see Ezra again.
“I was gone for ten fucking minutes. Ten fucking minutes, and the three of you can’t be bothered to get along?” I glare at Ezra who does nothing but wince and shrug as if he didn’t say something to provoke them.
Ellie sighs, her shoulders slumping. “I’ll deal with this, Jade. Why don’t you just go to bed?”
“Happily.” I cast Ezra another angry look before walking down the hall to the bedroom and shoving open the door.
I slam it shut behind me, getting changed into an oversized shirt before throwing myself down onto the bed.
There’s no way I’m going back out there and getting in the middle of whatever the hell that is. I’m not going to be spending the rest of my life fighting for him and my family to get along. They can all figure it out on their own.
But I don’t even know if this is something that’s going to last the rest of my life. I feel like I’m being torn in every direction, and I don’t know what to do.
With a groan, I grab my phone off the nightstand and call the realtor. If everyone else around me is going to do what they want and behave however they want, then I may as well do the same.
Summer waves me over to a table by the fountain, already pouring me a giant glass of mimosa.
I sit down across from her, taking the glass and sipping it, excitement bubbling in my veins.
She leans back in her chair, opening her menu and scanning through it. “I heard the family put on quite the show at your apartment last night.”
“Well, Ezra is uninterested in letting anyone help him, and I think he probably said something to Ellie that Sean didn’t like.”
“Takes a lot to send him flying off the rails.” Summer shuts the menu and sets it to the side.
“Yeah, well, Ezra can be a lot at times. He’s really good at bothering people when he feels like it.” I grab the menu and after a couple of minutes we have our orders placed and are sipping on our drinks.
Summer leans forward, folding her arms. “You look happier than you did last night.”
“Well, I bought a building for a future restaurant after I saw you.”
“It was nearly one in the morning.” Summer leaps out of her chair and rushes over to hug me, laughing and bouncing around. “I can’t believe you’re going to have your own restaurant!”
“It’s going to take time. The building has good bones, but the interior is a bit of a disaster, and it’s going to need some renovations to bring it into this decade. And then I have to figure out a menu and hire people and train them and all of that, but I think it’s going to be good.”
“It will be good.” Summer sits back down in her seat as our food arrives. “So… Ezra.”
“What about him?” I glance at her before cutting into my steak, not sure where this conversation is going.
“You’re seeing him, and it seems like you actually like him despite the fact that he kidnapped you and held you hostage.”
“He’s not what I thought. He lied to me for a long time, but there’s a part of him that cares for me. And I don’t know, the more time I spend with him, the more I like him. He’s not like anyone else I’ve been around.”
“He’s family to the enemy.”
“So are Gia and Zoe, but they’re not being interrogated.”
Summer shrugs. “They have been, plenty of times. I don’t know this guy beyond the one night we all went bowling, so I just want to make sure he’s good for you. I don’t want to have to worry about you getting your heart broken.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about my heart being broken.”
Summer sighs and eats a piece of her lobster benedict. “Come on. You have to have some worries about this guy. Not a single person ever goes into a relationship without any worry about anything.”
I sigh and push some of the steak around on my plate, sopping up the chimichurri.
There’s a tight feeling in my chest as I shrug, not sure how much I want to tell her. I’ve never been one to talk to my family about much, but Summer is my twin. If I’m going to open up to anyone, it’s going to be her.
And it might be nice to talk to someone, for once.
I eat another bite of steak before setting my fork to the side. “Okay, so I have some worries about the entire thing. Like, I don’t know that this is ever going to work between the two of us in the long term. He’s loyal to Noah to a fault, I think.”
“You’re still alive. I think he might value you more than he values Noah.”
“Maybe.” I bite the inside of my cheek. “He’s hard to read at times, and everything is getting closer to reaching a boiling point.”
“Yeah, but if he was going to take Noah’s side against you, I think he would’ve done it by now, don’t you?”
I run a hand through my hair. “I think so. I don’t know, but I think I really like him, and I want this to work out.”
Summer crosses one leg over the other, polishing off the last of her breakfast. “What’s the problem, then? If you really think this could be a good thing between the two of you, what’s making you worry about it so much?”
“One or both of us could be dead at the end of the day today. We don’t live the kind of life where there’s a guarantee for tomorrow morning to come, and I don’t know what to think about that.”
“I think it means you have to take love when it comes to you and worry about the rest later. It might be time for you to let go and just go with it instead of worrying all the time.”
I snort and reach for the jug of mimosa, filling my glass again before looking out at the people walking around, heading who knows where, none of them worrying about getting killed the second they’re alone.
After downing half my drink, I look at her, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my chest. “I really do care about Ezra, but with all these fights he’s doing, it seems like he’s trying to destroy himself for the sake of having a family.”
“And?”
“And I don’t know if I can be the one to pick him up and put him back together again.”
I want to be there for him when I can, but there’s a thought that lingers in the back of my mind.
It tells me that things aren’t going to be good between the two of us soon.
It keeps telling me that somehow, I’m going to lose him, and there’s going to be nothing I can do about it, even though I want to.
Sooner or later, I’m going to come face-to-face with two options.
I leave my family to stand by Ezra’s side or I lose Ezra.
Neither of those options seems like a choice I’m willing to make, but in the end, it’s going to be inevitable.