Page 17 of Fractured Hearts

There’s a woman tied to a pole in that old barn, her black hair matted and hanging around her face. She’s naked and her skin is dirty, like maybe she’s been there for a while. The masked guy asks her questions, followed by a poke with a cattle prod when she doesn’t answer.

I don’t want to keep watching this. I want to turn it off and hand it over to the police, but I also feel like I owe it to this woman. I was right there, and I didn’t try to save her. She must have been the one who screamed.

Fuck. What if she’s still in that barn?

I take a deep breath and keep watching. I watch her fade, stirring less and less after each painful electric shock is delivered. Eventually, Eva decides it’s enough, and the masked man slits the woman’s throat. My ears ring as I watch the blood spill onto the barn floor.

I barely make it to the bathroom where I immediately lose my breakfast. I’m not stupid enough to think I could’ve taken on Eva’s masked man or the goon she had prowling the barn, but the feeling of failure is still there.

I failed that woman, and I’ve failed Maverick. There’s no way I can save him from this. And if Eva finds out I was there, I’ve doomed us both.

fifteen

JO

Ezra pauses his story. He paced the entire time he was telling it, his face paling slowly as he went. Now he looks as white as a ghost, and I can see his hands trembling. That was the moment that changed his life. That changed the lives of everyone in this room.

And it was horrific.

“What kind of questions was she being asked?” Harlow breaks through the shock first.

Ezra clears his throat. “They were about her girlfriend. Eva wanted Maverick to marry Gianna Delgado. Gianna was dating the woman in the barn, and since her parents weren’t assholes, they supported their daughter’s relationship and refused.”

“Get rid of the girlfriend and then Gianna is free to marry?” Harlow asks.

“Yeah, except Eva made a mistake. Probably the biggest mistake of her life, and one she’s about to pay dearly for.”

“What do you mean?” I ask Ezra. The look he gives me is quick but cold.

“Eva had never met Gianna. From what I’ve gathered since that night, she had only seen pictures of Gianna with her girlfriend, never alone.” Harlow and I gasp at the same time, but Ezra doesn’t pause. “Gianna’s girlfriend’s name was Noelle Price.”

My eyes widen, recognizing the name from the case Harlow wanted to cover. I can’t see her face on the laptop screen from where I’m sitting, but I’m sure it mirrors the shock on my own. A million scenarios race through my head, but one sticks out more than the others.

“Eva killed Gianna when she thought she was killing Noelle.”

Ezra nods. “Gianna never told her attackers who she was. She let them believe she was Noelle until her last breath.”

I can’t hold back the tears that slip free. That’s as beautiful as it is appalling. She loved Noelle enough to die for her.

“This says Gianna Delgado died in a car accident eight years ago.”

I lean over and look at Maverick’s phone, where he’s reading an article about the accident. It says the gas tank exploded and her body was burned almost to ashes.

Of course it was.

“They covered it up,” Ezra says.

“Where’s Noelle?” Kai asks.

“There was a second body in that car they couldn’t identify,” Ezra says.

“Jesus, Eva killed her, too,” Willa says, sounding as horrified as everyone is feeling.

The room is silent for a few minutes, everyone trying to process all the information we’ve been given in such a short amount of time. I’ve always been good at this part, breaking down information while removing the emotions I feel about it. It’s part of the reason I love investigating cold cases so much. Getting through all the information, piecing together the puzzle, then giving families the closure they desperately need.

Something isn’t adding up. A puzzle piece is missing.

“I don’t understand why Gianna was so important to my parents. I get whatever alliance we made would benefit them, but I’ve never heard her name come up, and the Delgados aren’t in their inner circle.” Maverick is on the same train of thought as me. He squeezes my hip where his hand has been resting the entire night. I’m trying not to think too deeply into it, but it’s hard when I feel his warmth and see how angry it makes Ezra every time his eyes land on where Maverick’s touching me.