Page 84 of Fractured Hearts

Jo turns in my arms. She opens her mouth like she’s about to say something, but then her eyes widen. The next thing I know, she’s shoving me to the ground. Only years of training save me from a hard fall.

“You killed my husband!” Patrick is roaring at Jo, slashing wildly with a knife. She dodges easily, light on her feet and eyes never leaving the blade.

“What husband?” I ask. I want his attention and that knife aimed at me, not her.

“Maverick!” he screams, eyes flaring and his swings get too close to my face for comfort. “He was in the basement!”

Jo lets out a scream so heart-wrenching that I hope I never hear one like it again. I drop my hands. No. Absolutely not. That entire building is now in the basement. There’s no way he survived if he was down there.

“No, he’s not your husband, and he’s not dead,” I argue, but the odds of him being alive under all that are so small even I know I’m lying. Maverick can’t be gone. He’s everything good and bright in this world. He has to be alive, or the world would stop spinning.

“I locked him down there for his safety! You killed him!” Patrick yells, coming at me again with the knife, but this time I don’t stop him. The burn when he slashes across my chest feels earned. Like this is my penance for not getting here in time. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to leave Jo, but I can’t make my body move.

I watch the anger on Patrick’s face and the way his arm pulls back to go in for the killing blow. Closing my eyes, I let it happen.

eighty-nine

JO

I thought my heart couldn’t break any more than it did when Maverick yelled at me and blamed me for Ezra getting hurt. I was wrong. So wrong. Maverick not existing is the worst pain I’ve ever felt. My legs give out and pain flares in my knees when they hit the ground. That pain pales in comparison to the one in my chest.

Screaming. Someone is screaming, but I can’t see anything.

The scream is painful. Life shattering.

Oh. It’s me. I’m screaming.

The scream turns into a sob, but I wipe my tears with the sleeve of my shirt and look for Ezra. I watch as he drops his arms and lets Patrick cut his chest.

“Ezra!” I yell, climbing to my feet. I can’t lose him, too. But he’s not fighting back. I watch Patrick’s arm pull back and know I won’t make it in time. “Ezra!” I scream again, but he doesn’t even flinch. I’m sobbing mid-stride, knowing I’m about to lose both men I love in a single night. It’s as if everything happens in slow motion.

Furious, icy blue eyes emerge from the dust, and I watch in shock as Kai tackles Patrick to the ground. “You stay away from my brother, you fucking psycho!” He punches Patrick hard in the face, busting his nose and causing blood to fly everywhere. Patrick laughs manically.

Once I reach Ezra, I pull his face down to me and kiss him. It takes him a second to return it, but it snaps him out of whatever paralysis he was in, and he pulls away to help Kai. I watch the brothers pull Patrick to his feet, still laughing.

“I might not get Maverick now, but you don’t either,” he says, grinning at me. Then he unlocks his knees and drops to the ground. The twins lose their hold on him. Ezra reacts faster than Kai, but Patrick is quick and already up and running. I’m right behind Ezra as we chase Patrick, all three of us stumbling with the lack of visibility.

“Careful! The house is coming up!” Kai yells, out of breath behind us. I have no idea how he can tell, but I reach out to slow Ezra down. I know he won’t on his own, too single-minded in his pursuit of justice to care about himself. The evidence of that is seeping through his shirt right now. If that cut was any deeper, he’d be in big trouble. As it is, he’s definitely going to need stitches.

Ezra’s head whips around when I tug on his arm to stop him. “Just slow,” I tell him, jogging to his side. Patrick is still within sight, and the dust has cleared enough to see we’re running next to a paved path. That at least explains how Kai knew where we were. We keep pace next to each other, but then Patrick picks up the speed. Neither of us has time for a discussion, but we’re in sync when we sprint for him. What remains of the house comes into view and Patrick turns around, sticking out his tongue and running backwards to taunt us. I watch as he trips, his eyes wide, and then he disappears into the rubble.

We hear a blood-curdling scream and a squishy, but somehow almost crunchy, sound that has us stopping in our tracks. Kai catches up and the three of us slowly make our way to where Patrick disappeared. I hazard a glance and almost lose the protein bar I ate before coming here. A sharp, jagged, broken pipe protrudes through Patrick’s right eye, starting at the base of his skull. I watch in horror as he slowly slides down, leaving blood and brain matter in his wake.

“Oh fuck,” Kai says, turning to vomit.

“What the hell were you doing out there? You could’ve been killed!” Ezra shouts at his brother after being nice enough to let him stop puking first.

“Me? What the fuck were you doing? You were just standing there waiting to die, Ez!” Emotions clog Kai’s voice, and Ezra must hear it too because he throws his arms around his brother in a fierce hug.

“I’m sorry,” Ezra says. “I don’t know what happened. The only thought I had was that I couldn’t leave Jo, too, but I froze. I couldn’t get my body to move.”

I hold back the sob that threatens to break free because I know if Ezra hears a single noise from me, he’ll be at my side in under a second, and right now, I think Kai needs to hold his brother.

“Just don’t do it again,” Kai mutters into Ezra’s shoulder before finally letting him go. “There’s a wine cellar in the basement. That’s what I was coming out here to tell you. When I was looking at the blueprints with Dad, he mentioned that it also doubled as a panic room. There’s a chance if Maverick got in there, he’s okay.”

Hope I’m too scared to acknowledge grows in my chest.

“We have to dig him out!” I almost turn back to the house before I remember the scene waiting behind me and stop.