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CHAPTER42
ZEKE
The bar isdim and the music loud, but there aren’t many people here—a few scattered tables of the regulars and some younger people. Almost immediately, I spot Jess with her mom and dad. Thankfully, her dad’s back is to me. I don’t need the twisting hatred he feels for me. I nod to her, and she looks to her lap immediately. I’m too jacked up to care why she’s suddenly pretending she doesn’t know me.
The message from Nova spins through my mind as I try to puzzle together all the pieces of this mystery. Dru had nothing on her phone. But photos can be deleted. I glance at my screen again, her message still there.
You don’t have to trust her. I’m asking you to trust me.
I put a finger up to Del behind the bar and she nods, reaching for my beer already. I grab it on the way by, and I barely have my hand around it when she’s back to racing around. She must have started five minutes ago, and she’s right in it. I can’t imagine starting work like that. I need at least three cups of coffee in my office before heading out to the bay.
The table at the back is empty, so I take it. It’s quieter, and I wait for my brothers. They arrive together, both in dirty shirts and paint-covered jeans, so I’m guessing they were working on the farmhouse again.
“Hey.” Xan flops down on one side of me, Jet on the other. Del puts her arm out and gestures, thumbs up and thumbs down. Xan responds with thumbs down, Jet up.
“Hey,” I say, suddenly feeling weird around my brothers.
“Are you dying?” Jet asks with a sharply raised brow.
“No,” I scrunch my face up. “What the fuck would you ask that for?”
“Because in the twenty years I’ve known you, never once have you said to me,I need you.” Xan folds his arms and quizzes me with his entire posture.
Del brings Jet a beer and Xan a coke as I pick at the label on my drink. The music is a bit too loud and the place a bit too crowded, but maybe I’m just hyperaware. I’ve been running on pure adrenaline since this morning, and there’s going to be a crash at some point.
“Someone broke into the shop.” I stare at my stained hands and stretch my stiff shoulders. I was confident that I needed them, but now that they’re right in front of me, I’m tripping up. I think of Jess and her speech about practice and my brothers’ shock at my admission that I need them.
“What?” Jet leans on the table.
“Yeah, Lucas has been there all day with Gord. Whoever it was, it was deliberate. And it was meant for Nova.” I pull out the note and set it on the table between us.
“What’s going on?” Xan asks, his eyes flickering from the paper to me. “Is Nova okay?”
“No—I mean, yeah. She’s fine now. She has to leave, or she’ll be deported.”
“When?” Jet takes a haul off his beer, wiping the foam from his Viking moustache with his thick palm. Xan is much more delicate in his laced-fingers, concerned-dad posturing.
“Today. She’s probably gone already.” My heart twists up, knowing I sent her with her sister, still convinced that Dru’s behind this whole thing. “Her sister showed up out of nowhere. It’s all messed up. I don’t know what to do.”
“Shit,” Xan mutters.
“I’m flying out tomorrow morning to meet her. A few weeks ago, the person who smashed out my windows did this to my truck. I think she’s in more danger than she thinks.”
“How?” my brothers say in unison, quick enough that my eyes roll on reflex. They are so predictable, but I’m nothing but grateful for it right now.
I spin my phone around and show them the texts. “She was blackmailed into giving up her life in Nashville, and then she met me, and all this shit happened. Whoever is after her found her and has been tormenting her for months. I just found out at Christmas.”
My brothers are zoned in on me. Jet’s jaw twitches, and Xan has these deep wells of concern. “There’s a… um… dirty photo of her and me.”
I explain the entire situation as I understand it from beginning to end, my voice sore from holding back the flashes of fear and rage and that bubble up.
“So, they’re blackmailing you now, too?” Xan wraps his hands around his mug, and the paleness of his knuckles is the only tell of his anger.
“Nova is in trouble, and my kid is involved, Xan. My fucking kid.”
The words feel distant like they usually do when I speak them. This is the deepest they’ve ever hit me. I’m a dad. She’s gone. I tighten my grip on my beer.
My brother puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it, concern shadowing his eyes. “I’m really sorry, man.”
