Page 17 of Hidden Truths

“I love Ezra. He’s the love of my life, and I want to know what happened to him more than I want to take my next breath, but I won’t let it cost you your life too,” Maverick says, the determination in his eyes can be felt throughout the room.

I look at Jo, who manages to keep the shock off her face; I don’t. I inhale sharply and try to stifle it with my hand.Unsuccessfully judging from the four sets of eyes now staring at me.

“Uh, that’s a secret,” Willa says, looking like she’s having trouble deciding what to do after the bomb my dad dropped.

“NDA. Right,” I mutter, embarrassed.

“I’m not embarrassed about my sexuality. I just promised Ezra we would tell everyone about us together, and that’s a promise I intend on keeping.”

“You’re photographed with a lot of women,” Jo says, looking pretty skeptical. She has a point. All the guys are seen with different women constantly. At least until recently, anyway.

Mav just shrugs. “I’m attracted to both men and women. Ezra was the first man I was ever with, and he’ll be the last. No matter how our story ends.”

Jo watches him for a moment before nodding. She’s just as good at reading people as I am. Whatever she saw in his expression has her backing down from commenting more.

Willa clears her throat. “Jo, if you want to stay in my guest room, you’re welcome to it. I could use some company.”

I watch Jo open her mouth, and I know she’s about to refuse. I whip my hand out and over her mouth. “She would love to, Willa. Thank you.” Jo glares at me, but nods before I remove my hand.

“What about you, Harrison? I have guest rooms you can use,” Mav offers.

“Thank you, but I’ll be fine,” my dad says. I don’t bother arguing with him. I’d have better luck convincing a tree it was a fish.

“You didn’t coverhismouth,” Jo mutters next to me. I ignore her.

“How do you know it’s not Kai and Ezra’s dad trying to stop you?” I ask. I know their dad called Kai and told him to stoplooking. I was the one who transferred the notes on that meeting to my dad’s computer system.

My dad shakes his head. “If this was Gavin Irons, there would be no trace. Everything would just be gone. Whoever this is, they’re sloppier, likely less experienced.”

“Maybe you should be looking into anyone that hires interns or new graduates. You could probably narrow it down to government or maybe law enforcement. If they’re going this aggressively after Ezra, he must have done or seen something, at least in my opinion.”

“Maybe we should’ve hired you,” a deep voice says, startling me. I turn to see Kai and Cal standing at the end of the couch. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s ok. I get lost in my thoughts sometimes,” I tell Kai.

“I just get lost,” Cal says, laughing, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Where’s Cora?” I ask him.

“Belle is at my house with her,” he says, smiling like it’s normal for him to be so happy.

What the hell? Does he have a twin too? Not that he was grumpy this morning, but I swear he was a different person. No one else seems to notice, so I’m just going to assume it was all the panic of the morning and not some weird dual personality.

“How is she feeling?” I ask him.

“What’s wrong with my girl? Does she need me?” Willa asks, looking genuinely concerned.

“She’s still asleep,” Cal says, giving me a small smile before turning to Willa. “How come you never ask if I need you? I need a foot rub and homemade cookies and at least three consecutive hours of sleep.”

Willa scoffs and rolls her eyes. “What are you two doing here, anyway?”

“We can’t visit our favorite person?” Kai says with a smirk.

“Aww, I miss you too,” Mav says.

“He meant Harrison,” Cal says, laughing. He has dark circles under his eyes, and he needs to sleep badly, but I can see where he would want to get out of the house for a little.

“I was at Cal’s with Belle when I saw Harrison’s truck drive by. We would’ve been here sooner, but it took a lot of convincing to get Cal to leave Cora,” Kai explains. Cal just shrugs.

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