Page 103 of Hidden Truths

I will find Ezra Irons.

forty-three

CAL

“Cal!”

I spin on my heel and find Maverick running in my front door, his eyebrows high on his forehead and eyes wide.

“What? What happened?” I ask, meeting him in my living room. I hear feet racing down the stairs at the same moment Mav collides with me.

“Cal!” Harlow yells, Cora in her arms clapping. The large round yellow diamond sparkling on her finger. The gold band is engraved with tiny fireworks. I got her a matching wedding ring of yellow diamonds and another band of green peridot, Cora’s birthstone. I plan to add another band for every baby she’ll give me.

“Cal!” my sister’s voice comes from my front door.

“Why the hell is everyone yelling my name?” I yell back, throwing up my arms in frustration.

“Turn the TV on,” Willa says, coming in from the back door with Jo.

“I need to take your fingerprints off my locks,” I mutter, doing as she says anyway. After what happened with Harlow, I decided fingerprints were better than keys, so I swapped out all the locks. The problem with that is my friends also insistedtheir fingerprints needed to be in there in case of an emergency. I disagreed, but Harlow argued the point with no clothes on. Which was such a good argument, I agreed. But now they’re always in here like they don’t have their own damn houses.

“Holy fucking shit on a cracker,” I say.

“Yeah. Whatever that means,” Kai says. No idea where he just came from, but my mind is too riled from what I’m seeing on the news to care.

Senator James Wolfe of Maine arrested on charges of drug trafficking, importing a controlled substance, money laundering, racketeering, and election fraud with more charges pending.

“Holy cracker shit or whatever Cal said,” Kai says.

“They got him,” Mav says, his face still showing how shocked he is. He collapses on the couch, and Harlow collapses right next to him with Cora snuggled into her. “Kidnapping wasn’t in there.”

Harlow shrugs. “As long as he isn’t a threat to any of us anymore, that’s all I care about.”

“What about Ezra?” Mav says, audibly swallowing. When we showed him the picture and told him about the call with Jasper, he collapsed onto the ground and sobbed for almost an hour. Now he’s more determined than I’ve ever seen him. The proof that Ezra has been alive this whole time lit a fire under his ass. His house is always clean now, and he’s always put together. It’s like he’s a whole new person.

“We have his trail. We just have to keep following it,” Harrison says, coming into the room.

“Where the hell did you come from?” I ask.

“Front door.”

“Your prints are in the system too?” I ask, second guessing how many requests I grant Harlow while she’s naked.

“Door was open,” he says, looking disappointed in me. I glare at Kai, who was the last one in here.

“Sorry, man. I rushed in here.” He at least looks guilty, which makes me feel a little better. My father-in-law is one scary motherfucker, and I don’t like when he looks at me like that.

“I don’t know what to do with myself right now,” Mav says.

“I think we can relax?” I say, also unsure.

“You go back on tour in two weeks,” Jo points out.

“Are you excited, Sunshine?” Mav asks her, grinning like an idiot.

“I have calls to make and emails to answer,” she says, pretending Mav hadn’t spoken and leaves.

“I think I’m growing on her,” Mav says, leaning back into the couch and smiling. We all laugh at his delusion but let him have it anyway. He has a look of a man who’s had a huge weight lifted off their shoulders.

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