Page 45 of Broken Promises

“If I was in hiding to keep Willa safe and the bastard who was behind all of it was locked up, there wouldn’t be a single thing on this fucking planet that would stop me from returning to her side.” He reaches out and pulls me fully off my chair and into his lap, but his gaze never leaves Harlow’s. They’re having some weird stare-off. Like he’s challenging her to disagree with him while she tries to find a way to do so.

“Or he doesn’t love me the way I love him,” Maverick says in a voice that sounds so defeated, it causes tears to burn in the backs of my eyes.

“No, Mav. He loves you like crazy. Jasper said as much when we had that call with him, unprompted. He was not only awareof how much Ezra loved you, but was affected by it enough to mention it to us,” Harlow says, breaking her staring contest with Declan to look at Maverick.

Jo throws her arms around Mav as he sobs into her shoulder. She eyes me with a silent plea for help. I’m usually the one to comfort Maverick. I’ve known the most loss, which somehow made me the default grief friend. I smile sadly and nod, letting her know she’s doing all she can do right now.

“So we need to find a suspect that isn’t Wolfe, but would convincingly threaten Maverick’s life,” I say, leaning back against Declan’s chest. He wraps his arms around me, holding me tight, like he’s afraid someone is actually going to force him into hiding to protect me.

“It’s possible he had a partner. I’ve been reading through all the drug trafficking allegations because those seem the most likely to be part of what Ezra witnessed to start this whole mess. The scope of the operation is huge. There’s no way he did it alone, but so far, he hasn’t rolled on anyone. Either out of loyalty or possibly fear that someone would take out his wife and child.” Harrison scratches his chin. “My money is on the latter. I doubt Wolfe is loyal to anyone other than himself.”

“I have to go see my dad,” Maverick whispers.

“I’ll go with you,” I offer immediately. Declan stiffens. I put my hand over his mouth before he can argue. He knows what happened the last time any of us went to a prison, so I know there’s no way he’s letting me go without an argument. “I’m going with him,” I say directly to Declan. I see the fear in his eyes, but it won’t stop me.

“I can go alone,” Maverick says, having seen the same fear in Declan’s eyes that I have.

“When are you going?” Dec asks as soon as I remove my hand.

“Maverick is on the approved visitor list. It’ll take me a few hours to make some calls to get Willa on there too.” Harrison is already getting up and calling someone before I can respond to thank him.

“Tomorrow?” Mav asks, hesitantly looking between me and Declan. “He’s being held in Auburn. So about three hours from here.”

“I have weight training in the morning, but we can be on the road by ten. Does that work?”

“Declan,” I start to say, but he shakes his head.

“I’m not letting you go alone, Princess. I’ll stay in the car and wait, but I’ll lose my mind if you make me wait at home for you.”

“Okay,” I agree. He kisses me softly before placing me back in my chair.

“I have to head to the arena. You’re still coming, right?”

“Of course. Who else is going to yell at you for playing like a cocky idiot?”

Cal barks out a laugh while Declan just smiles.

“I’ll see you there, Princess.” He kisses me again quickly before saying goodbye to everyone else.

“That was really heavy for a lunch meeting,” Jon says. I startle a little, having completely forgotten he was there.

I turn to him. “On a lighter note, I need your help with something.”

“Belle!” I yell, running after her. She stops on the sidewalk between her house and Cal’s.

“I don’t want to talk right now, Willa,” she says, her voice quiet.

“Please. You’re my best friend —”

“No,” she snaps, turning to face me. “You’remybest friend. Your best friend is Declan.”

“Both things can be true,” I say sadly.

“They can, but they aren’t. Declan knows you in a way that I thought I did. He knows everything about Ezra!” she exclaims. “Declan knows your heart, and I didn’t even know he fucking existed.”

“What about you and Kai?” I argue. “He knows your heart better than I do, and he should. I don’t get angry at you for that.”

“I gave you every ounce of me, Willa! I told you every hope and every terrifying fear. I told you what I felt for Kai. You held me while I healed from Brad. I whispered secrets in your ear at sleepovers when we were kids. I kept nothing hidden from you.” Belle’s eyes are glassy with unshed tears, her body shaking from anger and sadness. “I thought we were each other’s person. But you’ve always been Declan’s, and I just got the scraps.” She turns on her heel and runs to her house.

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