Page 39 of Shattered Hearts

“What did she say about Quiet Meadows?” Zane downs the rest of Stella’s drink. He eases her off his lap and pours another at the bar.

“That possibly more was going on there than only treating patients.”

“That’s not exactly what she said,” Gage corrects her.

Zane quirks his lips and asks, “What did she say,exactly?”

“Nothing concrete. Her apartment’s bugged, so what could she say? That they were testing experimental drugs? The FDA and the pharmaceutical companies do that, not mental health facilities like Quiet Meadows.”

“So you came away with nothing.”

Stella shrugs. “She was cheating on Clayton, but we had to guess that too, well, Gage put it together. She let me go because she couldn’t admit to being where she didn’t belong.”

“She’s sleeping with one of her guards if that means anything,” Gage says.

“Willow never told me that,” I say, looking up from his embrace.

“It’s nothing she’d announce, sweetheart.” He brushes a kiss over my cheek.

My brother dry washes his face in frustration. “Then we have a whole lot of nothing besides you thinking this could be one of your pissed off cases.”

“I went to my mother’s New Year’s Eve party last night and Rourke warned me off Zarah,” Gage says.

I scramble off his lap. “What?”

“Rourke doesn’t want me seeing you. I don’t care, Zarah. I love you, and I’m not going to let Max’s father tell me what to do.”

“He threatened you.”

“Yes, he did, but I don’t think he’d blow up my truck because I didn’t listen to him. I haven’t cared about anything he’s had to say all my life. I’m not going to start now.”

Zane sinks onto the couch and rests his hand on Stella’s thigh. “We have lots of bits and pieces about lots of bits and pieces. This isn’t new. All it means is someone’s lying or leaving out a helluva lot of truth.”

“One of the cops said something at the station. He said maybe Ash doesn’t like me seeing anyone. Stella could be right.” I say this, wanting to help my own cause.

Zane bites the inside of his cheek in thought. “Hewasterritorial. That could be the closest explanation we’ll ever get. That, or one of the men who paid to hurt you is wanting revenge for putting him away. I want to jump to a lot of conclusions, but there’s no point to that. What do you think, Mr. Davenport?”

“Linc. I think Gage and I will keep doing what we’re doing. Now that we know someone has a vendetta, we’ll be a little sharper. The police might find something useful.”

“Not if they’re working for Ash and he wanted this to happen. But I don’t understand why Ash would want to kill me. Willow said he never loved anyone but himself,” I say.

“He wouldn’t have done it for love. It’s ownership. He sold you—he thinks you belong to him, to do with what he likes. Someone needs to tell him he doesn’t own anything anymore.” Gage perches on the edge of the cushion, his body rigid with anger.

“We don’t need to tell him, we’ll show him. I’m not Ash’s puppet. Maybe he thinks I still am.” Zane heaves a sigh, holds out his arms, and Stella crawls into his lap.

I walk around my father’s office. The floor-to-ceiling windows give us a spectacular view of the city. King’s Crossing’s nightlife wakes, the skyline blinking on against the purply sunset of a Minnesota winter.

“Are you doing okay?” Gage asks, cuddling me to his chest.

“Yeah. I’m not as shook up as I thought I would be. I can still feel the heat.”

“Fucked me up,” Gage mumbles against the top of my head.

Linc clears his throat.

I guess there’s a lot of sexual tension in the room.

“Right,” Zane says, taking the hint. “Let’s go upstairs. We’ll scare up some dinner and find a football game, think about something else for a bit. Maybe if we stop obsessing about it, something will float to the top.”

---