Page 71 of Zeke

“She didn’t mean that—did she?” I comment, also teasing her.

“Don’t make me shoot you both.” She walks away with Savage behind her. “I think I already miss when they were fighting.”

Eli and I laugh, then he nods toward the stairs. “Go take your girl to work. I’ll be here when you get back, ready to dig into this stuff.”

I clap a hand on his shoulder, then fix a cup of coffee for Kira, which I take up to her so she can drink it before she gets ready. I tell her what we talked about downstairs, how the surveillance will continue until we find out who is stalking her, and how Eli might have a lead on it.

“When you get home, if we haven’t gotten more info without you, we’ll see if you can help us out,” I tell her.

She smiles and throws her arms around my neck, kissing me deeply. God, I dreamed about this, and now it is really happening. She is my girl.Mygirl, and I am not going to let her go—not for a single damn thing in the whole, wide world.

I ride next to Country and Julia, with Kira on the back of my bike to the bakery. When we get there, her dad is just setting up for the day.

“Zeke!” he says as I walk inside. “Country! Good to see you boys. Any chance I could get the two of you to give me a hand real quick? It’s loaf day, and these trays are pretty heavy.”

It only takes about five minutes to help him move the giant trays of bread from the back to the front of the bakery so he doesn’t have to lift them himself. Kira thanks me with a kiss, which her dad looks away from. Just because he’s warming up to me, to the Kings, doesn’t mean he wants to see me kissing his daughter, I suppose.

Once I’m sure Country’s got everything under control, I return to the house and go to Eli’s room, where his crazy computer setup is whirring and blinking.

“All right.” I rub my hands together and sit down beside him. “Let’s get started.”

He pulls up records for the car he saw, but none of the people look familiar to me, and none of the names ring a bell. After a while of no results, my mind drifts to Kira and to the way she’d felt the night before when she had been beneath me again. The way her hands had felt on my hair, her nails down my back—

“You okay, dude?” Eli asks, giving me a look that says he knows exactly what kind of thoughts I was having.

“Yeah,” I say. “Of course. Let’s get back to—”

My phone goes off, and I glance down to see Country calling. I wonder if he’s seen the car and can give us some details.

“Hey,” I say, picking up the phone. “What’s going on?”

“Fuck!” he says, and my heartrate spikes at his frantic tone. “Fuck, Zeke, I’m sorry. I only turned my back for a second, and—Julia, come on, wake up! I went in the back to help move more loaves. I heard a thud and a scream, and by the time I came back out, Julia was out cold, and Kira… she’s gone, Zeke. I’m so fucking sorry.”

I look at Eli, my face slack in horror, and I drop my phone, which Eli picks up. Country relays the same message to him, and my brother puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t fucking move,” he says to Country, since I seem to have lost the ability to speak. “We’ll be right there.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE

Kira

Ican’t get a single thought to go through my head except how pissed off Zeke is going to be. He’s been putting in all this effort, this time and energy into keeping me safe, and I let my stupid ass get taken.

Country had just gone into the back to help Dad with another tray of loaves when I heard Julia say, “Good morning, Steve.”

I looked up and saw one of our regulars walking in, but it didn’t take long for me to realize there was nothing good his morning. His face was twisted with rage, and before I could ask what was wrong, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Julia.

I clapped my hands over my mouth, not wanting to scream and startle him into pulling the trigger, but it was clear his issue wasn’t with Julia.

“Kira,” he said in an eerily calm voice. “You’re going to go get in my car.”

“No,” I said, hoping I could stall long enough for Country to finish up in the back and come help me. “I’m not.”

“You’ve been ignoring me for too long, Kira.” He came behind the counter and got right up in Julia’s face. She was shaking, her hands twitching like she was trying to reach for her gun that wasn’t there. “You’re not going to do that anymore.”

Before I could react, he hit Julia in the head with the gun, and she fell to the floor, unconscious.

That was when Steve grabbed my wrist and pulled me outside to his car, which is where I am now, watching Country and my dad running out of the bakery and looking around for me. I see my dad point at me, and Country runs toward his bike, but Steve is already pulling around a corner, then another, so he can hide in the alley. I want to scream as I see Country fly by on his bike, but I know it won’t matter. I’m inside Steve’s car with the windows up, and Country’s bike is loud. There’s no way he’ll hear me, something Steve seems to have thought of.

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