Page 50 of Zeke

I think for a second, but I know it’s not my brother, no matter how much animosity hangs between us now. “No,” I tell Justice. “Eli would never do something like that to her. He’d take his shit out on me, not on her.”

Justice nods. He knows it’s true, too, but I understand why he’d ask anyway.

I tuck the note into my pocket and look at the flowers. They’re expensive ones—high-quality, long-stemmed red roses. Not something your average Joe will go out of his way to get for a girl he’s not desperately in love with.

“This is a problem,” I tell Justice, and he nods again. “I knew something else was coming. Eli did too. Our guts have never been wrong about this shit.”

Justice sighs. “We’ll figure out what to do. What do you want me to do with these?” he asks.

“Trash them,” I tell him. “No one needs those. I’m keeping the note so we can try to figure it out, but the flowers don’t matter.”

Justice goes to the kitchen and stuffs them unceremoniously into a garbage bag, which he crams into the trash can beneath the sink. “Done,” he says,

“Good,” I say. “As soon as she’s ready, we head out.”

Another few minutes go by, and then I hear the thudding of footsteps on the outside stairs.

“Kira?” Eli calls through the door. “Kira, are you in there?”

I go to the door and open it. At first, he looks surprised to see me, but then his face shifts back to concern.

“Where is she?” he asks, Brawler right behind him, looking inside.

Just then, Kira comes out of her room carrying two bags. She looks up and sees Eli and me talking, and a blush grows across her face.

“She’s coming home with me,” I tell Eli, hoping that he’ll understand I’m not going to fight him over this. This is absolute, and I won’t hear a damn thing to the contrary.

We stare at each other for a long, hard minute. I can almost see the wheels turning in Eli’s head as he tries to figure out what he’ll do or say. Will he fight, or will he—

He sighs, his shoulders drooping, and nods. “Good,” he says without any kind of enthusiasm in his voice. “She’ll be safe there.”

The concession from him is the big one I’ve been waiting for, but now it feels like a hollow victory. For Kira’s safety to be the catalyst for him finally giving up doesn’t feel good, but I need to stay the course if I’m going to claim the prize I’d worked so hard for.

I walk over to Kira and gently take a bag from her, then hold her hand in my other one. Together, we walk toward the door. Eli steps to the side, not making eye contact with either of us. I squeeze Kira’s hand and don’t let it go for a second the entire walk down the stairs and out to my bike.

Someone is watching her. Someone knows she hasn’t been responding to the flowers how they wanted her to. That someone is probably watching her right now.

Which is why I’m holding her hand as we walk down the stairs holding her bags. Even as we enter the parking lot and strap her bags to the back of my bike before I put her on, giving her another kiss.

Because whoever is watching needs to know Kira is mine. And that means, above all else, that she’s protected.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

Eli

I’m about halfway through my second plate of wings when Brawler challenges me about some piece of trivia that we both swear we have the answer to, but both can’t be right about. We argue about it for a minute, then I decide to be the tie-breaker by getting out my phone to check the information.

But I never get that far.

When my screen unlocks, the first thing I see is a message from Zeke. It’s been a while since he’s sent me anything. At first, I almost ignore it, but then I see something in the preview that makes me stop and read what he has to say.

Problem at Kira’s. She might be in trouble. If you get there first, let me know.

Fuck.

“Brawler,” I say, standing up and tossing my napkin onto the table along with a hundred-dollar bill I pull out of my pocket for the server. “We’ve got to go.”

“What’s wrong?” he says, standing up with me, recognizing my tone as one that means trouble.

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