Page 81 of Fractured Hearts

Willa, Belle, and Declan are all in charge of the detonations. Well, just pressing a button and watching the drone footage, but Willa’s excitement is bordering on scary. Martha is going to be in the woods with her rifle, just in case. Ezra and I will carry guns. Gavin is staying back to fly a drone over and monitor everything with Adira’s help.

“But what about police?” Declan asks. Ezra snorts.

“They’ll be distracted,” Gavin answers. The good thing about small towns is that nothing really happens in them, so their police force is small. Well, good for us, anyway. “Another explosion will go off exactly ten minutes before the first one on the Wolfe property. That gives the police here time to react and get to the site, which is five miles south. Hopefully, that will give us enough time to extract Maverick.”

“Who is setting that one off?” Willa asks with a frown, probably having realized everyone here already has a job.

“I am.”

I swing around at the sound of the deep voice behind me. In the doorway stands a man well over six feet tall , with a muscular, athletic build, wavy blond hair that flops over his steel-gray eyes, and a scowl that I’ve never seen before.

“Jasper?” Ezra gasps, practically running to embrace his best friend. “What are you doing here?”

“What the fuck do you mean? You were kidnapped, Ezra!” Jasper yells, his arms firmly around Ezra with no sign of letting go. I’ve never heard that tone from him before. We’ve interacted a lot over the last few weeks, him always insisting on talking to me too when he would call Ezra. This whole thing must have really scared him. Not that I blame him. I’m still terrified.

“How did you find out?” Ezra asks.

“Cal,” Jasper sighs, finally letting go. “He called me to complain about the amount of times you’ve gone missing. Which is only twice, but that’s two more than your average person, so I can’t really blame him.”

“He called me looking for you, and I explained everything,” Gavin says, answering the unasked question. “Said he wanted to help.”

“Aren’t all the explosions remote?” I ask him, not wanting to put Jasper in danger when I know everyone else setting off the explosions will be safe in this house.

“Yes,” Gavin says. “He’ll be here with everyone else, but he will also need to monitor the police radio for me.”

“Okay,” I say with a sigh. I’m not sure if I’m relieved that Jasper won’t be in danger or nervous that Ezra will.

“Hey, Jo Jo,” Jasper says, wrapping me up in a strong hug. “We’ll get Maverick out and make Patrick pay.” He leans down and kisses the top of my head. I hear Ezra growl before I’m yanked back into his hard chest. Jasper’s face lights up like it’s Christmas, and he just caught Santa leaving presents.

“Don’t,” Ezra grumbles.

“I’m happy for you, Ezzy baby!” Jasper says, clapping his hands together and smiling. He truly looks elated for his friend. “Now we just have to get your man back!”

“My guys will have the explosives set within the hour. Take the time to prepare,” Gavin says before taking Adira’s hand and heading outside.

Jasper goes around the room and greets everyone while I stay snuggled in Ezra’s arms. It’s strange how moments like these can make me feel so complete and incomplete at the same time. I felt it every time I snuggled with Maverick before I ever met Ezra. I just thought it was from thinking my feelings would never be returned. Now I recognize it for what it is. I was never meant to be with just one person. Maverick, Ezra, and I complete each other. It took the broken pieces of three hearts to make the single one that beats between us.

eighty-five

EZRA

“I’m sorry about the whole . . . gay thing,” Kai says, turning red and scratching the back of his neck.

“It was more funny than offensive. It’s not like I think you’re a bigot,” I tell him. “But what happened?”

“It took me longer than I’d like to admit to get used to the idea of you being gay. Not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because you weren’t the one who told me. And you still weren’t there to tell me,” Kai says, kicking at a knot in the wooden floor. “You’re my twin, Ez. We literally have the exact same DNA, and you didn’t feel you could tell me. I’m so sorry for making you feel like that. And I’m so sorry that you felt you still couldn’t tell me when you realized you were demi.”

I throw my arms around my brother and squeeze him so tight I hear his bones crack. There’s a lump in my throat I force down so I can speak. “You didn’t, Kai. At first, I was excited to be attracted to someone because I hadn’t been before Maverick. Then, as I really fell for him, we kept it a secret for his protection. I should have told you, but I was embarrassed. I thought something was wrong with me because I wasn’t sexually attracted to anyone. Not until Maverick.”

“And now Jo,” Kai says with a soft smile.

“Yeah, and now Jo,” I agree, looking over my shoulder to see the woman in question glaring out the window.

“I think Mrs. Griffin has noticed we’re over here,” Jo announces.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Kai grumbles and joins Jo at the window. They both have their arms crossed and are glaring. It might be kind of funny if the woman wasn’t evil. She thought Belle, her own daughter, should stay with an abusive man because he had a good-paying job and wasn’t ugly. Because that makes fucking sense.

“Is she coming over here?” Belle asks, coming to stand next to me. I put my arm around her and pull her to my side. Like hell will I let that woman near her. Not that Kai will, either.