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Ezra was my next call. As a start, I needed to apologize.
“Hey,” he answered after four long rings. He sounded exhausted, as if he was drowning in stress.
“You okay?” I asked, my own issues forgotten. It had been a long time since I’d heard that kind of defeat in his voice, and the need to shield him from it was overwhelming.
“Not in the slightest,” he mumbled, and my heart broke.
What had he come across? What had he seen that left him despairing?
“I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, Tris, and the whole situation is fucked. I….” He huffed out a breath. “I can’t even talk about it. But everything is…royallyfucked.”
My breath caught.Royallyfucked? Did he mean Zali? Was it a reference to Queen? “Give me a yes or no answer, okay?” I didn’t wait for him to respond before I asked, “Are Flynn and Zali in trouble?”
The hitch in his breath said everything. My heart rate doubled, smashing against my chest like cymbals clashing together. But I needed his answer. I needed to hear the words. I waited, silently praying they were okay.
“Yes.”
My gut bottomed out, dropping like an anvil. My ears were ringing, and my chest clenched painfully. My fingers itched, desperate for me to do something—anything—to protect them.
“It’s been a rollercoaster ride,” he added, emphasizing his last word.
The contents of my stomach curdled. I was going to be sick. “Ryder?” I choked out past the lump in my throat, holding onto my belly in a futile attempt to settle it. Fear, real and immediate, swamped me.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Ezra responded, confirming my fears.
Zali, Flynn, and Ryder were in trouble. By extension, that also included Ezra.
“Tris…,” he added, sounding like he’d been winded. He was struggling, forcing down his emotions.
“Are they in physical danger?” Holding my breath, I waited for his answer. Time slowed, each millisecond interminable.
“No.”
The breath rushed out of my lungs, relief flooding me. But it was a false sense of security. Like sitting in a blow-up dinghy with a slow leak in shark-infested waters, they were clearly still in some sort of trouble. Whatever it was, whatever they were facing, I needed to help them. I just prayed I could.
“Legal?”
“Very much so.”
I exhaled on a rush. It was a relief and terrifying at the same time—I could help, but I also knew the consequences if things didn’t work out the way I wanted. I pressed my thumb and index finger against my closed eyelids, rubbing the grit.
Zali was as cool as a cucumber. Her sass and smarts held her rock steady.
Flynn—my angel—was her opposite, but his positivity and that glass-half-full attitude that I loved so much could get him in trouble. He was so willing to help, so fiercely loyal that he would do whatever it took to protect Zali. What would that mean for him?
I’d seen them and spoken to Ezra only hours earlier. Ezra hadn’t given me any hint whatsoever that there was something going on. So, whatever had happened since was a new development. If Ezra was involved, they were either under investigation, or they’d already been taken into custody and were facing questions.
But when it came to Ryder, that worried me. He was hotheaded. He reacted on instinct, jumping in feetfirst. If Zali was threatened, he’d breath fire and raze the world. That kind of anger would get him in serious trouble.
The need to protect Ry flared hard and fast in me, the burn intensifying from embers to a forest fire in an instant. I couldn’t explain why, but the instinct to protect him was real. Just as real as the need to wrap my arms around Zali, Flynn, and Ezra. They were in danger. They were hurting. I needed to make it stop.
I needed to step up and be the man they all needed.
Speculation wouldn’t get me anywhere. I needed more information, but for the moment, it was enough that Ezra had confirmed they were in legal trouble. I could work with that. I just hoped that my prediction that Zali would get them in trouble wasn’t a premonition.
If she had, it was undoubtedly my fault.
Zali had so much on the line, more than any of us, with this podcast looming over her head.
