Page 163

He sits up and pushes to his feet. Running a hand through his hair, Gabe stares down at me with concern in his expression.
“Go fix this shit, Ezra. I’ll keep Ivy busy so she doesn’t jump into the middle of it. But I’d like to have it resolved before we take off to drive back to the city. Two hours in the car with this bullshit going on will suck.”
“I’ll just cut shit off with Emily.”
A bark of laughter shakes his shoulders.
“I think we both know that won’t happen. My advice is that you pull your head out of your ass and grovel.”
I lift my brows. “Says the man abducting women and also running them through the woods. I don’t see you groveling.”
“You have a point,” he answers with a wide grin. “But I haven’t betrayed anyone. And that’s exactly what you just did. We all do a lot of fucked up stuff, but the stunt you just pulled was cruel. Just go fix it before it blows up in all of our faces.”
He’s halfway to the door when I admit, “I’m not sure I can trust her, Gabe.”
Pausing at that, he glances over his shoulder at me. “How does it benefit Emily to screw you over?”
That’s a damn good question. One I haven’t considered. And the first answer to whisper in my head is, “It doesn’t benefit her.”
He arches a brow.
“From what I saw when she ran through the house this morning, she’s just as fucked up over all of this as you. I’m not part of Emily’s fan club. Never have been. But she’s put up with you two assholes more than any sane woman would. Especially you. So I have to think she deserves some credit for it. And the benefit of the doubt. It’s possible I misjudged her just because she was Ivy’s best friend.”
Knocking his knuckles against the doorframe on his way out, he grabs my attention.
“I’m jumping in a quick shower. Wait to start the fight until after I’m out or you’ll have Ivy crawling all over you in defense of Emily.”
Shit. He’s not wrong about that. Ivy’s the type of girl who would take on a pissed off grizzly if it meant protecting someone she cares about.
The only problem is I’m not patient enough to wait. And I’m a hell of a lot interested to know what she’s saying to Damon.
Emily
I must have searched outside for over an hour.
Barefoot and wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and sleep shorts, I couldn’t go too deep into the woods where I assume Damon stalked off.
Still, I tried, and all I have to show for it are a few scratches on my arms from low lying branches that stuck out into the path and stone bruises on the bottom of my feet.
I stood in the parking area for a while, too, the happily chirping birds and dappled sunlight through the trees at odds with how angry I felt.
Ezra has lost his damn mind. And no matter how much I try to see things from his point of view, no matter how many excuses I make for him because of what he was put through growing up, I can’t rationalize his decision to do something so evil.
Not just to me either.
To Damon.
His twin brother.
The one other person I have destroyed myself for over and over again because I can’t be the person who comes between them.
Ezra made me that girl, invalidating everything I’ve done to keep it from happening.
Maybe I can claim I deserve it because I have been lying about the stuff with William, but what did Damon do? Cared about me? Tried to go along with this screwed up friendship while fighting his feelings?
How he feels is not his fault. And Ezra should know that. He’s the closest person there is to Damon, which means he, of all of people, should understand that Damon wears his heart on his sleeve.
Yet Ezra didn’t seem to care about that. All he wanted to do was prove a point.