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Chapter Thirty-Five

Hayze

Three weeks later…

Every day I wake up with this ache in my chest. It feels like a bullet has lodged itself inside me, every minute of every day I’m filled with pain. Every time I close my eyes all I see is her face, the way she looked at us that night was how I have always dreamed of her looking at me with nothing but love and devotion. Then, she ruined it when she went behind our backs and had Alexander and his fucking bitches drag us out of there.

When I woke up I tried to fight to get free but they had my hands and ankles bound. Ez and Archer were both bound like me in the back of the van. I’ve never felt so powerless in my life until that moment. Alex took us to Vox. The second he saw the three of us being lifted out of the back of the van… he knew.

He knew we failed him.

We promised him that we would save his twin and bring her back to him but we didn’t. When we argued last year and everyone went their own ways it was different. We all knew deep down that we would come back together after we had a chance to cool down, but not this time. The three of us stood there waiting for him to throw punches or scream and yell but he didn’t do any of that.

It was much worse.

He didn’t say a single word. A lone tear traveled down his cheek and the sight of that shit broke me. He turned his back, hopped in his car with Nova and left. On top of losing my girl, I lost my brother as well and this time we have no one to blame but ourselves. The fucking feds forced us out of Hollow Hills and threatened to arrest our families if we didn’t return to CHU. None of us wanted to leave without her but we also couldn’t let our families pay for our fuck up.

Every day the guys and I have tried to call Vox—he sends our calls to voicemail. Nova sends us updates on him but none of them are good. He tried to give up his place on the team but Dawson refused to allow it, the fucker wouldn’t even let us. Our original thoughts about him seem to have been wrong, the guy comes round every afternoon and drops off tapes of previous games, food and he even invited us to his family's cabin for Thanksgiving. None of us agreed.

We’ve all been running on autopilot. We get up, train, go to class, train, come home and then do it all again the next day.

“Did you see how he blitzed them at the fifty yard line?” The sound of Dawson’s voice pulls me from my inner thoughts. I look up at the TV and frown, I didn’t even realize he had put a tape in of some of the games from last year. I look across at the room, both Ez and Archer are sitting on three seaters gazing out the window, lost in their own thoughts.

This is our life.

We are shells of the men we once were because without her, we are nothing. We are empty. Soulless. She was our light and now that she isn’t here, we have nothing to look forward to. Football doesn't even make me happy. The only plus side to practice is we get to see Vox. He doesn’t glare or try to fight us, he just keeps his head down and stays silent. Even on the field, he doesn’t utter a single word.

Dawson sighs when he looks over at the guys. I don't know what this dickhead's deal is or why he is even here and trying to be our friend. A knock sounds at the front door and I furrow my brow. Ez and Archer both look at me but I’m not moving to answer it, unless it’s Vivian on the other side of that door, which I know it isn’t because my body isn’t on fire like it always is when she is near. Dawson grumbles and mutters something under his breath as he stands and goes to answer the door.

“Hello?”

“Hi, my name is Carmichael Lockery and I am the attorney for Mrs. Vivian Tempest—” At the mention of her name, the three of us are jumping over the sofas and running to the door. Dawson sees us coming and his eyes widen in surprise before he jumps out of the way. Carmichael looks frightened at the sight of us charging toward him.

“Where is she?” I snap. The guy jolts and opens his mouth but no words come out.

“Speak up!” Archer snaps.

“Where is my wife?” Ezekiel roars. The guy takes a step back and before I can rush him, Dawson cuts in front of us and raises his hands.

“How about you guys take it down a notch and invite Mr. Lockery inside so he can explain why he is here?” Dawson peers over his shoulder at the guy. He forces a nod and gulps.

“Y-yes,” he stutters. Dawson nods then turns back to us.

“Guys, have a seat and I’ll walk him in, huh?” Fucking beats me why we listen to the idiot but we all turn and storm back into the living room. The three of us claim the sofa and sit there, waiting for the other two. The second Dawson enters with the fucker he offers him a seat. I’m about to start screaming at the cunt soon if he doesn’t start explaining why he is here! I can feel the tension wafting off the guys, we all want answers.

“Thank you for seeing me. We can begin as soon as Mr. Hatchett arrives,” the fucker in a suit that doesn’t fit him properly says.

“Vox?” Ez asks.

Carmichael nods. “Yes, this involves him as well and per Mrs. Tempest's instruction this must be read whilst he is present.” The guys and I share a look just as the front door opens. In true Vox fashion, he saunters into the room with a hard look on his face, Nova trailing in behind him. He stops at the edge of the room and looks from us, then turns to Dawson and Carmichael. Nova interlaces his fingers with hers and I see him relax slightly. Envy rears its ugly head inside me.

“What the fuck is this?” Hearing Vox’s voice after so long is like a balm to my battered spirit, call me crazy but just being around him at practice seems to ease some of the pain in my chest. In the brief moment he’ll look at me, I see her in his eyes. They are twins and have the exact same shade of color. Knowing that he is her exact other half makes me feel closer to her and I know that’s wrong and unhealthy but I am fucking breaking, I’m dying slowly without her. I’m not the only one, Archer and Ezekiel are exactly like me. They do nothing except try to search for her. We all reached out to Alexander and asked for Halo’s help in tracking her.

After the threats we spewed at them I was sure they would tell us to get fucked, but Alex said he felt just as responsible for her going missing. She told him that she had made a deal with the feds and that she would be released in a day or two after giving her statement, but it’s been three fucking weeks. Halo has had no luck in tracking her. He said she is being hidden. There was another option but we refused to believe that she was gone. We would fucking know if she was… I push that thought away and focus back on the man with the briefcase sitting on his lap.

“Would you please have a seat?—”

Vox cuts Carmichael off. “No, you better start explaining why the fuck I was dragged here by my girlfriend?—”

“He has something from Vivian,” Ezekiel says. Vox snaps his head toward Ez so fast I’m surprised he didn’t snap his neck.

“What?” he snaps.

“Just sit the fuck down so he’ll explain!” Archer roars. I can see Vox wants to fight him but his curiosity is peaked, he wants to find her just as much as we do. Nova drags him over to the single seat and pushes him down. He tries to stand back up, so she does the only thing she can, she drops onto his lap, forcing him to remain where he is. Vox glares at Carmichael. To his credit the guy doesn’t cower, he just opens his briefcase and pulls out an envelope that he places on top of the closed lid. Either he can’t feel the six sets of eyes on him and the tension that is suffocating or he is ignoring it. He slowly peels the top open then proceeds to pull the contents out slower than a fucking snail. I’m not the only one getting pissed off. Vox, Ez and Hayze all look like they are about to jump out of their skin if this fucker doesn’t hurry his ass up.

“Now, let me start by saying this isn’t usual for me, I don’t normally do this type of thing but given that David was a longtime friend?—”

“Wait, David?” Archer cuts in.

Carmichael shoots him an annoyed look. “Please allow me to explain, then I will answer your questions. Like I was saying, David was a longtime friend of mine. I can’t discuss all the details but a month ago he came to me with a package on behalf of Mrs. Tempest.” My breath fucking stills at the mention of our girl.

“What did she give you?” Vox asks as he shifts forward in his seat, wrapping his arms around Nova’s waist to secure her to him.

Carmichael shuffles through the papers until he finds the one he wants. “This is a letter from Mrs. Tempest.” I look at Vox who is staring at me with wide eyes. The room is eerily silent and filled with anticipation as we all hope this letter will give us answers and a clue to where she might be. “I’ll begin reading it now.”

If you have this letter, then I guess things didn’t go to plan.

I know you guys are all probably angry and hurt over the choices I made.

I’m sorry.

I never meant to hurt any of you, especially my guys.

I hope I get the chance to tell you to your faces but I fucking love you three.

That’s right, I love you.

I just hope if this letter does reach you that I somehow survived the fall out. Carmichael is a friend of David’s who has been instructed to deliver these documents to you all if I don’t make contact with him by the Night Of The Saints.

Please don’t hate me or be angry. I did all of this so we could have a better life and be free of the Saints. I never wanted to lie to any of you or hide things but it was safer for you all if you didn’t know the truth.

This is a long letter so listen closely.

Vox, my twin, my big brother, my best friend. I love you. I’m so sorry I hurt you by not telling you what I had planned and marrying Ez behind your back. I love him, Vox, and I love Hayze and Archer as well. Please don’t take out your anger on them, they need you! You are the last piece of me they will have. Look after Mom and tell her that I love her, make sure she knows I’m so grateful for everything she did for us and loving us the way she did. Being away from her all this time has been harder than I thought possible. Make sure you look after her.

Nova, thank you for being my best friend and loving my brother. Thank you for making him happy and showing him that he is worthy of love. I’m so sorry for your loss, sweetheart. Your mother was an amazing woman and I am truly sorry if my plan was the reason her life was cut short, I will forever live with that guilt.

My guys, the loves of my life, my happy ending. God, I wish I was with you three, I want to be there right now holding you and seeing the looks on each of your faces as you hear me tell you I love you. I never thought I would ever be lucky enough to find a man who loves me and I wasn’t lucky, I was blessed because I got three. Thank you. Call me crazy but knowing the three of you had my back and loved me even when you could have thought the worst of me means more than you will ever know. I won’t say to move on and be happy because it would be a lie. I do want you to be happy but I don’t want your happiness to be because of another woman. When you hear the next part, please keep an open mind as all the lies I have told have been for this reason, I did all of this for you. For a chance at a life with you three, I could write so much more and I want to but words will never be enough to express the connection I feel with each of you. You guys gave me a happiness I never thought I would experience and for that, I will go into the next life smiling because of you three.

I love you all with all my heart, never doubt that.

A pain I have never felt before blooms inside my chest and robs me of air, I feel my eyes prick with tears and I fight those fuckers back. I never thought I would be the type of guy who cries over a girl, yet here I sit using every ounce of strength I have not to let my brothers see me cry.

“I will now read you the instructions from Mrs. Tempest.” We all nod, none of us able to speak or even utter a simple grunt. “All rights and ownership of my company Ezy A is to be disclosed to Ezekiel, Vox, Hayze and Archer.”

My brows slam together. “What company?” I ask.

Carmichael smiles sadly. “Mrs Tempest opened a company under the name of Ezy A two years ago.” I reel back.

“You got that wrong, she didn't own any company two years ago,” Archer snaps.

“I have it in writing, Mr. Malik, the company was opened by Vivian Hatchett but she was never the owner.” We all share a confused look. Up until a year ago, Vivian had never done anything without us knowing, this can’t be right. We would know if she started a company, right?

“He’s right.” We all turn to Nova.

“What the fuck do you know about this, witch?” Vox growls at his girl.

Nova ignores the bite in his tone and looks to the three of us with a soft smile. “I found out about Ezy A when I was with her in Hollow Hills. She didn’t need to say anything, I knew what the name stood for which then made everything else she was doing make sense.”

“What does it stand for?” Ez asks.

“Ezy stands for Ezekiel and Hayze and the A is pretty clear,” she says smugly.

“Archer,” the man himself mutters.

“Vivian didn’t do what she did on a whim, she had this planned for years. She was a lot smarter than anyone gave her credit for,” Nova says.

“The owners of the company are Ezekiel Tempest, Archer Malik, Vox Hatchett and Hayze Draven,” Carmichael announces. “All of the assets of the company are yours to do with as you please. She has left instructions and notes on everything she has done and has planned for you all to follow. I will leave these documents with you all to read over and do with as you please. I’ll see myself out.” He places the papers on the small table in the center of the room and stands.

“I’ll walk you out,” Dawson says, then turns to us. “I’ll catch you guys later.” We nod but don’t say anything. When the door clicks shut Nova jumps off Vox’s lap and drops to her knees beside the small table and rummages through the paperwork. The guys and I all remain silent, mulling over everything we have just learned. My mind is reeling but guilt is eating at me.

“She planned to give herself up to save us years ago,” Ezekiel mumbles with hurt thick in his tone.

“How did we not see this?” Archer asks no one in particular.

“Because we were all too caught up in our own lives. She saw everything we couldn’t because we were too stubborn to admit that we had no idea what we were doing, but my sister did. She knew it had to be her that ended this. My little sister was better than all of us. She didn’t need to kill, torture or lie to defeat the Saints, she just had to be her.” Vox’s tone is riddled with remorse.

“You evil genius, Vivi!” Nova exclaims, drawing all our attention to her.

“What did you find, witch?” Vox asks as he slides further forward in his seat, trying to see the paper Nova is holding.

“You guys are right. Vivian did plan all of this out long ago,” she says in a faraway tone as she continues to read.

“Nova, explain what you mean… please,” Ezekiel forces out through clenched teeth.

Nova looks up at her brother with a proud smile on her face. “Ez, she meant it when she said she did everything for you guys. Everything she built, the hotel, the investments she made, they are all owned by you guys.”