“I’m not going into that now,” Reyes told her. He shared a look with Zeke. What was that about? “But they’re not people you want to mess with. Keira is in over her head. Let’s just hope that they don’t learn of your friendship.”
“What do we do now? You never answered me before, why did you call Zeke? Why not call my brothers?”
“When Ink heard you say Keira’s name, he thought it best to keep you until we figured out who you were. When I figured out who you are, I realized we had a mutual acquaintance.”
She looked over at Zeke. He gave her a small nod. How did they know each other?
“So I called Zeke to come get you. I also don’t want the wrath of the Jensens coming down on my head.”
Or the cops.
“I didn’t realize you were his. But it makes things easier.”
She bit back her retort about that. She got the feeling that no matter what she said it wouldn’t make a difference in their archaic beliefs. And in some ways, although she’d never admit it out loud, she kind of liked the protective feel of it. Clint and Kent were protective of her and she knew they loved her. But their protectiveness could also make her feel like a burden.
Zeke just gave Reyes a nod. “That all?”
“It is.” Reyes aimed that ice-cold glare at her. “You were lucky tonight, Miss Jensen. I can’t guarantee your safety if you come back here. My advice is that you lay low, let Zeke here look after you and that you do what he says.” He raised his eyes to Zeke. “I’m guessing you’ll have that sorted, though.”
She wasn’t sure what that meant exactly. Unless he was referring to Zeke’s job as a security specialist for her brother. Shit. Clint and Kent were not going to be happy when they learned about this.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make certain she is safe.”
Duke escorted them out to Zeke’s truck in silence. Zeke pushed her chair. He stood watch as Zeke opened the passenger door.
“My car,” Eden said in a low voice.
“I’ll get Corbin to send someone to get it. You’re not driving home tonight. We need to talk.”
And they weren’t going back to the ranch, but she didn’t need to know that yet.
To his surprise, she didn’t press the argument and he knew that everything she’d learned about her friend had rocked her. She was off-kilter but he didn’t think she fully understood how bad things could be. Hell, he didn’t know how bad things were. But he’d be finding out.
He lifted her into the passenger seat. Then he grabbed the seat belt and placed it over her, clicking it in.
“I can buckle my own seat belt, Zeke Jonas,” she snarled at him.
He leaned in and gave her a light kiss. She froze in shock which had been his intention. Sometimes it was the right moment to fight back, other times it was better to fight with a different sort of fire.
Her breath caught and he quickly shut the door before she could recover.
Duke snorted. “I like your style.”
Zeke quickly folded up the wheelchair and carried it to the back of his truck, lifting it in.
Duke held out his hand to him. Zeke reached out to take it, feeling the small cell phone pre
ss against his palm.
“He’ll call later.” Duke gave him a nod and then left. Cagey bastard.
Zeke hopped into his truck. Eden turned to him. “Zeke—”
“Just wait a minute, Eden. I don’t want to be driving while we have this conversation and I don’t intend to have it until I know you’re safe.”
“Safe? But I’m not really in danger. Reyes was just exaggerating.”
“Exaggerating? Believe me, Jacob Reyes doesn’t exaggerate. For Reyes to act like that, he believes you could be in danger.”