He dragged out his cell phone.
“Zeke, everything okay?” Kent asked after a few rings.
He hated that the reason for this call was Eden. She should be safely ensconced on the ranch, protected, coddled and. . . probably smothered. Yeah, he was going to have to be careful not to do that.
Even if he had to be a bit sneaky and protect her without her knowing. Like he had those nights he’d sneak into town and watched over her while she was out with those idiot friends of hers.
“No, chief,” Zeke answered honestly and to the point. “Eden’s in trouble.”
“What? How? Where the fuck is Clint?”
“Back home on the ranch. I haven’t spoken to him. I thought I’d best call you rather than him.” Lord knew how Clint was going to react to this. Well, he knew. He was going to fucking lose his mind.
“Everyone fucking calls me to deal with Clint. One day you all are going to have to deal directly with him yourself.”
He had to grin at that. He wasn’t too worried about dealing with the boss man. But he enjoyed riling up Kent’s calm façade at times.
But now really wasn’t the time.
“Listen, Eden’s gotten herself into some trouble with Fergus Bartolli.”
Silence.
“I’d ask you if this was some sick fucking joke, except I know you value breathing too much to do that.”
“I value your sister too much to joke about this,” Zeke snapped, insulted by the idea he’d make this shit up.
He heard Kent take a deep breath. “Finally gotten your head out of your ass, have you?”
Zeke narrowed his eyes at the implication he’d been ignoring what was between him and Kent’s younger sister.
“My head was not up my ass. I was giving her space. Going slow.” Okay, maybe it had taken him a while to work it all out. But he’d been working on gaining her trust.
“We have more important things to talk about, chief,” he reminded his boss.
“Yeah. Give it to me. What’s happened?”
He explained everything, including his relationship with Reyes, and the phone call he’d just had with him.
“Fuck. Shit. Christ. Where are you now?”
“At Hayes’ cabin.”
Kent had been here many times. He knew the place well.
“Okay. Good. But you can’t stay there indefinitely. She’ll be safe at the ranch. No one will get her there.”
Zeke knew the security was good, especially around the big house. But it didn’t feel right taking her back there.
“They’ll be watching the ranch. She’d need to be on lockdown, it’s easier for her to sneak out there and we both know what she’s like. If she gets the urge to take off. . .”
“Fuck. Which is likely. She’ll need to have a twenty-four seven guard.” Kent’s voice sounded resigned and aggravated. “Which she’ll fucking hate.”
“I’m all for keeping her safe no matter what. But we can safely stay here for a bit longer. She has no way of leaving. The security here is damn good and Bartolli’s goons shouldn’t find us here.”
Few beats of silence as Kent thought that through. “Okay. A few days there as long as there’s no risk of anyone finding you. But then I want her home. Corbin has got contacts in Seattle. We’ll see if he can find anything out.”
“Yeah. We need to stop Bartolli from going after Eden thinking she can lead him to Keira.”