53
Zeke satacross from Liv and Ash at the large, oval conference table. The same table where the FBI had first approached him about recovering a doll for a confidential informant with ties to a drug dealer.
The meeting felt like a lifetime ago, but in reality, little more than a week had passed. A week that had altered his life forever.
In the last twenty-four hours, he had held Lupos,figured out how to save his family, lost Liv, found Liv, loved Liv, declared himself to Liv, lost Brodie, found Brodie, and lost Callie.
Yet, despite the horrifying reason for their presence at the FBI’s office, Zeke found himself happier than he could ever remember. He’d told Liv that he loved her, and she hadn’t run the other way.
She hadn’t exactly said the words back, but he could see the emotion brimming in her eyes. Once Callie was safe and her kidnapper was behind bars, or six feet under, Zeke would remove every obstacle her brilliant mind threw between them.
For now, he set aside their future and focused on the present.
On Liv.
He had sat across from her in order to monitor the slightest variation in her condition. With every passing minute, she seemed to shrink in on herself.
The mother who had stormed into the water park, ready to take down the world to protect her son, was slipping away. The woman across from him was fragmenting, tormenting herself with a million what-ifs and if-onlys. She kept glancing at her phone, at Callie’s picture. No doubt blaming herself and feeling an overwhelming helplessness.
The distance between them also took away the temptation for him to offer her comfort. Something she wouldn’t appreciate in front of her coworkers.
Always, she had to be in control. Show nothing that could be construed as weakness. Juggle all that life threw at her without help.
Somewhere along the way, she’d gotten it in her head—or someone put it there—that she had to be all, do all. Alone.
Horseshit.
No one was built to do everything by themselves without incredible sacrifices. Something that had only recently penetrated his thick skull.
When her chin trembled, he knew she’d reached her breaking point. She’d held it together during the entire time she thought her son was in jeopardy and while navigating the park’s lack of indoor security.
But here, where her body was no longer in motion, her mind was venturing into cavernous dark holes of fear and dread and self-recrimination.
Fuck it.
Rising, he circled the table and sat beside her. Rather than draw her to him and coax her head onto his shoulder, as he wanted to, he reached out and covered her hand with his.
Cold. It was so cold.
She jerked beneath his touch, and he was certain she would pull away. Then her eyes closed, and she drew in a long, deep breath before placing her free hand on top of his.
A sharp ache split down Zeke’s throat, and his hold tightened.
He looked at Ash, who was hunched over his laptop, grumbling beneath his breath. True to her word, Liv had ensured his brother’s forced leave was revoked the day Zeke accepted the FBI’s job offer.
Despite the current circumstances, he was glad to see Ash in his element. He belonged here, just as Zeke belonged at the helm of BARS.
His realization didn’t mean he wanted to be chummy with the asshat just yet, but he was finally understanding why Ash chose a career he could be passionate about rather than a job that paid the bills.
“Still no video from the water park?” Zeke asked his brother.
Ash shook his head and tapped a key on his laptop, no doubt refreshing his e-mail for the thousandth time. “I don’t know what the hell is taking them so long.”
RSA Mitch Lawson entered the conference room, phone to his ear. “They found Ivy Wright,” he announced to the room, though his eyes were on Liv.
Liv’s head jerked up. “Where?”
Lawson held up a finger while he listened to whoever was on the phone. A few seconds later, he said, “The details are still coming in, but evidently Jeremy Jackson climbed into Miss Wright’s vehicle as she was preparing to leave to pick up her sister.”