His big plan had been to get himself arrested, and for a while prisonhadbeen better than living with Preston.
He’d thought that would be the end of it. Only now the nightmare was in full force, right in front of him, bringing Zeke to the edge of violence that was so unlike him, it was shocking.
He didn’t know what to do, except try the one thing he’d never done. Tell the truth. Ask for help.
“He’s abusive, Zeke,” Cal said, then he licked his lips, which felt incredibly dry. “He drew me in. It was great at first, and then years later, I got myself arrested on purpose just to get away from him.”
Preston could hear all of this. His eyes were very wide, but at least he was focused on Cal now, and not Zeke.
As for Zeke, he flicked a glance at Cal, then resettled the rifle against his shoulder.
“Stopping him this way won’t work—it’ll only escalate.” Taking a breath, Cal steadied himself, shaking all over as he was. “If you shoot him and don’t kill him, he’ll come after you. If you shoot him and kill him, you’ll end up in jail. Neither is going to work. I need to think of a different way, but I can’t do that if you’re aiming a rifle at Preston.”
Zeke’s body relaxed, though the rifle remained where it was, cocked and ready to go. Then he said, quite softly. “Weneed to think of a way.” Zeke nodded without taking his eyes off Preston and took his finger off the trigger. “You’re not alone any more, Cal. You’re with me and I’m with you.”
“Then we’ll think of a way.”
Cal’s heart was just about bursting out of his chest. With Zeke in his life, at his side, anything was possible. He just needed to pull them both out of this situation. Then he was going to pull Zeke into his arms, hold him tight, and never let him go.
“We’ll think of a way, but first put that rifle down.”
After a long moment that seemed to stretch out while Cal’s heartbeat thudded in his ears, Zeke uncurled his finger from around the trigger, and lowered the rifle from his shoulder.
In an instant, Preston jumped into the blue BMW, gunned the engine, and raced out of the parking lot, headed toward the switchbacks.
With a shaky breath, Zeke stood the rifle down, wiped his forearm across his forehead, then swiped his dark hair back from his eyes.
He was white under his tan as he looked at Cal, eyes wide, as if shocked at his own actions
At least the danger had passed. The most immediate danger. The aftermath was still to come. In the meantime, he needed Zeke as close to him as he could possibly get. He reached for Zeke, but Zeke held up his hand.
“Wait a minute,” said Zeke.
Zeke placed the rifle in the crook of his elbow and pulled the bolt back. Taking out the two bullets that were in there, he shifted the rifle to look inside, checking for bullets, it seemed. Then he handed the bullets to Cal.
“Hold on to those,” he said as he lowered the rifle again. “I have no idea what Gabe is going to say. Or even Leland.”
“I can’t tell you what either of them will say,” said a voice behind them. “But someone can thank me for calling Sheriff Lamont.”
Both Cal and Zeke turned.
Galen had stepped out of the woods and into the clear-skied area of the parking lot. Behind him was his team, every last one of them a witness to the scene that Cal knew he’d spend his life erasing out of his memory. No one had died or even been wounded, a miracle really, but there was still the fallout to be dealt with.
“He was protecting me,” said Cal, stepping away, stepping in front of Zeke. “That’s all this was. Nobody got hurt.”
“Somebody could have been,” said Galen. He came up to them, his team close behind like a contingency of bodyguards. “Sheriff Lamont said he wants to know who this guy is before he catches up to him. There’s only the one road out of the valley, so he figures it’ll be a straight shot to get him. I’ll call him if you can give me that information.”
Cal had spent years not telling anyone the truth of their relationship, but now with five witnesses, he was going to have to say it out loud. He didn’t want to, but one look at Zeke made him feel brave.
“His name is Preston Davies. He’s from Denver. He’s been my boyfriend since college. At first it was good—” His chest tightened at the memory of it because it had been good. At least for a while. “And then he got mean. Taking control. It was his way or the highway and if I stepped out of line, he would smack me around. Or worse.”
Zeke visibly flinched at that last confession, and Cal was glad Preston was out of sight, because Zeke looked like he regretted not pulling that trigger. Or maybe he didn’t. Everything was whirling in Cal’s head, but at least the truth was out.
“I couldn’t get away,” he said. “I tried a few times, and in the end, I got myself arrested, just to get away from him.”
“That sounds shitty,” said Bede, not mincing words.
Galen drew his cell phone out of his back pocket and made a call. Inside of a few minutes, he gave Sheriff Lamont the information, and was about to close the call when he paused.
