Carver grabs a frying pan from the cupboard and walks over to the stove beside us. He places it down and as he sets the temperature, my phone on the counter starts ringing. All three of us glance down beside my thigh to find Ember’s name flashing on the screen.
“Ugh,” I groan, before dismissing the call with a quick swipe of my finger.
“Trouble in paradise?” King questions, pulling back just a little to meet my gaze.
I pause, only now just realizing what I’ve done. Since first realizing that Ember was lying to me, I haven’t told the boys about it. Even though I’m not ready to face the music, dismissing her call like that makes it pretty damn obvious that something is wrong.
“Oh, umm … it’s nothing,” I tell them, hating the white lie, but knowing that if I told them what I knew, they’d be throwing me in the Escalade and not stopping until we were parked outside Ember’s home, demanding answers. And damn it, the extremes they would go through to get the answers isn’t pretty. I’m not sure if I’m willing to put her through that. I mean, what if I’m wrong? What if I’m remembering it differently or if I just misunderstood what she said? Damn it. “It’s just girl stuff.”
“Huh? Girl stuff?” Carver grunts, knowing me far too well to know that ‘girl stuff’ is a load of shit. In fact, it’s probably the worst lie I could have possibly come up with. “What’s that supposed to mean? Did she steal your vibrator or something?”
I roll my eyes just as King’s hand punches out, aimed straight for the soft spot between Carver’s ribs, but Carver is too fast. His hand snaps out and catches King’s fist with a solid grip. The two of them share a look, their eyes narrowed, waiting for the other to give in, but it’ll never happen. “So … are we just going to sit here with you two holding hands all night or are we going to order dinner?”
Carver’s mouth drops, clearly annoyed that I’m prepared to order in when he was about to start cooking, but he doesn’t get a word in when a voice hollers, “WHERE’S THAT SEXY AS FUCK ASS?”
My eyes widen in excitement and I throw myself off the counter, breaking the boys hold on each other in the process.
I dart around the corner and run when I see Cruz’s gorgeous face. My feet slam against the marble tiles and his whole face lights up in excitement when he sees me.
My heart thunders in my chest for all the best reasons, and before I can think too much about it and focus on the fact that I’m still healing from the stab wound, I throw myself in the air, my arms and legs out, ready for Cruz to catch me and wrap me in his warm arms.
Without hesitation, Cruz runs at me, throwing his arms out and catching me with ease. I cling to him like a koala as he spins me around, his good mood quickly becoming infectious. He stops spinning and my body rocks from the momentum, and before I even get the chance to say hello, his lips are crushing down on mine.
“Get a room,” Grayson mutters, walking in behind him but there’s a smile in his tone, one that tells me he’s happy to be home and patiently waiting for his turn to shove his tongue down my throat.
When Cruz pulls away, he meets my stare and a huge grin cuts across his face.
“Tell me you found her,” I beg.
“We got her,” Cruz says, his chin raised and his shoulders back with pride. “It wasn’t easy, but we fucking got her.”
My eyes bug out of my head as I look over Cruz’s shoulder at Grayson who nods, silently telling me that my guys really are the heroes I knew they could be. “No freaking way. That’s amazing,” I squeal, crushing my lips back against Cruz’s in a bruising kiss. “How was she? Was she hurt? Is she okay? Did you reunite her with her family? HOLY FUCK. I have so many questions. I don’t even know where to start.”
Cruz laughs, holding me tighter as his eyes shimmer with happiness. “She was malnourished and had been through a lot. She was pretty fucking scared, and we really had to gain her trust to get her to come with us. But we got her out and took her down to the hospital. Her parents were waiting and the look in their eyes when they saw their baby girl ... Fuck, Winter,” he says, proving in the tone of his voice just how fucking happy he is. “We really saved her. We did it.”
“I knew you would,” I murmur, the pride filling me like nothing before. “What about her purchaser? Tell me that you dealt with him too.”